Editing Westminster Abbey (section)

== Burials and memorials ==
{{Main|Burials and memorials in Westminster Abbey}}
[[File:Stephen Hawking's grave at Westminster Abbey.jpg|alt=A black stone slab with a grey spiral, an equation, and the words "Here lies what was mortal of Stephen Hawking 1942–2018".|thumb|The grave of scientist [[Stephen Hawking]] in the [[nave]] of the abbey]]

Over 3,300 people are buried or commemorated in the abbey.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Castle |first1=Stephen |date=15 June 2018 |title=Stephen Hawking Enters 'Britain's Valhalla,' Where Space Is Tight |newspaper=The New York Times |agency= |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/15/world/europe/uk-stephen-hawking-westminster-abbey.html |url-status=live |url-access=subscription |access-date=1 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190102094722/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/15/world/europe/uk-stephen-hawking-westminster-abbey.html |archive-date=2 January 2019}}</ref> For much of its history, most of the people buried there (other than monarchs) were people with a connection to the church – either ordinary locals or the monks of the abbey, who were generally buried without surviving markers.{{sfn|Jenkyns|2004||p=63}} Since the 18th century, it has been an honour for any British person to be buried or commemorated in the abbey{{snd}}a practice boosted by the lavish funeral and monument of Isaac Newton, who died in 1727.{{sfn|Jenkyns|2004||p=83}} By 1900, so many prominent figures were buried in the abbey that the writer William Morris called it a "National Valhalla".{{sfn|Morris|1900|p=37}}

Politicians buried in the abbey include [[William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham|Pitt the Elder]], [[Charles James Fox]], [[William Pitt the Younger|Pitt the Younger]], [[William Wilberforce]], [[William Ewart Gladstone|William Gladstone]], and [[Clement Attlee]]. A cluster of scientists surrounds the tomb of Isaac Newton, including [[Charles Darwin]] and [[Stephen Hawking]]. Actors include [[David Garrick]], [[Henry Irving]], and [[Laurence Olivier]]. Musicians tend to be buried in the north aisle of the nave, and include [[Henry Purcell]] and [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]]. [[George Frideric Handel]] is buried in Poets' Corner.{{sfn|Jenkyns|2004||pp=75–78}}

[[File:Tomb of Queen Elizabeth I.jpg|alt=A large rectangular monument with black columns and railings|thumb|Tomb of [[Elizabeth I]], containing the remains of Elizabeth and [[Mary I]]]]

An estimated 18 English, Scottish and British monarchs are buried in the abbey, including Edward the Confessor, Henry III, Edward I, Edward III, Richard II, Henry V, Edward V, Henry VII, Edward VI, Mary I, Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth I, James I, Charles II, Mary II, William III, Queen Anne, and George II.{{sfn|Wilkinson|Knighton|2010|pp=84-85}}{{sfn|Wilkinson|Knighton|2010|pp=51-52}} Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots were the last monarchs to be buried with full tomb effigies; monarchs buried after them are commemorated in the abbey with simple inscriptions.{{sfn|Wilkinson|Knighton|2010|p=52}} George II was the last monarch to be buried in the abbey, in 1760, and [[George III|George III's]] brother, [[Prince Henry, Duke of Cumberland and Strathearn|Henry Frederick]], was the last member of the royal family to be buried in the abbey, in 1790. Most monarchs after George II have been buried in [[St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle]], or at the [[Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore|Frogmore Royal Burial Ground]], east of [[Windsor Castle]].{{sfn|Wilkinson|Knighton|2010|p=57}}

=== Poets' Corner ===
{{Main|Poets' Corner}}
[[File:View of Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey 03.jpg|alt=Many white stone statues and busts of writers|thumb|Some of the memorials to writers in [[Poets' Corner]], including [[William Shakespeare]]]]

The south transept of the church is known as Poets' Corner because of its high number of burials of, and memorials to, poets and writers. The first was [[Geoffrey Chaucer]] (buried around 1400), who was employed as [[Clerk of works|Clerk of the King's Works]] and had apartments in the abbey. A second poet, [[Edmund Spenser]] (who was local to the abbey), was buried nearby in 1599. The idea of a Poets' Corner did not crystallise until the 18th century, when memorials were established to writers buried elsewhere, such as [[William Shakespeare]] and [[John Milton]]. Since then, writers buried in Poets' Corner have included [[John Dryden]], [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson]], [[Charles Dickens]], and [[Rudyard Kipling]]. Not all writers buried in the abbey are in the south transept; [[Ben Jonson]] is buried standing upright in the north aisle of the nave, and [[Aphra Behn]] in the cloisters.{{sfn|Jenkyns|2004||pp=78–81}}

=== The Unknown Warrior ===
{{Main|The Unknown Warrior}}

On the floor, just inside the Great West Door in the centre of the nave, is the grave of the Unknown Warrior: an unidentified soldier killed on a European battlefield during the [[World War I|First World War]]. Although many countries have a [[Tomb of the Unknown Soldier]] (or Warrior), the one in Westminster Abbey was the first; it came about as a response to the unprecedented death toll of the war.{{sfn|Wilkinson|Knighton|2010|p=79}} The idea came from army chaplain [[David Railton]], who suggested it in 1920.{{sfn|Wilkinson|2013|p=37}} The funeral was held on 11 November 1920, the second anniversary of the end of the war.{{sfn|Wilkinson|Knighton|2010|p=79}} The Unknown Warrior lay in state for a week afterwards, and an estimated 1.25&nbsp;million people viewed his gravesite in that time. This grave is the only floor stone in the abbey on which it is forbidden to walk,{{sfn|Jenkyns|2004|pp=171–172}} and every visit by a foreign head of state begins with a visit to it.{{sfn|Wilkinson|2013|p=37}}