Tower of London ~ Prisoners

GEORGE, DUKE OF CLARENCE (1449-1478)

Brother to two kings - Edward IV and Richard III - Clarence's treacherous nature was his undoing. Found guilty of treason in a court of law, he was confined within the Tower. Supposedly drowned in a butt of malmsey wine. It's very likely that King Edward was unwilling to see his own brother publicly executed, so 'private arrangements' were undoubtedly made. A plausible cause of death is suggested in On the Trail of King Richard III.

Lodged in the Wakefield Tower after his capture by King Edward IV, it was generally believed that he was murdered by Richard, Duke of Gloucester although no firm evidence has ever been offered. A plausible cause of death is suggested in On the Trail of King Richard III.

On the anniversary of Henry's death (May 21st), the two institutions he founded (Eton College and King College, Cambridge) place flowers in the oratory of the Wakefield Tower - lilies from Eton, white roses from Cambridge. Henry VII was the first English king to die in the Tower.

Lord Chancellor of England, More resigned his post in 1532 when he incurred Henry VIII's wrath by refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, declaring the king supreme head of the church. His conscience would not permit him to accept the rejection of the authority of the Pope as Christ's Vicar on earth. It was a moot point really and caused no end of suffering for his wife and daughter, Margaret Roper. In order to keep him in comfort in the Tower (he was housed in the Bell Tower) his wife was forced to sell some of her clothes and jewels.

Margaret adored her father and, when he was finally convicted of treason at Westminster Hall, she waited for him at Tower Wharf, pushed her way through the crowd gathered there and hugged him briefly. He blessed her, kissed her and then moved on. Although he was convicted of high treason, the usual punishment - hanging, drawing and quartering - were commuted to a simple beheading at Tower Hill. He maintained a good sense of humour to the very end. At the bottom of the steps leading up to the scaffold, he said to the Lieutenant 'I pray thee see me safely up but, as for my coming down again, let me shift for myself'. Before he was executed, he made a short speech declaring that he was prepared to die for the faith of the Catholic Church. He remained the king's faithful servant, but he was God's servant first.

Although she was permitted to do so, Margaret Roper did not attend the execution but instead waited at the Chapel and received her father's body several hours later. Unfortunately, his head was put on display at London Bridge so she was forced to bribe various individuals before she was able to get hold of it six days later. Instead of burying it with the rest of him, she kept it as a relic and did so until her death when it was buried with her in St. Dunstan's church, Canterbury. According to Rev. J. Bowes Bruce of Canterbury in 1835, the head was 'in a niche in the wall, in a leaden box, something of the shape of a beehive, open at the front, and with an iron grating before it'. This relic was once again exposed and described in the Daily Telegraph in 1978.

John Fisher, who like More would not allow his conscience to accept either the doctrine of royal supremacy or the validity of Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragon in 1533, was imprisoned in the upper floor of the Bell Tower. (Sir Thomas More joined him in the lower chamber two weeks later). Fisher was seventy-four years of age when first imprisoned and suffered terribly from the extreme damp and cold. He was offered no aid whatsoever although he pleaded for warm clothes and food acceptable to an aged man with a delicate constitution. When Pope Paul III made Fisher a cardinal, his fate was sealed. Convicted of treason, he was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered but again, like More, the sentence was reduced to beheading. On the day of his execution (June, 1535) it seemed all of London was at Tower Hill and, after his head was severed in a single stroke, a large number of citizens surged forward to dip handkerchiefs in the blood or snatch bits of blood-stained straw as mementos, relics and curatives; for it was believed, the blood of men thus executed was a remedy for all manner of ills.

Fisher was buried at All Hallows Barking-by-the-Tower but, when More was executed fifteen days later, Fisher's body was reinterred with More in the newly complete Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula. His Cardinal's hat travelled as far as Calais but, as the Tudor chronicler Holinshed stated, 'his head was off before his hat was on, so that they met not.'

In 1685 Jeffreys was made a baron and presided at the 'Bloody Assize', so named for his ruthless disregard for legal procedures. This court was set up to try men charged with complicity in a rebellion against James II, led by James Scott, Duke of Monmouth. Judge Jeffreys' conduct towards the accused was regarded as so unjust that he became infamous throughout England. A total of 230 rebels were executed and hundreds more transported, imprisoned, fined or flogged. Because of his often brutal demeanour at criminal trials, he earned the nickname 'the Hanging Judge".
 

When his Roman Catholic master, King James II, was deposed in 1688, Jeffreys tried to escape to Hamburg disguised as a seaman. He was captured and imprisoned in the Bloody Tower. He died there while in 'protective custody' which means that he was probably murdered. Alternatively it is said that he drank himself to death before he could be executed. His family was given permission to move his body from the Chapel to St. Mary's, Aldermanbury.

It was Phillip Howard who wrote of Sir Michael Blount's brutal treatment of him saying, 'Your commission is only to keep with safety, not to kill with severity'.

Sir Thomas Overbury was a close friend and secretary of Robert Carr, Viscount Rochester. Rochester became the lover of Lady Frances Howard who was married to the Earl of Essex. Lady Frances, unhappy in her marriage, was determined to divorce Essex on the grounds of impotency and marry Rochester. Overbury advised Rochester that such a match would be unwise since the Lady Frances, besides being oversexed and indiscrete, was also insane.

