THE NORMAN AND PLANTAGENET KINGS
Henry the First was the earliest of our kings to make use of the
Tower as a State prison—Randulf Flambard, Bishop of Durham, having
the distinction of being its first prisoner. Henry, it appears, in
order to curry popularity at the beginning of his reign, had Flambard
arrested, the Bishop—hated by the people for his rapacity—being accused
of illegally raising the funds needed for the building of the fortress
which was destined to become his prison. He was imprisoned with the
King’s sanction, but nominally by the will of the House of Commons,
and thus inaugurated the long line of prisoners of State which, from
the reign of Henry the First until the early years of the nineteenth
century, the Tower never lacked.
Flambard had been the principal minister of Henry’s predecessor,
William Rufus. The Saxon chronicler, Vitalis, recounts that the Bishop
was allowed while in the Tower, to keep a sumptuous table for himself
and his servants, a privilege which enabled him to escape from his
prison in the following manner. He obtained a rope which had been
hidden in a wine cask, and after liberally regaling his keepers, whom
he succeeded in fuddling with much wine, he made fast the rope to a
pillar of a chamber in the White Tower, or to the bar of a window,
and let himself slide down, reaching the ground in safety. It was a
wonderful feat Flambard performed, for he held his pastoral staff in
his hand as he descended the side of the Tower. The rope proved too
short and the Bishop had a fall of several feet, but apparently without
being the worse for it. A swift horse, provided by his friends, took
him to the coast, whence he succeeded in reaching Normandy. Some years
after his escape he returned to his see at Durham, where he completed
that splendid cathedral, also building many other churches and castles,
amongst the latter being Norham Castle, whose stately ruins have been
sung by Sir Walter Scott.
It is uncertain whether any of the Norman kings before Stephen made the
Tower a place of residence. But in 1140 that monarch, during a gloomy
period of private and public affairs, retired to the Tower with a large
retinue and kept his court there during Whitsuntide.
“Early in the year,” writes Freeman in his “History of the Norman
Conquest,” “after Matilda’s landing, an attempt had been made to make
peace. At Pentecost the King held, or tried to hold, the usual festival
in London; but this time his court was held to the east and not to the
west of the city, not in the hall of Rufus, but in the fortress of his
father.”
The custody of the Tower appears, soon after its completion, to have
been made an hereditary office, granted by the sovereign to the family
of Mandeville. In this year of 1140 the Tower was in the keeping of
Geoffrey, grandson of that great Geoffrey de Mandeville, who had
accompanied the Conqueror to England, and who had greatly distinguished
himself at the Battle of Hastings. Stephen created the grandson Earl
of Essex, but being himself taken prisoner soon afterwards at the
Battle of Lincoln, the Empress Matilda gained de Mandeville over to her
party, during Stephen’s captivity. By a charter, dated from Oxford in
1141, Matilda confirmed the Earl in all the possessions which he had
inherited, whether in lands or fortresses, the custody of the Tower
being included therein, Essex being given a free hand to strengthen and
fortify it. A subsequent charter of the same year gave him the special
charge of the Tower, “with all lands, liveries, and customs thereto
appertaining” (Dugdale’s Baronage). According to Leland, de Mandeville
constantly added to the fortifications of the Tower, but when he was
defeated and taken prisoner at the Battle of St Albans he was obliged
to surrender the Constableship into the hands of Stephen.
In 1153 the Tower was held for the Crown by Richard de Lucy, Chief
Justiciary of England, in trust for Henry, Duke of Normandy, to whom,
after Stephen’s death, it reverted.
Matilda had offended the Londoners by refusing to abolish her father’s
laws, and by also refusing to restore those granted by Edward the
Confessor, and, rising in arms, they drove the Empress from the city.
Stephen having recovered his liberty, Matilda’s power ceased shortly
afterwards. After her flight the Londoners laid siege to the Tower, but
it had been so strongly fortified by de Mandeville that he was not only
able to defy the besiegers’ uttermost efforts to effect its capture,
but was able to make a sortie as far as Fulham, where he took the
Bishop of London prisoner, “as then lodged there, being of the contrary
faction” (Holinshed).
It is doubtful whether Henry the First ever lived in the Tower, or
whether he added to its fortifications. Thomas à Becket is supposed to
have wished to have been made Constable of the fortress as well as of
Rochester Castle, which latter he is known to have held.
FitzStephen, in the reign of Henry the Second, describes the “Arx
Palatina” as being then, “great and strong with encircling walls rising
from a deep foundation, and built with mortar tempered with the blood
of beasts.” Probably the sanguinary aspect of the mortar used in the
Tower buildings was owing to the use of pulverised Roman red tiles and
bricks, of which a large quantity were most likely pounded into mortar.
