London - Tower of London-Part I

The Tower of London served as a castle in wartime, king's residence in peacetimes, and it was a prison and execution site of rebels. We first did the Yeoman Warder (Beefeater) tour. The tour is really quick which was about 30 minutes, and then you can wander all over the tower. The tower is still home to the 35 Yeoman Warders and their families. Their original duty was to guard the Tower, its prisoners, and the jewels. 

William the Conqueror built the stone "White Tower" around 1077 to keep the Londoners in line. It also served as an effective lookout for seeing invaders coming up the Thames. This square tower was the original structure that gave this castle complex its name. William's successor enlarged the complex to its present 18-acre size. The Tower of London also served over the centuries as a the Royal Mint and the Royal Jewel House.

This gate is called Traitors' Gate. Many prisoners of the Tudors entered the Tower through the Traitors' Gate. The gate was built by Edward I, to provide a water entrance to the Tower. Prisoners were brought by barge along the Thames, passing under the London Bridge, where the heads of recently executed prisoners were displayed on pikes. Anne Boleyn and St. Thomas More entered the Tower through these gates. 

We went into Bloody Tower. There are so many towers in this complex. I think there are 20 and they each have their own story inside. In this tower they told the story of the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury and and the lower chamber is furnished as it might have appeared during Sir Walter Raleigh's imprisonment. 

Bloody Tower

Sir Walter Raleigh's cell in the Tower

The tower became known as the Bloody Tower in the mid-16th century because it was believed to be where the Princes in the Tower were murdered by their uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester. The sons of King Edward IV, 12 yr old Edward V and his younger brother Richard, were sent to the Tower by their uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. By July 1483 they were declared illegitimate and the Duke was crowned King Richard III. The Princes were never seen again. Where they murdered? Richard III has been considered the murderer. In 1485, Richard III was killed and Henry Tudor, was crowned King Henry VII. Some say also Henry VII is a suspect. He married the princes' sister, Elizabeth of York to strengthen his claim to the throne. This would have been jeopardized if the boys has survived. Many many years later when they found Thomas More's writings and he stated that the princes were smothered on their uncle's orders and buried 'at the stair foot', and then reburied elsewhere in the Tower. But apparently there is no proof of that either. 

The room that they think the princes were murdered in

another view of the room

This is the Tower Green area where the executions were held. Henry VIII axed a couple of his ex-wives here (Anne Boleyn, Jane Grey, and Catherine Howard) and St. Thomas More. 

Memorial to the people who were executed on this Green

Behind this green is the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula (St. Peter in Chains). This is the parish church for the Tower of London.  A chapel stood here since before the Norman conquest but it was Henry VIII who had it rebuilt for himself. 

The Chapel is best known now as the burial place of the most famous prisoners executed at the Tower. Anne Boley, Catherine Howard, Lady Jane Grey, Thomas Cromwell, St. Thomas More, and St. John Fisher are all buried here. 

plaque of names of who was buried in the chapel

St. Thomas More

This memorial is located in one of the towers

Queen Anne Boleyn

In 1674 when a building in front of the White Tower was demolished, two skeletons, identified as those of the princes were discovered. There is a plaque commemorating the princes in this site. The skeletons were examined in 1933 and decided they were two boys, ages ten and twelve. 

the staircase where the skeletons were found

Next...the Crown Jewels!