At the gates of Canterbury, the ruins of St Augustine's mark the cradle of English Christianity: it was here that St Augustine, sent from Rome, founded his monastery in 597. A thousand years later, the Reformation made it something quite other — a dissolved abbey, then a royal palace, in one of the most striking reversals of the Tudor period.
The dissolution of a thousand-year abbey
One of the oldest Benedictine abbeys in England, St Augustine's, surrendered to Henry VIII on 30 July 1538, during the great wave of dissolution of the monasteries. Part of the buildings was dismantled as early as 1541, the stone reused elsewhere — the common fate of those monasteries the Crown carved up for their wealth and their materials. This thousand-year place of prayer, founded at the very origins of the English Church, thus ceased to exist as a religious community — a highly symbolic measure in the town of the primate archbishop.
A palace for the Tudor and Stuart kings
But St Augustine's was not only destroyed: part of the buildings was converted into a royal residence, the 'palace of St Augustine'. Elizabeth I stayed here in September 1573 during a lavish visit to Canterbury for her birthday. And in 1625, newly married, Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France spent the night here after the celebration of their union at Canterbury. Thus, on the ruins of a dissolved sanctuary, the sovereigns came to sleep: the abbey of the monks had become the lodging of kings. To see: the foundations of the abbey church, the Anglo-Saxon church of St Pancras, Fyndon's Great Gate, the original floor tiles and the site museum.
Did you know?
In September 1573, during her birthday stay at Canterbury, Elizabeth I danced at the archbishop's palace and returned only at midnight to St Augustine's, where she lodged. The former abbey, emptied of its monks a few decades earlier, now hosted the balls and nights of a queen.
Notes
St Augustine's Abbey lies at Canterbury, Kent, outside the town walls; ruins run by English Heritage, with a museum. A UNESCO World Heritage Site. Hours to check.
Quiz
- When was St Augustine's dissolved?
- In 1538, by Henry VIII
- In 597
- In 1625
- Into what was part of the abbey transformed?
- A royal residence (the 'palace of St Augustine')
- A barracks
- A university
- Which royal couple slept here in 1625?
- Charles I and Henrietta Maria
- Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn
- James I and Anne of Denmark