THE TOWER OF LONDON
Location—Traditions of ancient fortifications—William
the Conqueror and Gundulf the Builder—Additions by other
kings—The first prisoners—Royal tenants—Richard Duke of
Gloucester and the "Two Little Princes"—Increase in number
of prisoners during Tudor period—Anne Boleyn's two visits
to the Tower—Another queen's fate—The "Nine Days' Queen"
and her friends—Spanish influence fills the Tower—Sir
Walter Raleigh—Lady Arabella Stuart—Executions grow
fewer—Culloden—The last man beheaded in England—Present uses
of the Tower.
On the north bank of the Thames, a half mile below London Bridge and
just east of the old city of London, stands an irregular pile of
buildings with walls, battlements and moat which fires the imagination,
and grips the fancy as no other group in the world can do.
The Tower of London, in turn fortress, palace and prison—sometimes all
three simultaneously—and now a storehouse and museum, has a continuous
existence almost as long as England's history. Tradition says that the
Britons had a stronghold here before Cæsar came; that the great Roman
himself ordered the walls strengthened; that the Saxon kings held court
on the site. Certainly excavations for various purposes made from time
to time have revealed masonry and relics of all three periods.
The Tower as we have it to-day goes back only to the Norman kings.
William the Conqueror's keen eye saw the advantage of this low hill
and wished a fortress which should command the river and help to
overawe the turbulent city to the west. Gundulf, a Benedictine monk,
whom he had made Bishop of Rochester, and who had shown his ability
by rebuilding the cathedral there, set to work in 1078 or 1079 on the
keep, or White Tower.
This great building stands to-day his monument. The solid masonry
walls twelve to sixteen feet thick enclose the vaults formerly used as
torture chambers when occasion demanded, the main floor, the banqueting
floor and the state floor. The chapel of St. John the Evangelist rises
through two floors in the southeast corner, while the low towers at
the four corners command the scene for miles. Old Gundulf built well,
and completed also St. Peter's chapel and the Hall tower. The other
towers with their connecting walls enclosing the Inner Ward were built
later, many of them by Henry III. The Beauchamp tower, the Belfry, the
Garden or Bloody tower, the Lantern, the Salt tower, the Broad Arrow
tower, the Constable tower, the Martin tower, the Brick tower, the
Flint tower, the Bowyer tower and the Develin tower, were all built in
the wall for purposes of defence, but all have sheltered prisoners from
time to time.
Within this Inner Ward, besides the buildings already named were royal
apartments and a Great Hall of justice (long since destroyed), the
mint, which remained until 1810, residences for officers, barracks,
etc. Around all this was a second strong wall protected by other strong
towers, which was planned and partially constructed by Henry III. Of
these towers on the outer wall, St. Thomas' tower on the river—better
known as the Traitors' Gate—is the most important. Under this tower
prisoners were landed from the river. The space enclosed by the outer
wall is about thirteen acres, and around all was a broad moat flooded
from the Thames.
The importance of the Tower as a fortress diminished with the invention
of gunpowder, but it continued to be used as a royal residence, at
intervals, until the accession of Charles II. Here Henry III lived
and planned great structures; during the wars of the Roses, York and
Lancaster held court in turn; Henry VII schemed for greater wealth, and
his son was led to defy the Pope while keeping a residence here.
But it is with the Tower as a prison that we are most concerned. The
roll of the prisoners tells England's history. The petty intrigues of
court favourites; the greatness or the meanness of kings; the struggle
for power among great families; the truckling to foreign power which
brought Raleigh to the block, and the great struggle for religious and
political freedom are all set forth in the story of this great prison.
