He seized a nun, probably of Wimborne, and made a stand there, probably because of its symbolic importance as his father's burial place, but he was unable to gain enough support to fight Edward and fled to the Vikings of Northumbria.

[2] The women's monastery was destroyed by the Danes in 1013 during one of their incursions into Wessex and never rebuilt, though the main abbey building survived.

In 1043 Edward the Confessor founded a college of secular (non-monastic) canons, consisting of a dean, four prebends, four vicars, four deacons, and five singers at the minster.

In 1318 Edward II issued a document that made the minster a royal peculiar which exempted it from all diocesan jurisdiction.

Similar robes of this type are worn in Westminster Abbey and St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

In 1496 Lady Margaret Beaufort, great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt and mother of Henry VII, founded a small chapel in the minster.

In 1562 a grant was obtained from Queen Elizabeth I by which part of the property formerly belonging to the college, together with all ecclesiastical rights and prerogatives was returned to Wimborne and vested in twelve governors.

The central tower and nave were founded in Saxon times, but the surviving building is predominantly Norman in design and construction, with Gothic components from various periods.

One of its more famous architectural features include a working astronomical clock, which rings every hour and is represented in the form of a colourful quarterjack.

[3] Until it was confiscated during Henry VIII's reign, the old Treasury held the wealth of the minster and numerous artefacts such as (reputed to be) a piece of the true cross, wood from the Manger and cloth from the Shroud.

The library is run by volunteers and remains open to the public on week days 10.30-12.30 & 2-4 (closed in winter season).

[8] The face utilizes a pre-Copernican display, with a centrally placed earth orbited by the sun and stars.

Two other important tombs are also in the minster: they are those of John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, and his duchess, the maternal grandparents of King Henry VII of England, constructed out of alabaster and Purbeck Marble.