The Tower

Early one morning, my fellow students and I set out on a mission. It was a mission to visit the infamous and dreaded Tower of London, the famous place of death, murder, treachery, and despair. We set out on this journey with happy hearts for we were simply tourists going to see what all the world goes to see when they come to visit London.

We started our journey by waiting for one of the Yeoman to give us a guided tour. We began the guide with a brief overview of the Tower. To ensure I got my facts straight, I checked out another Yeoman’s brief history. I remembered correctly that the Tower was built by William the conqueror as a symbol of his power and a place to hold prisoners (Mermel, 1).

As we passed through the walls into the main fort, the Yeoman told us the etymology of the word Password. Apparently they used to have a secret word to enter through the gate. The guards would have the individual who wished to come in write the word on a paper and then pass the word through the gate. This evolved into the word password.

Many famous prisoners were held here in The Tower. After we walked in, we saw the lovely tower where Elizabeth I and Sir Thomas More were both held prisoner. This tower overlooked the royal entrance. It is at this royal entrance where Anne Boleyn entered as Henry VIII’s bride.

The next spot the Yeoman took us to see was the Water Gate, later known as Traitor's Gate. This is the entrance Anne Boleyn used when she entered The Tower to lose her head. I found it interesting that even though she was a condemned prisoner, she was still treated royally until the moment of her execution. She was placed in the same chambers where she spent her wedding night and an executioner from France was specially imported for her (Experience, 33).

Anne Boleyn was not the only famous death at The Tower. This was also the sight of the famous murder of the two princes. What is known is that Richard, Duke of Gloucester seized control after his brother died, and his two nephews who were to inherit the throne mysteriously disappeared after being taken to the Tower (Prall ,205). The bodies of what is believed to be the princes were found in one of the towers.

After the tour, it was exciting to go and see the crown Jewels. I for some reason had not thought through exactly what the crown Jewels were. I thought it was really cool when I found out that they were not simply a bunch of jewels owned by the royal family, but that they were the Jewels owned by the British people and used in the actual ceremony to crown their new king and queen. It was amazing to think the gigantuous jewels were really jewels and not costume jewelery. The two things that helped to demonstrate the value of what I was looking at was the thick walls giving the impression that you were walking into a vault when you walked into the jewel room, and the conveyor-belt moving people quickly past the row of crowns. It was very cool.

After we saw the crown jewels we went to take a tour of the White tower. This tower, had a lovely museum that included lots of armour, mostly from Henry VIII. It also had nice area where visitors could practice pulling a longbow and find out lots of information on weapons. According to our guide, this building had an observatory until it was moved to Greenwich.

Although The London Tower is a very touristy thing to do, I will say the afternoon was a well spent afternoon. I loved the tour by the Yeoman and enjoyed the historic moment I was able to enjoy in these walls.

Eperience the Tower of London. Surrey:Historic Royal Palaces, 2007.

Mermel, Craig. The Tower of London. August 2004. VirREn Team: May 2008.

Prall, Stuart E. Willson, David Harris. A History of England: Volume I Prehistory to 1714. United States: Dryden Press,1991.