The first prisoner confined within the walls appears to have been
Ralph Flambard, (the Firebrand), Bishop of Durham, who as treasurer
of William the Conqueror had been forced to find the funds for old
Gundulf's work. Hated by the commons for his exactions, he was taken
into custody on the accession of Henry Beauclerc and was lodged in an
upper room of the White tower, as yet unsurrounded by walls. He was
well treated and allowed many privileges, but his efforts to secure
his release were unsuccessful. One night in February, 1101, when he
had caused all his guards to drink heavily of wine brought in at his
expense, he drew a rope from one of the casks, tied it to the window
sixty-five feet from the ground, and descended. Though the rope was
short and he fell heavily, his servants were waiting, and he made good
his escape to France, there to remain until forgiven and restored to
his bishopric.
Another important early prisoner was the victim of King John's unlawful
love, Maud Fitzwalter, the daughter of one of his powerful barons,
who refused to grant his will. The coward king attempted to break
her spirit by confinement in an uncomfortable cell, and banished her
family. Bravely resisting the king's desires to the end, she died,
perhaps by poison. Her father returned and placed himself at the head
of that band of bishops and barons who compelled the king to sign the
Great Charter at Runnymede.
Next we hear of the incarceration of six hundred Jews charged by
Edward I with tampering with the coinage. The same king brought John
de Baliol, king of Scotland, and David Bruce to the Tower in 1298, and
William Wallace, the hero of Scotland, was imprisoned here in 1305
before his execution at Smithfield. During this reign also Griffin,
Prince of Wales, who had been first confined by Henry III, attempted to
escape by the same method which Flambard had used so successfully, but
his cord, made from strips of his bed coverings, was too weak and his
neck was broken by the fall.
During the unhappy reign of Edward II court was kept in the Tower with
a splendour before unknown. Here the king's children were born, and
here Roger Mortimer, although a captive, began the guilty intrigue with
Queen Isabella which ended in disaster and disgrace for all.
More royal tenants appeared under Edward III. King David of Scotland
was confined in 1347, and in 1358, after Poitiers, King John of France
and his son joined the great number of French nobles whom the fortunes
of war had brought hither. It was in the Tower also that Edward's
unworthy grandson, Richard II, saw his favourite, Simon Burley, seized
by the indignant nobles and finally taken to Tower Hill. It is said
that this was the first public execution on Tower Hill, just north of
the Tower itself. In the Tower also Sir John Oldcastle suffered, and
the old walls saw Richard yield to Henry of Lancaster the crown which
he was too weak to hold.
With the accession of Henry V the war with France was renewed and
again many French nobles became tenants of the pile. One of them,
Charles of Orleans, grandson of Charles V, is described by Shakespeare.
Wounded and captured at Agincourt, the impossible ransom of 300,000
crowns was demanded by his unsuccessful rival, Henry V, who had failed
to win the love of Isabella, widow of Richard II of England. Indeed
Henry preferred that he remain a perpetual prisoner; and a prisoner
he remained for twenty-five years, spending his time with his books
and his verses, many addressed to his dead wife. Finally released, he
married Mary of Cleves, and their son was Louis XII, who married Mary,
the sister of Henry VIII of England.
With the Wars of the Roses, the records became more bloody, and the
sanguinary tinge continues through the Tudor period. During the first
period it was great house against great house, but during the Tudor
period began the great struggle for political freedom, which at times
seemed hopeless of attainment.
No figure so dominates the first period as the sinister, humpbacked
brother of Edward IV, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, Richard III of
England. His influence is felt in the sober history as well as in the
plays of Shakespeare. He is said to have stabbed with his own hand the
imbecile Henry VI, who had already at a previous time spent five years
a prisoner in the Tower. Tradition persists that he drowned his brother
the Duke of Clarence, in a butt of the latter's favourite wine. We know
of his denunciation of Lord Hastings on charge of witchcraft and of the
murder of that unhappy nobleman. We know that he kept Jane Shore, the
mistress of his brother, in prison here until all her charms were faded.
But the mysterious disappearance of the two little princes has done
most to damn his memory. As the result of the marriage with Elizabeth
Woodville, Edward IV left two sons, Edward V, aged twelve, and Richard,
aged eight. Gloucester was Protector but with diabolical cunning threw
doubt upon the legitimacy of the boys placed under his charge. They
were confided to Sir John Brackenbury, the lieutenant of the Tower,
while the preparations for the coronation went on. Their mother, filled
with unhappy forebodings for them and fearful of her own fate, was in
sanctuary at Westminster.
