Tower of London
On the 14th of October 1066, the Duke of Normandy won the Battle of Hastings and spent the rest of that year securing his holdings by fortifying key positions. He founded several castles along the way but took a circuitous route toward London until he reached Canterbury. When the fortified bridge into London was held by Saxon troops, he decided instead to ravage Southwark before continuing his journey around southern England. A series of Norman victories along the route cut the city's supply lines and in December 1066, isolated and intimidated, its leaders yielded London without a fight. Between 1066 and 1087, William established 36 castles, although references in the Domesday Book indicate that many more were founded by his subordinates. The Normans undertook what has been described as "the most extensive and concentrated programme of castle-building in the whole history of feudal Europe". They were multi-purpose buildings serving as fortifications used as bases of operations in enemy territory, centers of administration, and residences. William sent an advance party to prepare the city for his entrance to celebrate his victory and found a castle. In the words of William's biographer, William of Poitiers, "certain fortifications were completed in the city against the restlessness of the huge and brutal populace." At the time, London was the largest town in England. The foundation of Westminster Abbey and the old Palace of Westminster under Edward the Confessor had marked it as a center of governance. With a prosperous port, it was important for the Normans to establish control over the settlement. The other two castles in London , Baynard's Castle and Montfichet's Castle , were established at the same time. The fortification that would later become known as the Tower of London was built onto the south-east corner of the Roman town walls using them as prefabricated defences. The River Thames provided additional protection from the south. This earliest phase of the castle would have been enclosed by a ditch and defended by a timber palisade. It probably had accommodation suitable for William.
Work on the White Tower which gives the whole castle its name is usually considered to have begun in 1078 although the exact date is uncertain. William made Gundulf Bishop of Rochester responsible for its construction although it may not have been completed until after William's death in 1087. The White Tower is the earliest stone keep in England and was the strongest point of the early castle. It also contained grand accommodation for the king. At the latest it was probably finished by 1100 when Bishop Ranulf Flambard was imprisoned there. Flambard was loathed by the English for exacting harsh taxes. Although he is the first recorded prisoner held in the Tower, he was also the first person to escape from it using a smuggled rope secreted in a butt of wine. He was held in luxury and permitted servants but on the 2nd of February 1101 he hosted a banquet for his captors. After plying them with drink when no one was looking he lowered himself from a secluded chamber and out of the Tower. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that in 1097 King William II ordered a wall to be built around the Tower of London. It was probably built from stone and likely replaced the timber palisade that arced around the north and west sides of the castle between the Roman wall to the east and the Thames to the south. The castle probably retained its form as established by 1100 until the reign of Richard I who reigned from 1189 to 1199. The castle was extended under William Longchamp King Richard's Lord Chancellor and the man in charge of England while he was on crusade. The Pipe rolls record £2,881 1s 10d spent at the Tower of London between the 3rd of December 1189 and the 11th of November 1190 from an estimated £7,000 spent by Richard on castle building in England. According to the contemporary chronicler Roger of Howden, Longchamp dug a moat around the castle and tried in vain to fill it from the Thames. Longchamp was also Constable of the Tower and undertook its expansion while preparing for war with King Richard's younger brother Prince John who in Richard's absence arrived in England to try to seize power. As Longchamp's main fortress he made the Tower as strong as possible. The new fortifications were first tested in October 1191 when the Tower was besieged for the first time in its history. Longchamp capitulated to John after just three days deciding he had more to gain from surrender than prolonging the siege.
