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.