The tale as we have it runs thus: Richard left for the north after
sending a plain message to the lieutenant of the Tower. At Warwick,
Richard was informed that the worthy knight refused to do his bidding.
Nothing daunted, Richard sent orders that for one night only he should
give up his command to Sir James Tyrrell. That officer, who lived in
mortal fear of Richard, came to the Tower accompanied by two ruffians,
secured the keys and the passwords, went down to the Garden tower and
sent his ruffians up-stairs. Shortly they called him to see that the
work was done. There lay the princes, dead. The oldest account says
that one was smothered while the throat of the other was cut. Quickly a
priest was called and the bodies consigned to earth. Later this priest
moved them secretly, where, no one knew, and shortly after died. As the
bodies could not be shown some doubted the death of the little princes,
and later we have the claim of Perkin Warbeck that he was one of the
princes, escaped from the Tower and marvellously spared. Perhaps he may
have been Edward's son, for that king ruined many women beside Jane
Shore.
Two hundred years later, while making some changes in the White
tower, workmen found underneath the stone staircase near the chapel
the bones of two boys, apparently corresponding in age and stature to
the princes. Rigid investigation confirmed the guess, and Charles II
ordered their removal to Westminster Abbey, where they now lie among
their royal kindred in the chapel of Henry VII.
When Henry VIII set to work to get rid of his Spanish queen, and take
in her place the pretty maid of honour, Anne Boleyn, he let loose
forces which kept the Tower full of distinguished prisoners and gave
the axeman much work. The desire for the divorce led him further than
he anticipated. When he demanded that he be received as the head of the
church, one man, the wisest counsellor of the time, who had held high
office and whose talents fitted him to adorn any station, refused to go
so far. Sir Thomas More, author of Utopia, statesman and philosopher,
after enduring confinement for a few months went to the block and is
buried in St. Peter's chapel, though tradition says that his head
was secured by his faithful daughter, who preserved it carefully and
finally had it buried with her in her tomb.
A mad "maid of Kent" began to prophesy against the divorce. She ordered
the king to put Anne Boleyn away and to take Catherine back, and
finally began to threaten. When the king acted, he acted vigorously.
The maid and her associates went to Tyburn, and Bishop Fisher, just
then appointed cardinal, who had listened at least, if he had not
encouraged the maid, went to the Tower and soon to the block.
For six years Henry had sought a legal method of freeing himself from
his matrimonial chains. Then he took matters into his own hands. On
the twenty-fifth of January, 1533, the barge bearing Anne Boleyn, now
acknowledged as queen, attended by fifty others reached the Tower, and
she climbed the Queen's Stairway, where her impatient husband awaited
her. Three years later a barge again bore her along the stream, this
time attended by armed men, but now she was landed at the Traitors'
Gate, a prisoner charged with adultery, and destined to lose her head
upon Tower Green. We know that she bore herself well, protesting her
innocence to the last, and winning the pity of all. The story goes that
no coffin had been prepared for her and that her body was jammed into
an elm chest which happened to be conveniently empty. A few years ago,
in restoring St. Peter's chapel, her bones were found jumbled together,
apparently confirming the story that she had not been permitted to lie
decently buried at full length.
Only a few years later another queen of England came a prisoner to
the Tower and a victim of the axeman on the Green. Katherine Howard's
hold upon the affections of her fickle lord was no stronger than Anne
Boleyn's, and also charged with misconduct she was beheaded Feb.
15, 1542. With her died her companion and alleged accomplice, Jane,
Viscountess Rochford.
