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- [00:57]
John Hopkins
It is a cold, grey London Morning in March 1952. The East End of the city is just coming to life, with traders setting up their market stalls. As the sun rises, construction workers arrive to continue the rebuilding that is still unfinished after the devastation of the Blitz. In the grim streets, a homeless man sits coffin beside a low wall, and a gang of children chase after an army truck as it pulls away from Liverpool Street Station. Inside this truck, two young men, twins, not yet out of their teens, sit in silence, flanked by two military policemen. The brothers are smartly dressed, but each is handcuffed to one of the officers opposite. A sergeant major watches their every move. Their names are Ronnie and Reggie Cray. They were arrested at their East London home early this morning for going AWOL from national service with the Royal Fusiliers and for assaulting a corporal. It's a minor charge in comparison to the later crimes that will earn them their notoriety as gangland bosses, but for now the Krays are to be returned to the Tower of London for temporary detainment under charge of their own regiment. Defiantly, the brothers stare back at the sergeant major as the truck slows. The driver stops and the truck rocks. As the soldiers in the cab get out, the back doors are flung open. The brothers are hauled to their feet and roughly pulled out onto the cobbles. Adjusting their eyes to the light, Ronnie and Reggie stare up at the ramparts of the ancient fortress. Looming over them. Along its walls, the tower's famous ravens huddle, unbothered by the comings and goings of the people below, watched by a small group who've stopped to gawp. The men are shoved forward at the Mouth of the old gate, the Yeoman warders stand in their distinctive tunics, holding their partisans, a type of polearm similar to a spear. Above them, the portcullis hangs, its spikes pointing ominously downwards. The sergeant Major marches the twins up to the guardsmen and transfers their custody. As the Yeoman warders lead the brothers inside to begin their imprisonment, the gates close behind them. Whatever fear they have on entering one of the most historic and notorious prisons in the world, the Kray twins don't show it. But as they head across the courtyard and towards the cells, they can't help thinking about the traitors, monarchs and spies to whom the Tower of London was a temporary home, and how some of them would never leave. From its initial completion around 1078, the Tower of London has been a symbol of the authority and power of the British crown for almost a thousand years. Established by William the Conqueror, the iconic building has been expanded, remodeled and repurposed throughout its history. Serving as a palace, a prison, an armory and more. It has housed treasures, overseen the creation of the nation's currency, and been the site of torture and execution. But why was the Tower built in the first place? And how did it evolve? What are the stories of its most famous inmates? People who went in but never came out. And what is the truth behind its terrifying reputation? I'm John Hopkins and this is a short history of the Tower of London. In 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, sets sail for England. Driven by a claim to the throne, he and his army land on the south coast and advance to Hastings, where they meet the forces of Harold, the current king. The battle that ends the Anglo Saxon period takes just nine hours on 14 October. By the end of the day, thousands are dead and the Frenchman becomes William the Conqueror, the first Norman king of England. Knowing he doesn't enjoy universal support, once he's made his way to the capital, he makes plans for a fortress there. The site he selects is near the banks of the River Thames, on top of old Roman fortifications, and will come to be known as the White Tower. Bridget Clifford is the curator emeritus at the Royal Armouries and retired keeper of the Tower armories.
- [05:49]
Bridget Clifford
William came from a background of understanding the politics of architecture and also when we talk about the Tower of London and its initial construction, I. So I assume a lot of other people tend to think of as the Tower as we see it now. But actually, of course, Williams Tower was just the White Tower. So there was a single building plonked on one side of the river, very carefully chosen. There was no bridge at that time, so there is no way of crossing the Thames. And this is a point where you can control what's happening in the Thames. The Pool of London. Next to it is the deepest water that can be navigated from the seas, so that's as far as you can get inland. And of course, you have had Vikings sailing up there and things beforehand, so it's been identified as an important point, basically by the Romans and then built on. So he's not coming to a completely black canvas.
