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diff --git a/old/65712-0.txt b/old/65712-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 47866fa..0000000 --- a/old/65712-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8274 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Tower of London, (Vol. 1 of 2), by -Ronald Charles Sutherland Gower - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Tower of London, (Vol. 1 of 2) - -Author: Ronald Charles Sutherland Gower - -Release Date: June 27, 2021 [eBook #65712] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: MWS, Robert Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading - Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from - images generously made available by The Internet - Archive/Canadian Libraries) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TOWER OF LONDON, (VOL. 1 OF -2) *** - - - - - THE TOWER OF LONDON - - -[Illustration: _The Duke of Orleans a Prisoner in the Tower_ - - (_From a MS. in the British Museum_)] - - - - - THE - TOWER OF LONDON - - BY - LORD RONALD SUTHERLAND GOWER, F.S.A. - ONE OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY - - With Numerous Illustrations - - IN TWO VOLUMES - - VOL. I. - - [Illustration] - - LONDON - GEORGE BELL & SONS - 1901 - - - - - CONTENTS - - - PAGE - -INTRODUCTION xi - -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. - - -[Illustration: _The Tower of London_ - - (_From a Sketch by H. Colls._)] - - - - - THE TOWER - - - CHAPTER I - - THE BUILDINGS - - -Nothing has come down to us of any authentic value regarding ancient -London until Tacitus writes of Londinium as a place celebrated for the -numbers of its merchants and the confluence of traffic. In the days of -the Roman occupation St Albans, then called Verolanium, was a far more -important place than Roman Londinium; and, perhaps, it was Verolanium -whereto Cæsar marched in his second descent on Britain in B.C. 54, and -which he described as a place “protected by woods and marshes.” Such -a description would equally apply to Londinium, and, for aught we can -know to the contrary, the town Cæsar describes as being surrounded by -woods and marshes may have been our capital. - -To the north of Roman London stretched vast primeval forests, and where -St John’s Wood now stands, the wild boar roamed in trackless thickets. -Marshes lay to the west and south, on the sites of Westminster and -Southwark; a less likely place for the situation of a great capital, -with the exception of St Petersburg, could not be found in Europe. On -what is now Tower Hill stood a Celtic fortress, protected by the Thames -on the south, and by forests and fens on the north. This fortress was -admirably placed, protecting the approach from the seaward side of the -river, and guarding against any attack from the land side. The Romans -were evidently of this opinion, for after conquering the woad-stained -Britons, they erected a fortalice, defended by strongly fortified -walls, upon the same site. - -This Roman fortress was the origin of the Tower of London. - -Roman London, or rather Augusta, for so it was originally termed by the -Romans, began at a fort named the Arx Palatina, overlooking the river a -little to the south of Ludgate, a wall defended by towers, running in a -south-easterly line along the river bank to another fort on the present -site of the Tower, which was also named the Arx Palatina. Thence -the wall took a northerly direction, reaching as far as the present -Bishopsgate; it then turned due west to Cripplegate; then south by -Aldersgate to Newgate, meeting the first wall at Ludgate. Roman London -was indebted to the Emperor Constantine for these defences.[1] - -Theodosius is supposed to have restored this wall in the reign of -Valentinian, but we have no further records of any work upon it until -A.D. 886, when Alfred the Great repaired it as a protection against the -Danish invaders.[2] - -The late Sir Walter Besant is my authority for saying “that there is a -large piece of the Roman wall, extending 150 feet long, built over by -stores and warehouses immediately north of the Tower, just where the -old postern used to be, and where the wall abutted on the Tower.” It -should be remembered, when judging of the circumference of the Roman -wall, that London covered little more ground in those days than does -Hyde Park at present: from Ludgate to the Tower the Roman wall extended -only about a mile in length, and three and a half miles from the Tower -to Blackfriars. - -There are many fragments of this old Roman wall still above ground, -and until 1763 a square Roman tower, built of alternate layers of -large square stones with bands of red tiles, one of the three that -guarded the wall, was still standing in Houndsditch. In 1857 a portion -of the Roman wall was discovered near Aldermanbury postern, whilst a -portion of a Roman bastion is still to be seen at St Giles’s Church, -Cripplegate; another fragment being visible in a street called London -Wall Street. There are more Roman remains at the Old Bailey and near -George Street, Tower Hill. Fragments are also visible near Falcon Lane, -Bush Lane, Scott’s Yard in Cornhill, and in underground warehouses and -cellars near the Tower. In the Minories there are yet more remains of -this ancient Roman wall. In Thames Street, oaken piles, which were the -foundation of the wall, have been discovered. They supported a layer -of chalk and stone courses, upon which rested large slabs of sandstone -cemented with a mixture of lime, sand, and powdered tiles. The upper -part of the wall was coated with flint, and this again was strengthened -by rows of tiles. - -The most interesting of these remains, however, is in the Tower -itself—a fragment of the Roman fort or Arx Palatina (the place of -strength), which was laid bare some few years ago when some buildings -abutting on the White Tower were removed. It is built of the same -materials as the fragments of the Roman wall, and shows that William -the Conqueror not only erected the most formidable fortress in his -newly-conquered country upon the site chosen by the Romans, but that -he also incorporated the remains of their handiwork in his building. -Whether Alfred the Great restored the Arx Palatina as well as the wall -we do not know, but even if the fort were ruined, the fragment now -at the base of the White Tower would have shown the Conqueror the -value and importance of its defensive position, protecting as it did -the eastern end of the city, and guarding the seaward entrance of the -Thames. William’s site, however, covered part of the land belonging -to the ancient boundary of the Roman occupation, and to provide the -necessary space he pulled down a large portion of the Roman wall -between the spot where the White Tower now stands and the river front -of the fortress. - -In the days of our first Norman kings, a single square tower or keep, -usually situated on a hill surrounded by an artificial ditch or moat, -was considered sufficient protection. One might give a long list of -such towers or keeps both in England and Normandy, for William the -First, not content with overawing the Londoners with his great tower -in their city, built others at Dover and at Exeter, at Nottingham and -at York, at Lincoln and at Durham, at Cambridge and at Huntingdon. -Under Duke Rollo and his immediate successors the Normans built their -fortresses by the side of navigable rivers, on islands, or near the -sea, since these fortresses were not merely destined as defences, but -also for places of safety. They were, in fact, places of refuge for -the people of the surrounding country, who fled to them with all their -possessions, and particularly their live stock, at the approach of an -enemy. By their situation, safety, if necessary, could be obtained by -taking flight on the neighbouring river or sea. - -In Normandy—at Fécamp, at Eu, at Bayeux, at Jumiége, and at Oisel, to -name but a few of these Norman keeps—this custom obtained. At Rouen, -as in London, the principal fortress built by the Norman duke stood -by the riverside, and not on the hills at the back of the town. None -of these places mentioned above were stronger or more imposing than -the great Norman keep in London, known for centuries as the White -Tower, receiving that title at first, probably from the whiteness of -its stone, and in later times from the continued coatings of whitewash -which it received. Of the many castles in Normandy and Touraine of the -same period as the White Tower, that of Loches resembles it most nearly -in size and form. Loches is now almost a ruin, as are most of the -Conqueror’s castles, but the great White Tower remains intact despite -the storms, sieges, and fires through which it has passed during eight -centuries. It is still the Arx Palatina of London and of the British -Empire. - -Although in situation the Tower cannot compare with such grandly-placed -castles as Dover or Bamborough, Conway or Carnarvon, or vie in beauty -of scenery with Warwick or Windsor, it remains the most historic -building in our land; not even the mausoleum fortress of Hadrian in old -Rome can compete in interest with the Norman fortress—palace—and State -prison of London; Edinburgh Castle alone approaches it as regards its -influence on the history of the capital it defended, for the northern -fortress was also the home of its national sovereigns for centuries, -its country’s chief prison, the store-house of its regalia, and its -city’s strong place of defence; and, like the Tower, it has been -guarded from its foundation up to the present time without a break, by -its country’s armed defenders. - -Every part of the Tower of London is pregnant with history and -tradition. The proudest names of England—Howard and Percy, Arundel -and Beauchamp, Stafford and Devereux—gain added interest from their -association with the Tower and its story. Above all, it is for ever -honoured as having been the last home of Eliot, of Russell, and of -Sidney; it has been sanctified by More and Fisher, “Martyrs,” as a -writer on the Tower has well said, “for the ancient, as also was Anne -Askew for the purer faith.” And to Anne Askew’s name I would add that -of Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, one of the first and noblest of -English martyrs. - -When William lay dying in the Priory of Saint Gervais, near Rouen, in -the summer of 1087, the Great White Tower which he had built in London -had been in existence for some ten years. Probably only that tower was -then completed, with the great ballium wall between the Keep and the -river. Stowe, the earliest English writer on antiquarian subjects, -writing in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, has told us in his priceless -“Survey of London,” that the White Tower was completed in 1078. Its -architect, Bishop Gundulf of Rochester, was not consecrated until 1077, -and was then occupied in building Rochester Cathedral and a portion -of Rochester Castle; the keep, which still rears its ruined walls -over Rochester and the Medway, was not built until a century later. -In Mr G. J. Clarke’s work on “Mediæval Military Architecture”—a work -as important to students of English architecture of the Middle Ages -as is that of Viollet le Duc to French architecture—we are told that -Gundulf died about the year 1108, at the good old age of eighty-four, -in the reign of the first Henry. Possibly the Palace at the Tower and -even the Wakefield Tower had been commenced by Gundulf, as well as some -buildings of the inner ward, but this is uncertain. These buildings -would include the great curtain wall extending from the Wakefield Tower -to the Broad Arrow Tower, and the cross wall of the Wardrobe Gallery, -and the building known as Coldharbour, these being the buildings which -formed the nucleus of the palace of the Norman kings. - -The Wardrobe, the Lanthorn, and Coldharbour Towers have perished; the -Lanthorn Tower has been rebuilt. In 1091, according to Stowe, the White -Tower was, “by tempest and wind sore shaken,” so much so that it had -to be repaired by William Rufus and Henry I. In the same year that -Rufus built the Great Hall at Westminster he surrounded the Tower with -a wall, causing his subjects much discontent thereby, especially as he -forced them to work at these defences. - -Sir Walter Besant recommended—and no one spoke with higher authority on -aught appertaining to old London and its history—any one who desires to -make himself acquainted with the appearance of the Tower in the days of -Queen Elizabeth, to study the plan drawn up by Haiward and Gascoigne -in 1597, which they styled “A True and Exact Draught of the Tower -Liberties.” In that plan it will be seen at a glance that the fortress, -palace, armoury, arsenal, and State prison of England’s capital, -had its principal entry towards the west—in fact, that the western -approach was the only entrance by land, the eastern entrance, known as -the Iron Gate, being but seldom used. Supposing that the visitor of -Elizabeth’s day had passed through the no longer existing Bulwark Gate, -he would next pass under another gate, called from its proximity to -the menagerie of wild animals, the Lion Gate, which was connected by a -walled causeway over the moat, about a hundred feet in width, with the -Lion Tower, which has disappeared; from the Lion Gate, which has also -been pulled down, the scarp would be reached. - -[Illustration: _Plan of the Tower in 1597_ - - _by Haiward and Gascoyne._] - -The Lion Tower, with its barbicans and _tête-du-pont_, had the honour -of a moat to itself, but all this has disappeared, Lion Gate, tower, -barbican, _tête-du-pont_, have all vanished with the lions and other -wild beasts which were kept here from the days of the Norman kings -until the year 1834, when they were removed to Regent’s Park and formed -the nucleus of the Zoological Gardens. - -Henry I. had kept some lions and leopards at his palace of Woodstock, -and on the occasion of Frederic II. of Germany sending three leopards -to Henry III., these animals were sent to the Tower. Besides lions and -leopards, an elephant and a bear were also about that time in the Tower -menagerie. In 1252 the Sheriffs of London were ordered to pay fourpence -a day for the keep of the bear, and also to provide a muzzle and chain -for Bruin while he caught fish in the Thames. During the reign of the -three first Edwards, the lions and other animals had food given them -to the value of sixpence a day, their keeper only receiving three -half-pence per diem. One of the Plantagenet Court officials held the -office, and was styled “The Master of the King’s Bears and Apes.” In -old views of the Tower can be seen the circular pit or pen in which, -down to the days of James I., bear-baiting took place—to watch this -brutal “sport” being one of this not altogether admirable monarch’s -favourite amusements. - -In his account of a visit paid to the Tower in the reign of Elizabeth, -the German traveller, Paul Hentzner, writes of the Royal menagerie as -follows:— - -“On coming out of the Tower we were led to a small house close by, -where are kept variety of creatures—viz. three lionesses, one lion -of great size, called Edward VI., from his having been born in that -reign; a tyger; a lynx; a wolf excessively old; this is a very scarce -animal in England, so that their sheep and cattle stray about in great -numbers, free from any dangers, though without anybody to keep them; -there is besides, a porcupine, and an eagle. All these creatures are -kept in a remote place, fitted up for the purpose with wooden lattices -at the Queen’s expense.” - -Hentzner, who visited England as tutor to a young German nobleman, -gives a vivid account of what was considered most noteworthy in London -in the days of Elizabeth, and in this the Tower looms large. His -Journal was translated into English from the German and published by -Horace Walpole, who had it printed at Strawberry Hill. We shall meet -with Hentzner again in the White Tower. - -Early in the eighteenth century there were eleven lions in the Tower, -and in the _Freeholder_ Addison alludes to the Tower menagerie; later -on, Dr Johnson would growlingly inquire of newly-arrived Scotchmen in -the metropolis, “Have you seen the lions?” In the place where formerly -lions roared and bears were baited, the ticket office and visitors’ -refreshment rooms now stand. In France or Germany here would probably -be an attractive restaurant or café; but in these matters we English -are woefully behind our neighbours, and it would be as difficult to -find an appetising luncheon in the Tower as it is to understand why the -art of cooking is so neglected in our country. - -Near here, in 1843, when the moat of the fortress was drained of its -waters and cleared of its rubbish, many stone cannon shot were -found, shot which had probably been used when the Yorkists besieged the -Tower in 1460 and cannonaded it from the other side of the Thames. In -Elizabeth’s day this portion of the fortress was named the Bulwark or -the Spur-yard—the origin of the latter term is not known. - -[Illustration: _The Byward Tower._] - -The moat, some hundred feet wide at its widest, was formerly flooded -with the waters of the Thames, and is now used as a parade and -playground for the garrison. It dates back to the Norman Conquest, -and was deepened by William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely in the reign of -Richard I. Death was the penalty for bathing in its waters in the reign -of Edward III.—a severe law, but one may hope that a sentence so severe -for so apparently trivial an offence was not actually enforced; perhaps -death was the result of some one having taken his bath in the Tower -moat in the unsanitary days of Edward III. When the Duke of Wellington -was Constable of the Tower, he had the moat filled up to its present -level, and the river waters which had, daily, during eight centuries -supplied it by their ebb and flow, ceased to encircle the old walls. -Doubtless the fortress gained in healthiness by the change, but from a -picturesque point of view the general effect of the building has been -greatly lessened since the days when the old walls and bastions were -reflected by the waters of the moat, nor can its towers and turrets -appear so effective as when they were mirrored in surrounding water. - -Four bridges with their causeways spanned the moat. To the west stood -the Lion Gate bridge; a second was (and still is), that of the Middle -Tower; the third faces the river at Traitor’s Gate under St Thomas’s -Tower; and the fourth is that at the eastern extremity of the fortress, -near to a dam which connected the tower above the Iron Gate with the -tower formerly called Galleyman’s Tower, or “the tower leading to the -Iron Gate.” - -Middle Tower, the first by which the present visitor to the Tower -enters the fortress, has been greatly modernised in its upper part. -Since the destruction of the Lion Tower it has become the first gate -of the Citadel, its name having been gained by its original position -between the Lion and Byward Towers, to the latter of which it formed -the outwork: it protects the western and landward approach to the -fortress. Originally the Middle Tower was coated with Portland stone. -It has a double portcullis, which can still be used if required. In -front of this Tower, in mediæval days, stood a drawbridge, of which -however, no trace remains, the moat now being spanned by a bridge of -stone 130 feet in length and 20 feet in width at its narrowest part. - -It was in front of this gateway that Elizabeth, on returning a Queen to -the Tower, which she had left five years before a prisoner, alighted -from her horse and kneeling on the ground returned thanks to God, “who -had,” as Bishop Burnet writes in his “History of the Reformation,” -“delivered her from a danger so imminent; and for an escape as -miraculous as that of David.” To the right of the Middle Tower a road -leads to Tower Wharf, from whence one of the most striking views in -the whole of London is seen. Before the spectator stretches the famous -“Pool,” that wide space of ever-shifting water on which rides all the -shipping of the mighty river. It is a view which combines past and -present; all the stir, the toil and traffic of the Thames lies before -one, and for background rise the pinnacles, towers, and embattled -walls of the grim old fortress, looking down on the ever-changing but -time-defying stream. - -Returning to the Middle Tower, and passing along the causeway which -spans the moat, the Byward Tower is reached. The Byward Tower forms the -gatehouse of the Outer Ward of the Tower, and dates back to the reign -of Richard II. In form this tower is rectangular, it has three floors, -and rejoices in a portcullis which, like that of the Middle Tower, -could still be worked. In the time of Henry VIII. the Byward Tower -was known by the name of the Warding Gate. Upon the right-hand side of -the entrance there is a fine vaulted chamber, some 15 feet in size, -which is supposed to have been used as an oratory during the Middle -Ages. It is now occupied by the Warders of the Tower, and is called -the Warders’ Parlour; with its loopholed windows and ancient stone -fireplace, it is one of the best preserved interior portions of the -fortress. There is a corresponding chamber on the opposite side of the -gateway. Attached to the Byward Tower, on its south-eastern side, is -a low tower intended to protect the postern bridge which here crosses -the moat towards the river side. It has an old oak door, half hidden -by a sentry box, over which is a vaulted roof dating from the reign -of Richard II., and this, with the narrow tortuous passage, forms a -picturesque corner of the Tower buildings. - -[Illustration: _Postern Gate in the Byward Tower._] - -To mention the Warders of the Tower necessitates something more -than a passing allusion to that most worthy body of veterans, since -the Warders of the Tower of London belong to the most interesting -of the old fortress’s institutions. Yeomen-Warders is the proper -designation of the forty or so old soldiers who guard the Tower, who -show and describe its different parts to visitors, and whose civility -and patience are matters for the highest encomium. Originally these -guardians were employed by the Lieutenant of the Tower to guard the -prisoners committed to the State prison under his charge. But in the -reign of Edward VI. the Duke of Somerset, after his liberation from the -Tower, caused those warders who had had charge of his person during -his imprisonment to be appointed, as a reward for their attention, -extra Yeomen of the Guard. And from that period dates, with some -modifications, the costume still worn by the Tower Yeomen. The Warders -of the Tower are all picked men, and have all been appointed to their -posts for good service in the Army. In the old days when the State -trials were held at Westminster Hall the “Gentleman-Gaoler”—as that -Warder was named whose affair it was to escort and guard the State -prisoner to and from his trial, and who carried the processional -axe (still kept in the Queen’s House) before the prisoner with the -edge turned away from him on the journey to Westminster, and almost -always with its edge towards him as he returned, as a sign that he was -condemned to die—was the principal of the Tower Warders. The office -is still maintained, inasmuch as he takes the front place on State -occasions of ceremony, when the old axe is taken from its honoured -repose in the Lieutenant’s study in the Queen’s House. - -The Warders of the Tower must not, however, be confounded with the -Yeomen of the Guard, the latter of whom are more usually known by -the name of Beefeaters, and who, in their picturesque and striking -uniform, make so effective a display on State occasions, such as the -Levées at St James’s Palace, and State balls and concerts at Buckingham -Palace. Whether the designation “Beefeater” originated from a supposed, -but non-existent French word “buffetier” or not is a matter of no -importance; but what is interesting is the fact that this body of men, -with the exception of the Pope’s Swiss bodyguard, are the only set of -attendants belonging to a European Court who retain a costume similar -to that worn by their predecessors over three centuries ago. - -Passing under the Byward Tower the Inner Ward is reached, into which -entrance was gained from the river by Traitor’s Gate, the steps to that -famous portal running below St Thomas’s Tower. Formerly cross walls, -guarded with strong gates, defended the Inner Ward, but these have long -since disappeared, together with the grated walls which shut in the -passage across the Ward from Traitor’s Gate to the Bloody Tower. - -As recently as the year 1867 this portion of the Inner Ward was covered -with storehouses, engine-rooms and the lodgings of the warders, and -most of these buildings, according to Lord de Ros, were in a state -of total dilapidation, “the result of many years of neglect on the part -of the former Board of Ordnance.” Since that time a great improvement -has been made here, as well as in other parts of the fortress: of these -improvements a list is given in the Appendix. - -[Illustration: _Yeoman Porter of the Tower._] - -Bounded by the Bloody and St Thomas’s Towers ran a narrow street called -Mint Street, from the adjoining building occupied by the offices of -the Mint, which consisted of a row of mean houses that hid and defaced -the fine old Ballium wall of the fortress. Regarding this Ballium -wall, Lord de Ros, in his account of the Tower, explains the word -“Ballium” as “a military term,” but wishing for some further knowledge -as to the meaning of the word, I referred to my learned friend Mr -W. Peregrine Propert of St David’s, who informed me that it was -probably derived from the French term “bailler,” meaning “to deliver -possession, to lease, to hold, keep, contain.” The Latin form Ballium -would accordingly mean something that is held, contained, or enclosed. -Castles in ancient times were usually enclosed by several circuits of -walls, fences, or ramparts. Sometimes there was a ditch or moat built -outside these defences, as was the case in the Tower of London. The -space between these walls was called the “Ballium.” On the site of the -prison of Newgate stood a Roman fortress which was no doubt surrounded -by ramparts, and the space so defended has retained its old appellation -Ballium in the present term Old Bailey. “It is quite natural,” adds Mr -Propert, “to suppose that if one wall disappeared the remaining wall -would be called the ballium popularly: in the same manner a wall in -the Tower of London might be called a Ballium, though not correctly -according to its etymology.” - -The Ballium wall at its highest is some forty feet high, and dates -probably as far back as the Conquest; it is, therefore, one of the -most ancient parts of the Tower, and coeval with the White Tower. It -commences at the Main Gate of the outer rampart at the Bell Tower, and -forms the angle of the Queen’s or Governor’s House, whence it runs for -some fifty yards to the north-west until it joins the Beauchamp Tower: -this tower forms a bastion near the centre of the Ballium wall. To the -right the restored Tower of St Thomas overlaps the Traitor’s Gate. This -tower dates back to the reign of Henry VIII., and was entirely rebuilt -in 1866 by Salvin, only a portion of the interior retaining the walls -of the original building. - -Among a crowd of dingy wine-shops, offices, storehouses, and buildings -which, according to good authority, were mostly “in a condition of ruin -and dilapidation,” stood the old Mint, of which some account must here -be given: - -In the twenty-first annual account of the Deputy Master of the Mint for -the year 1890 is the following account of the Mint when it was still -within the Tower walls:— - -“Among the old records of the Mint a discoloured parchment has been -discovered, which is described as ‘An exact survey of the ground plot -or plan of His Majesty’s Office of the Mint in the Tower of London.’ -It bears the date February 26, 1700, and is of special interest as -having presumably been prepared by order of Sir Isaac Newton, who -was appointed Master of the Mint in 1699, having previously held the -office of Warden.... The Mint buildings were situated between the -rampart, which is bounded by the moat, and the inner ward or ballium -of the fortress, which they entirely surrounded, except on the river -frontage.... There are ample data as to the nature of the machinery and -appliances which filled the various workrooms at the time when the plan -was prepared. The more important machinery would be the rolling mills. -The rolling mills were drawn by horsepower, and the rolls were of -steel and of small dimensions. The coining presses were screw presses, -and must have been the same as were introduced by Blondeau in 1661, -under the direction of Sir W. Parkhurst and Sir Anthony St Ledger, -Wardens of the Mint, at a cost of £1400. Blondeau, who greatly improved -the system of coining, did not, however, invent the screw press, as -Cellini described it accurately in 1568.” - -[Illustration: _The Wakefield and Bloody Towers._] - -In 1698 Sir Isaac Newton writes from the “Mint Office, October 22nd,” -as follows:—“Sir, Pray let Mr James Roettier have the use of the -great Crown Press in the Long Press Room for coyning of the Medalls, -and let some person whom you can confide in, attend to see that Mr -Roettier make no other use of the said press room than for coyning of -medalls.—To Mr John Braint, Provost of the Moniers.” - -Sir Isaac was evidently suspicious of the uses that Roettier might -make of the Crown press, and not overconfident of the honesty of the -old Dutch medallist. We shall have more to say regarding Roettier when -describing the Tower under the Stuart king’s Restoration. - -It is uncertain if Sir Isaac Newton occupied the house of the Master -of the Mint in the Tower, although it is recorded in the Conduit MSS. -that Halley once dined with Sir Isaac at the Mint. At the end of the -seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth, Newton had a -house in Jermyn Street, St James’s. The lodgings in the Tower of the -Master of the Mint were immediately to the north of the Byward Tower, -whilst those of the Warden were to the left of the Brass Mount, on the -north of the Jewel or Martin Tower. - -The debasement of the coin of the realm, especially during the reigns -of the Tudor Sovereigns, caused great loss to the State, the matter -becoming so serious that Latimer denounced this criminal practice from -St Paul’s Cross, Sir John Yorke being then Master of the Tower Mint. -In 1550–51 it is recorded that there was “great loss, 4000 weight of -silver, by treason of Englishmen, which he (Yorke) bought for provision -for the minters. Also Judd, 1500; also Gresham, 500; so that the whole -came to 4000 pound.” There is a letter to the Treasurer, dated 22nd -August 1550, ordering him “to waie and cause to be molten downe into -wedges all such crosses, images, and church and chapelle plate of Gould -as remains in the Towere.” This letter was accompanied by a warrant -signed by Henry VIII. for “VIJM pounds appointed to be delivered to -Sir John Yorke for such purposes as his Lordship knoweth.” This act of -spoliation of all the Church treasure in the Tower by the rapacious -Henry, accounts for none of the plate in the Chapel of St Peter’s -dating further back than the reign of Charles I. - -The famous Traitor’s Gate is perhaps the most historic plot of ground -in England, for here some of the noblest of our race have played the -last scene but one of their lives. More tragic pathos attaches to this -black water-gate than to the Bridge of Sighs in Venice; it is more -deeply dyed with gloom than the glacis of Avignon, the dungeons of St -Angelo, or the Austrian Spilberg. But a few steps had to be traversed -by the prisoners, when landed at these steps, before they entered the -Bloody Tower on the opposite side of the Ward, not to pass thence until -the day of their execution. The Traitor’s Gate was the principal of -the Barbicans or water-gates of the fortress; it commanded the passage -between the Thames and the moat. The stone arch which spans Traitor’s -Gate springs from two octagonal piers, and is 61 feet across. On the -old steps, that can still be traced below the modern stone stairs by -which they are overlaid, many an illustrious victim landed from the -barge, in which the prisoners of State were generally taken to and from -their trial at Westminster. - -Within one of the circular turrets over the Gate, on the south-east, -are the remains of an oratory, the piscina being still visible in -the wall. It was before this tower, on the night of St George’s Day -1240, that the gateway with the adjacent wall of St Thomas’s Tower -suddenly fell to the ground. In the following year, on the same -anniversary, the newly-built tower and gate again fell prone. That -such a catastrophe should occur twice on the night of the 23rd of April -was attributed by the Londoners to supernatural causes; and rumour -spread that on that very night (Mathew Paris is the authority) the -spectre of an Archbishop, crozier in hand, had appeared to one of the -Tower priests whilst standing near St Thomas’s Tower. After gazing -sternly at the priest and on the walls of the tower then rebuilding, -the spectre struck the stones with his crozier, exclaiming, “Why build -ye these?” and down fell the newly-erected tower and wall. The spectre -was supposed to be St Thomas of Canterbury, from whom the tower took -its name, but after the building had arisen for the third time, the -restorer has been the only person who has meddled with them. - -[Illustration: North, or inside, view of TRAITOR’S GATE. - - _being the principal entrance of the Tower of London, from the - River, and through which state prisoners of rank and dignity were - formerly conveyed to the Tower._] - -A passage connected this tower with the Wakefield Tower, on the right -of the Bloody Tower, and was restored by Salvin, to enable the Keeper -of the Regalia, who has his quarters in St Thomas’s Tower, to pass into -the Wakefield Tower, where the jewels are kept, without leaving the -building. - -The Wakefield Tower and its companion, the Bloody Tower, form one block -of buildings. According to recent authorities this tower is principally -the work of the reigns of Stephen and of Henry III. Formerly it was -called the Record or Hall Tower, and for many centuries contained the -documents relating to the fortress, now kept in the Record Office in -Chancery Lane. Its second name of Hall Tower was probably given to -it because of its proximity to the great hall of the Palace, which -was destroyed by Cromwell, where the courts of justice met in the -Middle Ages. Its present name is no doubt derived from the prisoners -who were taken at the battle of Wakefield in December 1460, when the -Lancastrians, led by Warwick, defeated the Yorkists. The unhappy -Yorkists were interned in a vaulted chamber in the basement of the -tower; and here also another civil war, that of 1745, brought a shoal -of Scottish prisoners into this dismal dungeon when the mortality -amongst them was terrible. Salvin restored the tower, without and -within, in 1867. Some frescoes on the walls of the rooms on the first -floor could still be traced up to that time, but nothing of these most -interesting relics of early English art have been left by the restorers. - -The dungeon in the basement, where the Yorkist and Jacobite soldiers -were placed at an interval of nearly three centuries, is octagonal -in form, 23 feet in width, by 10 feet high. Its walls are 13 feet in -thickness, the present beautiful vaulted stone roof being a copy of the -old one. The Government of George II. behaved to the poor Highlanders -brought here after Culloden, much as did the Indian perpetrators of the -Black Hole of Calcutta tragedy, for between sixty and seventy prisoners -were crammed into this single chamber. It is little wonder that half -of them speedily died; the survivors were transported as slaves to the -West Indies. The Regalia is kept in the upper chamber of this tower and -is probably the greatest attraction to the majority of the visitors to -the Tower of London, for gewgaws always attract a crowd.[3] - -Of the half-dozen crowns, with the sceptres and orbs, and other -State ornaments kept in this chamber, one or two articles only, date -back earlier than the days of Charles II. The oldest of these is a -silver-gilt “anointing spoon” which belonged to the Ampulla or Golden -Eagle, and was used to anoint the sovereign with the holy oil at his or -her coronation; a salt-cellar which is said to have belonged to Queen -Elizabeth, and which is certainly a handsome specimen of chased silver -of the Renaissance period. The coronation spoon is of pure gold, and -has four pearls placed in the broadest part of the handle, on which -also are remains of some enamelling. An arabesque is engraved on -the bowl; a ridge runs down the centre forming two depressions in the -metal, and into these hollows the Archbishop dipped his finger before -anointing the sovereign. The Ampulla, the vessel which contained the -oil, is also fashioned in gold, in the shape of an eagle, the head, -which served as a lid, being loose. The Imperial crown, a terrible -thing in form, although covered with handsome jewels, was entirely -reconstructed for George IV. at his coronation, and is worthy of that -monarch’s taste. - -[Illustration: _The Jewel House_] - -[Illustration: _Doorway of the Jewel House_] - -In the reign of Henry VIII. the Keeper of these jewels was for a time -Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, who received fifty pounds a year for -the office, besides many perquisites connected with the charge. In -1623, Charles I., starting with the Duke of Buckingham on his quixotic -journey to Spain, is said to have carried with him jewels belonging to -the Crown to the value of sixty thousand pounds. - -During the Commonwealth the Crown was broken up and the Crown jewels -dispersed. At the Restoration, Sir Gilbert Talbot was the Keeper of -the Jewels, and it was then, for the first time, that the public were -allowed to see the Regalia. Whilst Talbot was Keeper and Edwards -sub-Keeper, Blood’s almost successful attempt to carry off the Crown -occurred. Far more interesting than the Regalia is the chamber in which -it is placed. It is octagonal in shape, 30 feet in diameter, with bays -opened into the walls. The beautiful carved ceiling is a modern copy -of the original. In the bay on the north-eastern side are two deep -recesses, that under an archway being the original entrance into the -chamber and connecting it with the palace; it is now walled up. The -recess to the south-east was formerly an oratory, and is mentioned in -the Tower records in the year 1238. - -Tradition points to this room as being the scene of the murder of -Henry VI. by Richard III., who is supposed to have entered through -the passage from the Palace, and finding Henry praying in the oratory -stabbed him to death, “punching his anointed body full of deadly -holes,” as Shakespeare puts it in “Henry VI.” - -Before describing the Inner Ward, which is entered after passing under -the Bloody Tower, of which the black portcullis still shows its jagged -teeth, one would do well to turn and look back from under the curiously -groined roof of the old gateway, with lions’ heads carved in the -spandrels, towards Traitor’s Gate. This is perhaps the most suggestive -view of any within the Tower, the least changed, and full of historical -reminiscences. Through this archway have passed all the State prisoners -that the old fortress has drawn into its grim maw—prelates, queens, and -princes, statesmen, judges, courtiers, and soldiers of all degrees—the -patriot willing to lay down his life for the “old cause,” as Algernon -Sidney called his policy—and the favourite of some fickle royal master, -thrown aside and allowed to perish by a Henry, an Elizabeth, or a -Charles. For five centuries this old Tower has seen pass beneath its -black walls many who have helped to make the history of our race; this -pathway has been their _Via Crucis_. - -A very old tradition, dating certainly as far back as the reign of -Elizabeth, gives the epithet of “bloody” to this tower. It has always -been known as the place where the sons of Edward IV. were murdered by -their uncle Richard in 1483. Although there is no historical evidence -to prove that this was the scene of that event, local tradition in a -place like the Tower is not a factor to be despised, for the story of -the crime and its _locale_ cannot have been handed down at an interval -of less than a hundred years from the time of the occurrence. Until the -reign of Elizabeth the Bloody Tower was called the Garden Tower, from -a garden which lay on its western side, belonging to the Constable’s -House or Lodging, to give its old style, the building now known as the -King’s or Governor’s House; this garden has long ceased to exist. - -[Illustration: _The Bloody Tower._ - - _looking towards Traitor’s Gate._] - -The Bloody Tower is a building of three storeys, with an elevation -of 47 feet. Worthy of notice is the portcullis which, like that of -the Byward Tower, is still in working order: these two are said to -be the only remaining portcullises in England still capable of being -used. Mrs Hutchinson, the wife of the Parliamentary Colonel, refers to -this portcullis. She shared her husband’s imprisonment here in 1663, -“in a room,” she writes, “where it was said the two young princes, -Edward V. and his brother, were murdered; the room that led to it was -a great dark room with no window, where the portcullis to one of the -inner gates was drawn up and let down.” Among other prisoners who have -lingered in the Bloody Tower were Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, Jane -Grey’s father-in-law, Archbishop Cranmer, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Sir -Thomas Overbury, who was slowly poisoned. It was from the window over -the gateway on the north side that Archbishop Laud, himself a prisoner, -gave Strafford his supreme blessing as the great Earl was led out to -die; and in this tower the brutal Judge Jeffreys died of delirium -caused by drink and despair. The only prisoner here now is a small bird -whose cage hangs from out a window of this gloomy gaol. - -Of all the illustrious prisoners who have been immured here Sir Walter -Raleigh is the most interesting. The steps which lead to the first -floor of the prison tower open on an arched door, through which he -must often have passed; they are as old as the Tower itself, which -dates back to Richard III. or Richard II. In the Elizabethan survey -of the Tower a walled garden is shown on the plan, facing the north. -This was the garden which helped to soften the long imprisonment -passed by Sir Walter, and here he whiled away many of the weary hours -of his long captivity tending his flowers, or distilling essences in -a little garden house which he had built himself. These occupations -and the composition of his huge fragment, the famous “History of the -World,” which he wrote in the Tower, must have been Raleigh’s greatest -consolations during the fourteen long years he passed in the fortress. -Raleigh also had the company of his family during one period of his -imprisonment, and he was also allowed to have some of the natives he -had brought back from Guiana to attend upon him. As the years of his -imprisonment increased so did his troubles, and he suffered cruelly -from rheumatism and palsy whilst in the Bloody Tower, and in 1606 -it was found necessary, if his life was to be preserved, to change -his prison. For Raleigh’s memory, among other reasons, the interior -of the Bloody Tower is well worth visiting, although the rooms have -been modernised. They are now occupied by one of the warders and his -family. One chamber is pointed out as that in which the little York -princes were smothered. This room has been divided into two, but there -is nothing to show that the walls and the ceiling are not the same as -those which were there when the murderers entered, having presumably -passed through a window at the end of a passage which opens out on to -the terraced wall overlooking the river. - -Within the Inner Ward, by the side of the Wakefield Tower, stood, until -the summer of 1899, an ugly building called the Main Guard, and it is -in front of this building that the ceremony of receiving the Tower -keys takes place nightly. Every evening just before midnight the Chief -Warder and the Yeoman Porter meet together and proceed to the main -guard-room. The Yeoman Porter carries in his hand his bunch of great -keys, and on arriving at the guard-room he asks for “The escort of the -keys.” This escort consists of a Beefeater (a sergeant) and six private -soldiers. The sergeant carries a lantern, and the whole party then -proceeds to the outer gate, where the soldiers assist the Yeoman Porter -to close it. The latter then takes his keys and locks the gate, after -which the procession is reformed for the return. As the party passes -the sentinels on its way back, the latter challenges it with, “Who goes -there?” The Yeoman Porter makes answer “The keys!” To this the sentry -calls out “Advance King Edward’s Keys!” and the escort proceeds -onward to the Main Guard. When this is reached the same ceremony is -gone through, at the conclusion of which the officer of the guard and -the escort salute the keys by presenting arms, after which the Yeoman -Porter cries “God preserve King Edward!” The keys are then carried by -the same guardian to the King’s House, or, as it is sometimes called, -the Governor’s House, and placed for the night in the Constable’s -office. Probably few know that, with the exception of the Sovereign and -the Constable of the Tower, the password of the fortress is known only -to the Lord Mayor of London, the word being sent to the Mansion House, -quarterly, signed by the monarch. This is a survival of an ancient -custom. - -[Illustration: _Groining in Ceiling of the Bloody Tower._] - -In early days a building, with towers attached, stood between the -Main Guard and the White Tower, which is called in the old plans of -the fortress “Cold or Cole Harbour.” When in 1899 the Main Guard was -pulled down the old wall of Cold Harbour was laid bare, and at the same -time a well with a stone lining to it, and a subterranean passage were -discovered. The subterranean passage ran to the east of the Wakefield -Tower and opened out towards the river front at the eastern side of St -Thomas’s Tower, at a depth of five feet below the actual surface of the -ground; it was six feet high, and so narrow that only one person could -pass along it. - -In Gascoyne’s plan of the Tower, Cold Harbour is shown with two tall -circular towers, with a gateway between them, and stands at the -south-western side of the White Tower. But as far back as the reign of -James II. this building had disappeared. The origin of the name “Cold -Harbour or Cole Harbour” has been a puzzle to antiquarians. The name is -found in many localities throughout the south of England, and is always -found in places near the Roman Road, a circumstance which has given -the possible derivation of the name from _Collis Arboris_ or _Colles -Aborum_. And the site of Cold Harbour in the Tower might, with every -probability, have been a wooded knoll or hillock by the side of the -river when the Romans ruled in Britain. That Cold Harbour, or rather -its two towers, were of some height is shown by the complaint made in -1572 against the Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir Owen Hopton, for allowing -his prisoners to meet and walk on the “leads of Cole Harbour.” About -the same time Lord Southampton, Shakespeare’s friend, when a prisoner -in the Tower, was once seen “leaping upon the tower, his wife being on -the opposite side of the ditch,” or the moat as we should call it. - -To the left, and facing the Main Guard, lies the Tower Green, known -also as the Parade. It has buildings upon its three sides. On the -southern side the King’s House,[4] formerly called the Lieutenant’s -Lodging, with its old gables, is a conspicuous feature. This building -is carried on to the western side of the Green by a row of houses whose -fronts have been modernised out of all semblance to their respectable -antiquity; the northern end of the Green is closed by the walls of -the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula. Homely as is the appearance of the -King’s House, it is here that, should the reigning monarch of England -ever return to lodge in the fortress, he or she would dwell, for it -is the largest of the dwelling-houses within the Tower since the old -Palace was pulled down. To those who have had the privilege of being -taken over this house by its present occupier, General George Milman, -the memory of its quaint old rooms, some panelled with wainscotting, -and all made interesting by a collection of prints, and views, and -portraits of places and people connected with the history of the -fortress, will be a lasting and a pleasant one. No worthier guardian -has held the honoured post of Lieutenant of the Tower, or taken a -deeper interest in the venerable monument over which his Sovereign -placed him, than the present occupant of the post. - -The Lieutenant of the Tower ranks next to the Constable of the -fortress. In the reign of Richard II. the Lieutenant received twenty -pounds a year, and was entitled to the following perquisites. From -every prisoner committed to the Tower having property of a hundred -marks a year he received, “for the sute of his yrons” forty shillings, -and from poorer or richer prisoners in proportion. From every galley -coming up the river he received a “roundlett of wine” and of “daynties -a certain quantity.” In the time of Elizabeth the Lieutenant received -two hundred marks a year; in the eighteenth century this sum was -increased to seven hundred pounds a year, besides valuable perquisites. -The office of Constable of the Tower ranks high amongst military -honours. Its roll of names include, since the death of the Iron Duke -in 1852, those of Lord Combermere, Sir John Burgoyne, Sir Fenwick -Williams, Lord Napier of Magdala, and Sir Daniel Lysons. - -With its many gables, the old flagged court before it, bordered by -sycamores, the King’s House forms a pleasing contrast to the blackened -walls and towers which are round about it. The building looks a place -of ancient peace, and seems rather to be a portion of some venerable -college than of a mediæval fortress. The Green, formerly divided into -three portions, of which one was a garden, the second a parade ground, -and the third (that nearest to St Peter’s Chapel) a burying-ground, is -now a single space in which seats are placed for the weary sightseer. -It is a pleasant place wherein to pass a few moments day-dreaming -on the scene around, and its strange contrast between the past and -the present. On the ground floor of the King’s House is kept that -interesting relic of the Tower and its story, the processional axe. -This is the famous weapon which was carried to and from State trials -by the Gentleman Warder. The axe’s head is peculiar in form, 1 foot 8 -inches high by 10 inches wide, and is fastened into a wooden handle 5 -feet 4 inches long. The handle is ornamented by four rows of burnished -brass