Sanctuary

Westminster (SW1) When the monasteries were dissolved in 1540, Westminster retained the right of Sanctuary, with restrictions excepting murderers, highwaymen, incendiaries, and those guilty of the like heinous crimes. They were allowed to use a whittle only at their meals, and compelled to wear a badge. Their safety was only assured for forty days; and after that term the coroner was to compel them to abjure the realm. In the early part of the eighteenth century there stood in the Little Sanctuary the "Three Tuns" Tavern, kept by Mr. Beech, a Quaker, standing on the foundations of part of the ancient building. For two hundred years these ruins had served for an inn-cellar. (Reference: Walcott's Memorials of Westminster, p. 80) In this Sanctuary Elizabeth Grey, Queen of Edward IV, took refuge when the victorious Warwick was marching to London to dethrone her husband and restore Henry VI. The Queen succeeded in reaching the Sanctuary, where she remained until her child (Prince Edward, afterwards murdered in the Tower) was born, and her husband again restored to that throne where Henry VI sat after his restoration for so short a period. After the death of Edward, when the ambition of Gloucester rendered her position most insecure, she fled again to the Sanctuary with her young son, the Duke of York, the elder being already in the power of Gloucester. (Reference: Smith's Streets of London, p. 113)