- [06:50]
John Hopkins
On Christmas Day 1066, William I is crowned at Westminster Abbey. But despite their successful invasion, the Norman conquerors are nervous during the service. They've encountered considerable hostility in the few weeks they've been in England and they're well aware of how outnumbered they are in this city. As William is pronounced king, a great shout fills the abbey, startling the Norman soldiers posted outside who are unused to the English rites. Assuming some kind of attack, the guards respond by setting fire to the surrounding buildings. Chaos breaks out, followed by fighting and looting, and the congregation flees. Now regarded with even more suspicion than when they arrived, the new king and his supporters withdraw to Barking, a few miles east, until suitable fortifications can be built from a safe distance. William approves the plans and construction begins. The first iteration of the Tower of London is a timber construction ringed by a wooden palisade or fence. But a little while later, he opts for a stronger, more imposing structure. He approaches an architect by the name of Gundolf, who had previously helped create the Abbey of Saint Etienne in Caen. The transformation of the basic fortress into a palace that will serve as a royal residence and munitions base gets underway in around 1078. Stone is imported from Caen to keep the new construction in line with other castles and churches William has commissioned in both his new kingdom and his native Normandy. As building continues over the next two decades, William utilizes the tower as a base. Whilst in England,
- [08:47]
Bridget Clifford
He had imported stone and built this apparently three story building. Although, as is always the case with the tower, what you actually see and what you get may be two different things. So at this time, although when he builds it, there is a basement and two floors, from the outside, it looks as if you have three, which is quite clever. But I think the main impact is if you think of this stone building standing amongst what's basically wooden architecture, most people's experience of a building is wood based with wattle and door to fill in and keep the weather out. In England at that time, the stone buildings were mainly churches, so they were power buildings. You know, you recognise stone, this meant something. William has very carefully put it in this position. So it overlooks where the trade is going up, also defends the river going up to Westminster and that has been established by Edward the Confessor, basically as the centre of legislative power as far as one exists at that time. So he's protecting Westminster, protecting trade and where ships can come into, which also means that he can extract taxes and dues from them. But it's not in the City of London, it's sitting on the edge of the City of London. So in that way it is menacing, it's a calling card, it's reminding people. We now look back on it and go, oh, it's a symbol of oppression. I suspect if you were a Saxon peasant, life was pretty much the same, whether it was a Norman boot on your neck or it was a Saxon sandal perhaps hitting you in the backside. And as long as William stays on his side of what they see as an acceptable boundary, I don't say they're happy with it, but they will live with it.
- [10:36]
John Hopkins
By 1100, three years after William's death, construction of what will eventually be known as the White Tower is completed. It is a blocky rectangular structure, its battlements topped with their regular teeth like detail known as crenellation, and rising 90ft high. At each corner, a tower stands a little proud of the walls, rectangular based, except the northeastern turret which is rounded in keeping with most Norman fortresses. Though the stone edifice has only just begun its life as a palace, it won't be long before it receives its first prisoner. When William II dies in a hunting accident, his younger brother becomes Henry I. After just 16 days on the throne, Henry arrests his late brother's ally, Ranulph Flambard, Bishop of Durham. But though Flambard is the first to be incarcerated in the Tower, six months later he becomes the first to escape. According to some, he arranges a large delivery of wine and treats his jailers to a banquet. But once they're too drunk to stop him, he retrieves a rope that has been smuggled in one of the barrels and uses it to climb out of a window and abseil to freedom. Towards the end of the 12th century, Richard I, later known as the Lionheart, appoints William Longsham as chancellor when he goes away on a crusade. With the King of France in charge of governing the country in the King's absence, Longsham wastes no time getting started with his vision for enlarging the Tower. He develops the outer bailey westwards towards the city and at a distance of around 100 foot from the main building, he encircles it with a curtain wall connected by new towers. He also wants a moat and orders a 19 foot ditch to be dug outside the new wall. But the water from the Thames isn't retained by the sluices, so at low tide it just drains away. Regardless, Longsholme's renovations cement the Tower as one of England's principal castles.
- [12:51]
Bridget Clifford
So obviously it's deemed important enough by the monarchy that they don't just sit there and go, well, that's some ancient ruin, we'll leave it. They modernise it right up to Edward I.
