The Attentive Traveler – London, England – The Tower of London

The Tower has served as a castle in wartime, a king’s residence in peacetime, and, most notoriously, as the prison and execution site of rebels.

Tower Bridge

Even an army the size of the ticket line couldn’t storm this castle. The entrance gate where you show your entry ticket was just part of two concentric rings of complete defenses.

Once inside, going straight ahead takes us to the traitors’ gate. This was the boat entrance to the Tower from the Thames. Princess Elizabeth, who was a prisoner here before she became Queen Elizabeth I, was carried down the Thames and through this gate on a barge, thinking about her mom, Anne Boleyn, who had been decapitated inside just a few years earlier. Many English leaders who fell from grace entered through here – Elizabeth was one of the lucky few to walk out.

We joined a beefeater tour here (we missed the first stop). If you have a chance to do so – DO IT! The guides are fantastic and you will pick up many many items that will enhance your visit. We followed our guide left to pass underneath the archway into the inner courtyard.

The big, white tower in the middle is the White Tower, the original structure that gave this castle complex its name. William the Conqueror built it more than 950 years ago to put 15 feet of stone between himself and those he conquered.

Over the centuries, the other walls and towers were built around it. Standing high above the rest of old London, the White Tower provided a gleaming reminder of the monarchy’s absolute power over its subjects. If you made the wrong move here, you could be feasting on roast boar in the Banqueting Hall one night and chained to the walls of the prison the next. Torture ranged from stretching on the rack to the full monty: hanging by the neck until nearly dead, then “drawing” (cut open to be gutted), and finally quartering, with your giblets displayed on the walls as a warning.

Inside the White Tower is a museum with exhibits re-creating medieval life and the Tower’s bloody history of torture and executions. The first suits of armor you see belonged to Henry VIII – on a horse, slender in his youth (c. 1515), then more heavyset by 1540 (with his bigger is better codpiece.

Upstairs, St. John’s Chapel (1080) is the oldest surviving part of the original Tower – and the oldest church in London.

On the top floor are the Tower’s actual execution ax and chopping block.

A few other images from inside the museum:

Across from the White Tower is the entrance to the crown jewels. We passed through a series of rooms with videos and exhibits showing the actual coronation items in the order that they’re used whenever a new king or queen is crowned (like right now. 🙂 ) The Sovereign’s Scepter is encrusted with the world’s largest cut diamond – the 530-carat Star of Africa, beefy as a quarter-pounder.

The orb symbolizes how Christianity rules over the earth, a reminder that even a “divine monarch” is not above God’s law. The Crown of the Queen Mother (Elizabeth II’s famous mum, who died in 2002) has the 106-carat Koh-I-Noor diamond glittering on the front (considered unlucky for male rulers, it adorns the crown of the king’s wife).

The Imperial State Crown is what the Queen wore for official functions such as the State Opening of Parliament. Among its 3,733 jewels are Queen Elizabeth I’s former earrings, a stunning 13th-century ruby look-alike in the center, and Edward the Confessor’s ring. No pictures allowed inside… so you’ll have to go see it yourself. In the meantime, here is a video of an inspection of the guard protecting the jewels.

Exiting the jewels, we walk in front of the building (between the White Tower and the Jewel Castle, ahead to a grassy field called Tower Green. In medieval times, this was the “town square” for those who lived in the castle. Knights exercised and jousted here, and it was the last place of refuge in troubled times.

Near the middle of Tower Green is a granite-paved square, the Scaffold Site. It was here that enemies of the Crown would kneel before the king for the final time.

Down toward the river, at the bottom corner of the green, is the Bloody Tower, where Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned for 13 years and wrote the first volume of his History of the World.

Finally on our visit, we visited the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula – the former parish church of the Tower of London.

The Chapel is probably best known as the burial place of some of the most famous prisoners executed at the Tower, including Queen Anne Boleyn, Queen Catherine Howard and the “nine-day Queen”, Lady Jane Grey and her husband Lord Guiliford Dudley, and Sir Thomas More.

We’d certainly suggest that visitors to London take in this key site. Try to wait for the beefeater tour… you will not be disappointed. 🙂

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