I am almost done with my second Amanda Carmack mystery novel, Murder at Westminster Abbey (due–gulp!–Thursday!).  It’s set around the events of the coronation of Elizabeth I on January 15, 1559, and at this point I sort of feel like I was there myself, I’ve spent so much time researching every detail.  (Who wore what?  How many processions were there?  Who carried the queen’s cloth of gold and ermine train?  Answer to the last: the Duchess of Norfolk, who was nearly knocked over when souvenir-seekers pushed her out of the way to tear up the carpet the queen walked on from Westminster Palace to the Abbey…)

Just for fun–here is a sneak peek at the cover of the book!  It will be out in April 2014, and the image is still being tweaked, but you can see what it will look like…

So I thought today I would take a very brief look at the history of Westminster Abbey!  It’s a vast, fascinating place, overwhelming for a history lover (Risky Diane and I once had a long, jet-lagged visit to the Abbey in a torrential rainstorm!).  There are over 3000 burials there, with over 600 monuments and tablets, many to famous (and infamous) people.  Over 16 royal weddings have taken place here, the most recent the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

But its history started a VERY long time before Kate Middleton walked down the aisle in a Grace Kelly-esque gown.  Legend has it a fisherman named Aldrich saw a vision of St. Peter on a plot of riverside land called Thorney Island (the Fishmonger’s Company still presents and annual salmon to the Abbey).  In the 960s/70s, St. Dunstan and King Edgar established an order of Benedictine monks on the site, then named after St. Peter.  (It eventually became known as “west minster” to distinguish it from St. Paul’s, the “east minster”).

In 1042, King Edward the Confessor began rebuilding St. Peter’s in the Norman Romanesque style.  It was consecrated on December 28, 1065, sadly just a week before the king’s death, and he was buried before the high altar.  The first coronation took place there a year later, of William the Conquerer (every royal coronation since has taken place there).  There is little left of the Confessor’s church now, just the rounded arches and support columns of the undercroft and the Pyx Chamber.  The present church was begun in 1245 by Henry III in the fashionable Gothic style.  There have been a few more additions over the years, most notably the beautiful Lady chapel of Henry VII, with its gorgeous fan-vaulted ceiling and the elaborate gilded tomb of Henry and his wife Elizabeth of York.  (Elizabeth I and Mary I are buried in a side aisle of the chapel, but Henry VIII is at Windsor.  His only wife buried at Wesminster Abbey is the rejected Anne of Cleves).

The medieval monastery was dissolved in 1540, and  Henry VIII erected Westminster into a cathedral church with a bishop (Thomas Thirlby), a dean and twelve prebendaries. The bishopric was surrendered on 29 March 1550 and the diocese was re-united with London, Westminster being made by Act of Parliament a cathedral church in the diocese of London. Mary I restored the Benedictine monastery in 1556 under Abbot John Feckenham. But on the accession of Elizabeth I the religious houses revived by Mary were given by Parliament to the Crown and the Abbot and monks were removed in July 1559. Queen Elizabeth I refounded the Abbey by a charter dated 21 May 1560 as a Collegiate Church, a Royal Peculiar exempt from the jurisdiction of bishops and with the Sovereign as its Visitor.  In place of the monastic community a collegiate body of a dean and prebendaries, minor canons and a lay staff was established and charged with the task of continuing the tradition of daily worship (for which a musical foundation of choristers, singing men and organist was provided) and with the education of forty Scholars who formed the nucleus of what is now Westminster School.

A couple books I’ve used in researching the history and floorplans of the Abbey are Tony Trowles’s Treasures of Westminster Abbey (2008) and James Wilkinson’s Westminster Abbey: A Thousand Years of Music and Pageant (2003).  I also watched a DVD of William and Kate’s wedding to study details of the church a little closer!

Next week, I will share some of my research of the 1559 coronation itself, and what we might look for when it comes to the future coronations of Charles III and William V.

Have you been to Westminster Abbey?  What was your favorite site there???

Thanks to Carolyn for filling in for me yesterday!  We are taking over each other’s identities this week (though I would probably get her fired from her day job, so maybe that’s not such a good idea…)  It’s been a little crazy getting caught up around here after RWA and my much-too-short beach vacation after.  I have to turn in my second Elizabethan mystery, “Murder at Westminster Abbey” on (gulp!) the 15th, the weather is ridiculously hot here just as my car AC decided to die, and I have no ideas for fun, clever blog posts.  Nada.  Naught.

But there is fun going on, too!  I have been reading lots of good stuff.  Just finished CW Gortner’s The Queen’s Vow, about Isabella of Castile.  I love Gortner’s historical fiction, and was so excited to start this one.  Have not been at all disappointed!

I’ve also been watching some TV.  I just discovered that one of my favorite mystery series, Kerry Greenwood’s 1920s “Phryne Fisher” books, have a TV series that goes along with them!!!  I got them on Netflix and have been glomming episodes all week.  The stories are truncated into an hour format, of course, but the actress is spot-on right for Phryne and the costumes are to-die.

I’ve been researching for the next WIP, my Brazil-set Regency!  I found this book, “Tropical Versailles,” on ABE Books and it’s proving invaluable.  I can’t wait to start writing this one!  (though I still think I need a little research trip to Rio, just to be sure…)

But life hasn’t been all work!  Last weekend I went with some friends to a Murder Mystery Dinner at a local b&b.  The story was set in the 1940s, so out came my aunt’s velvet vintage gown (sadly, the house’s AC also went out that night, so velvet–yeah, not a good idea), character assignments were studied, and mysteries were solved.  I learned some stuff about plotting that night.  1) Too many characters (there were over 50 in this story) gets really confusing, and not everyone can play a real part…  2) Making your murderer characters who are “out of sight” and not talked about in the story is a bit of a cheat 3) Wine and summer humidity make people punch-drunk 4) This is a ton of fun!!

But fun is over for now, and I am off to finish this book!  What have you been doing this week?

Karen and Maria, you are the winners of the great big fat amazon contest.  I will be sending you emails and we’ll work out how to send you your loot, including–should you be ordering real books–your very own Hutzler 517 Banana Slicer (check out the reviews).

Congratulations, and thanks to everyone who receives and reads the infrequent newsletter, and the newbies who will do so in future!

The week of asking for help continues.

I’m traveling out west to San Francisco next week to speak to the San Francisco Area Romance Writers chapter on how to bring comedy into romance: Romance–It’s No Laughing Matter. And I have a problem. Part of the workshop will be an interactive analysis of funny stuff. I’ll be using some Austen, probably something from Northanger Abbey, which has some very funny stuff, and I’m also using an excerpt from Getting Rid of Bradley by Jennifer Crusie. If you’re familiar with that book I’m using the brilliantly written scene where Zak meets Lucy’s dogs.

I need one more funny scene. What would you suggest? (I don’t want to use my own books. I hate it when author presentations turn into infomercials.)

Please suggest your favorite funny romances and you can even suggest scenes which would be even better! Next week I’ll be blogging from SF and it would be great to meet some Risky friends on August 10.