Tower of London ~ Description

Work on the Tower of London commenced shortly after William the Conqueror's victory at the Battle of Hastings (1066). Geographically located in the southeast corner of the walled city of Londinium, the site was protected to the east and the south by existing Roman walls, while deep ditches to the north and west slashed across the foundations of several Roman buildings long since abandoned and in ruins.

The Clerk of Works and Architech, Gundulf (Bishop of Rochester), was an experienced builder in stone and so the central keep rose, to the consternation of the Saxon population of the city. Built of white stone from Caen in France, it would eventually be dubbed the White Tower during the reign of King Henry III who ordered the building whitewashed prior to the arrival of his child bride, Eleanor of Provence in 1236.

By 1270 the White Tower was enclosed within stout stone walls while a second enclosure to the south formed the Royal Ward. Thirteen towers, set at intervals, ringed the great central keep. Many of these towers would, in time, become infamous - Bell Tower, Wakefield Tower, Bloody (Garden) Tower, Lanthorn (Lantern) Tower, Salt Tower, Broad Arrow, Constable, Martin, Brick, Bowyer, Flint, Devereux and Beauchamp. In time these towers would serve to guard the Inner Ward when a second, outer wall was built and seven new towers added including the Byward Tower, St. Thomas's Tower, Cradle Tower, Well Tower, Develin Tower, Brass Mount and Legge's Mount.

Beyond these stout walls, a massive moat, 100 feet across. Today the moat is nothing but lovely green grass, but until Queen Victoria had it drained in 1843, it was a notorious cesspool filled with all manner of filth.

Unlike most of the towers in the fortress, the Bloody Tower is square-shaped. It was originally known as the Garden Tower because it overlooked the constable's garden. Its present name dates from at least the 16th century.

The plaque on Tower Green marks the site of the wooden scaffolds were seven known executions took place - Lord Hastings (1483), Anne Boleyn (1536), Catherine Howard (1542), Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (daughter of George, Duke of Clarence and niece of King Edward IV and Richard III), Lady Jane Grey and Lady Rochford (1554) and Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex.

CROWN JEWELS

In the cross at the front of the Imperial State Crown is the 170-caret 'Black Prince's Ruby' which is not actually a ruby but a pear-shaped cabochon spinel or balas, a semi-precious stone. It was once worn as a pendant and has small holes drilled in it, one of which is now plugged with a small ruby. According to legend, it was owned by the Moorish King of Granada. Don Pedro the Cruel, the grandee of Castile acquired the stone by murdering its owner then promptly gave (or sold) it to the Black Prince after his victory at the battle of Najara. Legend also suggests that Henry V incorporated it, along with several other balas-rubies, into his helmet at the Battle of Agincourt. The legend of the stone continues through to the Battle of Bosworth were it was said to have been worn by King Richard III in his coronet - not a crown. If, as Shakespeare has suggested, Henry Tudor populated the field with impostors, that was certainly not true of King Richard. Dressed to kill on the day, the coronet alone would have singled him out. History, of course, has recorded the truth of that!