by Jones, Nigel
Of the many biographies of Roger Casement, the best are Roger Casement (1974, 2002) by Brian Inglis and Casement: The Flawed Hero (1984) by Roger Sawyer.
The fullest and most convincing study of the Tower’s other notorious short-stay wartime resident is Rudolf Hess (1994) by Peter Padfield.
The strange story of Norman Baillie-Stewart ‘as told to’ John Murdoch is related in The Officer in the Tower (1967).
Finally, details of the brief residence of possibly the last of the Tower’s many infamous prisoners, the Kray twins, is told in The Profession of Violence by John Pearson (1972, 1984).
Motte-and-Bailey castles were constructed to hold down the Normans’ newly-conquered kingdom. This panel from the Bayeux tapestry shows a Norman overseer supervising Saxon slave labourers at Hastings – the scene of their 1066 triumph. The Tower was built by similar men and methods.
Decline and fall: Prince Gruffydd, elder son of Llywelyn Fawr (the Great) Prince of Wales, after three years held hostage in the White Tower, attempted to escape on St David’s day – March 1, 1244. His home-made rope of sheets broke, plunging the prince to his death.
Chronicler Matthew Paris drew England’s first ever elephant on its arrival at Henry III’s Tower Menagerie. Sadly, the great beast soon died.
Burning bright: ‘The Tyger’ by William Blake from Songs of Innocence and Experience. Blake crossed the Thames from his Lambeth home to draw the ‘fierce and savage ’ creature from life at the Tower Menagerie.
James I patronised the Menagerie for all the wrong reasons. Cruel and cowardly, he often visited the Tower to watch the animals there tear each other to pieces.
King of beasts: Samuel Maunder’s Extraordinary and Fatal Combat depicts what happened when a lion and two tigers were accidentally allowed into the same Tower enclosure on December 6, 1830. The animals fought for half an hour before being separated. The lion came off worse in the unequal contest, dying from its injuries.
Newly minted: striking coins at the Royal Mint.
A print by Thomas Rowlandson, probably marking the Mint's departure from the Tower in 1811.
King Mob: in June 1381 the Peasants’ Revolt saw rebellious rural labourers take control of London, forcing the young Richard II and his court to seek shelter in the Tower. As his Ministers were murdered, the young king bravely ventured out to negotiate with his subjects, but after their leader Wat Tyler was killed, the revolt collapsed.
A medieval French manuscript shows Richard II in the Tower kneeling in homage to his cousin Henry Bolingbroke who has just deposed him and forced his abdication. Richard died mysteriously the following year.
Wounded and taken prisoner at Agincourt in 1415, Charles, Duke of Orleans, was kept in the Tower where he took up poetry. He remained in captivity for a quarter of a century before he was ransomed and returned to France. This illustration to a volume of his verses shows him writing in the White Tower.
Fear and trembling: a romanticised 19th century depiction of the Princes in the Tower awaiting their killers by French artist, Paul Delaroche.
Anne Boleyn awaits her fate, 1536. ‘One hour she is determined to die, and the next much contrary to that’ reported the Tower’s Lieutenant, Sir William Kingston.
Botched job: Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, beheaded on May 27, 1541 at Henry VIII’s command on account of her Yorkist blood, is chased by her executioner brandishing an axe.
Delivering pain: the Rack and other instruments of torture used at the Tower.
The followers of Sir Thomas Wyatt attack the Byward Tower in a bid to seize the fortress in 1554. This Kentish rebellion aimed at preventing the unpopular marriage of Mary I to Philip II of Spain. Wyatt’s father and grandfather were both, like him, imprisoned in the Tower. Unlike him, they survived.
Mr W.H.? : Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton – friend, patron and possibly the dedicatee of Shakespeare’s sonnets – pictured in the Tower with his cat, Trixie. Imprisoned for his leading role in the Earl of Essex’s 1601 rebellion against Elizabeth I, Southampton, unlike Essex, was spared and released on the Queen’s death in 1603.
‘What shall I do? Where is it?’: the bewildered words of the blindfolded Lady Jane Grey as she gropes for her execution block, 1554, romantically, if inaccurately, depicted by Paul Delaroche. (The internal nocturnal scene in fact took place in the Tower’s courtyard in broad daylight.)
The caged bird sings: frontispiece of Sir Walter Ralegh’s History of the World (1614), written in the Bloody Tower during his long imprisonment. Further volumes were planned, but abandoned.