When Richard Cœur de Lion left England for the Holy Land he entrusted
the charge of guarding the Tower to Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, who was
his Chancellor. This Bishop strengthened the fortress and deepened the
moat. He had good reason for his work upon the fortress, for John,
taking advantage of his brother’s absence, besieged the Tower; but the
Bishop, thinking discretion the better part of valour, yielded up his
trust without attempting to defend it, and fled for safety to Dover
Castle. John made over the Tower to the confederated nobles under the
Archbishop of Rouen, who occupied it until Richard’s return from the
Holy Land.
In 1215, the Barons, who were then up in arms, aided by the London
citizens, besieged the Tower, but although it was poorly garrisoned,
their attacks were repelled. A year later, whilst the civil war was
waging between John and his barons, the Tower was handed over to the
French prince Louis by the rebellious nobles, who had invited him
to take John’s place as King of England, but Louis does not seem to
have taken kindly to the position, and speedily returned to his own
land. In 1217, Henry III. was reigning in undisputed possession of the
realm, and to him belongs the credit of having done more towards making
the Tower worthy of a royal abode, than any of his predecessors or
successors upon the English throne. The most stately of its buildings,
after the Great Keep, are due to his love of art and architecture.
The Royal Chapel, the Great Hall, and the Palace chambers, which he
either built or decorated, are frequently mentioned in the chronicles
of Henry’s reign, and were the outcome of his taste and love of
magnificence.
In 1232 the Tower was given into the custody for life to the famous
Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent. His constableship, however, was brief,
he being supplanted by Peter de Roches, Bishop of Winchester, and
imprisoned in the fortress he had formerly governed.
It was during the reign of Henry III. that the newly-built tower
over the Traitor’s Gate twice fell. The first time this happened was
on the night of St George’s Day (23rd April) in 1240, and on the same
anniversary in the following year the structure again sank into the
moat. According to the historian Mathew Paris, the spirit of St Thomas
à Becket was the cause of both these mishaps, the Saint returning from
the home of the Blessed to the rescue of his beloved and persecuted
London citizens, who had looked on the ever-increasing fortifications
and massive walls of the royal stronghold, with much the same distrust
and irritation as the fortress of the Bastille caused the Parisians.
Four years later, the son of the great Welsh chieftain and patriot,
Llewellyn, was killed whilst attempting to escape from the White Tower
in a similar manner as that by which Bishop Flambard had succeeded
in ending his captivity. Mathew Paris relates that the unlucky Welsh
prince was discovered at the foot of the White Tower with “his head
thrust in between his shoulders.” The rope by which he had hoped to
escape had broken, and he had been dashed to death in the fall.
During his long and agitated reign Henry III. was frequently obliged
to take shelter within the Tower from his rebellious subjects. When
Simon de Montfort and the Barons rose against his rule and encamped
themselves near Richmond, Henry took refuge in the Tower with his
eldest son Edward’s wife, Eleanor of Provence. Edward had been fighting
Llewellyn in Wales, and hearing of the dangerous situation of his wife
and father, hurried back to London, throwing himself into Windsor
Castle. Eleanor of Provence made an attempt to join her husband at
Windsor, but the London citizens were strongly on the side of the
rebels, and when the Princess’s barge reached London Bridge on its way
down the river it was stopped by a rabble who pelted it with stones,
mud, and rotten eggs, and heaped the foulest abuse upon its royal
occupant, who was forced to take shelter once more in the Tower.
Edward is believed never to have forgiven the Londoners for this
treatment of his wife, and his harshness to the city during his reign
was probably due to this incident.
Two years afterwards the mutinous Barons seized the Tower, which they
occupied until the Battle of Evesham, in 1264, enabled Henry to return
to his favourite stronghold. Once again the King was driven into
war by Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, who summoned Otho, the
Papal Legate, then within the Tower, to surrender it into his hands,
declaring that the Tower “was not a post to be trusted in the hands
of a foreigner, much less of an ecclesiastic.” The Legate defied the
Earl to do his worst, and refused to surrender either the fortress or
himself into Gloucester’s keeping. This priest appears to have been not
only brave, but somewhat rash, for although the city was at that time
in the power of de Clare, he left the Tower when a siege was imminent,
and preached a sermon at St Paul’s, inveighing against the Earl. A
siege ensued, during which, according to Matthew of Westminster, a
number of Jews, then within the Tower, defended one of its wards with
great courage, and the King’s army arriving opportunely, the fortress
was saved from falling into the hands of the Earl.