The full title of the abbey is 'The Collegiate Church of St Peter in Westminster' and its royal associations have three major strands.
The church on this site has been the setting for every English monarch's coronation after the consecration of Edward the Confessor's Church (28/12/1065). The first coronation was that of his successor Harold in 1066 who lost his crown to William the Conqueror in the same year. Two monarchs, the 13-year-old Edward V who was murdered in 1483 and Edward VIII who abdicated in 1936, were never crowned..
The Collegiate church is directly under the jurisdiction of the monarch. Its Foundation Charter dated 22/05/1560 removed it from the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London. This status is somewhat analogous to the status of the Benedictine foundation between 1222 and its dissolution in 1540 during which time it was subject directly to the Pope.
Apart from Edward the Confessor, a number of subsequent monarchs were responsible for promoting and financing the construction of the present building. Those most involved were: Henry III who commenced the replacement of Edward's Norman building with the present gothic structure; Richard II who gave £1,685 toward the costs of Cardinal Langham's western extension of the nave; Henry V who provided regular finance and for whom the Chantry Chapel is a memorial; Edward IV who was grateful for the sanctuary given to his Queen Elizabeth Woodville; and Henry VII who paid substantially (some £14,856) toward his chapel.

O/S Co-ords:3006.7949
Source(s):

Westminster Abbey - Official Guide

As well as being the religious house titled 'The Collegiate Church of St Peter in Westminster' the abbey appears to be a field of remembrance for the nation state of the United Kingdom. An official guide of the Collegiate Church of St Peter in Westminster revised in 1988 and reprinted in 1994 concentrates on providing detail of the memorials found in the church and about its precincts. Those in the church are listed against diagrams of the different sections of the church and its chapels. Those lists identify well over six-hundred memorials. There are probably hundreds more in the cloisters etc. As a random example, and a basis for some version of the game of trivial pursuits, the following is each tenth memorial listed: Hardy; Plumer; De Blank; Atterbury; Herries; Morland; Andre; Stephenson; Pollock; Rutherford; Lake; Stanhope; Passfield; Twysden; Beaufoy; Baker; Strading; Edwards; Adams; Prideaux and Bassett; Blow; Monk; Dalrymple; Coward; Chester; Creed; Edmund of Lancaster; Princess Elizabeth; Gloucester; Brown and Humphrey; Wyndesore; Children of Henry III and Edward I; Vere; St John; Stuart; Simpson; Marriott; Popham; Bromley; Monck vault: Sandwich; Princess Amelia; Henry VII and Elizabeth of York; Ormond vault; Rhodes; Lady Margaret Beaufort; Hertford; Seymour; Stafford; Dudley; Stanley; Sanderson; Hanway; Londonderry; Cavendish/Newcastle; Brass indent; Birch; Auden; Carroll; Milton; Coleridge; Thomson; Campbell; Hardy; Macaulay; Tudor; Chambers. If nothing else the list exemplifies the statement in the introduction to the guide that 'The presence of a particular monument in the Abbey, or why (at any one time) an individual was buried here, is more a comment on the social, political, and cultural history of that age.' What is not so apparent from this list or the nature of each memorial is the fact that it could be another age than their own in which they were honoured enough to be commemorated. So Milton's politics delayed the erection of a memorial for 63 years from his death in 1674 and he was a local resident for a number of years, but perhaps that made him a prophet in his own country.

O/S Co-ords:3006.7949
Source(s):

Westminster Abbey - Official Guide