London Day Three: The Tower of London

View of the Tower of London, officially known as Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress.

Construction first began on the Tower of London in 1078 by William the Conqueror. The Norman William had defeated the English Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and ordered the construction of many castles and keeps. These ensured effectively that the many rebellions by the English people or his own followers did not succeed. The British refer to him as William I, as he never conquered the City of London. It surrendered.

Making their way to the entrance along the fortress walls. The tower's primary function was a fortress, a royal palace, and a prison. It has also served as a place of execution and torture, an armory, a treasury, a zoo, the Royal Mint, a public records office, an observatory, and since 1303, the home of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.

Kings and Queens stayed in the Tower until they were officially crowned, and then sometimes imprisoned and executed.

Rendering of the Tower in medieval times

Inside the walls of the mighty fortress

Many Tudor prisoners entered the Tower of London through Traitors' Gate, when it was a water entrance directly from the Thames. The accused were brought by barge along the Thames, passing under London Bridge, where the heads of recently executed prisoners were displayed on pikes, and into the Tower. Queen Anne Boleyn (Henry's second wife), Sir (Saint) Thomas More (one of Henry's counsellors) and Queen Catherine Howard (Henry's fifth wife), all entered the Tower by Traitors' Gate.

The Jewel House where the Crown Jewels are on view, though photography is not allowed. Through the magic of the internet, however...

...we can provide you with a sneak peek. Throughout the centuries, the Crown Jewels have been lost and never recovered from a mistimed tide (1200s), replaced by new items, stolen again (1300s) but recovered, melted down by Oliver Cromwell (1600s) after the monarchy was abolished and King Charles I was executed, and replaced 11 years later with some of the original gold and gems when the monarchy was restored.

The monetary value of the Crown Jewels is "incalculable," and therefore, they are uninsured. What insurance company would want to pay up if the jewels were stolen yet again?

Inside the Tower, raven cages to the right

Our tour guide, George, in the area of the Tower known as Tower Green, where executions were held. Yeoman Warders , or Beefeaters (it is believed centuries ago they were partly compensated with beef rations), began guarding the Tower in 1485; today there are 35 Yeomen Warders and one Chief Warder. It's not that easy to become a Yeoman. Yeoman Warders are required to have served in the armed forces with an honorable record for at least 22 years.

In principle they are responsible for looking after any prisoners at the Tower and safeguarding the British crown jewels, but in practice they act as tour guides and are a tourist attraction in their own right. The Yeoman Warders and their families live inside the fortress. The community of the Tower of London is made up of these Yeoman Warders and their families, the Resident Governor and officers, a chaplain and a doctor.

Just a few weeks after our return from London (yes, I am writing this after the fact -- shocking, I know), the Yeoman Warders made news all over the world, and not for the best of reasons.

In 2007, Moira Cameron, a veteran of long military service, became the first female Yeoman Warder in the history of the institution. Hers was supposed to be a happy story about how a bastion of male supremacy could become a place where women, too, could serve queen and country.

In early November, embarrassed Tower officials conceded that Cameron had apparently been subjected to a campaign of bullying and harassment conducted by some of her resentful male colleagues. They said two male warders have been suspended and a third is under investigation for suspected harassment of Cameron. The Sun newspaper reported that Cameron's uniform had been defaced and that "nasty" notes had been left in her locker. In addition, the newspaper said that Cameron's Wikipedia entry had been defaced as part of the campaign against her.

Our guide, George, is the third man to her left in the above picture. I have not been able to find the names of those Yeomen who were accused, and we're hoping George wasn't among them.

Can you make out the ravens on the weather vane? It had been thought that there have been at least six ravens in residence at the tower for centuries. Legend states that if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London, the monarchy, and the entire kingdom would fall. One Yeoman Warder has the specific role of Ravenmaster at the Tower and takes care of their feeding and well being (and keeps their wings clipped). To ensure that there are always six ravens at the Tower, the Ravenmaster keeps ten.

Emilie in front of a very fancy drinking fountain. Those timber-framed lodgings you see behind her were commissioned by Henry VIII, primarily for the comfort and enjoyment of his second wife, Anne Boleyn, as she awaited her coronation in 1533.

Another tour guide

Construction of the White Tower, the oldest part of the Tower of London, began in 1078 under the orders William the Conqueror. He ordered the Tower to be built of Caen stone, which he had specially imported from France.