- [13:04]
John Hopkins
As it turns out, Longchamp's improvements to the defences are soon put through their paces. While Richard is abroad, his brother John marches on London and besieges Longchamp and his supporters who are holed up inside the Tower. Longchamps surrenders and flees the country, and when Richard dies, John takes the throne. It's under John's stewardship that the Tower becomes home to some far more unusual creatures than kings and Queens. In 1204, he receives three ships from Normandy carrying wild animals. With these beasts, which include lions, he establishes a menagerie within the grounds of the Tower. The collection continues to grow throughout the centuries to house up to around 60 different species, including a polar bear and an African elephant. The 13th century sees unprecedented investment in the Tower when Henry III spends £10,000 on improvements. His upgrades include new towers, separate kings and queens chambers and a rebuild of the Great Hall. There's a new kitchen and even a sorcery, a room where saucers were prepared. He succeeds in filling the moat, plants trees and installs stained glass and statues around the compound. And his decision to brighten the old Norman keep with whitewash earns the palace its new name of the White Tower.
- [14:38]
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John Hopkins
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Bridget Clifford
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John Hopkins
Subscribe now@bloomberg.com later in the 13th century, Edward I commissions a secondary outer wall to encircle the first. New entrances are built, including a water gate directly from the Thames that will eventually be known as Traitor's Gate. It's also under Edward that the Royal Mint, which manufactures the country's coin, is relocated to the Tower.
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Bridget Clifford
The mint's important. There are other mints, but they tend in the end to congregate in the Tower and the Tower becomes, up to the 19th century, the main mint for the country. If currency is going to be worth having, you've got to guarantee its value. So a stronghold and an institution that ensures when you have a silver coin, it is a silver coin.
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John Hopkins
The mint becomes one of the Tower's primary institutions and will remain within its walls for hundreds of years. But by the start of the 14th century, the additions and renovations have largely established the Tower into what we see today, with only minor extensions added after this point. In this period, the monarchs are peripatetic, spending their time governing from various castles throughout the kingdom.
- [18:03]
Bridget Clifford
One of the things that grew up early on is that if you are a peripatetic monarch, you have to have somewhere to store the stuff. You need all of this backdrop. You have to be seen to be a monarch wherever you go, it's got to be set dressed, but you've got to keep that set dressing somewhere, so it is not the only place. But again, one of the functions of the Tower is to provide the Great Wardrobe.
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John Hopkins
The store, known as the Wardrobe, contains not just clothing and furs, but also other valuable items like treasure and spices. Though contained mostly at its base in the Tower, the Wardrobe is by necessity portable. It has an administrative system and staff of its own to maintain the regal image of the monarchs as they travel. In the 400 years since it was first established by William the Conqueror, the Tower has developed from a fortress into a palace, a mint, a menagerie, a trade center. It's not until the early 1400s, however, that the Tower gets its first dedicated Master of Ordnance to oversee military stores and materials and a keeper of the King's armor.
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Bridget Clifford
Ordnance comes out of the Great Wardrobe. It is a specialist function that then sits in the Tower quite happily. The Tower, with its links through the river, can cope with heavy ordnance and stuff like that going out. It has a certain manufacturing, so there is some industrial work around it as well. And until British interests abroad really start to expand in the 19th century, it works. So the Tower is very good at seeing what it's got and using it. As the accommodation function moves out, then you get this institutionalised people growing up there and those other functions taking precedence.
