It suffered damage during the turbulent 1640s, when it was attacked by Puritan iconoclasts, but was again protected by its close <answer>ties to the state during the Commonwealth</answer> period. Oliver Cromwell was given an elaborate funeral there in 1658, only to be disinterred in January 1661 and posthumously hanged from a gibbet at Tyburn.
What protected the abbey?
ties to the state during the Commonwealth