nails running perpendicularly down the sides, giving the weapon -a strong resemblance to the decorated boat-hooks used in Venice for -holding the gondolas at the landing-stages. - -In the photograph which, by the kindness of General Milman, I was -permitted to have taken of the axe, the background is formed by the -masonry of the Bloody Tower, which has the appearance of a grisly -pile of human skulls, a not inappropriate circumstance. Although the -processional axe was only used as an emblem of law and justice, it is -closely connected with many a Tower tragedy. It is not known when this -axe was first used in those solemn processions when it preceded the -prisoner to and from trial, nor is its age certain. It was last used -at the State trials of the Jacobite lords in the years 1746 and 1747. -It is now kept in the study of the Lieutenant of the Tower, whence it -is only removed on such State occasions as the installation of a new -Constable. - -On the first floor of the King’s House, overlooking the Thames, is the -Council Room in which Guy Fawkes was examined before Cecil and the -Council of State. It was on this occasion that Cecil wrote to James -I. that Guy Fawkes “was no more dismayed than if he were taken for a -poor robbery in the highway.” Fawkes was not, as is sometimes stated, -tortured in this room, for torture was only applied in the dungeons -below the White Tower, which fact should disprove the legend that the -cries of the tortured conspirator are heard on stormy nights proceeding -from the Council Chamber. But there is another legend connected with -this part of the Tower, to the effect that the shadow of an axe is -sometimes seen spreading its form on Tower Green, and appearing on -the walls of the White Tower. Indeed, a likelier or a more proper -place for ghostly visitations of all kinds than the Tower can hardly -be found anywhere in the world, if it be true that ghosts “do walk.” -For this reason it is disappointing that there are so few legends of -apparitions to chronicle, and of these few the following have the -best authentication. In _Notes and Queries_ for September 1860, some -letters appeared relating to Tower ghosts, and amongst them Mr E. Le -Swifte (the same individual, I believe, who so courageously saved the -Regalia during the great fire in the Tower in 1841, when the Armoury -was destroyed) writes an account of a ghostly visitant which appeared -to his wife and himself in the Martin Tower, where the Regalia, of -which he had charge, were then placed. Swifte was appointed to the -post of Keeper of the Crown Jewels in 1814, which he held until 1852, -living with his family in the Martin Tower. One evening in the month of -October 1817, whilst at supper, his little son and his wife’s sister -were startled at seeing an apparition, “like a glass tube” of the -thickness of Mrs Swifte’s arm, which hovered between the ceiling and -the supper table. It seemed to contain, adds Swifte, “a clear fluid.” -This spectral shape appeared for a few moments, causing the family the -greatest alarm. Shortly afterwards, one of the sentinels outside the -Martin Tower saw a “huge bear issuing from underneath the door of the -Tower.” The man fell down in a swoon and was taken to the guard-house -room. The poor fellow actually died of the fright. - -[Illustration: _The Council Chamber in the Governor’s House._] - -Above the chimney-piece of the Council Chamber is a life-size coloured -alto-relievo head of James the First; between this and the window, on -the same wall, is a highly ornate stone tablet in the style of an altar -tomb of the period, adorned with a row of heraldic shields bearing the -coat-of-arms of the members of the Council who examined Guy Fawkes, -amongst whom are those of Sir Edward Coke, the Attorney-General, and -of Sir William Wade or Waad, the Lieutenant of the Tower, by whom the -tablet was erected in honour of King James. Wade was the Lieutenant who -was so cordially disliked by Sir Walter Raleigh, who called him “that -beast Waad.” Below the shields is a fulsome inscription in English, -Latin, and Hebrew, describing the Gunpowder Plot and its discovery. - -Adjoining the Council Chamber is the room from which Lady Nithsdale -succeeded in helping her husband to escape from the Tower, where he -had been in prison for the part he had taken in the rebellion of 1715. -The escape, which is described in the chapter dealing with the Tower -under the Georges, was effected on the day before that on which Lord -Nithsdale was to be executed. The unfortunate Duke of Monmouth was a -prisoner in this building in 1685, between his capture after the Battle -of Sedgemoor and his death on Tower Hill. Here also, during the days -when the Stuarts reigned, and even earlier, it was customary to send to -the care of the Lieutenant those prisoners of State whose position and -importance made it desirable that they should be under the eye of the -chief officer in the fortress, who was made personally responsible for -their safe keeping. To this class of prisoner belonged Lady Margaret -Douglas, Countess of Lennox, and mother of Henry Darnley. In an upper -chamber of the King’s House is an inscription on a stone let into the -wall above the fireplace, on which it is written that the Countess -was “Commyedede prysner to this Lodgynge for the marege of her sonne, -my Lord Henry Darnle and the Queene of Scotlande,” a list of servants -“that doe wayte upon her noble grace in thys place” is also given upon -the stone. This unlucky lady was a prisoner in 1565 for no fault, save -that she was the mother of Queen Mary of Scotland’s husband. After -passing many years in captivity, her cousin Elizabeth allowed her, -after her release from the Tower, to die in poverty. Lady Lennox is -commemorated by a stately monument in Henry the Seventh’s chapel in -Westminster Abbey, for Elizabeth, with that strange inconsistency for -which she was remarkable, after imprisoning the poor lady, and allowing -her to die in misery after her release, erected a costly tomb to her -memory. It was, indeed, a case of being asked for bread and according a -stone. - -At the south-western corner of the King’s House is the Bell Tower, -a passage leading into it from the first floor of that building. A -bell which formerly hung in a wooden turret on this tower gave it -its name—the turret still remains, but the bell is kept in the upper -storey. In the Tower regulations of 1607 it is ordered that: “When the -Tower bell doth ring at nights for the shutting in of the gates, all -the prisoners, with their servants, are to withdraw themselves into -their chambers, and not to goe forth that night.” This bell was also -the alarm bell of the fortress. - -[Illustration: _Prison in the Governor’s House._] - -The Bell Tower, which dates from the time of Richard I. or Henry III., -is an irregular octagon, being 60 feet in height and 30 in diameter. -The lower portion is of solid masonry, the walls varying from 9 to 13 -feet in thickness. There are only two floors or storeys in the Tower, -the lower with a fine vaulted ceiling. The room in the upper storey is -a circular chamber, 18 feet across, with walls 8 feet in thickness. -This prison is reached by a narrow staircase from the King’s House, and -is lighted by four windows. Bishop Fisher was imprisoned in the upper -chamber in the reign of Henry VIII., Sir Thomas More being confined -in the one below. Both were harshly treated, and the poor old bishop -suffered terribly from the cold. In the lower chamber, where More -passed many solitary hours, even debarred from the consolation of his -books, there now stands a large model of the Tower. Near the door of -the upper prison a much defaced inscription can be seen on the wall, -cut by the Bishop of Ross, who was a prisoner here in the time of -Elizabeth. Felton, the murderer of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, -is also believed to have been a prisoner in the Bell Tower. - -Between the King’s House and the Beauchamp Tower, and facing Tower -Green, is a row of modernised houses occupied by the Yeomen of the -Guard, the Yeoman Jailor, and other officials connected with the -fortress. All these houses have been refaced, and one regrets the bad -taste which, in former years, allowed every appearance of age to be -ruthlessly swept away from these buildings; and this is a regret that -is ever present when visiting the Tower. The most glaring instance is -the Beauchamp Tower, which, next to the White Tower, would have been -the most interesting of the many interesting buildings here, had it not -undergone what architects call “a thorough restoration” half-a-century -ago. But the interior walls bear the record of many notable captives -who, while waiting their fate, carved their name, their escutcheon, -or some pious prayer upon the stones. Nearly all the most important -prisoners of State during the reigns of the Tudors were imprisoned -here, as the walls of the large prison room on the first floor still -show. They are literally covered with inscriptions and devices. Some of -these, however, have been brought from other places in the fortress, -and therefore do not properly belong to the Beauchamp Tower, which -is to be regretted, since they lose their interest by being removed -from their original sites. Outwardly the Beauchamp Tower has now as -modern an appearance as either the Norman or Winchester Towers at -Windsor—spick, span, and spruce looking, more like a modern imitation -of some mediæval tower than the actuality; the glamour of the old walls -has been entirely destroyed. - -For many years the prison room on the first floor of the Beauchamp -Tower was the mess room for the officers of the garrison, and General -Milman remembers dining there frequently when on duty at the Tower, the -walls and inscriptions being covered by cupboards and furniture. - -This tower takes its name from Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, -who was confined here in 1397. It was also known by the name of the -Cobham Tower, from Lord Cobham and his sons having been imprisoned -in it in Queen Mary’s reign for the part they had taken in Wyatt’s -rebellion. The tower forms a semicircle and has three floors, the well -staircase by which it is entered from the Green communicating with -each floor and rising to the roof, which is battlemented. The large -window facing the Green is modern, dating from the “restoration” of -the building in 1854 by Salvin, but the cross window is of the time -of Edward III., and is contemporary with the original structure. -The principal prison chamber was the one on the second floor, and -this contains the most noteworthy inscriptions. Close to the entrance -door the name “Marmaduke Neville” is cut in the wall: this Neville is -believed to have been imprisoned here in the reign of Elizabeth for -having plotted for Queen Mary of Scotland. On the right of Neville’s -signature appears the name of “Peverel,” with an elaborate device of a -crucifix with a bleeding heart in the centre, and the Peverel shield. -Nothing is known regarding this Peverel, but one sees the name with -interest, associated as it is with Sir Walter Scott’s romance. Sir -Walter made a careful study of this inscription, and the picturesque -name doubtless attracted him and led to its forming part of the title -of one of his immortal novels. Within the prison room on the ground -floor, the first name of historical importance to arrest attention is -that of Robert Dudley, carved on the left-hand side of the entrance. -This sign manual of Elizabeth’s favourite, the unscrupulous Earl of -Leicester, was probably cut by him when he was in this tower in 1554. -Four of his brothers were also imprisoned with him, all of whom were -released on Mary’s accession to the throne. In the prison chamber -on the floor above there is another record of Robert Dudley and his -brothers. This is an elaborately carved “rebus,” representing an oak -tree for Robert (Robur), on which are acorns, with the initials R. D. -carved beneath. Above the fireplace, which is, I fear, a restoration, -appears an inscription of great interest, a pious Latin prayer with the -illustrious name of Arundell cut in large letters, and dated June 22nd, -1587. This was the handiwork of the unfortunate Philip Howard, Earl -of Arundel, the son of that Duke of Norfolk who was beheaded in 1573 -for his wish to marry the Queen of Scots. The fate of Philip Howard’s -father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, who were all beheaded, -weighed, not unnaturally, upon their descendant, and, being a zealous -Roman Catholic, his position was one of great danger after the death -of Tudor Mary. On Elizabeth’s accession Arundel made an ineffectual -attempt to seek safety abroad, but was captured and placed in prison, -where he remained until his death in 1595. Another inscription cut by -him in this tower appears above some steps leading to the third storey: -it is in Latin, and rendered into English, runs: “It is a reproach to -be bound in the cause of sin; but to sustain the bonds of prison for -the sake of Christ is the greatest of glory. Arundell, 26th May 1587.” - -[Illustration: _The Beauchamp Tower._] - -The late Duke of Norfolk printed, from the original MSS. kept at -Arundel Castle, in 1857, a record entitled “The Lives of Philip Howard, -Earl of Arundel, and of Anne Dacres his wife.” At the close of the -book we read that “Whilst he (Arundel) was prisoner he was not only an -example, but a singular comfort to all Catholicks. No one ever heard -him complain either of the loss of his goods, or of the incommodities -of the prison, or the being bereaved of his liberty; and such as he -heard complain or understood to be aggrieved, he endeavoured by his -words and courteous usage to comfort, strengthen, and confirm. His -delight was in nothing but in God, and the contemplation of heavenly -things; much of the money which the Queen did allow him for his -maintenance (for to every prisoner in the Tower something is assigned, -more or less according to each man’s degree) he gave to the poor, -contenting himself with a spare and slender diet.” Lord Arundel rests -in that most beautiful of England’s mausoleums, the chapel at Arundel. - -In this chamber are more memorials of the family of Dudley—one an -elaborate carving commemorating the magnificent Leicester and his four -brothers, John, Ambrose, Guildford, and Henry. Within a frame formed -by a garland of roses, geraniums, honeysuckles, and oak sprigs, are a -bear and a lion supporting a ragged staff, the Dudley crest, with these -lines beneath— - - “You that these beasts do wel behold and se, - May deme with ease therefore here made they be, - With borders eke wherein four brothers names who list to serche the - ground.” - -One line is missing, but the Rev. R. Dick, in his interesting work on -the Beauchamp Tower, thus completes the verse with the words, “these -may be found.” - -[Illustration: _Prison in the Beauchamp Tower._] - -Of these four Dudley brothers, John was the eldest of the Duke of -Northumberland’s sons, and became Earl of Warwick. It was he who helped -his father in his attempt to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne, and -was imprisoned here until his death in 1554 in consequence. He was -succeeded in the earldom of Warwick by his brother Ambrose, who is -represented by the acorn in the garland on the wall; the rose stands -for Robert, the geranium for Guildford, and the honeysuckle for Henry. -All these suppositions are from Mr Dick’s work on the inscriptions, and -whether correct or not, they are at any rate ingenious, and explain the -lines. - -On the left of the second recess in this room is written in the -stone “I.W.S. 1571. Die Aprilis. Wise men ought circumspectly to -see what they do—to examine before they speake—to prove before they -take in hand—to beware whose company they use, and above all things, -to whom they truste—Charles Bailly.” Bailly was a young Fleming who -had been involved in one of the many plots to free Mary Stuart from -her captivity; to judge from the above inscription he had reason to -regret the company he had kept, and those in whom he had trusted. Near -Bailly’s inscription, but outside the recess, is the name of John -Store, Doctor. Store was one of the few of those who suffered death -after imprisonment in the Tower, whose fate was merited. He was a -bigoted Roman Catholic priest, whose intolerance and severity towards -the Reformers procured him the office of Chancellor to the University -of Oxford under Mary Tudor. He is said to have out-Bonnered Bonner -in his persecutions of those of the Reformed faith who fell into his -hands. When Elizabeth came to the throne Store fled to the Netherlands. -But he was brought back, imprisoned in the Beauchamp Tower in 1571, and -ended his career on the gallows at Tyburn. - -There are several inscriptions in this chamber relating to the family -of Pole, or, as the name is spelt on the walls, Poole. One of these -is in the third recess in a loophole—E. Poole. This is Edmund Pole, a -great-grandson of the murdered Duke of Clarence; he and his brother -Arthur were here in 1562, being both involved in one of the real or -imaginary plots against Elizabeth. Edmund Pole has engraved here that -most consolatory of the Psalms, the cxxvi.—“Die semini in lachrimis in -exilititiane meter.” In another recess is “A. Pole, 1564. I.H.S. To -serve God. To endure penance. To obey fate is to reign.” Both brothers -ended their sad lives in this prison. One name carved in this chamber -has a deeper pathos than any inscription could convey; it is that of -“Jane,” and it appears in two places in the Beauchamp Tower. One would -like to think it inscribed by that peerless Jane Grey herself, but, -as she was not imprisoned here, it was probably the handiwork of her -husband, Guildford Dudley, or some adherent to her cause and sharer in -her misfortune. - -The name of Thomas Fitzgerald in one of the recesses records that it -was here that the ninth Earl of Kildare with five of his uncles was -imprisoned, having been inveigled from Ireland by Henry VIII. They were -executed at Tyburn in 1538 for being concerned in a series of wild -deeds in Ireland, amongst which the murder of the Archbishop of Armagh -was the chief. Here, too, is the name of Thomas Cobham, with the date -1555, he being one of three brothers of that name who were placed in -the Beauchamp for taking part in Sir Thomas Wyatt’s rebellion. - -The earliest date in this tower is 1462, which is cut by the side of -the name of Thomas Talbot. In all there are ninety-one names on the -walls, of which I have noted the most important only. - -To the north, and attached to the Beauchamp Tower, is the Chaplain’s -house, with an uninteresting modernised front facing the Green, and -but a few paces distant is a small paved plot of ground railed in -by order of Queen Victoria. This little plot marks the site of the -scaffold, and, above all things, it is sanctified by the memory of -Lady Jane Grey. The first victim to suffer death on this spot was -Anne Boleyn in 1538, and the last, Essex, the favourite of Elizabeth, -in 1601. Here, too, in 1541, the venerable Countess of Salisbury -was literally butchered; in the following year Catherine Howard was -beheaded with her companion in misfortune, if not in guilt, Lady -Rochford. Lord Hastings, Richard III.’s victim, was, I imagine, -beheaded immediately beneath the walls of the White Tower, for the -description of his sudden end shows that the site of Jane Grey’s -scaffold was too distant for Richard Crookback to have glutted his eyes -with Hastings’s death. - -[Illustration: _Prison Chamber in the Beauchamp Tower._] - -In former times the ground around the site of the scaffold on the -Green was a place of burial, being the churchyard of the Chapel which -faces it. “With the exception of the Abbey Church of St Peter’s at -Westminster,” writes Mr Doyne Bell in his interesting monograph on the -Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in the Tower (a most appropriate title -for a building of such tragic memories), “there is no ecclesiastical -edifice in the United Kingdom in which (so far as it has been used as -a place of sepulture) is contained so much historical interest as the -Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London. Within its walls -have been received the mortal remains of many, whose names, though not -recorded on the stones of the pavement, must yet ever live in the pages -of English history.” Macaulay in a well-known passage has called this -chapel “the saddest spot on earth,” and in a less well-known passage -has expressed his disgust at the vandalism which had “transformed this -interesting little church into the likeness of a meeting-house in a -manufacturing town.” Since the historian expressed this well-merited -indignation at the treatment accorded to St Peter’s Chapel, the fabric -has undergone a much needed restoration, happily not in the bad sense -of that term, since it has been restored as much as possible to its -condition in the middle of the sixteenth century. This restoration has -been mercifully undertaken and skilfully executed, externally as well -as internally, in every detail. - -As far back as the reign of John, or even that of Henry I., a church -stood on the site of St Peter’s Chapel. In the reign of Henry III., -a Royal warrant, of the year 1241, was issued by that monarch at -Windsor, directing that the Royal pew in St Peter’s should be repaired -for the use of the King and Queen, and instructions were given for -the refurbishing of a tabernacle with carved figures of St Peter, St -Michael, and St Katherine. Of this church only a few vestiges remain in -the crypt of the present chapel, which was built by Edward III. In a -warrant dated from Fotheringay in July 1305–6, that King orders Ralph -de Sandwich, Constable of the Tower, “to be reimbursed for various -expenses incurred by him in the construction of our new chapel within -the Tower.” - -St Peter’s consists of a nave and a single aisle on its northern side; -in length it is 66 feet, in width 54, and in height 25. - -As Mr Doyne Bell points out, the peculiar dedication of the church to -St Peter in Chains shows that it has been used since its foundation as -a church more for the use of the prisoners in the fortress than for the -sovereigns and their courts, whose place of devotion was the chapel of -St John in the White Tower. With the exception of the church in Rome -dedicated to St Peter ad Vincula, there is no other church besides -this one in the Tower, so named. To those who see this building for -the first time its general aspect must cause disappointment, so small -and almost mean does it appear, and like a hundred similar churches -scattered all over the country. But St Peter’s has undergone endless -changes and alterations, and comparatively little is left of the -building of Edward III. The exterior of the building belongs to the -Tudor period. Before the last restoration, in 1867, Lord De Ros -wrote, “It is inconceivable what pains have been taken in comparatively -modern times to disfigure this interesting chapel.” But this reproach -cannot be applied to the latest restoration, which was done with -extreme care and good taste. - -[Illustration: _Interior of Sᵗ. Peter’s Chapel._] - -The larger portion of the present building dates from the reign of -Henry VIII., when many alterations were made, the windows, with the -exception of the one over the west door, the arches in the interior, -and the timbered roof, being then placed as we see them now. - -The list of interments in this chapel commences with the reign of Henry -VIII. This list is one of the most interesting things in connection -with the chapel. - -When the Reformed Faith ousted Popery the jurisdiction of the Bishop -of London over this chapel ceased, and it has ever since remained a -benefice donative over which the Bishop has no power of visitation -or deprivation, since the Tower itself is extra-parochial. Private -marriages could be solemnised at St Peter’s, and in Ben Jonson’s “Every -Man in his Humour,” this privilege is alluded to. One unlucky curate -of the chapel, however, was sent to prison in James the First’s reign -for having performed marriages and christenings in the chapel, and only -secured his liberty through the influence of Sir William Waad, the -Lieutenant of the Tower. Another clergyman named Hubbock and his son -were excommunicated in 1620 by Laud for committing the same offence. -Later on, however, the right of solemnising marriages and christenings -in this chapel was allowed, and still continues. - -Samuel Pepys has described in one of his vivid word pictures a visit he -paid to the chapel after the Restoration, when he occupied one of the -hideous pews that then choked the floor, and which were only removed a -few years ago. “February 28, 1663–4. Lord’s Day. The Lieutenant of the -Tower, Sir J. Robinson, would needs have me by coach home with him; -where the officers of his regiment dined with him. I did go and dine -with him, his ordinary table being very good, and his lady a very -high carried, but a comely big woman, I was mightily pleased with her. -After dinner to chapel in the Tower with the Lieutenant, with the keys -carried before us; and I sat with the Lieutenant in his pew in great -state. None it seems of the prisoners in the Tower that are there now, -though they may, will come to prayers there.” With a monstrous gallery -built in the reign of George II. for the use of the troops of the -garrison, with the ugly square wooden pews, in one of which Pepys sat -“in great state”; with the pavement all broken and defaced, with walls -and columns whitewashed, and with the handsome carved Tudor ceiling -coated with lath and plaster, it