River of blood: the gateway beneath the Bloody Tower showing Traitor’s Gate and the river beyond. This 19th century engraving of the most notorious of the Tower’s score of towers shows the vaulting inserted under Edward III in 1360–61 by Henry Yevele.
Gunpowder guys: a contemporary Dutch print of the Gunpowder plotters in 1605 shows Guy Fawkes (third from right) and, on his right, the plot’s leader Robert Catesby.
The Wizard Earl: Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, as depicted by Anthony van Dyck. Nicknamed for his fondness for scientific experiments, the Earl converted the Martin Tower into a lab during his long incarceration for suspected involvement in the Gunpowder plot.
Yeomen of England: the Tower’s Yeoman Warders or ‘Beefeaters’ in their Tudor costumes on their way to search the cellars beneath Parliament. Now a picturesque ceremony, the ritual recalls the arrest here of Guy Fawkes while guarding the gunpowder intended to blow up King and Parliament.
Wicked lady: Frances Howard, Countess of Somerset, was the moving spirit behind the slow poisoning of Sir Robert Overbury in 1614, an infamous Tower crime which led to her own imprisonment in the fortress.
Restored: the Tower in 1660, the year of Charles II’s restoration. Engraving by Wenceslaus Hollar.
Bloody, bold and resolute: ‘Colonel’ Thomas Blood, the arch rogue who stole the Crown jewels from the Tower in May 1671: but was the heist an inside job?
Getaway: Blood and his gang make their escape with the loot.
Bloodproof? The Crown jewels as they appear today. Under armed guard and behind bullet proof glass, security is hopefully tighter than in Blood’s time.
Charles II in his coronation regalia, showing the Crown, orb and sceptre that Blood stole.
Heads you lose: after the bungled execution of the Duke of Monmouth following the bloody failure of his rebellion in 1685, his head was re-attached to his body so his handsome face could be immortalised in paint – possibly by court artist Sir Geoffrey Kneller. Monmouth’s peaceful features betray little hint of his agonising death.
Cross dresser: the bold and resourceful Lady Winifred Nithsdale escorts her disguised husband from his condemned cell in the Tower under the noses of his guards on the eve of his execution in February 1716. The Jacobite aristocrats spent the rest of their lives, poor but safe, in Rome.
Ugly old head: Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, as engraved by William Hogarth en route south from Scotland after his arrest for taking part in the ’45 – Bonnie Prince Charlie’s 1745–46 Jacobite rebellion. Despite being in his 80th year, Lovat tried in vain to save his own skin by sacrificing his son. His ‘ugly old head’ came off on Tower Hill in May 1747 – the last execution there.
Smash and grab: in stark contrast to Blood, Metropolitan Police Superintendent Pierse smashed the glass and grabbed the Crown jewels – for entirely laudable reasons. Pierse was saving the jewels from the devastating Tower fire of 1841, and when he emerged his clothes were smouldering. George Cruickshank visited the scene to record his feat the next day.
Brave man or spy? German Naval officer Carl Hans Lody, shot by firing squad in November 1914, was the first person executed inside the Tower since the Earl of Essex in 1601. Lody asked the officer in charge, ‘I suppose you will not shake the hand of a German spy?’ The man gallantly replied: ‘No, but I will shake the hand of a brave man’. Lody’s compatriot, and fellow spy Josef Jacobs, was the last person (to date) executed in
the Tower when he was shot there in the Second World War.
Hero or traitor? Ireland’s Sir Roger Casement on trial for his life in May 1916. Arrested after landing from a U-boat, Casement twice tried to commit suicide while detained in the Tower. He survived to be hanged in August 1916.
Bad boys: twins Reggie and Ronnie Kray began their notorious criminal careers by absconding from the Tower where they were detained in the garrison’s guard room in the Wellington Barracks for repeatedly deserting from National Service in the Army. The Army finally tired of their antics, and discharged them.
INDEX
The page references in this index correspond to the printed edition from which this ebook was created. To find a specific word or phrase from the index, please use the search feature of your ebook reader.
