The Tower of London: A Landmark Alive with History

The Tower of London: A Landmark Alive With History

The Tower of London is one of the most famous and visited historic monuments in the world. For some people it conjures up images of Norman architecture and towering battlements, but most associate it with arms and armour, ravens, the Crown Jewels, Yeoman Warders, imprisonment, death and ghostly apparitions. But this does not do it justice: the history of the Tower and its buildings is a vast, fascinating and complex subject, intertwined with the history of the country of England, its government, its kings and queens, and its people and institutions. The castle's first four centuries, during the Middle Ages, saw the development of the layout of buildings that we know today and its peak as a great fortress and use as a royal residence. From the late 15th century onwards the Tower's role as a stronghold declined but the importance of the activities and institutions it fostered greatly increased. In modern times, the landmark has become not only a tourist museum but also a working example of lives and times gone past.

The history of the Tower of London begins in 1066, but the location was determined by buildings put up under the Romans, rulers of Britain from AD 43 to 410. During the second half of the 2nd century the future site of the castle was built over, as shown by the foundations of Roman buildings revealed beside and underneath William the Conqueror's White Tower. It was also in this century that some features of the city's modern street layout were first established including the route of Great Tower Street which was later to influence the sitting of the castle's early entrances. In about AD 200 the entire landward side of the city was enclosed by a massive defensive wall, part of which formed the fortress' eastern rampart up to the 1240s. In about AD 250 a wall was also built along the riverside, probably in response to the new threat of seaborne attack by the Saxons. The Roman armies withdrew from the city in AD 410 but their development and progress in London, and especially the walled defences they created determined the future setting of the Tower.

Nearly 700 years elapsed between the collapse of Roman Britain and the Norman Conquest, but little is known about London's history and the Tower's site in this period. The architectural record indicates that much of the walled city was then under cultivation, and that the main Saxon settlement was to the west of the Roman city, roughly on the site of the Strand. Nevertheless, there is evidence on and around the site of the Tower of London of the establishment of churches, one of which, St Peter ad Vincula, was eventually enclosed within the castle.

The foundation of the Tower of London was a result of the conquest, in 1066, of the rich and powerful kingdom of England by the Normans, rulers of a small state in central northern France. The initial success was linked to their exceptional skills in war, inherited from their Viking ancestors, but their ability to conquer and hold the country can be attributed in part to their pioneering use of castles, of which the Tower was soon to become a supreme example. Once Duke William of Normandy had defeated the English army at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, he knew he must secure London, the kingdom's richest and most populous city. He proceeded to do so without much difficulty and soon after made plans to fortify London with various castles situated on the boundaries of the city in each direction. However, the supremacy of the castle on the Tower's site was soon to be confirmed by the building of the White Tower. The sitting of the castle took advantage of the ready-made defences provided by the Roman city walls and made the city's strength immediately obvious to ships coming up river.

The White Tower, the structure that gave the Tower of London its name, was modelled directly after towers that had been constructed by the Normans in France. The buildings most striking feature is its immense size; it is at least the second largest structure of its type known to have been built and its remarkable preservation makes it the most complete 11th century palace in Europe. The White Tower was protected to the east and south by the old Roman city walls, while the north and west sides were protected by ditches and an earthwork with a wooden wall on top. The tower was reinforced on the two western corners by square turrets, by a round tower housing the main staircase on the north-eastern corner, and by a half-round projection housing the chapel on the south-eastern corner. Inside, each of the building's four levels was divided into three parts. The lowest level contained access to the well while the main entrance was situated on the floor above and reached by a timber staircase. In the 12th century a 'fore-building' was added to the south front of the White Tower to protect the entrance. From very early on the enclosure contained a number of timber buildings for residential and service use.

It is important for us today to remember that the functions of the Tower from the 1070s until the late 19th century were established by its Norman founders. The Tower was never primarily intended to protect London from external invasion, although, of course, it could have done so if necessary. Nor was it ever intended to be the principal residence of the kings and queens of England, though many did in fact spend periods of time there. Its primary function was always to provide a base for royal power in the City of London and a stronghold to which the Royal Family could retreat in times of civil disorder.

When Richard I came to the throne he departed on a crusade to the Holy Land leaving his Chancellor, William Longchamp, in charge of the kingdom. The latter soon decided to enlarge and strengthen the Tower of London, the first of a series of building campaigns which by about 1350 had created the basic form of the great stronghold that we know today. Longchamp's works doubled the area covered by the fortress by digging new, deeper ditches to the north and east and building sections of a curtain wall, which were reinforced by the new Bell Tower at the south-west corner. The ditches were intended to flood naturally from the river, yet this plan proved unsuccessful. The new defences were soon put to the test when the King's brother, John, taking advantage of Richard's absence, challenged the Chancellor's authority and besieged him at the Tower. Lack of provisions forced Longchamp to surrender.

The next monarch to substantially develop the Tower of London was Henry III. He was only 9-years old in 1216, but his regents began a major extension of the royal accommodation in the enclosure that