Winchester was the seat of power long before London. Besides that, the treasury was here. Medieval Kings traveled around quite a bit. Sometimes they were fighting to defend or extend their kingdoms, and sometimes they were just visiting. I have read that locals hated it when the King visited, as it took quite a lot of supplies to feed the traveling court, and they were a huge pain to have around and drove up the price of everything and depleted the supplies. Were it not for the honor of a King's visit, they had just as soon not.

These early kings found their final locations in caskets perched high in this cathedral.

KG