Royal Peculiar: Why is the Abbey a Royal Peculiar?
In 1222 it had been decreed that Westminster Abbey was exempt from the jurisdiction of the bishop of London and subject alone to the Pope. In 1534 Henry VIII transferred jurisdiction from the Pope to the Crown. He dissolved the Benedictine Abbey in 1540 and designated it as a cathedral. In 1556 the Catholic queen Mary I brought back the monks but this monastery was dissolved in 1559 and Elizabeth I constituted the present Collegiate Church under royal authority on 21 May 1560. The term derives from the “peculiar (or particular) jurisdiction” of certain churches and chapels which are not subject to any archbishop or bishop but come under the direct authority of the Sovereign.