is no wonder that to any one with a -respect for antiquity or love of beauty, St Peter’s in the Tower must -have presented a sad spectacle before its restoration. And it was not -until 1862 that any steps were taken to remove what was nothing less -than a public disgrace. The improvements were commenced by re-opening -the old doorway at the west end, which had been bricked up, the window -of Edward I.’s time was also restored, the broken fragments having been -collected and replaced in their original position. The lath and plaster -which for a century or more had disfigured the ceiling were removed, -and the finely carved old chestnut beams once more uncovered. - -Further improvements were carried out during the time that Sir Charles -Yorke was Constable, in the year 1876. Sir John Taylor, the head of the -Office of Works, drew up the plans of this restoration, and, aided by -Mr Salvin, the work of renovation commenced. There was much to be done, -and it was certainly done well. The pews were the first excrescence to -be removed, and the pavement, which was as uneven as that of St Mark’s -at Venice, was taken up and a new one laid down. During this operation -it was discovered that the ground had been used as a general place of -burial, for besides those whose mutilated bodies had been placed under -the pavement after execution, large numbers of other individuals had -been interred here, and at a very shallow depth below the pavement. -It was deemed necessary to remove these remains to the crypt before -the new floor could be placed. Great care was taken to identify any -remains of the illustrious dead, but in most cases it was impossible to -do so owing to the ground having been so much disturbed and the bones -scattered. Even greater care was taken when the floor of the chancel -was reached, for it was known that the bodies of Anne Boleyn and -Catherine Howard, and of the Dukes of Northumberland and Somerset had -been buried there. In 1877 the restoration of the Chapel was completed. -Many interesting discoveries had been made, and needless to say, but -for its state of decay, none of the poor fragments of mortality of the -victims of their own ambition or the tyranny of monarchs, would have -been disturbed. It was necessary to identify what remained of poor -Anne Boleyn in order that above her bones the tombstone should bear -its record of what lay below. “The forehead,” writes Mr Doyne Bell, -“and lower jaw were small and especially well formed. The vertebrae -were particularly small, especially one joint (the axlas), which was -that next to the skull, and they bore witness to the queen’s ‘lyttel -neck.’” The remains of another of Henry’s victims were found lying in -the chancel, and belonged to the old Countess of Salisbury, Margaret -Clarence. Near these some bones were found which were believed to have -been those of Queen Catherine Howard, but her body, having been placed -in quicklime, few traces of it remained. In this “dread abode” were -also laid bare the bones of the Duke of Northumberland, and a portion -of the Duke of Monmouth’s skeleton. - -Near the entrance door is a memorial tablet on which a list of the -most notable persons buried within the chapel is engraved—a list -of thirty-four persons, commencing with Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of -Kildare, buried here in 1534, and ending with Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, -in 1747. The old antiquarian, John Stowe, thus sums up with brief -simplicity the illustrious dead that lie under the pavement of the -chapel. “Here lieth before the high altar in St Peter’s Church, two -Dukes between two Queens, to wit, the Duke of Somerset and the Duke -of Northumberland, between Queen Anne and Queen Katherine, all four -beheaded.” No record that Lady Jane Grey and her husband were interred -in St Peter’s exists. It would not be easy to find a place in which -so many remarkable dead are grouped together as in this little spot -of English ground. Beneath our feet lies all that was mortal of what -was once Northumberland and Somerset, Arundel and Norfolk; gentle -Anne Boleyn and saint-like Jane Grey’s calm presence seem to linger -near their graves: here, too, the once brilliant Monmouth moulders -before the high altar; and hard by rest the faithful little band of -Jacobites—Kilmarnock and brave Balmerino, and the wily old fox, Simon -Fraser of Lovat. - -One of the earliest and handsomest monuments in St Peter’s is that to -Sir Richard Cholmondeley and his wife Elizabeth. The knight and his -lady are lying side by side, sculptured in alabaster. Sir Richard, -who was Lieutenant of the Tower in the reign of Henry VII., wears -plate armour, his hand rests on his helmet, his feet on a lion; round -his neck he wears the collar of SS. As was then the custom, this -monument has been painted and gilded, traces of its decoration still -remaining. This tomb was opened in 1876, but was found to contain only -some fragments of the stone font of the chapel of Edward the Third’s -time. Sir Richard had been knighted for his conduct on the field of -Flodden. During his Lieutenancy of the Tower a riot broke out between -the Londoners and some of the Lombard merchants, and Sir Richard, who -seems to have been cursed with a bad temper, by way of quietening -the brawlers, discharged the guns of the fortress against the city. -Hall, in his chronicle, quaintly notices this act of the Lieutenant as -follows:— - -“Whilst this ruffling continued, Syr Richard Cholmly Knight, -Lieutenant of the Tower, no great friende of the citie, in a frantyke -fury losed certayn pieces of ordinance, and shot into the citie; whiche -did little harme, howbeit his good will apeered.” This choleric knight -died in 1544. - -[Illustration: _Monument of Sir Richard Cholmondeley and his Wife in - Sᵗ. Peter’s Chapel._] - -On the north side of the chancel is a handsome double monument to the -memory of Sir Richard Blount and to his son Sir Michael; both these -Blounts were Lieutenants of the Tower. Sir Richard, clothed in armour, -is represented as praying; behind him kneel his two sons, whilst facing -him, upon their knees, are Lady Blount and two daughters. Sir Richard -died in 1564. Sir Michael, whose effigy, also clad in armour, was -placed near that of his father thirty-two years later, and his family, -consisting of his wife, three sons and one daughter, are also devoutly -kneeling. Below the Blount monument is a little inscription to the -memory of Lyster Blount, a child of two years old: it ends with these -hopeful words, “Here they all lye to expect ye coming of our sweet -Saviour Jesu. Amen, Amen.” - -Against the south wall is a black marble tablet inscribed to the memory -of Sir Allen Apsley,[5] who was Lieutenant of the Tower in the time -of James and Charles the First. His daughter was that Mrs Hutchinson -whose name will be remembered by her admirable memoirs of her husband -Colonel Hutchinson, who was imprisoned in the Bloody Tower, where -she shared his imprisonment. Sir Allen died in 1630. The first Earl -Bathurst (Lord Chancellor) was descended from him, and it was he who -built Apsley House. On the same wall are mural tablets to the memory -of Sir John Burgoyne, Field Marshal and Constable of the Tower, who -died in 1871, and is buried in the crypt of the chapel; also to Lord -De Ros, the last Deputy-Lieutenant of the Tower, who died in 1874, and -to whose book on the fortress allusion has often been made in these -pages. Among other good work done by Lord de Ros was to replace the -tombstone of brave old Talbot Edwards, who so nearly lost his life in -defending the Crown jewels when they were seized by Blood. This stone, -which had been cast aside and lay among a heap of rubbish in front of -the Beauchamp Tower, after being used as a paving-stone up to the year -1852 in front of the houses which up to that time had almost hidden -that tower from the Green, was replaced in the chapel. It bears the -following inscription: “Here lieth ye body of Talbot Edwards, Gent.: -late Keeper of his Ma’ᵗˢ Regalia who dyed ye 30 of September 1674, aged -80 years and 9 moneths.” Neither in life nor in death was this brave -old Keeper of the Crown well treated. Charles the Second settled a -handsome pension on the scoundrel Blood—hush-money probably, for it is -within the bounds of possibility that Charles was a party to Blood’s -attempt—whilst the sole reward of honest old Talbot Edwards, who was -half-killed in guarding the treasures of which he had charge, was -the consciousness of having done his duty. The Communion plate dates -from the reign of Charles the First and Charles the Second, and it is -singular to find that instead of the sacred initials being engraved -on these vessels only the Royal monogram of C. R. with a crown appear -upon them. Severely simple in shape and devoid of any ornament, -this Sacramental plate is historically interesting, for these cups and -plates have been used at the solemn hour when the Blessed Sacrament -was administered to more than one illustrious prisoner on the eve of -his execution. There is good reason for believing that Monmouth and -William, Lord Russell used these sacred vessels shortly before mounting -the scaffold. - -[Illustration: _Tomb of the Blount Family in Sᵗ. Peter’s Chapel._] - -At the back of the chapel of St Peter, and at the north-western angle -of the Inner Ward, stands the Devereux Tower, which contains two -storeys, the lower one being of massive masonry. This tower dates -from the reign of Richard the First. In the Elizabethan survey of the -fortress it is named Robyn the Devylls Tower, and in later times it -was known as the Develin Tower, and as such it appears in Haiward’s -plan. No record has come down as to the meaning of these names, but -the present appellation dates from the reign of Elizabeth, when Robert -Devereux, Earl of Essex, was a prisoner there. The upper part of the -tower is modern, and modern windows have taken the place of the old -loopholes in the 11 feet thick walls, a change which has destroyed the -character of the building; formerly it was most gloomy and forbidding. -A small winding staircase within the tower leads to a couple of prisons -constructed in the thickness of the Ballium wall. A secret passage -is supposed to have led thence, to the Flint Tower which stands to -the east of the Devereux Tower, communicating also with the vaults -under St Peter’s Chapel. Nothing remains, however, in the present -modernised state of these passages and prisons to indicate their former -appearance. Early in the nineteenth century the lower floor of the -Devereux Tower was used as a kitchen and other offices connected with -the ordnance; the upper portion was occupied by the Master Furbisher of -the Small Arms. The old kitchen, beneath which is a dungeon, has a fine -vaulted ceiling. - -The Flint Tower lies due east, at a distance of 90 feet from the -Devereux Tower, but as it was found to be in an entirely ruinous -state in 1796, the old fabric was pulled down and the present ugly -brick tower rose in its place. The old tower had been known by the -unflattering name of “Little Hell,” probably from the noisomeness -of its dungeons, and it had the evil reputation of having the worst -prisons in the fortress. Another 90 feet from the Flint Tower stands -the Bowyer Tower, of which only the base is ancient, the remainder of -the building being modern; this tower dates from the reign of Edward -the Third, and it was here that the Duke of Clarence is traditionally -said to have been drowned in a butt of Malmsey (Malvoisie) wine. -According to those learned historians of the Tower, Britton and -Brayley, who wrote in the early part of the nineteenth century, there -was a vault in a dungeon in this tower closed by a trap door, which -opened on a flight of steps; from these steps a narrow cell led into -a secret passage made in the thickness of the Ballium wall. This was -one of the many secret passages which ran below ground, and of which, -as has already been noticed, an important one was discovered when the -Main Guard building was demolished in 1899. Mr G. J. Clark, a great -authority in these matters, has stated his belief that there were -several of these secret passages in the fortress. One of these, he -thinks, ran between the White Tower and the King’s House, and Father -Gerard’s account of the way he was led to and from the White Tower and -the Governor’s or King’s House points to an underground passage between -those buildings. It has been surmised that a subterranean passage led -from out the Tower below the Thames to the Southwark side of London; in -the Beauchamp Tower a secret passage was discovered in the thickness -of the Ballium wall, where persons might have been placed to watch and -overhear all that went on within the tower.[6] - -The Bowyer Tower was so named because it was the dwelling of the royal -maker of bows, and the place where he turned out the Long Bow, as well -as the Cross Bow, and many other mediæval weapons of destruction, -such as the Balistar, the Scorpion, and the Catapult. In 1223 one -Grillot made here the “balistar corneas,” as that mysterious weapon is -described in an old record, and for his labour he was rewarded by the -gift of a new gown for his wife. - -Next to the Bowyer Tower stands the Brick Tower, but it has been -modernised. In shape this tower resembles a horse shoe; it is 40 feet -in diameter. Between this tower and the Martin Tower the curtain wall -extends some 60 feet, the sally-port stairs being passed between the -two towers. As has been the general fate of most of the towers, the -Martin Tower is externally entirely modern, whilst the interior has -been casemated. At one time the Regalia was kept here, having been -brought in 1644 from their former resting-place in a small building on -the south side, and close to, the White Tower, called the Jewel House, -where they had been kept, when not in pawn, from the time of Henry III. -In the reign of Edward III. these jewels are referred to as being in -“la Tour Blanche,” and in the same reign there is also a reference to -the “Tresorie deinz la haute Toure de Londres.” It was from the Martin -Tower that Blood attempted to steal the Regalia. - -The Martin Tower forms the north-east angle of the Inner Ward, and its -basement floor, where the Crown jewels were formerly kept, now serves -as a kitchen for the warder and his family, who occupy the tower. The -most ancient part of the Martin Tower dates from the reign of Henry -III., but Sir Christopher Wren, who spoilt the ancient appearance of -many parts of the Tower, played especial havoc here. The old windows -were removed and replaced by ugly stone-faced ones, which was also done -in the White Tower, where, with scarcely one exception, the original -Norman windows have been destroyed and Wren’s incongruities substituted -for them. - -Placed on the ground at the base of the Martin Tower is a handsome -architrave of stone, in alto-relievo, representing the Royal -coat-of-arms in the time of William III., blended with military -trophies such as helmets, kettledrums, and cannon— - - “The shrill trump, the spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife, - The royal banner, and all quality, - Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war.” - -This is one of Grinling Gibbons’s most spirited designs, graceful in -its lines, sharp and refined in its moulding. This sculpture is all -that remains of the great Store House, built in the reign of William -III. and destroyed by fire in 1841. - -Beyond the Martin Tower, the Ballium wall takes a slanting course to -the south and river side of the fortress, to where, about 100 feet -south of the Martin Tower, stands the Constable Tower, modern from -roof to base. It was so named in the reign of Henry VIII. because -it was occupied by the Constable of the Tower. During the reign of -Charles I. it was used as a prison. “In form,” writes Brayley, “it -closely corresponds with the Beauchamp Tower, but it is of rather -smaller dimensions; the interior has been modernised, and the windows -greatly enlarged.” South of the Constable Tower, and next to it, is -the Broad Arrow Tower, which in Tudor times was known as “the tower -at the east end of the Wardrobe.” Until some thirty years ago this -tower was entirely hidden by an ugly row of barracks. It was used as a -prison throughout the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth, and there are a few -signatures still to be seen on the walls of a room on the first floor. -Unfortunately, repeated coats of whitewash have almost obliterated all -the inscriptions. A list, however, of these as they appeared in 1830 -is given by Britton and Brayley. Amongst them are the names of “John -Daniell, 1556”; “Giovani Battista, 1556”; “Thomas Forde, 1582”; “John -Stoughton, 1586”; and “J. Gage, January 1591.” Little is known of any -of the above men except that Daniell was mixed up in a plot against -the Queen, and to rob the Exchequer, in the reign of Mary, and was -hanged on Tower Hill. Forde was a priest, and was executed for denying -Elizabeth’s supremacy in the Church; and Stoughton and Gage are also -supposed to have been priests. Of the Italian, Battista, no record has -come to us. Near the top of this tower a small doorway opens on to the -platform that runs along the Ballium wall. Close to this doorway is a -narrow cell 6 feet deep and 3½ feet wide, with only one small loophole -to admit air and light. - -The building known by the name of the King’s Private Wardrobe stood -close to this tower, as well as another tower called the Wardrobe. -Both these buildings were cleared away before the reign of James II., -their sites being now covered with offices or stores. The Royal robes, -armour, and probably the Royal upholstery, such as tapestry, hangings, -etc., were kept in the Wardrobe buildings, which were connected with -the Palace. - -The Salt Tower forms the south-east angle of the Inner Ward. In the -reign of Henry VIII. it was called Julius Cæsar’s Tower, although it -had no more connection with Julius Cæsar than with Sardanapalus. It -is circular in shape, and has three floors, which are connected by a -small winding staircase. Upon the first floor is a fine chimney-piece -decorated with scroll mouldings. The upper storey was used as a powder -store; but, having fallen into decay, it was restored in 1876. The Salt -Tower is probably one of the oldest buildings in the Tower, dating -as far back as the reign of William Rufus. It possesses a vaulted -dungeon with deep recesses in the walls. In a prison on the first floor -are some inscriptions cut into the wall, and amongst them is a very -elaborate device representing a sphere intersected by lines radiating -from the signs of the Zodiac. Above the sphere is this inscription, -“Hew: Draper : of Brystow: made : thys : Spheer : the : 30 : day : of -: Maye : Anno : 1561.” Draper was imprisoned on a charge of sorcery and -magic. - -One of the most interesting escapes from the Tower is closely connected -with this place, and although the story of adventures that befell a -poor Jesuit priest named Father Gerard, in the reign of Elizabeth, -is a long one, it deserves being told in some detail, for the manner -of his escape from the fortress is one of the most curious records -of prison-breaking. Father Gerard, together with many other Roman -Catholic priests, was hunted down as a criminal of the deepest dye, -and being captured, was clapped into the Salt Tower, in a prison on -its upper floor, the charge against him being that he was concerned in -a plot against the life of the Queen. He was examined on the day of -his arrival in the Tower by the Lords of the Council in the Governor’s -Lodging—now the King’s House, and in the same room in which Guy Fawkes -was afterwards interrogated. Amongst Father Gerard’s judges were the -Attorney-General, Sir Edward Coke, Sir Francis Bacon, and Sir William -Waad. Questioned as to the plot, in which another priest, Father -Garnet, was involved, Gerard refused to give any information. He was -told that if he persisted in his silence he would be tortured, and an -order was produced by which they were given permission (for torture has -always been illegal in England) if necessary “to prolong the torture -from day to day as long as life lasted.” The threat failing in its -effect Gerard was taken to “the place appointed for the torture,” and, -to quote his own words, “We went in a sort of solemn procession, the -attendants preceding us with lighted candles because the place was -underground (the subterranean passage under the White Tower) and very -dark, especially about the entrance. It was a place of immense extent, -and in it were ranged divers sorts of racks, and other instruments -of torture. Some of these they displayed before me, and told me that -I should have to taste them. They led me to a great upright beam or -pillar of wood, which was one of the supports of this vast crypt.” - -Father Gerard was then hung up by his hands, these having first been -placed in iron gauntlets which were attached to an iron rod fixed in -the pillar. A stool upon which he stood was taken from under him, and -he hung by his wrists, the whole weight of his body depending from -them. He was a heavy man, and his sufferings were acute. Whilst in this -position the Commissioners looked on, pressing the suffering man with -questions, but receiving no reply they left him, and for the next hour -the wretched priest hung suspended by his tortured wrists. He fainted -several times from the anguish; later in the afternoon Sir William -Waad returned and again tried to obtain some confession from Gerard, -but when nothing could be wrung from him, Waad turned on his heel in -a rage, crying, “Hang thou then, till you rot.” Raleigh’s description -of the Lieutenant of the Tower as “that beast Waad” had certainly some -justification. When the tolling of the bell in the Bell Tower gave -the signal that the fortress would be closed, the Commissioners were -obliged to leave the Tower, and the poor, tortured, half-dead priest -was taken down, and, scarcely able to crawl, was led back to his prison -in the Salt Tower. On the following day Gerard was again taken to the -Lieutenant’s Lodging, where Waad informed him that he had been with -“Master Secretary Cecil,” who knew for a fact that Father Gerard had -been mixed up with other plotters in schemes against Elizabeth’s life, -and that more details would have to be given by him on this matter. -Again Gerard refused to say anything that could compromise others, upon -which Waad summoned a terrible personage, the chief superintendent -of the torturers of the prison, to whom Sir William said, “I deliver -this man into your hands. You are to wrack him twice a day until such -time as he chooses to confess.” Thereupon, says Father Gerard, they -went down again to the torture chamber with the same solemnity as on -the previous day, and he was again subjected to the torture of the -gauntlets, made additionally painful from the swollen state of his -hands and wrists. He swooned repeatedly, and was revived with some -difficulty. All through these hours of agony he refused to give one -name, or to make any kind of confession of guilt, and Waad swore and -raged in vain. As long, Gerard declared, as he lived he would say -nothing. For the third time he was tortured and hung up by the wrists. -But when Waad at length saw the futility of torturing him to death he -ordered him to be taken back to his prison, whence, as we shall see, he -effected his escape. - -Another Roman Catholic, named John Arden, who was a fellow-prisoner -of Gerard’s at this time, was confined in the Cradle Tower, a small -tower in the Outer Ward standing on the Ballium wall some 100 feet -south of the Salt Tower and facing the Thames. The two prisoners were -sufficiently near to see each other from their respective prison -windows, the space between the two towers being then occupied by the -Privy garden of the Palace. Father Gerard persuaded his gaoler to allow -him to pay Arden a visit in his prison, and the two men, laying their -heads together, concocted the following plan. By writing to their -friends outside the tower in orange juice, which caused the letters to -be invisible unless subjected to a treatment known to the initiated, -Father Gerard succeeded in getting a thin cord with a leaden weight -attached to one end. It was further planned that upon a certain night -a boat should be brought to a certain place by the river bank opposite -the Cradle Tower. On this particular evening Father Gerard lingered -late in Arden’s prison, and when the pre-arranged hour came they slung -the lead at the end of the line across the moat. This was caught by -their friends in the boat, and a stout rope having been fastened to the -line, the two prisoners hauled it over the roof of the Cradle Tower -from the boat, and made it fast. Gerard was the first to descend from -the roof, swarming along the rope in the darkness; and he reached the -boat in safety. For three weeks after the torture of the gauntlets, his -hands were paralysed, and it was five months before the sense of touch -returned to them. - -Next to the Salt Tower in the Inner Ward stands the Lanthorn Tower, -which has been entirely rebuilt. In former days this tower communicated -with the exterior rampart by an embattled gateway; it faces the river -and stands half-way between the Salt and the Wakefield Towers. In Henry -VIII.’s time the Lanthorn Tower was called the New Tower, and then -formed the end of the Queen’s Gallery in the Palace, “over the Kyng’s -bede-chamber and prevy closet,” as the survey taken in that reign -describes it. This tower had been almost destroyed in a fire in 1788, -and what remained was removed, only