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Bishop Usher , deriving his information from Fleta, quotes a much more remote period for thefoundation, and says, “ From the primitive age of the Christian faith among the Britons, that is, from“ the time of King Lucius, who in 184 A. n. is said to have received the Divine Law of Christ, the“ Abbey of Westminster was founded, and dedicated to the honour of God , and specially consecrated to“ the burials of Royal Families, and a receptacle for the jewels and adornments of kings and their“ families.”
We take leave to doubt this legend, and prefer the statement of Stowe , who informs us that theorigin and first foundation was ascribed to Sigehert, King of the East Saxons, who, having embracedChristianity , and been baptized by Melitus , Bishop of London , built (in order to shew himself aChristian indeed) “ a Church to the honour of God and Saint Peter in the west side of the Cittie of“ London, ” some short time before 616; and there is no doubt that a monastery stood in Thorney Islandat a very early period of the 7th century; and the application of the phrase quoted by the old writers,“ Thorneia in loco terribili,” may simply refer to the loneliness of the spot, which was unquestionablyat that period only inhabited by the monks resident in the monastery, and was deserted by them duringthe time England was invaded and held by the Danes in the 8th, 9th, and 10th centuries: nor was it againtenanted until it was rebuilt about the year 960 by Edgar, at the instigation of Dunstan , whom he hadmade Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of Worcester, and then twelve monks of the Benedictine Order were brought to Thorney Abbey.
It is believed that Canute , the first of the Danish kings, who was a great encourager of learning,and patronised the monks in consequence, built a royal dwelling somewhere in Westminster, which wasdestroyed by fire, about the year 1036-7. This , is, however, uncertain, and the earliest record of theexistence of a palace in this site is to he found in a Charter given by Edward the Confessor to the Abbotof Ramsay, about 1054. Of the Palace of Westminster , Stowe says, the antiquity is uncertain, hut thatEdward the Confessor resided and died there (1066); and Norden relates, that in the time of this princea palace at Westminster was destroyed by fire; it is therefore more than probable that Edward the Confessor rebuilt it, and Lambard conjectures that the Old Palace of Westminster had been the RoyalResidence ever since the reign of this king, who was very devout, and to whom Waltham Cross, Lincoln,and Exeter Cathedrals, owed their rise and original endowments. The Ahhatial Church of Westminsterwas dedicated by Edward to St. Peter 28th Dec., 1065, and the Charter of Privileges granted to it issaid to he the first which had the great Seal of England. This fabric was pulled down and rebuilt byHenry III .
As Edward the Confessor may he called the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings (for Harold II. , hissuccessor , reigned but a few months,) it may not be deemed irrelevant to the History of the Palace of Westminster , to give a brief sketch of the condition of society at this very eventful period in the annalsof British civilization.
Edward convoked a general assembly of the nation; the first germ of a representative system; andhaving resolved to adopt the Code of Laws of Alfred the Great, he had them drawn up in the Latin
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