- [19:47]
John Hopkins
Slowly but surely, the Tower of London's primary function becomes that of a prison. But while commoners are incarcerated here, so are members of the nobility, and that includes those right at the top. Though not the first king to imprison his own nobleman in the Tower, Henry VI finds the tables turned on him during the wars of the Roses. Over several years, the mentally unwell King is deposed. Held in the Tower, restored to the throne and deposed once again, he goes on the run before he's finally recaptured. It is in the Tower of London that he finally dies in 1471, possibly on the orders of his rival and successor, Edward iv. After Edward's own death, more than a decade later, the Tower sees one of the darkest moments in its history. Though the late King's 12 year old son, Edward, automatically becomes Edward V, he is placed under the protectorate of his uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, until he is of age. Despite his mother's suspicions about Richard's intentions, the preteen King and his younger brother are brought to the Tower to await Edward's coronation. It is a bright summer's morning on 17 June 1483. The faint cries of servants echo through the old corridors gently rousing the noble occupants of the ancient building from their slumber. In a modest room inside the tower, a monk named Dominic Mancini, visiting from Italy, awakes to a knock at the heavy wooden door. A chambermaid enters, informing him that morning mass will begin shortly. Mancini performs his morning prayers, then pulls on his linen shirt and doublet and heads outside. Making his way through the courtyard, Mancini passes servants and courtiers going about their business. There's been a lot of excitement recently around the approaching coronation of the new king. Nearing the blocky Chapel of St Peter at Vincula within the tower's grounds, he notices the small archery board, complete with two arrows still piercing it, propped up beneath the garden tower. He stops and looks up towards a high window, where he often sees the faces of the two boys, the boy king and his little brother. Most days they will be looking out across the garden at this time of day, but today the window is empty. He asks a passing maid if she has seen the boys, but she anxiously shakes her head and hurries away. Just then, a horse gallops into the courtyard. Its rider, a soldier, dismounts and retrieves a scroll from a saddlebag. A number of the tower guardsmen gather around, as do members of the household staff. Mancini joins them. As the soldier starts to unfurl the parchment. He takes a deep breath and begins to read aloud the royal proclamation to the small crowd. On the orders of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, all preparations for the coronation of Edward V are to cease immediately. On the grounds that the late king's marriage has been found legally void. Parliament has proclaimed the boys illegitimate. The crown will accordingly pass to the boy's uncle, Richard himself. The assembled courtiers chatter amongst themselves, shocked. Mancini himself is aghast as he hurries back to his chambers to write a report to his archbishop back in Italy on what he has heard. He doesn't know it yet, but he is among the last to see the two young royals alive. After this day, they disappear forever. Though no accusations are made at the time, many believe that the story of the princes in the Tower ends with their death on the orders of their ambitious uncle.
- [24:17]
Bridget Clifford
The Tower is extremely good at making you think about what history is and what our received information is and where truth lies, which in the modern period, that's possibly one of its greatest gifts is it makes you think, but from the evidence that we have, maybe it was Richard who had them killed. But whichever faction was in power, they would be an embarrassment because you have a hostage to fortune if you have Somebody with a good claim. You have the pretenders who come up after the princes have disappeared. Who actually did the deed is probably some poor underling. Lot of speculation about what might have happened. But an awful lot of that speculation seems to be cemented by the Tudors. First of all by Thomas More and his comments, and then by Shakespeare, who is again bolstering up the Tudor claims.
- [25:13]
John Hopkins
The boy's fate has never been proven, but in the mid-1600s, the skeletons of two children are found during renovations. Believing them to be the royal's remains, Charles II has them placed in an urn and interred. Examination of the bones using modern methods has never been permitted. But in 2022, the new monarch, King Charles III, voiced his support for a new investigation. Maybe the 500-year-old mystery will soon be solved. After Richard III's reign ends, the first king of the Tudor line, Henry VII, contributes a small force of 200 men to serve as bodyguards at the Tower. Over time, these guards become the yeoman warders, also called beefeaters, that we see still guarding the Tower today. Keeping with tradition, Henry continues to use the Tower as a residence and stages tournaments and other entertainments. Here, he adds a long gallery to house a library and two more towers. But when his son, Henry VIII takes the throne, he generally prefers the relative comfort of the other royal residences.
- [26:26]
Bridget Clifford
Henry had grown up at Greenwich Palace. There are nicer, more modern, better equipped places to be. There is a move as well as the Tower at some of the institutions that had grown up there. Because the Tower is a place of protection and a stronghold. It both keeps people out that you don't want out, but also keeps things inside it safe. So it provides a nursery for a number of institutions to grow up that, as society changes and modernizes, become ever more important to actually running that society.
