The first documented coronation at Westminster was that of William the Conqueror on 25th December 1066. Before this year there had been no fixed location for the ceremony. Edward the Confessor does not seem to have deliberately planned his new Abbey as a coronation church. His immediate successor, Harold Godwinson, is likely to have been crowned here following the Confessor’s death but there is no surviving contemporary evidence to confirm this ceremony. William probably chose the Abbey for his coronation to reinforce his claim to be a legitimate successor of Edward.
The Abbey’s role as a coronation church influenced Henry III’s rebuilding of the church in the Gothic style of architecture from AD 1245 and a large space or “theatre” was planned under the lantern, between the quire and the high altar. The first king to be crowned in the present Abbey was Edward I in 1274.
