CHAPTER I. THE BUILDINGS 1

II. THE TOWER UNDER THE NORMAN AND PLANTAGENET KINGS 79

III. THE EDWARDS 85

IV. RICHARD II. 90

V. THE LANCASTRIANS 100

VI. THE WARS OF THE ROSES 107

VII. THE TUDOR KINGS—HENRY VII. 120

VIII. HENRY VIII. 124

IX. EDWARD VI. 169

X. MARY TUDOR 181

XI. QUEEN ELIZABETH 202

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

COLOURED PLATE

The Duke of Orleans a Prisoner in the Tower. (From a MS. in the British Museum) _Frontispiece_

PHOTOGRAVURE PLATES

PAGE

The Tower. (From a sketch by H. Colls) 1

Plan of the Tower in 1597, by Haiward and Gascoyne 6

The Byward Tower 8

Postern Gate in the Byward Tower 10

Yeoman Porter of the Tower, bearing his emblem of office 12

The Wakefield and Bloody Towers 14

Traitor’s Gate, time of George III. 16

The Bloody Tower, looking towards Traitor’s Gate 20

Groining in Ceiling of the Bloody Tower 22

The Council Chamber in the Governor’s House 26

Prison in the Governor’s House 28

The Beauchamp Tower 30

Prison in the Beauchamp Tower 32

Prison Chamber in the Beauchamp Tower 34

Interior of St Peter’s Chapel 36

Monument of Sir Richard Cholmondeley and his Wife, in St Peter’s Chapel 40

Tomb of the Blunt Family in St Peter’s Chapel 42

Stone Staircase in the White Tower 54

Interior of St John’s Chapel 58

Horse and Foot Armour (XVIth Century) 64

German Armour (XVIth Century) 66

Nuremberg Armour (XVIth Century) 68

Horse and Foot Armour (XVIIth Century) 70

Horse and Foot Armour (XVIIth Century) 72

Horse and Foot Armour (XVIIth Century) 74

Site of the Scaffold on Tower Hill 96

The Wakefield Tower, time of George III. 116

Prison beneath the Wakefield Tower 118

Queen Anne Boleyn. (From an engraving after a contemporary portrait) 130

John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester. (From the drawing by Holbein at Windsor) 134

Sir Thomas More. (From the drawing by Holbein at Windsor) 138

A Daughter of Sir Thomas More, supposed to be Mrs Roper. (From the drawing by Holbein at Hammerfield) 140

Queen Mary Tudor. (From a portrait at Latimer) 182

Lady Jane Grey. (From the portrait at Madresfield Court by Lucas van Heere) 184

Lord Guildford Dudley. (From the portrait at Madresfield Court by Lucas van Heere) 186

Lady Jane Grey. (From an engraving by Wijngaerde, after the portrait by Holbein) 190

Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk. (From the portrait by Joannes Corvus in the National Portrait Gallery) 197

Robert, Earl of Essex. (From a contemporary engraving) 222

BLOCKS

The Jewel House 18

Doorway of the Jewel House 18

St Thomas’s Tower from the Wharf 104

View in the Inner Ballium 112

All Hallows, Barking 120

The Curfew Tower from the Moat 144

Traitor’s Gate 148

Heading Block and Axe 150

St Peter’s Chapel and Place of Execution 154

St Thomas’s and Curfew Towers 158

Traitor’s Gate from the Bloody Tower 164

Back of the Byward Tower 168

The King’s House 174

Middle Tower 198

Queen Elizabeth’s Walk, from the Curfew Tower to the Beauchamp Tower 208

Queen Elizabeth’s Walk, from the Beauchamp Tower to the Curfew Tower 210

PLAN OF THE TOWER _at End_

INTRODUCTION

To the English race the Tower of London will always be the most interesting of its Monuments; for it forms a group of buildings that for eight centuries has been the very heart of the English capital, and, since the victor of Hastings raised the great Keep—or White Tower—through all the succeeding centuries, the Tower has been closely connected with the history of England.

It would be vain to search any other city, Rome itself not excepted, for another such group of buildings, or to match the historic interest and splendid record of the ancient Norman structure. The Tower is indeed rife with interest; the most dramatic events of our country’s history during more than seven hundred years have been enacted within or near its walls.

To see it is to conjure up a vision of scenes, some brilliant and stately, some tragic and awful, but all full of deepest interest to the hearts and minds of Britons, to whom the history of their land is dear.

Although several works—some voluminous, such as the two ponderous quartos by John Bayley, published in 1825, and some more recent, such as the histories of the Tower by Britton and Brayley, and, more recently still, those by Lord de Ros and Doyne Bell—have appeared, I venture to think that in writing the present account of the Tower I have not undertaken a thankless or a useless task.

My object in giving the following book to the public has been a hope that to those who already know the Tower some fresh knowledge may perhaps be added to their acquaintance with that noble old pile; and that to those who do not know it, the admirable illustrations taken from the building itself by Messrs Colls, and the reproduction of old views and scenes connected with the Tower from the days of Charles the First to those of Queen Victoria, will enable them to realise its incomparable historic interest.

Until the reign of Edward the Third the records of the Tower are miserably meagre and scanty. It would require a far more imaginative mind than I possess to infuse any life or movement or interest into them. It has been my humble intention merely to narrate in this work what is of undoubted authority as regards the history of the Tower, and were I even capable of adding colour to the dry chronicles of historical fact in these pages, it would be distasteful to me to try to enhance the interest of this narrative by setting down that which I have no good evidence for regarding as strictly true; or to attempt to adorn the dry facts, which the old chroniclers have given us, by imaginary incidents and tales for which there is no better evidence than that coming from the author’s imagination. An historical novel such as that most entertaining work the “Tower of London,” by Harrison Ainsworth, is a delightful effort of the writer’s imagination; but a book which professes to be a history must not be a hotch-potch of truth and fiction. That would be the worst of literary frauds. Feeling strongly on this matter, I must beg my readers to pardon the dulness of my records relating to the early history of the Tower, but I can assure them that what I have written is, as far as possible, accurate history; and, at the same time, beg them not to be disappointed if they find no flights of fancy in these pages.

RONALD SUTHERLAND GOWER.

ERRATUM.

The illustration at page 198 represents the Byward Tower, not Middle Tower.

THE TOWER