Short answers, pulled from the story.
A Benedictine monastic community settled on Thorney Island in the mid-10th century before 959 when Dunstan and King Edgar officially installed them. Historians agree a monastery existed prior to 1066 though its exact founding remains obscure with legends citing Sæberht of Essex or King Lucius.
Henry of Reynes served as the master mason for the new Gothic church construction that began on the 6th of July 1245. John of Gloucester replaced him around 1253 followed by Robert of Beverley in 1260 while Henry Yevele later designed the western end between 1376 and 1471.
Henry VIII dissolved the monastery in 1535 and officers assessed the abbey's annual income at £3,000 before seizing its treasures including melting down the golden feretory. Elizabeth I re-established it as a royal peculiar on the 21st of May 1560 renaming it the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter.
Forty English and British monarchs have been crowned at Westminster Abbey since William the Conqueror held the first documented coronation in 1066. Charles III took the throne within this historic space on the 6th of May 2023 following twenty-nine coronations of queens consort.
Over 3,300 notable figures lie buried or commemorated within Westminster Abbey grounds including Isaac Newton who died in 1727 and scientists like Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking. Eighteen English Scottish and British monarchs occupy graves inside the church with Edward the Confessor Henry III and Richard II among them.
Incendiary bombs struck Westminster Abbey precincts on the night of the 10th of May 1941 causing the lantern tower above the crossing to collapse. Damage costs reached £135,000 though no lives were lost during the attack while recent research suggests its geometry represents a rhombic dodecahedron symbolizing universal harmony.