the basement vault being left. This -basement was used as a cellar by the keeper of the soldiers’ canteen, -which stood on the opposite side of the way: to such base uses had the -old tower of the Palace adorned by Henry III. fallen. Henry III. built -the Ballium wall and fortified it with this tower, which he fitted up -splendidly for his own habitation, and whose chambers he decorated with -frescoes; the subject of one of these was the story of Antiochus. The -tower was circular in shape, and surmounted by a small turret, as can -be seen by referring to Haiward and Gascoyne’s plan. After the fire of -1788 a huge unsightly warehouse was built on its site, blocking out -the fortress from the river front. This monstrosity was only removed -some five-and-twenty years ago. The present building is as nearly as -possible a reproduction of the original tower of Henry the Third, by -Salvin, who also carried out the building of the handsome curtain wall -of the Inner Ward, commencing at the Salt Tower and terminating at the -Wakefield Tower. - -In an interesting article in the _Nineteenth Century_, Mr A. B. Mitford -says that, although it was impossible to give back the stones that -prated of the wars of the Roses, “the old towers and walls rose again -as nearly as possible similar to their predecessors as the skill of man -could make them,” under Salvin’s superintendence. There is a view of -the old Lanthorn Tower before its destruction in 1788, in a rare print -of the early part of the eighteenth century, which is here reproduced. - - - THE OUTER WARD - -The Outer Ward forms a strip of ground varying in breadth from 20 -to 100 feet, its wall forming the scarp of the moat. It is defended -by bastions to the north-east and north-west, which are 80 feet in -diameter, that to the north-east being called the Brass Mount Battery, -that to the north-west, Legge’s Mount, so named from George Legge, -first Earl of Dartmouth, who was Master-General of Ordnance in the -reign of Charles II. The Brass Mount probably derived its name from -the cannon with which it was mounted. Between these bastions is a more -modern one, called the North Bastion. These three bastions defend the -north side of the fortress. Of the five towers which protected the -Palace on the river front, the Byward and St Thomas’s Towers have -already been described. There remain the Cradle, the Well, and the -Develin Towers to notice. - -The Cradle Tower stands parallel with the Well Tower on the outer or -curtain wall. It was through an archway in the Cradle Tower that the -principal entrance from the river lay in former times. From the top -of the tower a square-shaped turret rises on the western side. The -Cradle Tower dates from the reign of Henry III., and prisoners were -landed here as well as at Traitor’s Gate, entering the fortress over a -drawbridge. Its upper chambers, which were in the form of the letter ⏉, -are believed to have formed part of the Palace. The present tower is -altogether modern, having been rebuilt from the foundations in 1878. -The next tower on the curtain wall is the Well Tower, also entirely -rebuilt. It is rectangular, and forms a portion of the curtain wall. -Its basement lies below the level of the Inner Ward, and within it -is a vaulted chamber 11 feet high by 14 feet wide, from which a well -staircase leads to an upper room, and thence on to the rampart. - -The last of these towers at the eastern end of the fortress is the -Develin Tower. In 1549 it was known as Galligman’s Tower, and in the -plan of the Tower in 1597 it is called the “tower leading to the Inner -Gate.” Formerly, it was used as a powder magazine. - - - THE WHITE TOWER - -In the days of the Plantagenets, “La Tour Blanche” owed that -appellation to its having been frequently whitewashed. The earliest -of these whitewashings took place in the reign of Edward III., since -whose reign it is impossible to guess how often the grim old building -has been externally whitened. In an illumination taken from an old -French MS. made in the reign of Henry V., and preserved in the Harleian -collection in the British Museum, of the poems of Charles of Orleans, -the vivid whiteness of the old Norman White Tower stands out in bold -relief surrounded by the dark towers and walls of the fortress. And -after half-a-thousand years of London grime and smoke, the White Tower -remains the same “Tour Blanche” of the days of the Plantagenets. - -The old Norman keep of the Tower has changed but little in outward -aspect since it was limned in the old illumination of the MS. of -Charles of Orleans, some six centuries ago. The general features are -the same, and even the little leaden roofs of the four turrets at -the angles, appeared then much as they do to-day. No one has been -able to inform me as to the period when the leaden tops first capped -the masonry of this tower. Two great authorities on the history of -the Tower—Professor Freeman and Mr Clark—have told us how Norman -William, on crossing the Thames, found that London was protected on -its landward side by a Roman wall—the defences of ancient Augusta—a -wall strengthened by mural towers, and an external moat. Of these -relics of ancient Augusta, a fragment is to be seen at the eastern end -of the White Tower. According to both historians, the building of the -White Tower was commenced in 1078. When a tramway was run from the -river wharf, some years ago, to the base of the White Tower for the -shipment of stores, the engineers had to excavate some 20 feet of solid -masonry into the Norman keep, such was its huge strength and solidity. -Freeman always writes with enthusiasm of the Tower—“the mighty Tower -of London,” he loves to call it; and when he wrote of the Tower, he -had the White Tower in his mind. Regarding the builders of the White -Tower, Freeman quotes the following Latin text from Hearner’s “Textus -Roffensis”—“Dum idem Gundulfus, ex praecepto Regis Wilhelmi Magni, -prœesset operi magnae turris Londoniae, et hospitatus fuisset apud -ipsum Ædmerum.” The name Tower, and not Castle, adds Freeman, belonged -to the fortress of Gundulfus from the first. - -It will be necessary here to give some figures and proportions of -this ancient keep. Its height is 90 feet from ground to battlements. -The Keep has four turrets, three being circular, and one square. The -windows were much modernised by Sir Christopher Wren, but those in the -upper storey are the least altered; only one pair of these, however, -have been left in their original state. It was from this window that -Bishop Flambard is said to have made his escape. A stone staircase, -11 feet wide, and built in the circular turret on the north-east of -the Keep, communicates with all the floors and leads to the roof. -The basement of the Keep is a little below the level of the soil on -the north side, and is flush with it on the south side. The walls -are from 12 to 15 feet thick, the internal area being 91 feet by 73 -feet. The large chambers have timbered ceilings, and the smaller -are stone-vaulted. Formerly, the basement and the prison within it -could only be reached from above, by the staircase running through the -circular turret. The great western chamber is 91 feet long by 35 feet -in width. In the vault or sub-crypt under the Chapel of St John there -is a prison called “Little Ease,” and here Guy Fawkes is supposed to -have passed his last fifty days on earth. It opens into a great dungeon -which is 47 feet long by 15 feet broad. Formerly, this place was in -total darkness, and could have had but little air; at its eastern end -it terminates in a semicircle. It was here that in the reign of King -John some hundreds of Jews were imprisoned with their families. In -later times it was fitted up into a powder magazine, and it is not many -years since it was cleared of “villainous” saltpetre. Its walls have -been coated with brick, and the ceiling refaced and vaulted, whilst -passages have been pierced through its eastern and western extremities. -A well 6 feet wide, its sides lined with ashlar stone, which may be -of Roman origin, has been found in the floor of this vault, near its -south-western angle. - -[Illustration: _Stone Staircase in the White Tower._] - -On the second floor of the White Tower the walls are 13 feet in -thickness, the cross walls being 8 feet. On this floor are five -openings communicating between the eastern and the western chambers. -The latter is 92 feet long by 37 broad; a vaulted passage 2 feet -10 inches wide being constructed in the thickness of the wall. The -eastern chamber is 68 feet long and 30 wide. There is a recess in the -north wall which communicates with the exterior of the tower by a -double flight of stone stairs facing the river front. And it was at -the foot of these steps that the bones, supposed to be those of the -little Princes, were discovered in the reign of Charles II. They were -subsequently taken to Westminster Abbey. The present stairs are modern. -An ancient door, 3 feet in width, opens from this chamber on to a short -passage, 5 feet in width, cut in the thickness of the wall, which leads -to the well staircase communicating with all the floors. Another door -in the south wall leads into the crypt of St John’s Chapel, which is -13 feet 6 inches broad by 39 feet in height; at the east end it is -apsidal. Near the apse is a passage 2 feet wide which leads into a -vaulted cell 8 feet long by 10 wide. This cell has no windows, and -when, in former times, the door, which has been removed, was closed, -this dismal prison was plunged in total darkness. It has been asserted, -without any foundation, that this cell was that in which Raleigh passed -his first imprisonment in the Tower. There is not a shadow of proof -to corroborate this. It was probably used in the early years of the -fortress as a strong-room for the safekeeping of the church treasure. -Although no proof exists as to the imprisonment of Raleigh in this -black hole, prisoners were confined here in the days of the sanguinary -Queen Mary, as is shown by some half-obliterated inscriptions which -can still be seen on the sides of the doorway leading from the crypt -to the cell. In one of these the following words have been traced—“He -that endureth to the ende shall be saved. M. 10. R. Rudston. Dar. Kent. -Ano. 1553.” “Be faithful unto deth, and I wil give the a crowne of -life.—J. Fane. 1554.” Also the following:—“T. Culpeper of Darford.” -These persons were implicated in the Wyatt insurrection. Lord de Ros -mentions rather vaguely in his book on the Tower, an inscription which -was discovered about 1867 “in the vault of the White Tower,” of which -the following is a copy:—“Sacris vestibus indutus dum sacra mysteria -servans, captus et in hoc augusto carcere indusus.—R. Fisher.” - -Until some thirty years ago this crypt was used as an armoury, and here -many may remember having seen a figure of Queen Elizabeth, mounted on -a wooden steed, in a dress supposed to have been worn by her when she -returned thanks at St Paul’s for the destruction of the Armada. (This -is now in the lower gallery of the White Tower.) - -The rooms on this floor of the tower are 15 feet high, with wooden -ceilings, which are supported by massive wooden pillars placed in -double rows. These wooden columns are comparatively modern, and were -probably placed here when the rooms were converted into an armoury, -store rooms, and record offices. They are now filled with small-arms, -and the roofs are supported by beams strengthened with iron girders. -The ancient fireplaces still remain in the eastern wall. - -On the second floor of the White Tower are three great chambers. That -to the west is 95 feet by 32; that to the east 64 feet by 32; they are -15 feet high. St John’s Chapel, which is on the second floor, forms -its cross chamber, and rises through the roof to the top of the tower. -A mural passage at the extremity of the western chamber leads to the -west end of the south aisle. Mr Clark believes that this was formerly -a private entrance from the Palace into the Chapel, being connected -with the State rooms of the Tower, one of which is still called the -Banqueting Hall. - -The fourth floor of the Keep is called the State Floor, and is divided -into three chambers 28 feet in height. The room to the west, which -is called the Council Chamber, was the scene of that episode at the -commencement of the reign of Richard III., immortalised by Shakespeare, -when that monarch accused Lord Hastings of treason and had him taken -out to instant execution (_Richard III._ Act iii. Scene 4). This -chamber is 95 feet long by 46 wide. Within the exterior walls runs a -vaulted passage communicating with the stairs in the north-eastern -turret. It was in this passage, which is only 3 feet in width, that the -soldiers were concealed when Richard had planned Hastings’s death. In -Norman times this chamber was used as a State prison, and it was from -one of its windows that Bishop Flambard let himself down by a rope. It -was also the prison of Charles of Orleans in the reign of Henry V., and -had probably served the same purpose in the reign of Edward III., and -may have held in its walls both King John of France and David, King of -Scotland; here, too, the brothers Mortimer were probably imprisoned in -1324. - -It is not easy to picture in one’s mind the appearance of this place -when used as a State prison, or as a Council Chamber, for the only view -of the interior of the Tower that has come down to us from the Middle -Ages is the little illumination in the Harleian MSS., which has been -reproduced in this work, in which Charles of Orleans is seen writing in -this chamber surrounded by his guards. - -The earliest account of the interior of the Tower occurs in Paul -Hentzner’s description of his visit in the reign of Elizabeth. “Upon -entering the Tower,” he writes, “we were obliged to quit our swords -at the gate and deliver them to the guard. When we were introduced, -we were shown above a hundred pieces of arras belonging to the Crown, -made of gold, silver, and silk; several saddles covered with velvet -of different colours; an immense quantity of bed furniture, such as -canopies, and the like, some of them most richly ornamented with -pearl; some royal dresses, so extremely magnificent as to raise one’s -admiration at the sums they must have cost. We were then led into the -armoury.” But I will reserve what Hentzner said about the arms and -the armour until later. This intelligent German traveller pertinently -remarks: “It is to be noted, that when any of the nobility are sent -hither on the charge of high crimes punishable with death, such as -treason, etc., they seldom or never recover their liberty.” - -With the exception of the Lady Chapel at Durham Cathedral, St John’s -Chapel in the White Tower is the most beautiful of the Norman chapels -in England, and it was owing to the excellent advice given by the -Prince Consort that this splendid relic of Norman times has received, -if not its former splendour, something of its pristine condition. -Although no attempt has been made to re-decorate its walls and -interior, it is now cleansed of the rubbish which covered its floor, -until the Prince called attention to the desecration with which it was -treated until the middle of the nineteenth century. - -[Illustration: _Interior of Sᵗ. John’s Chapel._] - -Inclusive of the semicircular apse at its east end, the Chapel is 55 -feet 6 inches long by 31 feet wide. It is divided into a nave and two -aisles, which have four massive pillars on either side with varied -capitals, supporting thirteen arches. The pillars are 2 feet 6 inches -in diameter and 6 feet 6 inches high, not inclusive of their bases, -which are 20 inches high, giving the pillars from the floor to the -top of the capitals a height of 10 feet. Each capital is cut out of a -solid block of stone. The stone ceiling of the nave is barrel shaped. -The triforium is 7 feet 6 inches in diameter. The upper gallery was -formerly used by the royal family, and communicated with the State -rooms of the Palace. It is probable that the walls of this chapel were -decorated with mural paintings and hung with tapestry, the windows -to the east glowing with figures of saints and angels. Henry III., -in 1240, ordered three stained glass windows for the chapel, and in -one of these, that looking to the north, was pictured “a little Mary -holding her child.” In the two others, looking to the south, “the Holy -Trinity, with St John, Apostle and Evangelist.” The rood screen and -Cross were also ordered by this King, and “two fair images” to be set -up and painted, “et fieri faciatis et depingi duas ymagynes centius -fieri possint in capella.” The latter were probably representations of -St Edward holding a ring which he presents to the Patron of the Royal -Chapel. - -When the Reformation came in 1550, St John’s Chapel was despoiled of -all its artistic treasures by order of the Government. Its frescoes -were coated over with whitewash, its stained glass windows were -destroyed, and all its ecclesiastical ornaments were removed; in -later times the Chapel became a repository for the Tower records. It -was during Lord de Ros’s Governorship in 1857 that the accumulated -lumber of centuries was, as has already been said, in consequence of -Prince Albert’s wish, cleared away from the Chapel. It had actually -been proposed to turn this beautiful building into a military tailor’s -warehouse. Such was the honour bestowed on this sacred and beautiful -English building comparatively only a few years ago. But in recent -years it must be admitted that we have shown a more enlightened regard -towards the relics connected with the history of our country, none of -which is of greater interest, or more worthy of regard and veneration, -than the old Norman Chapel of St John’s in the Tower. - -Royal scenes of pomp and mourning this ancient building has beheld -within its mighty walls. All our Norman and Plantagenet kings here -worshipped a God whose laws they seldom obeyed. Here lay in state the -corpse of the White Rose of York, Elizabeth, the Queen of Henry VII.; -and here, those upon whom the honour of knighthood was to be conferred, -passed their solemn all-night vigil, watching their armour. - -The summit of the White Tower covers a space of 100 feet on the eastern -side, by 113 on the north and south. The four turrets, the most -conspicuous points in any view of the Tower, rise 16 feet above this -leaden field, and each is crowned with pepper-box-shaped roofs made of -lead. The turret crowning the south-eastern angle contains a chamber -traditionally known as the prison of Joan of Kent. In the early years -of the eighteenth century it was used as an observatory by Flambard, -the Astronomer-Royal, and a contemporary of Isaac Newton, some years -before the great Observatory was built at Greenwich. - -Although cannon were mounted on the roof in Tudor days, the platform -could not have supported very heavy artillery, as it was only built of -shingle. As I have said elsewhere, no record has come down to us of the -time when the turrets with their little pepper-castor tops were first -placed there, but the Harleian MSS. prove that similar ones existed as -far back as the reign of Henry V. - -There is much difference of opinion as to the original mode of entrance -into the White Tower. Probably the principal entrance lay on the south -and river side of the Keep, near its western angle, for on the second -floor there is a large opening on the exterior of the masonry which has -parallel sides, and was doubtless formerly used as a doorway. Near this -opening, and on the eastern side of the Keep, is a small door opening -into the base of the well staircase. Both Mr Clark and Mr Birch believe -that these doors formerly communicated with a building which stood on -the south of the White Tower, having its outer entrance at the east -end. This building would probably date back to the days of the Normans. - -The main entrance of the White Tower opened out on the first floor -of the Keep, whence a turnpike staircase led up to the second floor, -and downwards to the basement with its dungeons. The mural corridors -or passages in the thickness of the walls which encircle the State -rooms, are so narrow that only one person could pass along them at a -time, which would have been of great advantage in case of an attack on -the building, for a small number of men could have defended the White -Tower against a host of besiegers. The Normans showed a rare skill -in the strategic construction of their strongholds. For instance, in -the ruined Castle of Arques near Dieppe, a contemporary building, -the plan of its Keep resembles in structure that of the White Tower. -These Normans were master builders, and the skilful manner in which -they concealed the entrances to their fortresses is well worth study. -Their keeps were generally rectangular, and in no instance is the -entrance of these towers on the ground floor, or in a conspicuous part -of the building. At the Castle of Arques the entrance to the Keep is -carefully concealed, as was the case with the White Tower, and is -fully 30 feet above the level of the ground, besides being hidden and -protected by a massive and lofty wall which forms a part of the Keep. -A tortuous passage leads into the heart of the building, but before -it could be entered, a very long and almost perpendicular staircase -had to be mounted. This staircase commenced in the thickness of the -wall of one of the outer counter-forts, placed at the northern angle -of the fortress, which wound along the inner face of the Keep, giving -access to a landing, beyond which was the passage that led into the -fortress. Before the kernel of the Keep could be reached, another -narrow passage, cut out of the thickness of the wall, had to be -passed; this passage was on the level of the first floor. This style -of defensive construction was introduced by the Conqueror and his -clerical architect, the quondam monk of the Abbey of Bec in Normandy, -who ended his life as Bishop of Rochester; and to these two men we owe -the solidity and time-defying strength of the great Norman White Tower. - -In order to complete this Norman system of defensive architecture it -was necessary to suppress all unnecessary openings, such as windows, -in the lower stages of the massive square towers. Consequently, the -Norman windows, which were only narrow slits in the masonry, called by -the significant name of _meurtrières_, from the use made of them by the -besieged to hurl missiles or pour boiling oil, or lead, upon the enemy -beneath, were always restricted in numbers, and were always placed in -the upper parts of the Keep. For this reason Sir Christopher Wren, by -placing the large windows with their stone facings, now in the White -Tower, completely destroyed one of the most characteristic features -of its Norman workmanship, an extraordinary act of vandalism for so -great an architect. In our day Salvin restored some of the Norman -windows on the western side of the White Tower—those belonging to St -John’s Chapel—and one regrets that he did not carry out the restoration -throughout the building, for in looking at any representation of the -White Tower taken before the Great Fire, one sees how much the old -Norman Keep has lost in character by Wren’s tasteless substitution of -Carolean for Norman windows. - -Of the prisoners of State who passed weary years within the White -Tower, mention has already been made of Charles of Orleans. Stevenson’s -description in his “Familiar Studies of Men and Books,” relating -to the imprisonment of the Duke, gives a perfect word-picture: “In -the magnificent copy of Charles’s poems, given by our Henry VII. -to Elizabeth of York on the occasion of their marriage, a large -illumination figures at the head of one of the pages which, in -chronological perspective, is almost a history of his imprisonment. It -gives a view of London with all its spires, the river passing through -the old bridge, and busy with boats. One side of the White Tower has -been taken out, and we can see, as under a sort of shrine, the paved -room where the Duke sits writing. He occupies a high-backed bench in -front of a great chimney: red and black ink are before him, and the -upper end of the apartment is guarded by many halberdiers, with the -red cross of England on their breasts. On the next side of the tower -he appears again, leaning out of the window and gazing on the river. -Doubtless, there blows just then ‘a pleasant wind from out the land of -France,’ and some ships come up the river, ‘the ship of good news.’ At -the door we find him yet again, this time embracing a messenger, while -a groom stands by holding two saddled horses. And yet further to the -left, a cavalcade defiles out of the Tower; the Duke is on his way at -last towards ‘the sunshine of France.’” - -Referring to his imprisonment in England at the trial of the Duke -d’Alençon, the Duke said, “I have had experience myself, and in my -prison of England, for the weariness, danger, and displeasure in which -I then lay, I have many a time wished I had been slain at the battle -where they took me.” - -It was one of Joan of Arc’s hallucinations that could Charles of -Orleans be delivered from his captivity in England and restored to -France, that country would be delivered from its conquerors. She -declared that he was specially favoured by the Almighty, and longed -with all the strength of her great heart to restore him to her native -land, and said that if there was no other way of freeing him, she would -herself cross the sea and bring him back with her. When, after many -years, Charles of Orleans was released, the heroic girl had met her -martyrdom nine years before. It is a strange coincidence that whilst -the Keep of the Tower held the French poet prince within its walls, -another Royal captive, James the First of Scotland, was whiling away -the days of his imprisonment by writing verses in the Keep of Windsor -Castle. - -Until quite recently, the collection of arms and armour stored in the -White Tower and the adjacent galleries was in a disgraceful state of -neglect, and even in a worse condition than that of mere neglect, for -the custodians, in their ignorance, gave names and titles to the arms -and armour which must have caused infinite amusement to visitors who -possessed any knowledge of the subject. The middle-aged may recall the -rows of so-called English kings, beginning with the Plantagenets and -ending with the Stuarts, seated on wooden horses. If I mistake not, one -of these was dubbed Edward I., and yet another mythical gentleman on -his wooden steed played the _rôle_ of a “Royal Crusader.” These things -were as genuine as Mrs Jarley’s Waxworks. “Previous to the year 1826,” -write Britton and Brayley in their history of the Tower, “nothing could -present a more incongruous mass of discordant materials than the Horse -Armoury of the Tower of London. Armour of the time of Edward the Sixth -was ignorantly appropriated to that of William the Conqueror: foot -soldiers were ranged between the horsemen, and those humble ciceroni, -the warders, ascribed to the various implements of war names and uses, -alike unknown, either in ancient or modern warfare.” But better times -were at hand, and a great authority on ancient armour, and the owner -of the finest collection of it in England, Dr S. R. Meyrick, undertook -to arrange the armour in the Tower. Another expert in armour, J. R. -Planché, Somerset Herald, and author of an able history of British -costume, as well as of many clever burlesques and extravaganzas, drew -up a catalogue. But a huge mass of rubbish and spurious armour were -allowed even then to remain amongst the historic and genuine specimens. -It is only since Lord Dillon undertook the great task, on which he -is still engaged, of entirely re-arranging and re-cataloguing the -arms and armour in the White Tower, that it can be properly studied -and appreciated. The new catalogue, which will be a work of historic -importance, is still unpublished, but from the accounts Lord Dillon -has written of the collection, and which is published in the excellent -“Authorised Guide” to the Tower and its contents, I am indebted for -much of the following information. - -[Illustration: _Horse and Foot Armour (XVIᵗʰ. Century)_] - -Although not to compare in extent or importance with the great -collections of Madrid, Vienna, or Turin, the armour in the White Tower -must be, to an Englishman, of great interest, for, although none of the -suits of armour date further back than the fifteenth century, and but -very few single pieces are of an earlier epoch, there are among the -former, suits of great beauty and of high historic value, and it is the -only national collection of armour that England possesses. As far back -as the year 1213 arms and military stores were kept in the White Tower. -In that year Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, was commanded to -surrender with the fortress “the arms and other stores within”; in the -second year of Henry the Third’s reign, a mandate was issued to the -Archdeacon of Durham to send to the Tower “twenty-six suits of armour, -five iron cuirasses, one iron collar, three pair of iron fetters, and -nine iron helmets.” In the reign of Edward II. we find that a certain -“John de Flete, Keeper of the Wardrobe in the Tower,” was ordered to -deliver up all the armour therein to John de Montgomery. This armour -had belonged to Montgomery’s father. - -Various documents are extant relating to armour in the Tower during -the reign of Richard II., and in those of the fourth, fifth, and sixth -Henrys. There is, in the library of the Society of Antiquaries, an -inventory in MSS. of the arms and ammunition kept in different castles -in the kingdom, written in the first year of the reign of Edward the -Sixth. In this work particular mention is made of some “brigandines” -in the Tower. These were military jackets. Other offensive and -defensive weapons are enumerated, such as targets, pole-axes, “great -holy water sprinklers” (a kind of stave with a cylindrical-shaped end, -“and with a spear-point at the top,” according to Meyrick). In the -reign of Elizabeth, we hear of cross-bows and arrows in the Tower, of -“bow-stones” and of “slurbowes,” as well as half-a-dozen different -kinds of armour. - -At the beginning of this notice of the White Tower, I mentioned Paul -Hentzner’s description of the armour he saw. He writes as follows:—“We -were next led into the armoury, in which are these peculiarities: -spears, out of which you may shoot; shields, that will give fire -four times; a great many rich halberds, commonly called partuisans, -with which the guard defend the royal person in battle; some lances, -covered with red and green velvet, and the body-armour of Henry VIII. -Many and very beautiful arms, as well for men as for horses in horse -fights—(Hentzner probably means tournaments);—the lance of Charles -Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, three spans thick; two pieces of cannon—the -one fires three, the other seven balls at a time; two others made -of wood, which the English had at the siege of Boulogne, in France. -And by this stratagem, without which they could not have succeeded, -they struck a terror into the inhabitants, as at the appearance of -artillery, and the town was surrendered upon articles; nineteen cannons -of a thicker make than ordinary, and in a room apart, thirty-six of a -smaller; other cannon for chain shot, and balls proper to bring down -masts of ships; cross-bows, bows and arrows, of which to this day the -English make great use in their exercises; but who can relate all that -is to be seen here. Eight or nine men, employed by the year, are scarce -sufficient to keep all the arms bright.” - -[Illustration: _German Armour (XVIᵗʰ. Century.)_] - -One cannot help wishing that Hentzner had told us more about the Tower -itself as it looked in Elizabeth’s days, and less about the armour. - -Charles the First had a survey written of the arms and armour in -the Tower when he succeeded to the Throne, but during the Civil War -much of it disappeared, in common with most of the Royal possessions -in that troubled time. After the Restoration, William Legge, Lord -Dartmouth, who had been deprived by the Commonwealth of his post of -“Master of the Armouries,” was reinstated, and he had an inventory of -the armour in the Tower drawn up in 1660. There is an interesting list -in Britton and Brayley’s Tower book of the different officers to whom -the making of the military stores in the Tower had been entrusted, -up to the time of Charles II., when the employment of the following -ceased:—There was first the “Balistarius,” who lodged in the Bowyer -Tower, and who provided the cross-bows. In the reign of Henry III. this -officer received a shilling a day and “a doublet and surcoat furred -with lambskin” once a year. The “Attiliator Balistarum” provided the -harness and accoutrements for the cross-bows: and received “seven pence -halfpenny per diem and a suitable robe every year.” Then came the -“Bowyer,” an inferior Balistarius; he also received a robe annually. -After him came the “Fletcher,” or maker of the flêches or arrows. -This craftsman supplied arrows to the whole army. To him succeeded -the “Galeator,” the maker of helmets and head-pieces, and after him -the Armourer, who made and supervised all the armour and military -accoutrements in the Tower. But the greatest of these was the Master -of the King’s Ordnance, who, as far back as the reign of Edward the -Fourth, provided all warlike stores for the Army and also the Navy. -He received eleven shillings per diem, and his clerk and valet were -each paid sixpence per diem, which, according to the present value -of money, would be about five pounds a day for the master, and five -shillings for the two men. At the close of the reign of George the -Third the following officers formed the Board of Ordnance:—First came -the Master-General, chosen from among the Generals of the Army, “who -by virtue of his office was Colonel-in-Chief of the Artillery and -Engineers.” Next to him came the Surveyor-General, the head of all the -store departments. Beneath him ranked the Clerk of the Ordnance; then -the Store-keeper, the Clerk of the Deliveries; and, closing the list, a -Treasurer and a Paymaster, both attached to the Ordnance Office. - -Returning to the White Tower and its memories, the changes and -revolutions that its massive walls have witnessed, rise before the -mind. Merely glancing at the changes of fashion, as seen in the suits -of armour in its armoury, one is carried back to the Middle Ages. And -although the armour is all of a later time, the Norman barons in their -steel-ringed surcoats and pointed helmets, as they are pourtrayed on -the Bayeux tapestry, have been seen here. All the chivalry of England, -from the time of the Normans down to our present Guardsmen with their -bearskin head-dresses, are closely bound up with the old Norman -fortress, and it should be remembered that from the end of the eleventh -century up to the present day the Tower has always retained the rank -and position of chief fortress and depository of arms in the realm, and -so may still be regarded as the “Arx Palatina” of the British Empire. - -The oldest armour in the Tower are some “bassinets” of the second half -of the fourteenth century. Until the death of Henry VIII., the royal -collection of armour was kept in the Palace at Greenwich, and the -possessions of that monarch now form by far the finest portion of the -Tower Armoury, consisting of several splendid suits of armour given -him by the Emperor Maximilian. The best armour was made in Italy and -Germany, and Henry, who loved a fine suit of armour almost as much as -a handsome woman, had a number of skilled armourers sent to England -to work for him. As we see by Hentzner’s narrative, foreigners of -distinction were shown the collection of armour in the Tower as one of -the principal sights of London. During the Civil War a great deal of -the armour was carried away from the Tower, and but little of it was -returned, even when the Restoration had become an accomplished fact. - -[Illustration: _Nurembery Armour (XVIᵗʰ. Century.)_] - -The collection now occupies the two upper floors of the White Tower. -On the lower floor are kept the more modern weapons and the Oriental -armour, of which there is a great quantity. On the upper floor the far -more interesting of the earlier weapons, and all the suits of foot and -horse armour, are ranged along the walls and in rows down the middle of -the hall, making an imposing show of mounted and unmounted mail-clad -figures of men and horses. - -In the lower floor we will only take a glance at the Indian and -Oriental arms and at the modern European weapons, as these are of -little historical interest. There are, however, amongst them some -relics of the so-called “good old days” worthy of inspection. These -consist of a grim collection of instruments of death and torture. Here, -for instance, are the thumbscrews, the bilboes, and the Scavenger’s -Daughter—in the last the victim was almost bent double in its iron -embrace. Here, too, is an iron collar, very massive, with a row of -iron spikes within its ring, which, when fastened round the sufferer’s -neck, must speedily have caused death. This horrible instrument is -incorrectly stated to have been taken in one of the ships of the -Armada, but Lord Dillon vouches for its having been used in the Tower -long before the Spanish ships were seen in the Channel. Here, too, is -a small model of the rack, the most general form of torture employed -in the Tower during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when even -women were cruelly torn almost limb from limb by its cords and pulleys. -This toy rack does not give so vivid an impression of the torture as -does a small wood-cut from Fox’s “Book of Martyrs.” Here is also the -block, with the axe. The latter was kept here as far back as the year -1687, so it is uncertain whether it is the axe that was used for the -execution of the Duke of Monmouth and William, Lord Russell, but it is -probable that it was the one used for beheading the rebel lords after -the two Jacobite risings in Scotland, and it was undoubtedly used for -decapitating Lord Lovat in 1747. - -As regards the block, it appears to have been the custom for a new one -to be made for each State execution, and although there is more than -one mark made by the axe on the top of this block, it does not follow -that it was used for more than one execution. - -The upper floor is reached by a staircase in the south-eastern corner -of the Tower. On reaching this upper floor a collection of spears -of all sorts and sizes is seen. Among these is a formidable-looking -weapon called a “holy water sprinkler,” which consists of a staff -with a wooden ball at the top, covered with long iron spikes. Another -sinister-looking weapon is the “Morning Star,” so named by the Germans, -and certainly calculated to raise up many a star before the eyes of -anyone who had the misfortune to be struck by it. Besides these there -is a goodly array of partisans, halberds, and pole-axes. In the centre -of this gallery is an equestrian figure clad in sixteenth-century -armour which was made at Nuremberg, where the best armour in Germany -was manufactured. The whole of the knight’s armour, as well as the -panoply of the horse, is ornamented with that quaint device, the -Burgundian cross “ragule,” and also the flint and steel pattern, the -same that appears on the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece: from -these ornaments and devices it follows that this armour was made for -one of the Burgundian princes, perhaps for the Emperor Maximilian, it -having been given to Henry VIII. by that monarch. - -There are many suits of armour which, until Lord Dillon re-arranged -and classified the collection, passed as genuine, and among them is -a sham suit of armour worn by Lord Waterford at the famous Eglinton -tournament—a tourney which ended by the competing knights taking -shelter from the rain under their umbrellas. Another splendid specimen -of the German armourers’ work is the fluted suit for man and horse -belonging to the early part of the sixteenth century. Two other suits -of armour which are placed in the centre of the gallery belonged to -Henry VIII.; they are of prodigious weight, and as they were intended -for fighting on foot, it must have required considerable physical -strength to walk when clad in this ponderous habiliment: it certainly -would have been impossible for its wearer to run away with it upon his -back. Lord Dillon believes that both these suits are of Italian or -Spanish workmanship; one of them is made up of 235 separate pieces. -Besides these, two other suits of Henry VIII.’s armour are in the -collection; one of them still retains traces of gilding, and must have -shone resplendently when worn by the bluff king. - -[Illustration: _Horse and Foot Armour (XVIIᵗʰ. Century.)_] - -Regarding the equestrian suit of armour in the centre of the gallery, -Lord Dillon thinks “that it is one of the finest in existence.” It was -made at Augsburg by the famous German armourer Conrad Sensenhofer, and -was given to Henry by the Emperor Maximilian in 1515. It is covered -with devices, such as roses, pomegranates, and portcullises—the badges -of Henry and Catharine of Arragon—the letters H and K stand out in bold -relief on the horse armour. Engraved within panels are representations -of scenes from the lives of St George and St Barbara. No finer example -of the great German’s art workmanship than this truly Imperial suit can -be seen, not even in the great German, Spanish, and Italian collections. - -Close to this stands a curious shield, one of eighty similar ones -made for Henry VIII., with a pistol in the middle. Worthy of note is -a helmet with a mask attached, also a gift to Henry from Maximilian. -It was formerly known as Will Somers’s mask (the King’s Jester), but -recent research does not show that Somers ever used this ugly vizor. -Here, also, is a very gorgeous suit of gilt armour which belonged -to the Earl of Cumberland, one of Elizabeth’s smartest courtiers, -who fitted out at his own expense no less than eleven expeditions -against the Spaniards. Noticeable, too, are the quaint double -weapons—staves with pole-axes and gun-barrels attached; one of these -has three barrels, a kind of gigantic early revolver which was called -King Harry’s Walking-Stick. Here are also ancient saddles used for -tournaments. One of these belonged, and was probably used by Charles -Brandon, Henry VIII.’s brother-in-law: much horse armour besides these -tilting saddles is to be seen here,—“chaufons” and “bards” made of -leather, known by the name of “cuir bouall,” and “vamplates,” worn -when tilting to protect the hand, and into which the tilting spear -was fastened. More suits of armour for men and horses are those which -belonged to the Earl of Worcester in Elizabeth’s time, and a still -richer one, once worn by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, bearing -all over it the badge of the rugged staff, and the double collars of -the English order of the Garter and the French one of St Michael. The -armour of another of Elizabeth’s favourites is here, a suit which is -believed to have belonged to Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. To come -to later times, and the House of Stuart, the most conspicuous of the -armour of that period is a gilt suit which belonged to Charles I., but -very inferior in workmanship and artistic excellence to the earlier -work of the German armourers. There is also a small suit of armour made -for Charles I., when a child. Here, too, are models of cannon made for -Charles II., when he was Prince of Wales, and a richly decorated suit -of armour given to Henry, Prince of Wales, by the Prince de Joinville. - -Of all this display of arms and armour in the Tower, of which I have -but touched upon the chief objects of historical and artistic interest, -the “processional” axe is, to my mind, by far the most interesting -in regard to the Tower and its history, for it is the outward and -visible sign of the part the “great axe,” as Shakespeare called it, has -played in our country’s history, the symbol of its highest justice, -whether it appeared with its edge turned towards or turned away from -the prisoner: and what scenes in English history has not that steel -reflected in its impassive surface. This axe is in itself an epitome of -the history of the Tower, and consequently of England. - -[Illustration: _Horse and Foot Armour (XVIIᵗʰ. Century.)_] - -Beneath the western wall of the White Tower is a varied park of -artillery. Here, placed side by side, are cannon taken from out the -wreck the _Mary Rose_, a warship lost off Spithead in 1545, with others -from the _Royal George_, which sank in the same place in 1782. Here is -a Portuguese cannon made in 1594 and taken at the siege of Hyderabad -in 1843; and guns made for Napoleon at Avignon, with the crowned N -engraved upon them. What is curious amongst the old English cannon of -the sixteenth century, is their being made of iron bars welded together -and bound round with iron hoops. One of these belonged to the _Mary -Rose_, and still holds within its barrel a stone shot. Here is also -a breech-loading cannon made early in the sixteenth century, and two -triple brass guns made for Louis XIV. bearing his device of the sun and -the motto, “Ultima ratio regum.” The old French and English mortars -are also of interest, the earliest of the latter being dated 1686; one -was used by William III. at the siege of Namur in 1695. There is a -French mortar made by Keller, Louis’s gun-founder at Douai, in 1683. -In 1708 there were sixty-two guns on Tower Green and the river wharf: -the latter were fired on festivals; they are now used for saluting from -“Salutation Battery,” which faces Tower Hill. Amongst these weapons of -destruction one is almost certain to find a pair of venerable ravens -hopping about; they are a pair of weird and eerie fowls, and one might -imagine the spirit of some guilty wretch had been re-incarnated under -their black feathers. - -In Mr W.H. Hudson’s book, entitled “Birds of London,” these and -other birds are described as follows:—“At the Tower of London robins -occasionally appear in autumn, but soon go away. The last one that -came, settled down and was a great favourite with the people there -for about two months, being very friendly, coming to window-sills -for crumbs, and singing every day very beautifully. Then one day he -was seen in the General’s garden wildly dashing about, hotly pursued -by seven or eight sparrows, and, as he was never seen again, it was -conjectured that the sparrows had succeeded in killing him. The robin -is a high-spirited creature, braver than most birds, and a fair -fighter, but against such a gang of feathered murderous ruffians, bent -on his destruction, he would stand no chance. - -“The Tower sparrows, it may be added, appear to be about the worst -specimens of their class in London. They are always at war with the -pigeons and starlings, and would gladly drive them out if they could. -It is a common thing for some foreign bird to escape from its cage on -board ship and to take refuge in the trees and gardens of the Tower, -but woe to the escaped captive and stranger in a strange land who seeks -safety in such a place! Immediately on his arrival the sparrows are -all up against him, not to ‘heave half a brick at him,’ since they are -not made that way, but to hunt him from place to place until they have -driven him, weak with fatigue and terror, into a corner where they can -finish him with their bludgeon beaks.” - -It is worthy of notice that no mention is made of the Tower in Domesday -Book, London being altogether omitted from that work. Of all the Norman -strongholds and castles which rose in London along the river-side, of -Montfichet, Baynard’s Castle, the old Palace at Blackfriars, or of -Tower Royal, Stephen’s palace in Vintry Ward, no trace remains, and of -them all the great Norman keep of the Conqueror remains little altered -in outward form from what it was eight centuries ago. - -[Illustration: _Horse and Foot Armour (XVIIᵗʰ. Century.)