Acton, Lord 277
Adam of Usk 78, 87
Addison, Joseph 28
Ainsworth, William Harrison 420
Alford, Richard 119, 120
Alleyn, Edward 24, 276
America 31, 386, 391, 403, 404, 418
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 10
Anne of Denmark, Queen 270, 275, 278, 288, 299, 360, 409
Anne of Bohemia, Queen 23, 76, 78
Anne Stuart, Queen 352, 413, 415
antelopes 32
apes 28, 30
Appleton, William 72
Aragon, Katherine of 161, 163, 166, 168, 175, 179, 181
architect of the Tower 7
Arden, John 328, 329, 330
Argentine, Dr John 149, 152
armoury 60, 83, 87, 104, 108, 112, 121, 156, 183, 379, 420, 421
Arthur, Prince 158, 161, 163
artists 30
Arundel, Earl of see FitzAlan; Howard, Philip
Arundel, Thomas (Archbishop of Canterbury) 83, 84, 317, 318, 320
Ashley, Kat 219, 253
Ashton, Revd. Abdy 259
Aske, Robert 189–9
Askew, Anne 202, 206, 207–8
Asquith, HH 424
Astronomer Royal 29
Atholl, Earl of 56
Atkinson, Katharine 40
Aubrey, John 253, 393, 401
Babington, Anthony 266–70, 322
baboons 32
Bacon, Anthony 254
Bacon, Sir Francis 184, 257, 284, 285, 325
Baillie-Stewart, Norman 425–6
Bailly, Charles 264
Baker, Sir John 207
Balfour, Sir William 387, 388, 389, 390, 391
Ball, John 64–7, 71, 74
Ballard, John 269
Balliol, Edward 54, 59
Balliol, John 54–5
Bank of England 39, 42, 419
Barkstead, Sir John 376, 377
Barwise, Robert 325
Bates, Thomas 279, 284, 285
Baynard’s Castle 16, 73, 232, 380
Beauchamp, Thomas (Earl of Warwick) 66, 77, 78, 101–4, 106, 107, 108, 109, 112, 113, 114, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120–21, 122, 123, 125
Beauchamp Tower 52, 78, 182, 234, 238, 243, 246, 264, 265, 318, 342, 348
Beaufort, Edmund (2nd Duke of Somerset) 100, 101, 102, 103
Beaufort, Edmund (4th Duke of Somerset) 111, 119, 126
Beaufort, Henry 92, 93
Beaufort, Henry (3rd Duke of Somerset) 103, 104, 106, 107, 110, 111, 112
Beaufort, Joan 86–7
Beaufort, John (1st Duke of Somerset) 93
Beaufort, Sir John (Earl of Devon) 126
Beaufort, Lady Margaret 93–4, 153, 171
bears 31, 431
Beckett, Thomas 13, 83, 429
Beckman, Captain Marcus 368, 369, 371
Bell Tower 14, 169, 171, 182, 245, 246, 251, 340, 377
Bereford, Simon 316
Berkeley, Lady Henrietta 350
Berkeley, Lord 310
Berkeley, Sir Richard 325, 326, 327
Billingsby, Captain 388
birds 31, 32 see also eagles; owls; ravens; vultures
births in the Tower 58, 164, 251, 295, 310
Bishop of London 11, 49
Black Prince’s ruby 361–2, 368
Blaine, Jenny 366
Blake, William 29
Blood, ‘Colonel’ Thomas 364–71, 375, 382, 430
Bloody Tower 19, 52, 58, 145, 172, 178, 234, 236, 264, 273, 276, 290, 291, 295, 296, 335, 368, 383, 384, 387, 392, 419, 430
Blount, Bessie 166
Blount, Sir Thomas 84
Blundeville Tower 19
Boleyn, Anne 155, 167, 168, 175–6, 177–86, 197, 429, 430
Boleyn, George (Lord Rochford) 176, 177, 179–82
Boleyn, Jane (Lady Rochford) 177, 199–202, 204
Boleyn, Thomas 167, 179
Bolingbroke, Henry (Earl of Derby, Duke of Hereford) 77, 79, 80, 81
Bolingbroke, Roger 92
bombs 422, 426
Bonner, Edmund 234, 327, 328, 330
Bonville, Lord 108
Bounde, William 23
Bourchier, Thomas 140, 144, 145, 147
bows and arrows 87, 104
Bowyer Tower 19, 133, 134, 420, 421
Brackenbury, Sir Robert 149, 150
Bradshaw, Ann 337
