Credit: Alamy Stock Photo
Copyright: © Skyscan Photolibrary / Alamy Stock Photo
As the Glastonbury Festival closes it’s worth reflecting on its history. Not the festival – the abbey.
It traces its origins back to 63 AD, at least in legend. Circa 680 the first Saxon church was built and around 970 Kings Edmund and Edgar were buried there. In 1184 the church burned down and a miracle was needed to fund the construction of a new place of worship. In those days the Church was champion at pulling off miracles; in 1191 the tombs of King Arthur and Guinevere were discovered at Glastonbury. In 1500 the legend that Joseph of Arimathea founded the abbey took root as firmly as the Glastonbury Thorn.
A green thread of envy runs through the tapestry of history. Autocratic rulers don’t take kindly to their subjects becoming too rich and powerful. Henry VIII was no exception. Glastonbury was the second richest abbey, after Westminster Abbey, and was one of the last to be “dissolved” by the King. Putin’s victims are either assassinated, poisoned or imprisoned. The octogenarian abbot was hanged, drawn and quartered on Glastonbury Tor after a show trial. It was a turning point in the history of England, pivoting extreme wealth from the Church to the Crown and the aristocracy. Cathedrals remain to attest to the power of the medieval church and the skill of their architects and builders; only the ruins of England’s great abbeys remain. This is how Glastonbury is remembered today; another pivot from sacred to secular and sacrilegious.
