Tower of London

Upon arriving at the Tower and making my way to the guided tour, the Beefeater tour guide made sure my fellow Tower-goers and I understood that the Tower, despite its nasty reputation as a prison and execution ground, was built as a palace and a fortress. And for the most part, the Beefeater (more appropriately called a Yeoman Warder), was right. Since the original Norman construction, the Tower has undergone massive changes as buildings have been added, demolished, and remodeled to suit the purposes of its owner at the time.

According to Diehl and Donnelly, the Tower “has alternately, and often simultaneously, been used as a royal palace, a fortress, a zoo, a military garrison, the Royal Treasury, an arsenal, the Royal Mint, a state office building, a museum and the repository of the Crown Jewels” (viii). The first building in the complex, the White Tower, was built by William of Normandy, also called “the Conqueror by historians.” Completed around 1100 AD, the White Tower was built in the typical Norman style that castles were constructed in at this time around England. William incorporated Roman walls in his castle, which was composed of “a large enclosure, the bailey, which was ditched, banked, and palisaded; within this there was a great mound of earth, the motte, on which stood a timbered tower, or keep” (Roberts 77). The construction of this castle presented a formidable military challenge to any who wished to invade the fortress. The moat surrounding the walls of the Tower was in itself enough to keep any would-be invaders out. As our guide further informed us, the moat was built to be flooded by the Thames; yet as the tidal comings and goings of this river proved, the moat was not always filled, which left the Tower at a disadvantage during certain times of the day. To solve this dilemma, the king called on a Dutch architect, who told him to dig the moat deeper so as to trap the water when the tide moved out. Soon after the completion of this project another problem presented itself. The moat, being the waste receptacle for some thousands of inhabitants of the Tower and surrounding area, was not being washed clean everyday by the Thames; as a result, a muddy, disgusting mess of fecal matter and household refuse was left to settle permanently the bottom of the moat, successfully deterring any more aspiring invaders of the Tower complex. Today the moat is a lovely lawn area (see above) on which the residing Warders exercise their dogs.

Despite the Beefeater’s insistence on painting a docile, almost homey picture of the Tower as a simple palace and fortress, the Tower continues most famously to evoke images of death, torture, and horror—for good reason. The history surrounding the Tower is one that is consistent with the popular view many hold of it, no matter how many Beefeaters insist you think otherwise. One such grisly story is that of Archbishop Sudbury, who was executed during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. This rebellion began because of the discontent over the Statute of Labourers issued in 1351, which made it a crime for peasants to ask for more wages or to leave his place of work to seek higher wages (Hibbert 85). Diehl and Donnelly give one result of this uprising: “Archbishop Sudbury was thrown across a log as a man with a broadsword stepped forward. The first blow struck the archbishop’s neck, slicing it open. When Sudbury cried out in pain and automatically raised his hand to the gushing wound, his executioner struck again, hacking of his fingers. Writhing in pain and bleeding profusely, the archbishop thrashed on the ground as his tormentor continued hacking at him. His skull was split open, as was his shoulder. After at least eight more strokes, the mangled corpse of Simon Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of England, lay dead on Tower Hill” (25). Private executions carried on the Tower Green were no less gruesome. One such famous account is that of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, who was beheaded on 27th May 1541. According to one account, “The countess made the mistake of appearing to side with Katherine of Aragon against the king and he declared her a traitor. She was arrested two years before her execution and badly treated and neglected as a prisoner in the Tower of London. She was not given a trial. She was small, frail and ill. But she was proudly noble. She was dragged to the block, but refused to lay her head down on it. As she was forced down and struggled, the inexperienced executioner made a gash in ther shoulder rather than her neck. She leapt from the block and was chased by the executioner. She was struck eleven times before she died” (Alchin). These two stories are only a sample of the horror so many men and women faced at the Tower.

Today the Tower is used to house Yeoman Warders, as a repository for the Crown Jewels, and as a museum that recounts the site’s long and colorful history.

-------------------
Works Cited

Alchin, L.K. Castles. 20 July 2005. http://www.castles.me.uk. Retrieved 27 May 2008 from http://www.castles.me.uk/executions-beheading-tower-of-london.htm.

Diehl, Daniel and Mark P. Donnelly. Tales from the Tower of London. Phoenix Mill: Sutton Pub., 2004.

Hibbert, Christopher. The Story of England. London: Phaidon, 1992.

Roberts, Clayton, and David Roberts. A History Of England: Prehistory to 1714. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1998.