Generally reserved for high-ranking inmates the Tower was the most important royal prison in the country. However it was not necessarily very secure and throughout its history people bribed the guards to help them escape. In 1323 Roger Mortimer Baron Mortimer was aided in his escape from the Tower by the Sub-Lieutenant of the Tower who let Mortimer's men inside. They hacked a hole in his cell wall and Mortimer escaped to a waiting boat. He fled to France where he encountered Edward's Queen. They began an affair and plotted to overthrow the King. One of Mortimer's first acts on entering England in 1326 was to capture the Tower and release the prisoners held there. For four years he ruled while Edward III was too young to do so himself. In 1330 Edward and his supporters captured Mortimer and threw him into the Tower. Under Edward III's rule which lasted from 1312 to 1377 England experienced renewed success in warfare after his father's reign had put the realm on the backfoot against the Scots and French. Amongst Edward's successes were the battles of Crécy and Poitiers where King John II of France was taken prisoner and the capture of the King David II of Scotland at Neville's Cross. During this period the Tower of London held many noble prisoners of war. Edward II had allowed the Tower of London to fall into a state of disrepair and by the reign of Edward III the castle was an uncomfortable place. The nobility held captive within its walls were unable to engage in activities such as hunting which were permissible at other royal castles used as prisons for instance Windsor. Edward III ordered that the castle should be renovated. When Richard II was crowned in 1377 he led a procession from the Tower to Westminster Abbey. This tradition began in at least the early 14th century and lasted until 1660. During the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 the Tower of London was besieged with the King inside. When Richard rode out to meet with Wat Tyler the rebel leader a crowd broke into the castle without meeting resistance and looted the Jewel House. The Archbishop of Canterbury Simon Sudbury took refuge in St John's Chapel hoping the mob would respect the sanctuary. However he was taken away and beheaded on Tower Hill. Six years later there was again civil unrest and Richard spent Christmas in the security of the Tower rather than Windsor as was more usual.
During the First World War eleven men were tried in private and shot by firing squad at the Tower for espionage. During the Second World War the Tower was once again used to hold prisoners of war. One such person was Rudolf Hess Adolf Hitler's deputy albeit just for four days in 1941. He was the last state prisoner to be held at the castle. The last person to be executed at the Tower was German spy Josef Jakobs who was shot on the 15th of August 1941. The executions for espionage during the wars took place in a prefabricated miniature rifle range which stood in the outer ward and was demolished in 1969. The Second World War also saw the last use of the Tower as a fortification. In the event of a German invasion the Tower together with the Royal Mint and nearby warehouses was to have formed one of three "keeps" or complexes of defended buildings which formed the last-ditch defences of the capital. On the 23rd of September 1940 during the Blitz high-explosive bombs damaged the castle destroying several buildings and narrowly missing the White Tower. After the war the damage was repaired and the Tower of London was reopened to the public. A 1974 bombing in the White Tower Mortar Room left one person dead and 41 injured. No one claimed responsibility for the blast but the police investigated suspicions that the IRA was behind it. Political tensions between Charles I and Parliament in the second quarter of the 17th century led to an attempt by forces loyal to the King to secure the Tower and its valuable contents including money and munitions. London's Trained Bands a militia force were moved into the castle in 1640. Plans for defence were drawn up and gun platforms were built readying the Tower for war. The preparations were never put to the test. In 1642 Charles I attempted to arrest five members of parliament. When this failed he fled the city and Parliament retaliated by removing Sir John Byron the Lieutenant of the Tower. The Trained Bands had switched sides and now supported Parliament. Together with the London citizenry they blockaded the Tower. With permission from the King Byron relinquished control of the Tower. Parliament replaced Byron with a man of their own choosing Sir John Conyers. By the time the English Civil War broke out in November 1642 the Tower of London was already in Parliament's control.