_] - - - TOWER HILL - -Tower Hill, which lies to the north-west of the Tower, is more closely -allied with the history of the fortress than any other spot within -the City boundaries, and the short space intervening between it and -the entrance gate of the Tower was, in most cases, the final journey -of the State prisoners condemned to death. Writing of Tower Hill, -Stow, the antiquary, says it was “sometime a large plot of ground, now -greatly straightened by encroachments (unlawfully made and suffered) -for gardens and houses. Upon the hill is always readily prepared at the -charge of the City, a large scaffold and gallows of timber, for the -execution of such traitors or transgressors are as delivered out of the -Tower, or otherwise, to the Sheriffs of London, by writ, there to be -executed.” - -Hatton, however, describes Tower Hill in the reign of Queen Anne as “a -spacious place extending round the west and north parts of the Tower, -where there are many good new buildings, mostly inhabited by gentry and -merchants.” - -The Sheriffs of London and Middlesex were responsible for State -prisoners so long as they were within the City and county boundaries, -and when such prisoners were taken through the streets of London from -the Tower, the Sheriffs received them from the Lieutenant of the Tower -at the entrance to the City, and gave a receipt for their persons. - -The City officials, too, were responsible for the scaffold on Tower -Hill, but in the reign of Edward IV. this scaffold was erected at -the charge of the King’s officers. Constant quarrels and disputes, -however, arose on the subject of the boundaries between the City and -the Lieutenant of the Tower, until the charge of Tower Hill was finally -vested in the City. In the view of the Tower and its surroundings, to -which I have so often referred, made by Haiward and Gascoyne in 1597, -the scaffold is shown standing some distance to the north of Tower -Street: its site is now a pleasant garden, the place of execution being -recorded by an inscription on a tablet placed on the grass plot within -the railings. - -Tower Hill is almost entirely associated with the shedding of blood, -with the masked executioner, his block and axe, and has little -historical interest besides, save that Lady Raleigh lodged in a house -on the Hill with the child born to her in the Tower, after James I. -refused to allow her to share her husband’s imprisonment. William Penn, -the Quaker, and founder of Pennsylvania—which he mortgaged for £6600 -in his old age—was born on Tower Hill in 1644; Otway the poet died at -the Bull public-house, it is supposed of starvation; and it was at a -cutler’s shop on Tower Hill that Felton bought the knife with which he -mortally stabbed George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, at Portsmouth. - - - STAINED GLASS IN THE TOWER - -Of all the richly coloured windows placed in the chapel of St John in -the White Tower by Henry III. and the brilliant glass in the church of -St Peter ad Vincula, very little now remains, and the only coloured -glass to be found in the Tower at the present day, as it was originally -placed, is in the window of a little room used as the library for -the Tower warders close to the Byward Tower—this room in one respect -resembles the most famous library in the world, that of the Vatican, -from the fact that no books are visible, they being all put away in -cupboards—and this consists only of two royal badges in coloured glass. -These royal arms appear to be of the time of James I., and although -they have been much restored, that containing the three feathers of the -Prince of Wales retains much of its old glaze and is a good example of -emblazoned glass of the period. It may possibly have been intended for -the cognisance of Prince Henry, or Charles I., when Prince of Wales. - -A quantity of stained glass panels were found in the crypt of St John’s -Chapel, in which some interesting and valuable fragments, mostly -incomplete in themselves, of heraldic glass of the sixteenth century -and of small pictorial subjects, were mixed with modern and valueless -glass of subordinate design. The whole was carefully examined by Messrs -John Hardman, who separated the ancient from the modern glass, and -using delicate leads to repair the numerous fractures of the former, -and setting the various fragments in lozenges of plain glass, filled -the right windows of the chapel with the following subjects:— - -The first window in the south front, entering from the west, a coat of -arms, with the words “Honi soit qui mal y pense” around it on the upper -portion; a sepia painting in the centre, representing the Deity and two -angels appearing to a priest, with flames rising from an altar. In the -lower portion is another sepia painting with the Deity depicted with -outstretched arms, one hand on the sun, the other on the moon, and the -earth rolling in clouds at the feet. This is generally supposed to be -emblematical of the Creation, but has been suggested as representative -of the Saviour as the Light of the World. - -The second window has a head and bust near the top, with a peculiar cap -and crown. The centre is a sepia representing the expulsion of Adam -and Eve from the Garden of Eden, and the guardian angel. At the bottom -there is another sepia, depicting a village upon a hill, probably a -distant view of Harrow. - -The third window has at the top a figure of Charles I. in sepia; in the -centre a knight in armour, skirmishing, and at the bottom what appears -to be a holly-bush with the letters H. R. - -The fourth window has a negro’s head with a turban in the upper -portion; in the centre a sepia of Esau returning from the hunt to seek -Isaac’s blessing, Rebecca and Jacob being in the background. Near the -bottom is another sepia of the exterior of a church, probably Dutch. - -The fifth window, and the last of the series facing south, has a coat -of arms and motto like those in the first window; in the centre, a -sepia of the anointing of David by Samuel, and near the bottom Jehovah -in clouds, with the earth and shrubs bursting forth. This is probably -emblematical of the Creation. - -The south-east apsidal window has the coat of arms and royal motto as -before, with two smaller coats of arms and the same motto below, a -royal crown and large Tudor rose being near the bottom. - -The eastern window (in the centre of the apse) has a crown with -fleur-de-lys and leopards at the top, and in the centre the small -portcullis of John of Gaunt and the wheat-sheaf of Chester. These are -by far the best heraldic devices in the whole series of windows. - -The north-east window has a very imperfect coat of arms with -fleur-de-lys and leopards, as well as two other coats with the royal -motto. There is also a device which might be taken to represent the -letter M, but which is probably the inverted water-bottles of the -Hastings family. Daggers are quartered upon the other coats of arms. -At the bottom of this window is a Tudor rose and several fragments of -glass much confused. - -The glass has been placed in the windows with great care, the subjects -being made as complete as the broken fragments permitted. Each of the -eight windows is ornamented with leaded borders. - - - - - CHAPTER II - - THE NORMAN AND PLANTAGENET KINGS - - -Henry the First was the earliest of our kings to make use of the -Tower as a State prison—Randulf Flambard, Bishop of Durham, having -the distinction of being its first prisoner. Henry, it appears, in -order to curry popularity at the beginning of his reign, had Flambard -arrested, the Bishop—hated by the people for his rapacity—being accused -of illegally raising the funds needed for the building of the fortress -which was destined to become his prison. He was imprisoned with the -King’s sanction, but nominally by the will of the House of Commons, -and thus inaugurated the long line of prisoners of State which, from -the reign of Henry the First until the early years of the nineteenth -century, the Tower never lacked. - -Flambard had been the principal minister of Henry’s predecessor, -William Rufus. The Saxon chronicler, Vitalis, recounts that the Bishop -was allowed while in the Tower, to keep a sumptuous table for himself -and his servants, a privilege which enabled him to escape from his -prison in the following manner. He obtained a rope which had been -hidden in a wine cask, and after liberally regaling his keepers, whom -he succeeded in fuddling with much wine, he made fast the rope to a -pillar of a chamber in the White Tower, or to the bar of a window, -and let himself slide down, reaching the ground in safety. It was a -wonderful feat Flambard performed, for he held his pastoral staff in -his hand as he descended the side of the Tower. The rope proved too -short and the Bishop had a fall of several feet, but apparently without -being the worse for it. A swift horse, provided by his friends, took -him to the coast, whence he succeeded in reaching Normandy. Some years -after his escape he returned to his see at Durham, where he completed -that splendid cathedral, also building many other churches and castles, -amongst the latter being Norham Castle, whose stately ruins have been -sung by Sir Walter Scott. - -It is uncertain whether any of the Norman kings before Stephen made the -Tower a place of residence. But in 1140 that monarch, during a gloomy -period of private and public affairs, retired to the Tower with a large -retinue and kept his court there during Whitsuntide. - -“Early in the year,” writes Freeman in his “History of the Norman -Conquest,” “after Matilda’s landing, an attempt had been made to make -peace. At Pentecost the King held, or tried to hold, the usual festival -in London; but this time his court was held to the east and not to the -west of the city, not in the hall of Rufus, but in the fortress of his -father.” - -The custody of the Tower appears, soon after its completion, to have -been made an hereditary office, granted by the sovereign to the family -of Mandeville. In this year of 1140 the Tower was in the keeping of -Geoffrey, grandson of that great Geoffrey de Mandeville, who had -accompanied the Conqueror to England, and who had greatly distinguished -himself at the Battle of Hastings. Stephen created the grandson Earl -of Essex, but being himself taken prisoner soon afterwards at the -Battle of Lincoln, the Empress Matilda gained de Mandeville over to her -party, during Stephen’s captivity. By a charter, dated from Oxford in -1141, Matilda confirmed the Earl in all the possessions which he had -inherited, whether in lands or fortresses, the custody of the Tower -being included therein, Essex being given a free hand to strengthen and -fortify it. A subsequent charter of the same year gave him the special -charge of the Tower, “with all lands, liveries, and customs thereto -appertaining” (Dugdale’s Baronage). According to Leland, de Mandeville -constantly added to the fortifications of the Tower, but when he was -defeated and taken prisoner at the Battle of St Albans he was obliged -to surrender the Constableship into the hands of Stephen. - -In 1153 the Tower was held for the Crown by Richard de Lucy, Chief -Justiciary of England, in trust for Henry, Duke of Normandy, to whom, -after Stephen’s death, it reverted. - -Matilda had offended the Londoners by refusing to abolish her father’s -laws, and by also refusing to restore those granted by Edward the -Confessor, and, rising in arms, they drove the Empress from the city. -Stephen having recovered his liberty, Matilda’s power ceased shortly -afterwards. After her flight the Londoners laid siege to the Tower, but -it had been so strongly fortified by de Mandeville that he was not only -able to defy the besiegers’ uttermost efforts to effect its capture, -but was able to make a sortie as far as Fulham, where he took the -Bishop of London prisoner, “as then lodged there, being of the contrary -faction” (Holinshed). - -It is doubtful whether Henry the First ever lived in the Tower, or -whether he added to its fortifications. Thomas à Becket is supposed to -have wished to have been made Constable of the fortress as well as of -Rochester Castle, which latter he is known to have held. - -FitzStephen, in the reign of Henry the Second, describes the “Arx -Palatina” as being then, “great and strong with encircling walls rising -from a deep foundation, and built with mortar tempered with the blood -of beasts.” Probably the sanguinary aspect of the mortar used in the -Tower buildings was owing to the use of pulverised Roman red tiles and -bricks, of which a large quantity were most likely pounded into mortar. - -When Richard Cœur de Lion left England for the Holy Land he entrusted -the charge of guarding the Tower to Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, who was -his Chancellor. This Bishop strengthened the fortress and deepened the -moat. He had good reason for his work upon the fortress, for John, -taking advantage of his brother’s absence, besieged the Tower; but the -Bishop, thinking discretion the better part of valour, yielded up his -trust without attempting to defend it, and fled for safety to Dover -Castle. John made over the Tower to the confederated nobles under the -Archbishop of Rouen, who occupied it until Richard’s return from the -Holy Land. - -In 1215, the Barons, who were then up in arms, aided by the London -citizens, besieged the Tower, but although it was poorly garrisoned, -their attacks were repelled. A year later, whilst the civil war was -waging between John and his barons, the Tower was handed over to the -French prince Louis by the rebellious nobles, who had invited him -to take John’s place as King of England, but Louis does not seem to -have taken kindly to the position, and speedily returned to his own -land. In 1217, Henry III. was reigning in undisputed possession of the -realm, and to him belongs the credit of having done more towards making -the Tower worthy of a royal abode, than any of his predecessors or -successors upon the English throne. The most stately of its buildings, -after the Great Keep, are due to his love of art and architecture. -The Royal Chapel, the Great Hall, and the Palace chambers, which he -either built or decorated, are frequently mentioned in the chronicles -of Henry’s reign, and were the outcome of his taste and love of -magnificence. - -In 1232 the Tower was given into the custody for life to the famous -Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent. His constableship, however, was brief, -he being supplanted by Peter de Roches, Bishop of Winchester, and -imprisoned in the fortress he had formerly governed. - -It was during the reign of Henry III. that the newly-built tower -over the Traitor’s Gate twice fell. The first time this happened was -on the night of St George’s Day (23rd April) in 1240, and on the same -anniversary in the following year the structure again sank into the -moat. According to the historian Mathew Paris, the spirit of St Thomas -à Becket was the cause of both these mishaps, the Saint returning from -the home of the Blessed to the rescue of his beloved and persecuted -London citizens, who had looked on the ever-increasing fortifications -and massive walls of the royal stronghold, with much the same distrust -and irritation as the fortress of the Bastille caused the Parisians. - -Four years later, the son of the great Welsh chieftain and patriot, -Llewellyn, was killed whilst attempting to escape from the White Tower -in a similar manner as that by which Bishop Flambard had succeeded -in ending his captivity. Mathew Paris relates that the unlucky Welsh -prince was discovered at the foot of the White Tower with “his head -thrust in between his shoulders.” The rope by which he had hoped to -escape had broken, and he had been dashed to death in the fall. - -During his long and agitated reign Henry III. was frequently obliged -to take shelter within the Tower from his rebellious subjects. When -Simon de Montfort and the Barons rose against his rule and encamped -themselves near Richmond, Henry took refuge in the Tower with his -eldest son Edward’s wife, Eleanor of Provence. Edward had been fighting -Llewellyn in Wales, and hearing of the dangerous situation of his wife -and father, hurried back to London, throwing himself into Windsor -Castle. Eleanor of Provence made an attempt to join her husband at -Windsor, but the London citizens were strongly on the side of the -rebels, and when the Princess’s barge reached London Bridge on its way -down the river it was stopped by a rabble who pelted it with stones, -mud, and rotten eggs, and heaped the foulest abuse upon its royal -occupant, who was forced to take shelter once more in the Tower. -Edward is believed never to have forgiven the Londoners for this -treatment of his wife, and his harshness to the city during his reign -was probably due to this incident. - -Two years afterwards the mutinous Barons seized the Tower, which they -occupied until the Battle of Evesham, in 1264, enabled Henry to return -to his favourite stronghold. Once again the King was driven into -war by Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, who summoned Otho, the -Papal Legate, then within the Tower, to surrender it into his hands, -declaring that the Tower “was not a post to be trusted in the hands -of a foreigner, much less of an ecclesiastic.” The Legate defied the -Earl to do his worst, and refused to surrender either the fortress or -himself into Gloucester’s keeping. This priest appears to have been not -only brave, but somewhat rash, for although the city was at that time -in the power of de Clare, he left the Tower when a siege was imminent, -and preached a sermon at St Paul’s, inveighing against the Earl. A -siege ensued, during which, according to Matthew of Westminster, a -number of Jews, then within the Tower, defended one of its wards with -great courage, and the King’s army arriving opportunely, the fortress -was saved from falling into the hands of the Earl. - - - - - CHAPTER III - - THE EDWARDS - - -At the close of Henry’s troubled reign we find the Tower in the keeping -of the Archbishop of York, a post he held while the young King, Edward -the First, was absent upon an expedition in Palestine. Although this -monarch was not often at the Tower, he added to its buildings, and -strengthened its fortifications, which, after the two sieges they had -lately undergone, no doubt stood much in need of repair, and it was -during his reign that the fortress became the recognised place of -incarceration for State prisoners, and the principal prison in the -realm. The dungeons beneath the White Tower were crowded with hundreds -of unfortunate Jews in 1278,—a strange way, it seems, of repaying -these people for the courage and loyalty some of their brethren had -so recently displayed in the reign of the King’s father, in defending -the same fortress against the King’s enemies. These Jews—there were -some six hundred of them—were imprisoned in the Tower on the charge of -clipping and defacing the coin of the realm. - -The prisons were often filled after Edward’s campaigns, many captives -being brought from Wales and from Scotland. Amongst the latter, after -the defeat of the Scottish army at Dunbar in 1296, was King Baliol, -with the Earls of Athol, Sutherland, Menteith, Ross, and others, -Baliol’s son, Prince Edward, with other Scottish chiefs and knights, -being added to the former batch of State prisoners in the following -year. - -It was in 1305 that one of the greatest heroes of that or any other -period was brought a prisoner to London, and one would give much to -know with any certainty whether William Wallace was imprisoned or not -in the Tower, and where he spent the last days of his glorious life. -But it is a matter of uncertainty whether he ever entered the walls of -that fortress. He appears, when brought to London, to have been lodged -in a citizen’s house in Fenchurch Street, whence he was taken to his -trial at Westminster Hall; there he was impeached, and, as Holinshed -has it, “condemned and thereupon hanged at Smithfield.” Had Wallace -been imprisoned in the Tower, Holinshed would probably have recorded -the fact. The manner of the hero’s death will ever remain a stain upon -England and upon the memory of his judges. He was treated worse than -a common felon; dragged in chains to the gallows, and killed with -every detail of barbarous cruelty. Three other distinguished Scottish -prisoners were imprisoned in the Tower in 1306, after the battle of St -John’s Town, before their execution. These were the Earl of Athol, Sir -Simon Fraser, and Sir Christopher Seton. Their heads were placed on the -turrets of the White Tower. - -Not only did the dungeons of the Tower hold the King’s enemies in this -reign, but also many of his clergy and judges. Of the former was the -Abbot of Westminster, with a following of eight of his monks, who were -imprisoned upon the charge of having robbed the King’s Treasury to the -amount of one hundred thousand pounds—a prodigious sum in those days. -Among the judges imprisoned in the Tower at this time (1289) were Ralph -de Hengham, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, and the Master of the -Rolls, Robert Lithbuy, with others, charged “with criminal partiality -in the discharge of their offices”; they were only released after -paying heavy fines. - -The succeeding monarch Edward II., frequently occupied the Tower, -leaving his queen and children within the fortress for safety in 1322, -whilst he invaded Wales; and it was in the Tower that his eldest -daughter was born—Jane of the Tower, as she was styled on account of -the place of her birth. She lived to marry David Bruce and to become -Queen of Scotland in 1327. During this reign the once powerful order -of the Knights Templar fell into unspeakable ruin, the Tower becoming -the prison of all the knights of the order who had been arrested south -of the Tweed, their Grand Master dying there. Besides these there -were many prisoners of note taken in Scotland and Wales, and mention -is made of a woman having been imprisoned there for the first time. -The lady who gained this unpleasant celebrity appears to have richly -deserved her incarceration. On the occasion of a visit made to the -shrine of St Thomas at Canterbury by Queen Isabella and her retinue, -the royal pilgrim, on her return journey to London, was obliged to -crave the hospitality of the _châtelaine_ of Leeds Castle in Kent. -Lady Badlesmere, for such was the name of the lady of the Castle, not -only refused to admit the royal party, but gave orders for it to be -attacked, and several of the Queen’s servants were killed. As a result -of this conduct upon the part of the strong-minded Lady Badlesmere, -Leeds Castle was taken, its governor hanged, and the inhospitable lady -herself was conveyed to London, and occupied a prison in the Tower. - -Amongst the Welsh prisoners in the Tower towards the close of Edward’s -reign were the two Lords Mortimer of Wigmore and of Chirk, the former -of whom, making his escape and gaining France in safety, returned -at the head of an army. Edward had thrown himself into the Tower, -but fled to Wales when he heard that Mortimer and the Queen—his most -implacable enemy—were in arms against him. The King was captured, and -soon afterwards murdered at Berkeley Castle. Meanwhile Mortimer had -seized the Tower and beheaded the Bishop of Exeter, whom Edward had -left in charge, had taken the keys from the Constable, Sir John Weston, -and, releasing the prisoners, gave the Tower into the keeping of the -citizens of London. After Edward the Second’s murder, his son, the -young King Edward the Third, was kept in a state of semi-captivity in -the Tower by his mother, Queen Isabella, and her paramour Mortimer. -Edward, however, soon showed the strength of his character, and, after -capturing Roger Mortimer and his sons at Nottingham in 1330, carried -them to the Tower, where they were promptly hanged. - -The French and Scottish wars waged by the third Edward brought many -State prisoners to the Tower. From France came the Counts of Eu and -Tankerville, taken at the close of the siege of Caen in 1346, together -with three hundred burghers of that town. From Scotland came David -Bruce, with a large following of his nobles, Sutherland, Carrick, Fife, -Menteith, Wigton, and Douglas, captured by Percy at the Battle of -Neville’s Cross in 1346. Froissart and Rymer describe the huge escort -of twenty thousand armed men which guarded the captive Scottish King, -mounted on a black charger, on his arrival at the Tower on 2nd January -1347, how the streets were crowded with eager sightseers, the City -companies drawn up clad in their richest liveries, and Sir John Darcy, -the Constable, receiving the King at the Tower gate. Bruce remained -a prisoner in the fortress until he was liberated on the payment of -an immense ransom, the companions of his imprisonment being the brave -defender of Calais, Jean de Vienne, with twelve of its principal -citizens, after the siege and capture of that city. Eleven years later, -in 1358, another sovereign was a prisoner in the Tower, John, King of -France, with his son Philip, remaining there for two years after the -Battle of Poitiers, until the Treaty of Bretigny set them free in 1360. - -A minute survey of the Tower had been made in 1336, and in the -following year orders were given by Edward for repairs therein, “on -account,” the King said, “of certain news which had lately come to -his ears, and which sat heavy at his heart; the gates, walls, and -bulwarks shall be kept with all diligence, lest they be surprised by -his enemies.” He ordained that the gates of the fortress should be -closed “from the setting till the rising of the sun.” But in spite of -these royal commands, it appears that the Tower was allowed at this -period to fall into disrepair; for, three years after these orders had -been issued by Edward, we find him, on his second return from warring -in France, landing secretly one November night at the Tower, and -finding the place so ill-guarded that he had the Governor and some of -the other officers imprisoned, amongst them being the Lord Chancellor, -who combined that office with the Bishopric of Chichester. About this -time Edward’s Queen, Philippa, was brought to bed of a daughter in the -Tower, but the little Princess, who was named Blanche, died in her -infancy, and was buried in the Abbey Church of Westminster. - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - RICHARD II. - - -As I have pointed out in the Introduction to this book, reliable -historical details regarding the Tower are very meagre up to the date -of the reign of Edward III., but with the reign of Richard II. the -story of the Tower becomes of interest. Holinshed describes at some -length the splendours of the new King’s coronation. How the youthful -monarch, who was “as beautiful as an archangel”—as the life-size -portrait of Richard in Westminster Abbey proves—clad in white robes, -issued from the Tower surrounded by a vast retinue of knights and -nobles. He tells us of the streets through which the royal cortege took -its way to the Abbey, all adorned with tapestry, the conduits running -with wine, and the pageants performed in the principal thoroughfares. -Shortly after this Wat Tyler’s Rebellion broke out, and the young King -with his mother sought refuge in the Tower. How the revolt ended is -too well known to require telling here at length—how the mob surged -angrily round the fortress, “at times,” as Froissart writes, “hooting -as loud as if the devils were in them,” how Lord Mayor William Walworth -advised Richard to sally forth and himself attack the rebel rout while -they were asleep and drunk, and how the young sovereign decided to meet -them at Mile End. How during his absence some of the rioters broke into -the Tower, massacred the Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon of Sudbury, -who, with Sir Robert Hales and some of the courtiers, had taken refuge -in the Chapel in the White Tower, and how these were butchered; of -the pillage of the royal apartments and the insults which the King’s -mother, the widow of the Black Prince, was compelled to endure—all this -has been told scores of times since old Froissart wrote his veracious -account of these violences which read like a page from the French -Revolution of 1789. - -Yet, often as this tale has been told, it has never been more vividly -described than by the pen of George Macaulay Trevelyan, who in this, -his first work, “England in the Age of Wycliffe,” has given grounds -for believing that the literary mantle of his father and of his famous -great-uncle has descended upon him. In this book are the following -passages relating to the peasant rebellion in 1381. Of those who had -taken shelter in the Tower in those days of terror, Trevelyan writes: -“There was but one ark of safety, where many whose blood was sought -had already taken refuge. Gower compares