But the block on Tower Hill outside the walls where the public
executions took place was not idle. Wolsey's death of chagrin saved
him from the Tower and perhaps from the axe, but Thomas Cromwell,
whose devotion to his king had humbled so many, was not so fortunate
as Wolsey. Many things combined to lose him the favour of his royal
master, but nothing perhaps more than his recommendation of Anne of
Cleves as a wife for the fastidious, fickle king. She was so plain
and so awkward that the king was disgusted, and in 1540 Cromwell went
to the Tower and the block as Edward Stafford, the great Duke of
Buckingham, had done twenty years before.
The death of Henry made a delicate boy of nine years king, as Edward
VI. If, as seemed probable, he should die without descendants, where
would the crown go? Both of his sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, had in
turn been declared illegitimate and out of the succession. Mary was
Spanish in blood on her mother's side, and entirely so in education and
feeling. The young Elizabeth was an unknown quantity.
John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, who had helped to send the king's
uncle, the Duke of Somerset, to the block, again began to plot. Henry
VIII's sister Mary, who married Charles Brandon after the death of
her first husband, Louis XII of France, had left a daughter Frances,
who married Henry Grey, later Duke of Suffolk, and had a daughter
whose right to the throne, if Mary and Elizabeth were put away, was at
least as good as any. So Dudley arranged a marriage between his fourth
son, Guilford, a boy of nineteen, and Lady Jane Grey, a sweet girl of
sixteen, whose pitiful history has power to stir a heart of stone.
King Edward died July 6, 1553, and Dudley showed what purported to be
his will passing the succession to his cousin, Lady Jane, and next
attempted to secure the person of Princess Mary, who had however been
warned of his purpose. On Monday, July 10, Lady Jane was proclaimed
Queen of England and many great nobles gathered around her. The people
showed no enthusiasm. They knew Dudley, and they felt that Mary was
the rightful heir. So pronounced was public sentiment that the politic
began to gather around Mary, who was proclaimed July 19, and Jane
descended from the throne which she had unwillingly accepted, after a
reign of only nine days.
Immediately the Tower filled. Lady Jane herself, and her foolish
husband, her father, Dudley and his four other sons and dozens of
less degree were confined, and the axeman was to reap a bloody
harvest. Dudley and his eldest son, the Earl of Warwick, went to the
block almost immediately. Robert Dudley, the husband of Amy Robsart,
afterward the favourite of Queen Elizabeth, and Guilford Dudley lodged
in the Beauchamp tower. Today one sees their names and inscriptions
carved in the soft stone and Guilford, perhaps, twice cut the name,
JANE.
Mary would have spared her unfortunate cousin if she could have induced
her to conform to the old faith, but Jane's Protestantism was too
firmly fixed, and she had a will of iron beneath her soft and gentle
exterior. Refusing to yield her faith, the Nine Days' Queen went to
Tower Green, her husband to Tower Hill, and shortly afterward her
father followed his friends and his children.
The queen under the influence of Renard, the agent of Charles V, began
the series of executions for conscience's sake which has given her the
awful title of Bloody Mary. Those who disliked either the Spaniard
or the old church had good cause to fear. Elizabeth was confined in
the Tower for a time, but Mary could not bring herself to order her
execution though strongly advised to do so. But Sir Thomas Wyat, Thomas
Cobham and then the three bishops, Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley, with
hundreds of others crowded the Tower until it overflowed into Newgate
and the Fleet.
With the accession of Elizabeth the headsman rested. For a century
hardly a year had passed without political executions. During the long
reign of Elizabeth they were few, and for twelve years there were none
at all. Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, who engaged in the plot to
raise Mary Queen of Scots to the throne, was the first; the Earl of
Northumberland was mysteriously murdered in the Bloody tower in 1585,
and Philip, Earl of Arundel, died on the block in 1595. Nor must we
forget Elizabeth's darling, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, who died
on Tower Green inside the walls in 1601, though the loving but jealous
queen was longing to grant his pardon if he would only ask it.