Overbury knew entirely too much about the Lady Frances's past so she was determined to get rid of him. She had him arrested on trumped up charges involving his refusal to accept a diplomatic post from the king and he soon found himself inside the Bloody Tower.

With the help of some unsavoury accomplices, the Lady set about murdering Sir Thomas by poison. And, what an arsenal she had! She put mercury sublimate in his wine, lapis costitis in the chicken, arsenic in his salt, cantharides in the pepper and silver nitrate in his pork. As if all that wasn't enough, for dessert she plied him with nitric acid and powered diamonds. The poor man got sick to be sure but it took him a full three and a half months to succumb. Despite the fact that one of his servants lost most of his hair and several fingernails after just licking a bit of spilled syrup from a tart, Sir Thomas seemed totally unaware of what was happening to him.

His death was ruled accidental although the record of his burial in the Chapel states quite clearly Sir Thomas Overbury, poysoned, buried the 15th of September, 1613. The truth took two years to come out. One of Lady Frances's maids confessed on her deathbed and both Rochester and his now wife Lady Frances were arrested. She became hysterical when they tried to put her into the same room where Sir Thomas died; fearing that his ghost would haunt her, so Rochester was imprisoned there instead.

Perhaps because of who they were, both Lady Frances and Rochester escaped punishment beyond imprisonment. They remained in the Tower for several years before finally being released. Lady Frances died eleven years later, hopelessly insane. Her husband lived on in obscurity until 1645. The tragic irony was that their marriage failed.

Their accomplices, Mrs. Turner and Richard Weston were hanged at Tyburn. Sir Gervase Helwys, who was Lieutenant of the Tower at that time, was implicated, found guilty of complicity in murder and executed on Tower Hill. His body was left to hang from the gibbet, his face turned towards the structure he once commanded.
 

Sir Walter Raleigh was confined in the Tower on three separate occasions. He was initially imprisoned (Brick Tower) by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592 after she learned of his involvement with one of her maids of honour - Bess Throckmorton - whom he later secretly married. A jealous queen, it took him some time to regain her favour but she finally relented and he led an English attack on the Spanish city of Cadiz in 1596. In 1601 he saved the Queen from a rebellion led by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex. Gleefully, no doubt, he presided at the execution. His fortunes declined after the death of the queen in 1603.

The new monarch, James I believed that Raleigh opposed his accession and had him committed to the Bloody Tower on a charge of treason. His death sentence was staid at the last minute, but he spent a total of thirteen years imprisoned within the Bloody Tower.

His wife and young son Wat joined him after the Tower had been extensively renovated including the addition of an upper floor in 1605-6 so as to house the Raleigh's and their attendants. Sir Walter and two servants took the first floor. It must have been a squeeze with the addition of wardrobe chests, books, papers and the like. His wife, the boy and female servants occupied the upper floor.

Lady Raleigh was allowed to come and go as she pleased and, in fact left with young Wat in 1604 when there was an outbreak of plague. Things couldn't have been all that bad because a second son - Carew - was born in the Bloody Tower and baptized in St. Peter ad Vincula - the Tower's chapel - on the 15th February, 1606.

Raleigh was allowed to grow rare herbs in the Lieutenant's garden and work on scientific experiments in the garden shed. He made medicines too.

All sorts of famous people visited him including James I's queen and the young Prince of Wales, Henry. Young Henry admired Sir Walter and despised his father the king for keeping such a 'bird in a cage'. The young prince was tutored by Sir Walter and showed a great deal of interest in the 'History of the World' which Sir Walter was writing with the help of the playwright Ben Jonson, who kept him supplied with reference material. Young Wat may have become jealous of the time his father spent with others because he was reputed to have been bad tempered, arrogant and disrespectful.

Eventually, Raleigh's health began to fail through long imprisonment and sadness at the death - typhoid - in 1612 of Prince Henry, his patron and admirer. With him died Raleigh's hope of release. Fortunately, the lure of gold was so great that in 1616, James I freed Raleigh and sent him to South America with two ships which the king expected to have returned to him, filled with gold. Wat went too, hoping to make a name for himself. Sir Walter became ill on the voyage and was left behind in Trinidad while son Wat continued on up the Orinoco River.

King James had made it very clear that they were not to bother the Spanish in any way since delicate treaties had been signed. Unfortunately, Wat didn't heed the warnings, attacked a Spanish settlement and was killed. News of his son's death devastated Raleigh who returned to England a broken man.

King James was so upset, especially when the ships came back without any gold, that he imprisoned Sir Walter again and finally had him executed on the 29th of October, 1618 in front of the Palace of Westminster. He is buried at St. Margaret's, Westminster.

Back to John. It took 3 ½ years for the French to raise the ransom money and even then it was paid in installments. After the first payment, John was allowed to return home. His son Philip, however, was still held prisoner. Given temporary leave to visit his wife, the young prince broke his parole, forcing his father to surrender himself to the English in his son's stead. This time King John was taken to a castle in Lincolnshire where he lived in great luxury until his death a few months later.