- [27:00]
John Hopkins
Although the Tower loses its prominence as a seat for the royal household, Henry considers it an important staging area. He orders the construction of a new jewel house and remodels the brick Tower into a residence for the Master of Ordnance. During Henry's reign, ordnance itself becomes critical, prompting him to replace and expand the Tower's armaments. Soon, the Tower's military stores boast 400 bronze cannon mounted on carriages and enough bows, arrows and pikes to equip around 40,000 soldiers. But around Easter in 1517, the tower's lieutenant, Sir Richard Cholmondeley, finds cause to turn some of the weapons against the city's own residents. London currently has a population of around 50,000, including maybe 3,000 immigrants, mostly from France. And the Low Countries, like the Netherlands, though most live peacefully, a number of native residents begin to resent their immigrant neighbors and covet their wealth. At Easter, a preacher by the name of Bell delivers a sermon of such nationalist fervor that it inspires a violent uprising. On May Day, around 1,000 rioters take to the streets and attack foreign owned businesses and the homes of immigrants. In an attempt to dispel the violence, Cholmondeley orders the Tower's cannons to open fire on the city.
- [28:38]
Bridget Clifford
Sir Richard Cholmondeley, no great friend of the city, in a frantic fury, loose certain pieces of ordnance and shot into the city which did little harm. And generally, when anybody did shoot into the city, there is an occasion during a siege in the wars of the Roses as well, where one chronicler says Greek fire was unleashed onto the City of London. It usually didn't make a lot of difference, just annoyed the hell out of people. So the City of London has ways of expressing its feelings.
- [29:08]
John Hopkins
Later, Henry commissions repairs and upgrades to be completed in time for the coronation of anne Boleyn in 1533. In his obsession with his new bride, he has the royal apartments decorated with his initials entwined with hers, hoping to impress her with his taste. He also adds the French style onion shaped domes or cupolas to the Tower's four turrets. But just a year later, the bloom of their courtship is a distant memory. Now the Tower again hosts the Queen. But this time, the circumstances are much less romantic. It is Friday 19th May 1536, on the northern bank of the River Thames, in the district now known as Tower Hamlets. A crowd is converging comprising both commoners and smartly dressed nobles. The group moves to the main gate on the northern side of the White Tower. Aldermen, sheriffs and representatives of the state file inside the courtyard and come to a noisy standstill for a large, freshly erected scaffold. Today it will witness an execution that will go down in history. Nearby, in one of the Tower's apartments, waits Anne Boleyn, convicted of treason, incest and adultery. The Queen of England sits surrounded by her ladies in waiting, listening to the sound of the swelling ranks of spectators outside. She clutches a book of prayers as a chaplain recites a a blessing for her soul. Soon, guards approach. It is time. Anne casts a final glance at the poem on the desk, written for her three year old daughter Elizabeth, to remember her by. As the wooden door swings open, she steels herself and arranges her features into a mask of quiet acceptance. She raises her head and steps out of the room between the guards, her ladies in waiting fluttering behind her. Horrified at what they know is about to take place, They pass through the hallways and out into the courtyard. As the crowds finally catch sight of her, they break into shouts and jeers. Some, though watch wordlessly, unable to believe that a queen of England is approaching the executioner's block. Falteringly, despite her resolve, Anne reaches the scaffold, which is draped in black cloth and covered in straw. The audience falls silent. As she turns to address them, she takes a breath. Good Christian people, she says, I come hither to die as the law hath judged me. And as for mine offenses, God knoweth them, and I remit them to God, beseeching him to have mercy on my soul. Her final words spoken, Anne hands her prayer book to an attendant and kneels where she is directed, Whispering a final prayer. She bares her neck as the French executioner, brought in by her husband especially for this duty, raises his sword. For a moment, the only sound is the chatter of the ravens along the Tower's walls. Then the blade slices down. The swordsman straightens, and after a moment of stunned silence, the crowd erupts in a cheer. At the signal from the constable of the Tower, the cannon mounted on the walls fire, signaling to the people of the city that the Queen is dead.
