Tower of London
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Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress The Tower of London, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is an historic monument in central London on the north bank of the River Thames. It is located within the the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and is separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space known as Tower Hill.
The Tower of London is often identified with the White Tower, the original stark, square fortress built by William the Conqueror in 1078. However, the Tower as a whole is a complex of several buildings set within two parallel rings of defensive walls and a moat.
The Tower's primary function was as a fortress, a royal palace and a prison (particularly for high status and royal prisoners (such as the Princes in the Tower and the future Queen Elizabeth I). This last use has led to the phrase “sent to the Tower” meaning “imprisoned”. It has also served as a place of execution and torture, an armoury, a treasury, a zoo, a mint, a public records office, an observatory, and–since 1303, the home of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.
History
The Tower of London was founded in 1078 when William the Conqueror ordered the White Tower to be built inside the SE angle of the City walls, adjacent to the Thames. This was as much to protect the Normans from the people of the City of London as to protect London from outside invaders. William ordered the Tower to be built of Caen stone, which he had specially imported from France, and appointed Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester as the architect.
Some writers, such as Shakespeare, in his play Richard III, have ascribed an earlier origin to the Tower of London and have stated that it was built by Julius Caesar. This supposed Roman origin is a myth, however, as is the story that the mortar used in its construction was tempered by the blood of beasts.
In the 12th century King Richard the Lionheart enclosed the White Tower with a curtain wall and had a moat dug around it filled with water from the Thames. The moat was not very successful until Henry III, in the 13th century, employed a Dutch moat building technique. This king greatly strengthened the curtain wall, breaking down the city wall to the east, to extend the circuit, despite the remonstrances of the citizens of London and even supernatural warnings–if the contemporary monastic chronicler Matthew Paris is to be believed. Henry III transformed the Tower into a major royal residence and had palatial buidings constructed within the Inner Bailey.
The fortification was completed by between 1275 and 1285 by Edward I who built the outer curtain wall, completely enclosing the inner wall and thus creating a concentric double defence. He filled in the pre-existing moat and built a new moat around the new outer wall.
The Tower remained a royal residence until the time of Oliver Cromwell who demolished the old palatial buidings.
Prisoners in the Tower
The Tower of London was used as a prison for those of high rank and for religious dissidents. Those of high rank, including prisoners of royal status, were housed in relative comfort. Religious dissidents were however much more severely treated and were often tortured.
Executions
Lower-class criminals were usually executed by hanging at one of the public execution sites outside the Tower. Several high-profile convicts, such as Thomas More, were publicly executed on Tower Hill. Seven nobles (five of them ladies) were beheaded privately on Tower Green, inside the complex, and then buried in the “Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula” (Latin for “in chains,” making him an appropriate patron saint for prisoners) next to the Green. Some of the nobles who were executed outside the Tower are also buried in that chapel.
Torture
Implements of torture used in the Tower include the Scavenger's daughter: a kind of compression device and the Rack, also known as the Duke of Exeter's Daughter.
Anne Askew is the only woman on record to have been tortured in the tower after being taken there in 1546 on a charge of heresy. Sir Anthony Kingston, the Constable of the Tower of London, was ordered to torture Anne in an attempt to force her to name other Protestants. Anne was put on the Rack. Kingston was so impressed with the way Anne behaved that he refused to carry on torturing her, and Henry VIII's Lord Chancellor had to take over.
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