There is evidence that King John who reigned from 1166 to 1216 first started keeping wild animals at the Tower. Records of 1210, 1212 show payments to lion keepers. The Royal Menagerie is frequently referenced during the reign of Henry III. Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II presented Henry with three leopards which were kept in the Tower. In 1252 the sheriffs were ordered to pay fourpence a day towards the upkeep of the King's polar bear a gift from Haakon IV of Norway in the same year. The bear attracted a great deal of attention from Londoners when it went fishing in the Thames while tied to the land by a chain. In 1254 or 1255 Henry III received an African elephant from Louis IX of France depicted by Matthew Paris in his chronicle. A wooden structure was built to house the elephant measuring 30 feet long and 20 feet high. The animal died shortly after its arrival. The tradition of housing the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London probably dates from the reign of Henry III who reigned from 1216 to 1272. The Jewel House was built specifically to house the royal regalia including jewels plate and symbols of royalty such as the crown sceptre and sword. When money needed to be raised the treasure could be pawned by the monarch. The treasure allowed the monarch independence from the aristocracy and consequently was closely guarded. A new position for "keeper of the jewels armouries and other things" was created which was well rewarded. In the reign of Edward III who reigned from 1327 to 1377 the holder was paid 12d a day. The position grew to include other duties including purchasing royal jewels gold and silver and appointing royal goldsmiths and jewellers. In 1649 during the English Commonwealth following Charles I's execution the contents of the Jewel House were disposed of along with other royal properties as decreed by Cromwell. Metal items were sent to the Mint to be melted down and re-used and the crowns were "totallie broken and defaced".
The Tower of London has become established as one of the most popular tourist attractions in the country. It has been a tourist attraction since at least the Elizabethan period when it was one of the sights of London that foreign visitors wrote about. Its most popular attractions were the Royal Menagerie and displays of armour. The Crown Jewels also garner much interest and have been on public display since 1669. The Tower steadily gained popularity with tourists through the 19th century despite the opposition of the Duke of Wellington to visitors. Numbers became so high that by 1851 a purpose-built ticket office was erected. By the end of the century over 500,000 were visiting the castle every year. Over the 18th and 19th centuries the palatial buildings were slowly adapted for other uses and demolished. Only the Wakefield and St Thomas's Towers survived. The 18th century marked an increasing interest in England's medieval past. One of the effects was the emergence of Gothic Revival architecture. In the Tower's architecture this was manifest when the New Horse Armoury was built in 1825 against the south face of the White Tower. It featured elements of Gothic Revival architecture such as battlements. Other buildings were remodelled to match the style and the Waterloo Barracks were described as "castellated Gothic of the 15th century". Between 1845 and 1885 institutions such as the Mint which had inhabited the castle for centuries moved to other sites. Many of the post-medieval structures left vacant were demolished. In 1855 the War Office took over responsibility for manufacture and storage of weapons from the Ordnance Office which was gradually phased out of the castle. At the same time there was greater interest in the history of the Tower of London. Public interest was partly fuelled by contemporary writers of whom the work of William Harrison Ainsworth was particularly influential. In The Tower of London: A Historical Romance he created a vivid image of underground torture chambers and devices for extracting confessions that stuck in the public imagination.
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Common questions
When was the Tower of London built?
The foundation of the Tower of London dates to 1066 when William the Conqueror ordered its construction following his victory at the Battle of Hastings. Work on the White Tower which gives the castle its name began in 1078 and was likely completed by 1100.
Who designed the White Tower of the Tower of London?
William made Gundulf Bishop of Rochester responsible for the construction of the White Tower between 1078 and 1087. The White Tower is recognized as the earliest stone keep in England and served as the strongest point of the early castle.
What happened during the siege of the Tower of London in October 1191?
The Tower of London was besieged for the first time in its history in October 1191 when forces loyal to Prince John attacked the fortress held by William Longchamp. Longchamp capitulated after just three days deciding he had more to gain from surrender than prolonging the siege.
How many people were executed at the Tower of London during World War II?
Eleven men were tried in private and shot by firing squad at the Tower of London for espionage during the First World War. During the Second World War the last person to be executed at the Tower was German spy Josef Jakobs who was shot on the 15th of August 1941.
When did the Royal Menagerie start keeping animals at the Tower of London?
King John who reigned from 1166 to 1216 first started keeping wild animals at the Tower of London with records showing payments to lion keepers in 1210 and 1212. The tradition continued through Henry III's reign which lasted from 1216 to 1272 including a polar bear gift from Haakon IV of Norway in 1252.