- [33:23]
Bridget Clifford
Anne's story is quite an interesting one because she comes in triumph, three years before her execution to the Tower. There's great panoply. Henry actually does some work around the Tower, brightens up some outside bits. The Great hall, which sits outside on what is now the South Lawn, is made to look better. And then, of course, this idea of us liking to see the rise and fall of people, Anne comes, she's made Queen their celebration. She loses male children, she produces a daughter. And then, of course, she comes back and she is imprisoned in the same place. And her trial takes place in the Great hall at the Tower. So the scene of her triumph is also the scene of her downfall.
- [34:05]
John Hopkins
Eleven days later, the guns are put to their ceremonial use again. This time they are fired in celebration of the new queen, Jane Seymour, as her flotilla passes the Tower en route to Westminster. And 18 months later, the cannon sound once more to mark the birth of her son, Prince Edward. Though the death of Anne Boleyn cements the Tower's grisly reputation, very few executions actually take place here.
- [34:35]
Bridget Clifford
There are a limited number of executions actually in the Tower of London. Now, that's not to say that other people didn't die there mysteriously, but by and Large, if you're talking about it. Executions on site. There are 22 executions within the tower. Starts in 1078 and it ends in 1941. Seven people were executed between the 15th and the 16th century. So you start off with Lord Hastings in 1483. You then have five women executed on site because the execution of women is difficult. They're all beheaded because they're aristocrats and beheading is how an aristocrat is killed. And the last person executed in that sort of tranche of executions is the Earl of Essex in 1601. And he was executed there because there was a fear that there would be insurrection. He had tried to lead one and they weren't quite sure how well, they'd extinguished it. People who would be hanged, drawn and quartered would probably be taken off elsewhere. So if they were in the Tower awaiting, what would happen then? They would be handed over to the Sheriffs of London on the border outside the Tower, who would then go on and conduct whatever happened.
- [35:56]
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- [36:24]
John Hopkins
The Tower had operated continuously as a prison since 1100. But it's Henry VIII who maximizes its efficiency. By 1542, his forces take 23 Scottish lords and gentlemen prisoner after their defeat at the Battle of Solway Moss and convey them to the Tower. The Royal apartments are used to house the new arrivals. But the conditions for the wealthy prisoners are not nearly as grim as those of their poorer counterparts.
- [36:57]
Bridget Clifford
If you've got money, you can buy a better experience as a Tower prisoner. Quite simple. We have the archival records to the lieutenant who was responsible for the upkeep of the Tower and the prisoners. So there is medical things, extra guards, clean shirts, washing barber, things like that. However, everybody likes to look at it that they sat there with a rat, nibbling their toes, ill fed. That's not the case for many. Let's face it, Sir Walter Raleigh even managed to have his son baptised in the Tower. The idea of imprisonment and prison changes hugely over this period. So today our ideas of what a prison is are very different. In the early years of the Tower, it was a convenient place of incarceration sometimes for a long time, sometimes for not, and for all sorts of reasons.
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John Hopkins
Many of the Tower's most famous inmates served their time during the Tudor period, including Lady Jane Grey and the young Princess Elizabeth in the 1550s. A few decades later, when Elizabeth is queen, she imprisons her former favorite, Sir Walter Raleigh, for marrying without her permission. Whilst some prisoners can afford a more comfortable servitude, if a crime is serious enough, not even money can give protection from torture.
- [38:15]
Bridget Clifford
The best researched aspects of torture at the Tower, or torture in England, is probably between 1540 and 1640. So there's a vast quantity of time beforehand and there's time afterwards, but in order to torture somebody, you needed a Warrant. So between 1540 to 1640, surviving warrants, there are 81, 48 of those specified the tower. So in 100 years, roughly, you've got 48 warrants, which suggests that it happens. It's not a daily occurrence. Quite often what happened was that you were shown the instruments of torture. And I would say that in the past, the English have said, well, we're not like the Continentals. Drop of a hat and you're being broken on the wheel. In England, we tend to use torture to confirm information which we already have, rather than to extract information. Probably the main torture at the Tower would be manacles, which we don't actually have a tower pair of manacles where you're suspended by the wrists and then as you dangle, it's very uncomfortable, it does nasty things to you. There are things like the rack which stretches you and there are compressing things, basically what happens at a torture session. If it was something like the rack, the lieutenant would attend, there would be somebody to take notes. The yeoman warders actually did the administration side, and quite often they were told to do it in as charitable manner as such a thing may be, which is a sort of legalese way of saying, I didn't tell you to go that far.