This memorial, erected in 2006, is intended to remember all those who were executed at the Tower, with particular reference to the seven famous figures who were beheaded here and three soldiers known to have died on Tower Green. Nobles were given the privilege of being executed within the walls of the Tower: they were spared insults from jeering crowds, and the monarch was spared bad publicity. Among others, two of Henry VIII's wives and a grandniece were executed. The glass pillow has the imprint of the side of a head on it. Did I mention one of Henry's wives was only 20 and his grandniece, Lady Jane Grey -- the Nine Day Queen -- was only 16 at the time of their executions?

You are probably familiar with Anne Boleyn, Henry's second wife, who was beheaded by a French executioner's sword. She had been found guilty of adultery, incest with her brother, and high treason (plotting the king's death with her "lovers"). It is widely believed that what Anne was most guilty of was not producing a male heir and losing the king's favor to Jane Seymour.

You may not be as familiar with Margaret Pole, the Countess of Salisbury. It is believed she was executed on Tower Green at the age of 68 simply for being the mother of a cardinal who had led a Catholic opposition against Henry VIII's break with Rome, and for being the last legitimate member of the Plantagenet dynasty, a rival royal family.

According to some accounts, on the day of her execution, a frail and ill Lady Salisbury, was dragged to the block, but refused to lay her head on it, having to be forced down. As she struggled, the inexperienced executioner's first blow made a gash in her shoulder rather than her neck. Ten additional blows were required to complete the execution. A less reputable account states that she leapt from the block after the first clumsy blow and ran, pursued by the executioner, being struck eleven times before she died. It is said she was hacked to death. It's always those "less reputable" accounts that people remember as the truth.

Another building inside the Tower

The walls of the White Tower are now home to displays from the Royal Armouries, including original armours worn by Henry VIII in the "Dressed to Kill" exhibit. Along with the Tower's historic instruments of torture, you can see...

...one of the infamous blocks and axes.

England has been celebrating the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII accession to the throne with exhibits all over the country. The success of the series The Tudors hasn't hurt either.

And "Dressed to Kill" is an apt title. Henry had tens of thousands of people put to death, with some historians putting the figure as high as 72,000 .

Here, too, was an exhibit entitled "Hands on History!" The kids had a chance to "get to grips with the Tower's arsenal and ten centuries of Tower history." They got to try on a gauntlet, lift a musket, draw a bow and handle a sword as they explored the different roles of the Tower over the centuries. Alas, photography was not allowed.

One of the Tower's Ravens. Do you think it's Gwylum, Thor, Hugin, Munin, Branwen, Bran, Gundulf, Baldrick, Fleur or Colin?

The Bloody Tower, named after the legend that two young imprisoned princes were murdered there in the early 15th century.

In 1674, the skeletons of two children were discovered under the staircase leading to the chapel, during the course of renovations to the White Tower. At that time, these were believed to have been the remains of the two princes. The remains were reburied in Westminster Abbey. In 1933, the grave was dug up and found to contain both human and animal bones; however precise identification of the age and gender was not then possible. The fate of the Princes remains a mystery.

The Tower of London has developed a reputation as being one of the most haunted places in Britain.

A Governor of the Tower of London lived in The Queen’s House on Tower Green with his family from 1994-2006. Major General Geoffrey Field reported the following:

"Soon after we’d arrived in 1994, my wife Janice was making up the bed in the Lennox room when she felt a violent push in her back which propelled her right out of the room! No one had warned us that the house was haunted – but we then discovered that every resident has experienced something strange in that room! The story goes that the ghost is that of Arbella Stuart, a cousin of James I, who was imprisoned and then possibly murdered in that bedroom. Several women who slept there since have reported waking in terror the middle of the night feeling they were being strangled, so just in case we made it a house rule not to give unaccompanied female guests the Lennox room."

And another ghost story: At least two bears have lived at the Tower, and both were the first of their kind to be seen in England. Henry III was given a polar bear in 1251 as a gift from the king of Norway. The bear was given a long chain so that it could fish in the Thames. In 1811, the Hudson Bay Company gave a grizzly bear to George III. The bear was called ‘Old Martin’ and after many years at the Tower he moved to the new London Zoo in Regent’s Park, where he eventually died in 1838.

Legend has it that many years ago a huge ghostly bear appeared by the Martin Tower, scaring a guard so badly that he dropped dead of shock.

Other ghosts are said to haunt the Tower, including those of the two missing princes, Anne Boleyn, Margaret Pole, Sir Walter Raleigh, Lady Jane Grey and her husband Guilford. In fact, Lady Jane was seen by two guardsmen in 1957. There have also been many reports apparitions with no distinct form that have rattled the Yeomen. To this day, there are certain areas of the Tower the guardsmen will not enter after sundown.