Brandon, Richard 343, 344, 391
Brass Mount 215
Breaks, the 202, 282
Brereton, William 176–7, 178, 182–3
Brembre, Sir Nicholas 77
Brewer, Dr Clifford 81
Brick Tower 19, 254, 299, 375
Bridges/Brydges, Sir John 243, 245, 251
Broad Arrow Tower 19
Brooke, Henry (Lord Cobham) 272, 273
Bullock, Joseph 30, 31
Bulwark Gateway 172
Burdet, Thomas 133
Burgundy, Margaret Duchess of 157–60
Bute, Lord 417
Byron, Sir John 391, 392
Byward Tower 33, 52, 229, 338, 351, 419
Cade, Jack 96–8
Caius, John 23–4
‘caltrops’ 108
camels 23
Campion, Edmund 266, 268
cannons 87, 105, 113, 121, 156, 166, 215
Canterbury, Archbishop of 7, 13, 15, 65, 83, 84, 124, 140, 169, 249, 383, 409
Capel, Lord Arthur 341–4
Capel, Arthur (Earl of Essex) 344, 348, 349
Carew, Sir Alexander 394, 395
Carew, Sir Peter 239
Carr, Robert (Viscount Rochester, Earl of Somerset) 272, 288–91, 293, 294, 296
Casement, Sir Roger 424–5
castles 5–6, 51
Catesby, Sir Robert 279–80, 282–3, 285–6
Catesby, William 140, 141
Cato Street conspiracy 419
Cecil, John 398, 399
Cecil, Robert (Lord Salisbury) 259, 261, 262, 272, 273, 278, 280, 281, 287, 288, 327
Cecil, William (Lord Burghley) 249, 253, 257, 258, 262, 263, 264, 270
Chaloner, William 40–45
chapels see St Peter ad Vincula; St John’s chapel
Chapuys, Eustace 175, 183, 189, 196
Charles I 36, 270, 340, 341, 360, 371, 385, 386, 388–92, 395
Charles II 29, 36, 37, 40, 151, 216, 340, 341, 344, 345, 347, 348, 362–3, 370, 377, 386, 389, 393, 395, 399, 400
Charles (Duke of Orléans) 88–90, 92, 94
Charles Edward (Bonnie Prince Charlie) 415
Chaucer, Geoffrey 69, 86, 95
Cheek, Tom 348, 350
Cheke, John 241, 242
Chesterfield, Lord 25, 372
Churchill, John (Duke of Marlborough) 404, 405, 410–14
city wall 6, 19
Clarence, George Duke of 117, 120–24, 126, 132–4, 135, 157, 191, 192
Clarges, Anne 401
Clarges, Thomas 401–2
Clerk of the Kings’ Works 69
Cleves, Anne of 188, 194, 195
Cleves, Mary of 90
Clifford, Lord Thomas 103
Clifford, Lord John (‘Black-faced Clifford’) 103, 107, 109
Cobham, Eleanor of 92
Cobham
Tower 318
Cockett, Griffin 340
coin-clipping 35–6, 38, 39, 40, 54
Coke, Edward 259, 273, 294, 325
Coldharbour Tower 264, 400
Conduitt, William 46
Constable Tower 19
Constables of the Tower 8, 11, 12, 13, 49, 50, 53, 59, 65, 86, 95, 101, 122, 127, 138, 149, 161, 173, 203, 259, 260, 307, 377, 389, 399, 420
Constance, Princess 11
Conyers, Sir John 392, 394
Cook, Sir Thomas 118–19
Cooke, Peter 43
Cops, Alfred 31, 32, 33, 34
Corbet, Miles 376
Cornelius, John 117, 118
Cornwallis, Lord 418
coronations 20, 53, 63, 82–3, 91, 93, 110, 116, 119, 138, 140, 146, 147, 157, 158, 166, 168, 217
cougars 26
counterfeiting 35, 40–22
Courteney, Edward (1st Earl of Devon) 192, 234, 239, 248
Courteney, Henry 120
Courteney, Henry, (Marquess of Exeter) 191–2
Coventry, Lord William 374–5
Cradle Tower 57, 58, 163, 328
Cranmer, Thomas 167–8, 171, 181, 183, 198–201, 205, 213, 215, 216, 235, 238, 239, 246, 248
Croft, Sir James 239
Crompton, Hugh 337, 340
Cromwell, Richard 169, 189
Cromwell, Thomas 167, 168, 169, 172, 176, 177, 179, 184, 185, 188, 189, 191, 193–7
Cromwell, Oliver 26, 37, 38, 54, 151, 216, 277, 343, 344, 347, 350, 361, 372, 386, 395, 397, 399, 402