- [39:54]
John Hopkins
Perhaps the most infamous uses of torture take place during the aftermath of the gunpowder plot in 1605. Headed by Thomas Catesby, a group of Catholics attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament after years of persecution. But when the authorities are alerted, the men involved are rounded up and taken to the Tower. Though some, like the priest Father Garnet, are afforded fine chambers with bedding, coal for the fire and even claret at mealtimes, others are not so lucky. Guy Fawkes, the man caught red handed in an undercroft stacked with gunpowder, is the first to be tortured, probably in the dungeons of the White Tower. King James himself authorizes the treatment. The gentler tortures are to be first used unto him, he says, and so by degrees, proceeding to the worst, referring to the dreaded rack designed to stretch its victims into compliance. Though Fawkes is initially resolute, after two days he reveals the names of his co conspirators. By the time his confession is signed, he can barely hold the pen. But there are, of course, the more appealing aspects of the Tower too. Following the English Civil War and the restoration of the monarchy, Charles II makes the Tower the home of the British crown jewels. In 1661, the jewels are kept under heavy guard, though for a fee, the King allows visitors to view them from an observation room. It's a popular move, but 10 years after placing them on display, the heavy security faces its toughest challenge yet. It is a Warm spring morning, the 7th of May 1671. The Ravens chatter on the walls as a group of four men enter through the portcullis beneath Bywood Tower. Three of the men are dressed in their best finery. One of them is clapped on the back as his friends tell the yeoman warders that today he will meet his bride to be. The fourth man, Thomas Blood, follows a little way off, casting his eye around more warily. The priest's robes he wears rustle at his feet as he passes across the cobbles and into the Tower. Once inside, the group is met by an older man, Talbot Edwards, Keeper of the Tower's jewels. Blood and Edwards greet each other warmly, and Blood beckons forward, the youngest of the group, he introduces him as his rich nephew, the man Edwards has agreed to marry his daughter to. Edwards appraises his future son in law for the first time and shakes his hand to welcome him. Together they go to his living quarters beside the Martin Tower, where his wife has prepared them all breakfast. Edward's daughter enters. As the couple nervously get to know each other, Blood takes the opportunity to ask his host for a small favor. Might he be permitted to take a closer look at the Crown Jewels before the Tower's first visitors arrive? Edward pauses for a moment before nodding his agreement and getting to his feet. He leads them up a stone staircase lit with flaming torches. But as he unlocks the door to the jewels and turns to the men to usher them in, Blood's demeanor changes. He pulls a mallet from inside his robes and swings it hard onto Edward's head. The Keeper of the Jewels staggers back, but before he can comprehend what's happening, Blood has unsheathed a sword. He stabs the older man who drops to the floor. The thieves push past the fallen keeper and grab the glittering treasure from where it is displayed. Blood makes a beeline for the crown. His previous visits to the viewing room told him it would be too big to conceal easily. And now he puts the mallet to its other purpose. Laying the primary priceless headpiece on the ground. He pounds it flat until it fits into the bag he has brought with him, scattering some of its jewels in the process. One of the others grabs the golden orb and stuffs it down his britches. When the royal scepter is also found to be too big to transport, one of the men produces a file and starts sawing at its middle. Suddenly, Blood stops calling for the silence. He listens at the door. Over the pained groaning from Edwards, he can hear footsteps and the calls of a young man for his father. Hearing his son, Edwards musters what strength he has remaining to call out. Murder. He shouts. Treason. Blood draws his musket and charges through the door, swiftly followed by his accomplices. They knock the young man to the ground as they rush past him. They need only get across the courtyard and beyond to the walls to their horses, and they still might have a chance. But they have barely made it into the open air before the alarm reaches the yeoman guards who charge forward to block their escape. There's a clatter as the scepter is dropped, but there's no time to go back for it now it's every man for himself. One hand pinning the precious bag to