Castle of the Week 86 – The Tower of London 1272-1547

Byward Tower
Henry III’s son, Edward I, came to the throne in 1272 and, starting in 1275, he spent 10 years creating the largest and strongest concentric castle in the country. He filled in his father’s moat, reclaimed land from the river and built an additional curtain wall on all four sides with 2 gateways, one from the west – Byward Tower (the last defence before the Outer Ward, which still contains a 15th century portcullis), and the other from the river (St Thomas’s Tower, named after Thomas Becket) which included new royal living quarters. It was later used as the infirmary and, later still, for manufacturing guns. Underneath St Thomas’s Tower was the Water Gate (subsequently known as Traitor’s Gate) where boats containing prisoners would arrive. Few left. One of the few who did during his reign was King Baliol of Scotland, imprisoned in the Salt Tower in 1296, but released three years later and banished to France. The other three sides were surrounded by a new moat.

Looking towards Wakefield Tower - Traitor's Gate

Edward erected a large building to house the Royal Mint and built several new towers: the Beauchamp Tower on the site of a gateway built by his father. The gateway had collapsed twice; both times people said they had seen the ghost of Thomas Becket beating the ground with his crozier, thus his naming of the new St Thomas’s Tower in the hopes of appeasing the ghost. The tower was used as a treasury and the home of the crown jewels which were moved from Westminster Abbey in 1303. It also housed aristocratic prisoners with their retinue. The tower’s inside walls are still covered in inscriptions carved by the prisoners. William Wallace, the Scottish patriot so badly served by the film
Braveheart was betrayed by his own side, imprisoned, tried for treason and executed there. The last two towers were the Well Tower, named for two deep wells inside, and the Develin Tower.

Edward III added the Cradle Tower so that he could have his own private entrance to the appartments from the river. The name probably derived from the slipway where the boat could land. Later alterations to the riverbank meant it no longer fronted the water and it was used to house less important prisoners.

In 1381, 14 year old King Richard II and his family were forced to shelter in the Tower during the 10,000 strong Peasants’ Revolt as London was plundered and burnt for two days. A small party of rebels succeeded in breaking into the castle, including the royal appartments. They dragged some of the king’s ministers from sanctuary in the chapel and, after mock trials, beheaded them. In 1399, after constant problems with both peasants and barons, Richard was deposed by Henry IV and renounced his claim to the throne from the Tower.

Fireplace, probably in Bloody Tower

The 1450s brought the beginning of the Wars of the Roses. The Tower came under fire from the river and the defenders had to set up barrels of sand to deaden the impact of the artillery. Henry VI was finally defeated, escaped, was recaptured, brought to the Tower and murdered, by order of Edward IV, in the Wakefield Tower in 1471; he was stabbed whilst praying. This wasn’t the end of royal deaths. George, Duke of Clarence, allegedly drowned in a butt of malmsey wine in the Bowyer Tower in 1478 and the 12 year old King Edward V and his 9 year old brother the Duke of York disappeared and were assumed murdered in 1483 in the Garden Tower. As to who gave the orders for the double murder of two children, this is one of the unsolved mysteries of the Tower. The future King Richard III was blamed for many years, but it is now thought that he was framed by the Tudors.

Yeoman Warder

In 1485 the Yeoman Warders were first established to be Henry VII’s bodyguard. They still attend the Tower today – wearing either their scarlet and gold dress uniforms dating back to 1552 or, for daily use, their blue undress uniform granted to them by Queen Victoria in 1858. Their slang name is Beefeaters. Henry, the first of the Tudors, added to the royal residential buildings. He added rooms, including a library, and a garden around Lanthorn Tower, but was the last English monarch to live there.

Henry VIII built the timber framed houses which can still be seen today, whilst his Chancellor, Thomas Cromwell, saw to the modernising of the defences. One of the houses is known as the Queen’s House, built for his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Today it’s the home of the Tower’s governor. The roof of the White Tower was strengthened so it could support cannons.

General view towards the Tudor houses

The Tower’s role as a prison was expanded greatly during Henry’s reign because of the Reformation when he broke with the Catholic church as the Pope would not agree to the annulment of his first marriage (to Katharine of Aragon). His first prisoners included Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher who were imprisoned and then executed in 1535 for refusing to acknowledge him as head of the Church of England. A year later, his second wife (Anne Boleyn) and her brother were imprisoned then executed and, four years after that, Thomas Cromwell himself met his death. In 1542, Catherine Howard, his fifth wife, was executed outside the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula which Henry had rebuilt after it burnt down in 1509.

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