Constable of the Tower

• 1. Introduction

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  The Constable of the Tower of London holds the most senior appointment at one of the world's most storied fortresses. Geoffrey de Mandeville received that appointment from William the Conqueror sometime in the 1060s, making it one of the oldest offices in England. For centuries afterward, the person who held it was among the most powerful figures in London. In the king's absence, the Constable commanded the principal fortress defending England's capital, oversaw its prisoners, and wielded authority over a substantial patch of Middlesex. Today the role is ceremonial, but the weight of nearly a thousand years of history presses on every installation ceremony.

  What does it mean to hold an office that stretches back to the Norman Conquest? Who has filled it, and what did they actually do? And what peculiar medieval dues does a Royal Navy warship still pay every year at Tower Wharf?

• 2. Born From Conquest

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  Geoffrey de Mandeville stepped into a role that barely had a name yet. William the Conqueror needed someone to hold the Tower when he rode off to govern his other domains, and so the office of Constable took shape around that practical need. In the Middle Ages, a constable was simply the person left in charge of a castle in the owner's absence.

  The Tower's constable carried a particular weight that no other castle constable in England could match. London was the capital, the Tower was its chief fortress, and the person who held the keys held the city's security in their hands. Prominent churchmen, powerful politicians, and distinguished soldiers all filled the post over the centuries. The Constable retained the right of direct access to the Sovereign, a privilege that survives to the present day.

  From 1784 onward, the appointment fell exclusively to senior military officers, and the five-year term was formalized in 1932. Before that reform, the office was typically held for life, though some holders resigned. The installation ceremony still marks the transfer of authority in an unmistakable way: the Lord Chamberlain symbolically hands over the King's House to the new Constable, who in turn entrusts it to the Resident Governor for day-to-day management.

• 3. Keeper of Prisoners

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  Ranulf Flambard, the Norman bishop of Durham, became the Tower's first recorded prisoner in 1100. From that moment, the Constable bore personal responsibility for every person held within those walls, in terms that left no room for ambiguity: "You are to guard them securely in the prison of our said tower in such a way that you shall answer for them body for body... Fail in no part of this on pain of forfeiture of life and limb and all property you hold in our realms."

  The list of those who passed through the Tower under a Constable's watch spans nearly the entire arc of English history. The medieval Constable managed not only prisoners but also the soldiers who guarded them, the maintenance of the buildings, and the pay of the garrison. He even supervised the Keeper of the King's Animals, since a royal menagerie was housed within the Tower's walls.

  The last official prisoners arrived in 1952: London gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray, held for a few days for refusing to report for National Service. They were sent to the Tower because it served as the barracks of the 1st Battalion Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment), the unit to which they had been assigned. After nearly nine centuries of high-profile captives, the Kray twins brought the Tower's prison era to a close in a characteristically unorthodox fashion.

• 4. A Domain Beyond the Walls

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  Until 1889, the Constable held a second, substantial office: Lord Lieutenant of the Tower Hamlets. This lieutenancy existed from the Restoration onward, rooted in the ancient hundred of Ossulstone, the urbanizing stretch of Middlesex that bordered the City of London.

  In the seventeenth century, Ossulstone was divided into four divisions. The Tower division lay east of the city, covering what is now the entire London Borough of Tower Hamlets and most of Hackney. That division carried unusual extra powers, including the right to its own lord-lieutenant, a privilege normally reserved for full counties. The practical consequence was military: the Constable, acting as Lord Lieutenant, could raise local militia forces to reinforce the Tower garrison at moments of heightened danger or to deploy them in the field.

  The City of London Militia Act 1662 explicitly preserved this authority in language that is hard to misread, protecting the Constable's right to "levy the Trained Bands of the said Division or Hamlets of the Tower" regardless of anything else in the statute. In 1715, the appointments of Constable and Lord Lieutenant were briefly split: Hatton Compton became Lord Lieutenant and Lieutenant of the Tower, while Charles Howard, the 3rd Earl of Carlisle, became Constable in 1715 but did not inherit the Lord Lieutenancy until 1717. The County of London created in 1889 absorbed Tower Hamlets, ending that dual role.

• 5. The Constable's Dues

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  In the Middle Ages, the Constable collected a remarkable array of entitlements from the river traffic flowing past the Tower. Any horse, ox, pig, or sheep that fell off London Bridge was his. Any cart that tumbled into the Tower moat belonged to him. He received six shillings and eight pence annually from each boat fishing between the Tower and the sea, a shilling a year from ships carrying herring to London, and two pence from each pilgrim who arrived by sea to worship at the shrine of St James. Every swan swimming under London Bridge was his, along with all the herbage growing on Tower Hill.

  Every ship travelling upstream to London was required to moor at Tower Wharf and hand over a portion of its cargo as payment for the protection afforded by the Tower's cannon. Oysters, mussels, cockles, rushes, and wine all changed hands at that wharf.

  The Ceremony of the Constable's Dues preserves that tradition today. Each year one large Royal Navy vessel presents the Constable with a barrel of rum in place of the medieval cargo levy. In 2026, the ceremony took a notable turn when a contingent of a hundred cadets from the Volunteer Cadet Corps led the proceedings, marking the organisation's 125th anniversary. It was the first time in the ceremony's history that a youth organisation had carried out those duties.

• 6. Wellington and Reform

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  Arthur Wellesley, the 1st Duke of Wellington, served as Constable from 1825 to 1852, longer than any holder in the modern period. Few constables have left a more visible mark on the physical Tower.

  During his tenure, the royal menagerie was removed, as was the record office. Many of the Tower's buildings were restored to something closer to their medieval appearance. Wellington ordered the moat drained and converted it into a parade ground. He also changed who could serve as a Yeoman Warder: the practice of buying and selling those positions was abolished, and appointment was restricted to serving sergeants from the Army.

  One development during his time as Constable displeased Wellington: tourism at the Tower increased noticeably, drawn perhaps by the very restorations he had ordered. The duke was not a man given to enthusiasm for popular crowds, and the growing number of visitors apparently annoyed him. His term ended with his death on the 14th of September 1852, and Stapleton Cotton, the 1st Viscount Combermere, took over the following month. The pattern Wellington helped establish, a senior military officer appointed for a defined term, shapes the office to this day; General Sir Gordon Messenger, appointed in 2022, is the current holder.

• 7. One Female Constable

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  Eleanor de Clare held the Constableship briefly in October 1326, the only woman to have done so in the office's nearly thousand-year history as of 2026. She was the wife of Hugh Despenser and received the appointment during a turbulent moment in English politics.

  Her tenure ended when she surrendered the Tower during the London Uprising. The circumstances that placed her in the role, and those that ended it, reflect how closely tied the medieval Constableship was to the fortunes of those in power. Within weeks of her surrender, the appointment passed through two more hands before settling with Thomas Wake, the 2nd Baron Wake of Liddell in December 1326.

  Eleanor's brief tenure stands as a solitary exception in a list otherwise filled entirely with men, most of them soldiers, bishops, or noblemen. The office's long history contains many surprises, but few as striking as the ten-week interval when England's most important fortress was entrusted to her.