But the grim old walls held many tenants, even if the extreme
penalties were not invoked. Margaret, Countess of Lennox, mother of
Lord Darnley, and so grandmother of James I, lived in the Belfry
until after Darnley's death, when she was released, a broken old
woman. Philip Howard, son of Thomas mentioned above, though guilty of
high treason in aiding the enemies of his country, finally died in
the Beauchamp tower. It was during Elizabeth's reign that Sir Walter
Raleigh endured the first of his four imprisonments, this time for the
seduction of the queen's maid of honour and his subsequent disobedience.
At the accession of James I Raleigh returned to the Tower, as a
concession to Spain, against whose power and influence he had done so
much. He was tried, convicted on perjured testimony and sent back to
remain fourteen years a prisoner. The cowardly king feared to put the
sentence into effect, and so first in the Bloody tower and then in the
Garden house he received his friends, studied geography and chemistry,
seeking a method to sweeten sea water, distilling his wonderful elixir,
and awaiting further evidences of the king's petty nature. The story
that in a little dark cell in the White tower his History of the World
was written has no foundation. That work was written in the Garden
house. On his return from his unsuccessful and unhappy voyage, he lived
in the Brick tower for a little while, was then removed to the Wardrobe
tower, and then brought back to the Brick tower and tempted to commit
suicide. Meanwhile the Spanish court continued to clamour for his
blood, and James, crazed by the hope of the Spanish marriage for his
son, at length signed the death warrant of, perhaps, the greatest man
in England.
The king's cousin, Lady Arabella Stuart, because of her birth spent
most of her life as a prisoner of state, though she was not brought to
the Tower until after her unsuccessful attempt to escape to France in
1611. From that time until her death in 1615, she was a resident of the
old prison.
It is said that James would sometimes come to see prisoners tortured
in the gloomy crypt under the White tower, the place where Guy Fawkes
suffered after the discovery of the Gunpowder plot in 1606, before his
execution.
Executions for treason grow fewer as the years go on. Charles I saw
his unpopular minister, Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, go first
to prison and then to Tower Hill in 1641, and the more unpopular Laud,
Archbishop of Canterbury, spent many weary months here in 1645, before
the procession to the scaffold. Cromwell kept George Monk, afterward
Duke of Albemarle, in confinement 1643-46, but during the reign of
Charles II there is less of interest, though Algernon Sydney suffered
the extreme penalty for alleged complicity in the Rye House Plot in
1683, and George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, had three separate terms
here.
During the short but turbulent reign of James II, the bastard son of
Charles II, James, Duke of Monmouth, spent three days in the Tower,
begging for mercy, after his disastrous defeat at Sedgmoor. The "Seven
Bishops" were confined here awaiting their trial for daring to resist
the king's will, and the infamous Chief Justice Jeffreys, captured
while attempting to escape, died in April, 1689, while awaiting trial.
After the destruction of Jacobite hopes at Culloden, three Scottish
lords, Kilmarnock, Balmerino and Fraser of Lovat awaited trial for
their devotion to the old line. The first two were executed in 1746,
and the last in 1747, the last man legally beheaded in England.
A few scattered individuals occupy the pile during the next
seventy-five years. John Wilkes, the great demagogue, was here in 1763,
and Lord George Gordon in 1780. In 1820 seven persons charged with
conspiracy were here, but the days of the Tower as a great prison were
past.
For many years no persons have been confined within its walls, but
every year thousands go to see the Crown Jewels, the arms and armour,
the instruments of torture and the relics of the kings. They study
the inscriptions upon the walls of the Beauchamp tower, carved by the
fingers of men who knew not what the morrow would bring forth, and
stand upon the ground where England's worst and England's noblest have
stood.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
The following corrections have been made to the original text:
Page 7: by the ruffians who ruled the roost[original has
"roast"]
Page 40: which was thought of some time ago."[quotation mark
missing in original]
Page 67: was asked if she would coöperate[original has
"co/operate" split across a line break]
Page 140: women, according[original has "acording"] to another
eyewitness
Page 156: full[original has "ful"] view of the males
Page 160: watch for the officer's approach[original has
"aproach"]
Page 179: They were accordingly[original has "acordingly"]
apprehended