his body and the other on his gun, Blood sprints towards the iron gate of the tower. He manages to fire a single shot towards the guards before he's tackled to the floor. Despite being caught red handed after his arrest, the smooth talking career criminal Thomas Blood manages to secure an audience with the king. Impressed with the would be thief's recounting of the crime, Charles II issues him with a pardon and restores his estates in Ireland that had been seized during the Restoration. Edwards, the unfortunate stooge in the plot, receives the equivalent of about 20,000 pounds in compensation. Even so, he soon succumbs to his injuries. Though security is improved over time, the jewels themselves remain on display, one of the constants in a compound of buildings that is slowly losing its roles. In 1810, the Royal Mint ends its 500 years of residency in the tower, relocating a short distance away. Not long afterwards, concerns are raised about the royal menagerie by the recently formed animal charity, the RSPCA. In 1835, the attraction closes for good, with many of its exhibits moving instead to London Zoo in Regent's Park. Next to move on is the Records Office, followed by the Board of Ordnance. But still, the visitors come as the turn of the century rolls around. Annual visiting figures reach approximately half a million people. With the outbreak of War in 1914, visiting pauses as the Tower briefly resurrects its role as a munitions base and prison. But as the Second World War looms, the Tower is prepared as a stronghold should Nazi forces invade. A garrison is maintained within its walls. But the moat also contributes to the war effort when it is transformed into a vegetable allotment. Once more, prisoners are held here, including Nazi leader Rudolf Hess. Though the Tower has hosted only 22 recorded executions in its time, 12 of these take place during the war years. The last person to be put to death is German spy Josef Jakobs, who faces the firing squad in August 1941. After the war, the Tower becomes a barracks for the Royal Fusiliers Regiment, who oversee the last of its prisoners, including the infamous Kray Twins, before emptying its cells for good. By the new millennium, the Tower records annual visitor numbers of approximately 2 million people. To mark the centenary of the First World War, the moat is filled with ceramic poppies, 888,000, 246 of them, each representing the life of a British or colonial soldier lost to the conflict a hundred years after the end of the Great War. In 2018, thousands of flames are lit in the moat. And in September 2022, the tower plays a key ceremonial role in commemoration of the late Queen Elizabeth II proudly firing its guns in tribute. Today, the Tower remains one of the world's greatest historical monuments. Through its history, it is possible to trace much of the history of Britain itself. Though no longer a working palace, a prisoner, a mint, a zoo or a fortress, the Tower of London still serves as an icon of the nation's monarchy and government. For better or for worse, in the
- [49:57]
Bridget Clifford
tapestry of history, it's all of the threads that count. And yes, you get the big, flashy, important bits that everybody knows about the people who stand in the spotlight, but actually it's the person who goes in every day to do the work there. And it's insights into their experience and their life that are fascinating. There are things we will never know about the Tower, we can't know about them because records like that tend not to survive. So it's the little peeps we get to put together this, what is an absolutely fascinating jigsaw puzzle and which we will never solve. And I do hope that if people come and have a look at it, well, they will find it really awe inspiring. Because if you do stand back just for a moment and wipe who and where we are in the day and just stand there and think, it's not the weight of a thousand years, it's the illumination of 900 plus years that it can offer. It's absolutely fabulous.
- [51:02]
John Hopkins
In the next episode of Short History of we'll bring you a short history of the Rosetta Stone.
- [51:11]
Rosetta Stone Narrator
It's a lump of stone. It's rather battered. The texts are beautifully inscribed, but rather small. There's nothing aesthetically appealing about it. The texts are not abstract things. They are artifacts created by a culture embedded in a culture, part of its life, part of its heritage. The Rosetta Stone has become a great icon of the idea we can understand one another across cultures, countries and vast periods of time.
- [51:41]
John Hopkins
That's next time on Short History of.
- [51:52]
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