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                                                                                                This article first appeared in January, 2004.

            The classic castle, like great art, is difficult to define. Ask anyone to describe his or her idealized castle and you may get the same answer you commonly hear for great art: "I know what I like, and I’ll know it when I see it."
            We love castles — of all shapes and sizes and all states of repair. We have our favorites, too, just like we have our favorite music and painters. In this series we present castles we have enjoyed and hope our enthusiasm compels the reader to make their own pilgrimage to these great shrines of history and monuments to imagination.

hen is a castle not a castle? The Tower of London was not built to protect London from invasion, although it could have served that purpose. The Tower was never intended to be the principal residence of the kings and queens of England, although many English monarchs have lived there. So is The Tower of London an accidental castle?
          The sprawling collection of buildings, walls, towers, moats, gates and fields called The Tower of London was begun shortly by William the Conqueror after the Norman invasion in 1066. In the 900+ years since, the Tower has been enlarged and modified by successive monarchs. It has seen more history than most castles—as a royal palace, imposing fortress, feared prison and gruesome place of execution, royal mint, military arsenal, private zoo, and repository of the Crown Jewels. Today the Tower of London is one of the world’s most famous castles and a recognized World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

TOWER OF LONDON,    
WORLD HERITAGE SITE 
Photo © Home At First

          London’s most popular destination, the Tower of London, stands just west of St. Katharine’s Dock between the River Thames and Tower Hill. Composed of several towers and other buildings, the Tower is located the southeast corner of the Roman City of London borough. The walled, moated complex dates from the reign of William the Conqueror in the 11th century. Over its 900-year history it has been as a fortress, royal palace, zoo, and prison. The Tower now houses the Crown Jewels, as well as the Imperial State Crown made for Queen Victoria’s coronation and worn by Queen Elizabeth II at her coronation. Visitors can see the location of the scaffold where two wives of King Henry VIII (Anne Boleyn and Kathryn Howard) were executed. The Yeomen of the Guard (also known as

Beefeaters) in their distinctive red and black costumes, patrol the Tower

and serve as friendly sources of information. Less friendly are the large ravens that lived at the tower for centuries.

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE TOWER OF LONDON
          When the Normans arrived in England in 1066, it was critical that they secured the most important cities, ports, and road junctions. No city was larger or more powerful than London. Shortly after his coronation at Westminster Abbey William the Conqueror ordered many castles built across the land, including the first tower — the so-called White Tower — of the complex that we now call The Tower of London. The site chosen was near a key river crossing and close to port landings at the southeast corner of the old Roman walls of London.
          Because the Normans were a conquering minority in a land of potentially hostile Anglo-Saxons,

Roman Emperor Trajan greets travelers
at Tower Hill Underground Station
by the Tower of London and
the Roman wall of London.
Home at First Photo

The Tower was built to provide a royal seat of power

in London and be a secure fortress to protect the Royal Family against potential uprisings.

            Two hundred years later, famed castle-

The Tower of London: England's largest and
strongest castle of concentric fortifications.

builder King Edward I added massive walls to the Tower’s defensive works that his father had begun. The resulting fortress was England’s largest and strongest concentric castle with one line of defenses inside the perimeter of another. The new construction was tested by Edward’s son Edward II, first Price of Wales, a regular resident who used the Tower to protect him from rebellious nobles disputing his authority over England.
        It was also during this time that the Tower took on its first non-military and non-residential uses, when Edward I established the Royal Mint

on its grounds. The Tower’s reputation as a

feared prison began during the reign of Edward’s father, Henry III. One of the Tower’s first prisoners — a Welsh Prince and enemy of the England Crown — died trying to escape by climbing out of the Tower. And, during Edward’s reign that the Tower became a royal treasury when, in 1303, the Crown Jewels were moved there from Westminster Abbey. Edward Longshanks (King Edward I) also is credited with being the first monarch to have his exotic animal collection (the "menagerie") exhibited at the Tower. This tradition lasted five centuries until, in 1834, the menagerie was moved to a new location in London’s Regent’s Park as the foundation of the now world-famous London Zoo.

          During the 30-year struggle for the throne known as the War of the Roses, monarchs from both competing houses (Lancastrians and Yorkists) used the Tower for various purposes. Court was held there, as were numerous victory celebrations, and, most infamously, executions and royal murders. Lancastrian King Henry VI was imprisoned for several years in the Tower before briefly regaining the throne and then quickly losing it. Yorkist King Edward IV, himself regaining the throne he once held, had his rival put to death in the Tower. But it was the disappearance—and probable murder—of the young sons of Edward IV by their uncle, King Richard III that became the most infamous acts the Tower of London had witnessed. William Shakespeare wrote extensively about these times in his plays "Henry VI" (Parts 1, 2, & 3), and "Richard III".
          After Richard III had his comeuppance at Bosworth Field, the Tudors took over the monarchy. Within a few decades, during the reign of King Henry VIII, the Tower would witness more famous residents — and more famous

The White Tower, where English
monarchs and nobility lived and
sometimes were imprisoned.
Home at First Photo

executions, including power rivals Sir Thomas More (who

sided with Rome when King Henry VIII formed the Church of England), and Thomas Cromwell. Most famous of Henry VIII’s guests in the Tower of London were his wives who lost their heads there: Anne Boleyn (wife #2), KATHRYN Howard (wife #5). Henry’s daughters learned well from their father: Queen ("Bloody") Mary had predecessor Lady Jane Grey (Queen of England for 9 days) executed in the Tower, and her half-sister, Princess Elizabeth, imprisoned there for 3 months. When Elizabeth succeeded Mary to

the throne in 1558, she, too, used the

Once upon a time a moat prevented easy access
to The Tower's many layers of walled fortifications.
Home at First Photo

Tower ruthlessly, imprisoning numerous high clerics and nobles fir months and years, and beheading many.
         The traditions of the Tudors were passed on to the Stuarts. King James I enlarged the menagerie and the armory, and continued to imprison celebrities, most famous of which was Sir Walter Raleigh. Was James fearful of Raleigh, the hero of the war against the Spanish Armada, early colonist of Virginia, noteworthy poet and confident of Queen Elizabeth I? Maybe. He had Raleigh beheaded in 1618 on trumped

up charges.

          Over the last four centuries the Tower has continued to evolve. Its importance as a garrison and armory took on real importance during the English Civil War of the 17th century, and its importance as a prison was rekindled during the World Wars of

the 20th century, when several German spies

were held and executed there. And, like much of London, the Tower was bombed by Germans during the Blitz, suffering some significant damage.
          The menagerie had been removed to Regents Park in 1834, but the Royal Mint remained in the Tower until moving to Wales in 1968. Its armory and record offices had both moved to other locations by the mid-19th century. But the Crown Jewels remained at the Tower, except for during World War II when they were taken to a still undisclosed location for safekeeping. Reopened to visitors after WWII, the Tower of London became the city’s busiest attraction, with over 2,500,000 visitors a year. In 1988 UNESCO named the Tower of London an official World Heritage Site.

As The Tower evolved over a millennium,
its concentric walls became a warren of
spaces of differing architectural styles with
purposes as varied as royal household, zoo,
national treasury, top-security prison, guest
quarters, tobacco garden, royal mint, place
of execution, chapel, and private cemetery.
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