London Day 2: The Tower of London

Day 2 in London began as promised: cloudy, rainy, and foggy. We arrived at the station to meet our tour at 8 a.m. and by 9:00 we were inside the dreaded Tower of London. Originally built for defence, the Tower became a notorious prison; a scene of torture, hangings, and be-headings. We were treated to a private tour of this complex by our very own Yeoman Warder, or "Beefeater" . There are actually 21 towers inside the "Tower of London", and oh if the walls could talk.

Inside The Bloody Tower we learned the story of two young princes, sons of Edward IV, who were put in the tower by their uncle when their father died. Mysteriously, they disappeared. No one knew what happened to them. It was believed that their uncle had them murdered in order to eliminate them from the line of succession to the throne. With the boys out of the way, the uncle did, indeed, become king. In 1675, while digging nearby, the remains of two small children were discovered at the end of a sealed tunnel. "And the moral of that story", chuckled our Beefeater, "is don't let the uncle babysit!".

There is graffiti all over the insides of towers. Not the 20th century sort, but the sort carved into the stone walls by prisoners with lots of time on their hands and dating back hundreds of years. For some of it, the author has even been identified. Most of what we saw was written in either Latin or Olde English and we could only guess at what it said.
Also housed at the Tower of London are the Crown Jewels. The ones in our picture belong to Queen Elizabeth II. She does, on special occasions, get them out of the tower and wear them. I can't imagine how heavy this must be! Also within this exhibit are the crown jewels from other monarchs including Queen Victoria, many royal sceptres, and lots of gold serving pieces which are used for state dinners. This might be a good time to mention that the Tower of London maintains an active set of guards armed with machine guns and bayonets. While most of it is open to the public, it is definitely more than just a tourist attraction!
Here are a few pictures from inside the Tower of London.....



Traitor's Gate: The Tower of London sits directly on the Thames. Prisoners were brought  by boat to the Tower. The Traitor's Gates were opened and the prisoners were met at the steps up from the water by the jailers.

The White Tower was started in 1078 and competed about 19 years later. At that time it was the tallest building in London.

There is a small colony of ravens that resides at the Tower. No one knows when they first arrived, but legend has it that, should they all leave the Tower, the kingdom will fall. What monarch would want THAT to happen?!! So, the bird's wings have been clipped and there is a Ravenmaster to look after the birds.

Did you know that two of Henry VIII's wives were executed here? In fact, Anne Boleyn, his second wife, was executed in 1536. According to our Beefeater, the execution happened so quickly that she continued to talk for 28 seconds after her head was severed from her body. Ewwww!

Lucky for us, we got out with our heads intact. We left the Tower of London behind us and boarded a Thames River cruiser for a short trip down river to meet our bus. On to Buckingham Palace, and the Changing of the Guard.....maybe. It's still very foggy and drizzly and our guide is quite doubtful that the Changing of the Guard is going to happen today.