the Tower of London during -this terrible crisis to a ship in which all those had climbed who could -not live in the raging sea. It had been the King’s headquarters for -the last two days. It was from the Tower steps that he had been rowed -across to the conference at Rotherhithe. His mother was with him in -the famous fortress, as were Treasurer Hales and Chancellor Sudbury, -for whose heads the rebels clamoured; his uncle Buckingham and his -young cousin Henry, who was destined to depose him; the Earls of Kent, -Suffolk, and Warwick; Leg, the author of the poll-tax commission, now -trembling for his life; and, last but not least, the Mayor Walworth. -But the noblest among them all was the tried and faithful servant of -Edward III., the Earl of Salisbury, a soldier who had shared in the -early glories of the Black Prince, a diplomatist who had dictated the -terms of Bretigny to the Court of France; he seems to have held aloof -in his old age from the intrigues of home politics, but in the imminent -danger that now threatened his country he acted a part not unworthy of -the name he bore. One man was absent from this assembly of notables, -who, if he had been present, would assuredly never have left the Tower -alive. John of Gaunt had good reason to be thankful that, during the -month when England was in the hands of those who sought his life, he -was across the Border arranging a truce with the Scots. - -“By the evening of Thursday, a great mob was encamped on St Catherine’s -Hill, over against the Tower, clamouring for the death of the ministers -who had there taken refuge. Sudbury was the principal victim whom they -demanded. The most horrible of all sounds, the roar of a mob howling -for blood, ever and again penetrated into the chambers of the Tower, -where prelates and nobles ‘sat still with awful eye’ (Froissart). The -young King, from a high turret window, watched the conflagrations -reddening the heavens. In all parts of the city and suburbs, the flames -shot up from the mansions of those who had displeased the people. Far -away to the west, beyond the burning Savoy, fire ascended from mansions -in Westminster; away to the north blazed the Treasurer’s manor at -Highbury. Close beneath him lay the rebel camp, whence ominous voices -now and again rose. Returning pensive and sad from these unwonted -sights and sounds, the boy held counsel with the wisest of his kingdom, -shut up within the same wall.” - -Then follows the account of the attempted escape from the Tower of the -Archbishop during the following night, or rather in the early dawn -of the next day. Sudbury had resigned the Great Seal into Richard’s -keeping; but this had no effect in calming the rage of the mob. In vain -did the Archbishop attempt to break from his prison; but as he appeared -on the Tower stairs, he was seen by the rebels from St Catherine’s -Hill, and obliged to return. Trevelyan then goes on to describe the -interview between Richard and his rebellious subjects at Mile End, -when the young monarch conceded their demands, and granted them a -general pardon. But meanwhile a great tragedy had taken place within -the fortress. “The rebels,” continues Trevelyan, “broke into the -Tower. Authorities differ as to the exact moment; some place it during, -and some after, the conference at Mile End. But it is, unfortunately, -certain that no resistance was made by the very formidable body of -well-armed soldiers, who might have defended such a stronghold for -many days even against a picked army. These troops were ordered, or at -least permitted, by the King to let in the mob. It appears that part of -the agreement with the rebels was that the Tower and the refugees it -contained were to be delivered over to their wrath. The dark passages -and inmost chambers of that ancient fortress were choked with the -throng of ruffians, while the soldiers stood back along the walls to -let them pass, and looked on helplessly at the outrages that followed. -Murderers broke into strong room and bower; even the King’s bed was -torn up, lest someone should be lurking in it. The unfortunate Leg, the -farmer of the poll-tax, paid with his life-blood for that unprofitable -speculation. A learned friar, the friend and adviser of John of Gaunt, -was torn to pieces as a substitute for his patron. Though the hunt -roared through every chamber, it was in the Chapel that the noblest -hart lay harboured. Archbishop Sudbury had realised that he was to be -sacrificed. He had been engaged, since the King started for Mile End, -in preparing the Treasurer and himself for death. He had confessed -Hales, and both had taken the Sacrament. He was still performing the -service of the Mass, when the mob burst into the Chapel, seized him -at the altar, hurried him across the moat to Tower Hill, where a vast -multitude of those who had been unable to press into the fortress -greeted his appearance with a savage yell. His head was struck off -on the spot where so many famous men have since perished with more -seemly circumstance. The Treasurer Hales suffered with him, and their -two heads, mounted over London Bridge, grinned down on the bands of -peasants who were still flocking into the capital from far-distant -parts.” - -Richard was again forced to take refuge in the Tower in 1387, in -consequence of a revolt led by his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, -and other disaffected nobles, who, out of patience with the King’s -misgovernment, and detesting his ministers, who had alienated Richard -from the more respectable of his subjects, succeeded in depriving him -of legislative power. The government of the country was placed in the -hands of a commission appointed by Gloucester, whereupon Richard flew -to arms and summoned a Parliament which met at Nottingham. Gloucester -and his adherents took the field with an army forty thousand strong, -and in an action fought between them and the King’s army at Radcot -Bridge, the latter was defeated. Richard once more took shelter with -his family in the Tower, the fortress being besieged soon afterwards. -A truce, however, was called by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and -negotiations were arranged for a meeting between the King and his -nobles, of whom, after Gloucester, the Earls of Derby and Nottingham -were the principal leaders. A conference was held in the Council -Chamber of the White Tower, and some kind of agreement was arrived -at, Richard returning to his palace at Westminster as soon as the -proceedings terminated. - -The King’s most unpopular ministers were impeached, some of them being -executed, one of them being his greatest friend, Sir Simon Burley, -a valiant soldier who had been appointed Richard’s governor by the -Black Prince. Despite the tears and entreaties of Queen Anne, Burley -was beheaded on Tower Hill. His death was never forgiven by the King; -he had been a loyal and devoted friend and subject both to Richard’s -father and to himself, and he had served with great distinction -throughout the wars of Edward the Third’s reign. His execution was -terribly revenged by Richard when he was able, once more, to act for -himself. - -Three years later, the Tower witnessed brighter scenes. Froissart -tells us in his inimitable manner of a splendid tournament held in -Smithfield, and commencing with a State procession which left the -Tower, and in which the King, his Queen, and the whole Court presented -an imposing sight. But Richard was biding his time to avenge the -death of his old friend Burley, and these brave shows and festivities -were only used as a cloak for designs he had meditated carrying out -from the day of Burley’s execution by his rebel subjects. The time -at length arrived—in 1396. His “good Queen,” Anne of Bavaria, was -dead, and Richard had taken as his second wife and Queen, Isabel of -France—daughter of the mad King Charles—who was lodged in the palace at -the Tower until her coronation. In the following year (1397) Richard -obtained his revenge. - -This was a _coup d’état_—I have the authority of Mr Gardiner for using -the French term—by which he summarily arrested his uncle Gloucester, -with the Earls of Warwick and Arundel. The shrift of these enemies of -the King was a short one. The Duke of Gloucester[7] was taken to the -Castle of Calais, and there he died, probably by the King’s orders; the -Earl of Warwick had received an invitation to meet the King at dinner -at the palace of the Lord Chancellor, Edmund de Strafford, who was -also Bishop of Exeter, which was in the Strand, near Temple Bar, with -gardens running down to the river. When the dinner was ended, Warwick, -on rising to take leave, was arrested, hurried to a barge, rowed up to -the fortress, and placed in the tower which bore his family name. After -a time, he was removed from the Beauchamp Tower to the castle rock of -Tintagel in Cornwall, and thence to the Isle of Man, the King sparing -his life, probably because of the public indignation that would have -been roused by the execution of one who had, more than any other of the -great nobles of his day, distinguished himself so highly in the French -wars. - -Arundel was brought to trial, pleading not guilty, and offering to -prove his innocence of the charges brought against him by the ordeal -of battle. No mercy, however, was shown him, and he was beheaded the -same day that his sentence was pronounced. His death was lamented by -many who knew his worth; he was a gallant soldier, and ten years before -this fate befell him had commanded an English fleet which had defeated -a French one. He was one of the greatest sons of the most illustrious -house in the kingdom, and his prowess on land was as renowned as his -success upon the sea. - -On his way from the Tower to the scaffold on Tower Hill, Arundel asked -that the cords with which his hands were tied might be loosened, in -order that he might bestow the money he carried about him upon the -people through whom he passed on his way to death. He was accompanied -to the scaffold by the Earl of Nottingham, who was his son-in-law, and -by Thomas Holland, the young Earl of Kent, his nephew, who apparently -came to triumph over his downfall rather than to sympathise in the -tragedy, for he is reported to have said to them, “It would have been -more seemly of you to have absented yourselves from this scene. The -time will come when as many shall marvel at your misfortunes as you do -at mine,” a prophecy soon afterwards fulfilled. - -Arundel’s body was buried in the Church of the Austin Friars in Broad -Street in the City, a building once filled with splendid monuments to -the illustrious dead, but of which no single one now remains. Among -these monuments were those of Hubert de Burgh, of Edward Plantagenet, -Richard the Second’s half-brother, and many others, but none more -illustrious, both by birth and renown, than Richard Fitzalan, Earl of -Arundel. Whatever his relatives may have felt concerning the Earl’s -death, the great body of the people lamented and mourned him bitterly, -regarding him as a martyr; and so much so, that they flocked in crowds -to the church of Austin Friars expecting miracles to be performed -at his tomb. Richard, although outwardly rejoicing at the great Earl’s -death, is said to have had his nights disturbed ever after by fearful -dreams, and his mind haunted by the wraith of Fitzalan. - -[Illustration: _Side of the Scaffold on Tower Hill._] - -After this sanguinary act of vengeance Richard seems to have lost all -self-control. Mr Gardiner writes that, “It is most probable that, -without being actually insane, his mind had to some extent given way.” -However that may be, it is certain that after the deaths of Gloucester -and Arundel, Richard knew no peace; and in three short years he, too, -lay in a bloody grave. - -Richard dissolved Parliament the year after the murder of Gloucester -and the execution of Arundel, appointing a Committee of twelve peers -and six commoners, his personal adherents, to carry on the government -of the country with himself. Like the first Charles he attempted to -rule the realm without a Parliament, and by this act of autocracy -destroyed himself. The Duke of Norfolk and Henry of Hereford had -been banished during that memorable tournament at Coventry, which -Shakespeare has immortalised in his great tragedy, and during the two -succeeding years Richard ruled the land, a half-crazed despot. - -In 1399 Hereford, who by his father’s death, “old John of Gaunt, -time-honoured Lancaster,” had become Duke of Lancaster, returned to -England from his banishment, having heard that the King had seized all -his father’s lands; and, in returning to claim his own, it chanced that -he obtained the realm of England from his cousin Richard. - -When Lancaster landed at Ravenspur in Yorkshire, Richard had betaken -himself to Ireland, whence he returned in hot haste to England: he -found his situation already desperate. Events moved swiftly, and on -the 2nd of September 1399, Richard was taken a prisoner to London and -placed in the Tower. - - “Men’s eyes - Did scowl on Richard; no man cried God save him; - No joyful tongue gave him his welcome home; - But dust was thrown upon his sacred head: - Which with such gentle sorrow he shook off, - His face still combating with tears and smiles, - The badges of his grief and patience, - That had not God, for some strange purpose steel’d - The hearts of men, they must perforce have melted, - And barbarism itself have pitied him.” - -The day after the gates of the fortress closed upon him, Richard’s -deposition was read in Parliament. Twenty-two years had passed since he -had left the Tower for his coronation, surrounded by all the pomp of -this world—himself the brightest figure in a brilliant pageant; he was -now throneless, a prisoner in the power of his cousin; a broken-down -and prematurely aged man, although still in the prime of life. - -“On St Michael’s Day (September 29) a deputation of prelates, barons, -knights, and lawyers proceeded on horseback to the Tower, where they -alighted; King Richard came to them in the hall (probably the Council -Chamber in the White Tower) when they were assembled. He was apparelled -in his robes, the crown on his head, the sceptre in his hand. Standing -there alone, he then spoke: ‘I have been King of England, Duke of -Aquitaine, and Lord of Ireland about twenty-two years, which royalty, -lordship, sceptre, and crown I resign here to my cousin, Henry of -Lancaster, and I entreat him here in presence of you all to accept this -sceptre.’ He then tendered the sceptre to the Duke, who, on receiving -it, handed it to the Archbishop of Canterbury. King Richard next raised -the crown from off his head, and said: ‘Henry, fair cousin, and Duke -of Lancaster, I present and give to you this crown and all the rights -dependent on it,’ and the Duke, accepting it, delivered it also to the -Archbishop.” (From “The Story of the House of Lancaster,” by G. H. -Hartwright.) - -After the final tragedy in Richard’s dungeon at Pomfret Castle, his -corpse rested one night in the Tower, with the still beautiful face -exposed, until the following day, when it was placed in St Paul’s. - -Shakespeare has dealt leniently with the character of Richard of -Bordeaux. Doubtless the tragedy of his life made Shakespeare kinder to -his memory than was warranted by sober history, for Richard was one -of the worst of our English kings. The son of the heroic Black Prince -and the grandson of Edward the Third, with the blood and traditions -of Richard the Lion-Hearted, Richard inherited none of their great -qualities, and was content to fritter away his life in petty acts of -tyranny and oppression. England had been used to victory during the -great reigns of the first and third Edwards; under Richard, the only -success of the national arms was the defeat of the French fleet by -Arundel, and Arundel was put to death by Richard. Proud, passionate, -and tyrannical, the Black Prince’s son threw away the love, respect, -and loyalty which, for the sake of his father’s memory, he had -possessed to the fullest upon his ascent to the throne. And although -he was only thirty-four at the time of his death, he had lived long -enough to see the heartfelt affection of his people turn to dislike -and contempt. But the glamour of his personal beauty, combined with -the tragedy of his fall, inspired the greatest of our dramatists to -perpetuate his memory in a manner which will ever touch the human heart. - - “Sunt lacrymae rerum, et mentem mortalia tangunt.” - - - - - CHAPTER V - - THE LANCASTRIANS - - -Neither of the succeeding reigns—those of Henry IV. and of Henry -V.—have left many traces upon the history of the Tower, although both -these sovereigns occasionally lived within its walls, but in those days -the fortress had become less of a Palace and more of a State prison. -There was a picturesque ceremony, however, in the Tower on the eve of -Henry the Fourth’s coronation, when forty-six new knights of the Order -of the Bath “watched their arms” throughout the night of the 11th of -October (1399) in the Chapel of the White Tower. - -With Henry of Lancaster the list of State prisoners recommences; -Llewellyn, a relation of Owen Glendower’s, coming there in 1402, -being followed three years later by Owen’s son Griffin, and other -leaders of the Welsh, taken at the battle of Usk. Nor did Henry fail -to visit his wrath upon offending priests, for in 1403 the Abbot of -the Friar Preachers at Winchelsea, was interned in the Tower, with -other ecclesiastics, charged with intending to incite the people to -rebellion, and with having written “railing rimes, malicious meters, -and tauntyng verses against the King”; their literary ability brought -these unlucky priests to the gallows at Tyburn. But the most important -prisoner of State whom we find in the Tower in Henry’s reign, was -Prince James of Scotland, the son and heir of Robert III. The young -Prince, who was only nine years of age, was being sent to France -to be educated, and, encountering heavy weather, was driven ashore -at Flamborough Head in Yorkshire. Notwithstanding the fact that -England and Scotland were then at peace, Henry seized the prince and -his attendants, contrary to all the laws of justice and hospitality, -imprisoning him within the Tower, together with the Earl of Orkney, -who was accompanying him as his guardian. When the news reached King -Robert of Scotland in 1406, he is said to have died of a broken heart, -the young prince becoming _de facto_ king of that country, but Henry -still kept him a prisoner. After remaining for two years at the Tower, -he was taken to Nottingham Castle, and it was not until the accession -of Henry the Sixth that he regained his liberty, having been a prisoner -for eighteen years. - -Henry V. became King in 1412, and in the “Chronicles of London” is an -account of the goodly array which accompanied the new monarch to the -Tower, “and ayens hym was a gret rydynge of men of London, and brought -hym to the Tower upon the Fryday, and on the morowe he rood through -Chepe with a gret rought of lordes and knyghtes, the whiche he hadde -newe made in the Towre on the night before, unto Westᵐʳ.” - -An infamous law had been enacted against the followers of Wyckliffe -in 1401, and during the hero of Agincourt’s reign the Tower was full -of these persecuted people; indeed, the one great blot upon Henry’s -memory is the barbarous treatment of the Lollards by the Church. Of -these reformers Sir John Oldcastle (afterwards he bore the title of -Lord Cobham in right of his wife) was the most distinguished. He had -been one of the foremost warriors in the French campaigns, and appears -in every way to have been an honour to his class. By the provisions -of the iniquitous clerical decree of 1401, the Bishops were allowed a -free hand in persecuting, to the death, all those who were suspected -of following Wyckliffe’s teaching; all preachers of his doctrine were -liable to be arrested, as well as owners of heretical books. If the -doctrines were not abjured, the Church had the power of handing the -culprits over to the officers of the Crown, and these, according to -the legal enactment of this religious persecution, the “first legal -enactment,” as J. R. Green calls it in his history, “of religious -bloodshed which defiled our Statute Book,” could burn the offender -alive, “on a high place before the people.” - -The first martyr to suffer for the purer faith in England was a priest -of Lynn, William Sautre. Oldcastle was the head of these reformers, -and although a personal friend of the young King, the Bishops allowed -no ties of friendship, no valiant services for his country, to weigh -in his favour, or to stand between them and their prey. They demanded -the body of Oldcastle, alive or dead, and Henry reluctantly, but -weakly, gave up his old friend into the power of the bloodthirsty -prelates, Oldcastle being taken by force in his castle of Cowling. He -was brought to the Tower but succeeded in making his escape, whereupon -the Lollards, encouraged by once more having their chief at their head, -rose in arms. They, however, were speedily defeated and a wholesale -butchery ensued, thirty-nine of the more prominent amongst them being -burnt or hanged. Oldcastle was brought a second time to the Tower -and did not again escape from the clutches of the priests; they had -their way, and burnt the gallant old knight, hung in chains over a -slow fire, on Christmas Day 1417, at Smithfield, in front of his own -house. “Oldcastle died a martyr,” as Shakespeare pithily says. His -life and death inspired Tennyson to write a noble poem on this heroic -warrior-martyr. - -It is almost as if Henry’s early death, at the age of thirty-four, came -as a judgment for allowing Oldcastle to fall into the hands of the -priests; and the memory of the subduer of France will ever bear the -dark shadow of Oldcastle’s cruel murder. Although it would not be fair -to the English clergy to compare them with their Spanish and French -brothers in the matter of cruelty, they were not far behind them in -their remorseless persecution of all who dared to differ from their -doctrines. Until the rule of the priest was forcibly extinguished by -Elizabeth’s adoption of the Reformed faith, executions and tortures -which would have disgraced savages, formed part of the English Code. -But in spite of the priests, the torture chamber, and the stake, the -spirit of Wyckliffe and his followers was not quenched in the country; -it always existed most strongly in the country towns, and when the -persecution of Queen Mary and Bishop Bonner outraged the great bulk of -the nation, the fires of reform, which had only smouldered, but which -had never been extinguished, burst out into flame, and the hateful -reign of the persecuting priest was finally and for ever overthrown. - -The campaigns in France, like those in Wales and Scotland, added to the -distinguished prisoners of State placed within the durance of the Tower -walls by the fortune of war. Of the French came the Dukes of Bourbon -and Orleans, with the Counts of Eu, Vendome, the Marshal Boucicourt, -and many other knights after the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. I have -made mention elsewhere of the famous imprisonment of the Duke of -Orleans in the White Tower. He was released in 1440, on the payment of -a ransom of fifty thousand pounds, a sum approximately ten times that -of our present money value; but many of these French captives died in -the Tower, among them the Duke of Bourbon and the Marshal Boucicourt. - -After the death of Henry V., and during the Protectorate which governed -the country during the minority of Henry VI., the young King’s -guardian, the Bishop of Winchester, taking advantage of the absence -of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the actual Protector, reinforced the -garrison of the Tower, and on the Duke’s return from France refused to -admit him to the fortress, with the result that the aid of Parliament -had to be invoked to arrange matters between the Duke and the Bishop. -Throughout Henry’s troubled reign the Tower was full of prisoners, some -of them French and Scotch taken in the wars, and amongst others Owen -Tudor, the father of the future Henry VII. The Duchess of Gloucester, -an aunt by marriage of the King, was also imprisoned in the fortress -upon the charge of witchcraft and sorcery, a circumstance of which -Shakespeare made signal use in his tragedy dealing with the unfortunate -Henry’s life. - -In 1450, the Tower was again the scene of civil strife. In that year -Jack Cade’s insurrection took place, and with that insurrection the -name of one of England’s greatest nobles was connected, William de la -Pole, Duke of Suffolk. The history of his family was distinguished. His -father had fallen at the siege of Harfleur; his eldest brother had died -on the field of Agincourt, and two others had perished in the Battle of -Jargeau. The Duke himself had willingly given himself up as a hostage -for his youngest brother, who had been taken prisoner in France, -where, however, he had died before his ransom could be collected. -Suffolk had been a Knight of the Garter for thirty years at the time -of the Cade rebellion, and throughout those three decades had served -the King faithfully, both at home and abroad, as he told his accusers -when he was brought before the Parliament at Westminster on a charge -of high treason. But he had many enemies, and these vamped up the -charge of treason against him on the ridiculous ground of his having -laid up provisions and military stores at Wallingford Castle, with -the intention of sending them to the French. Upon this absurd charge -Suffolk was committed to the Tower, but as nothing could be proved -against him he was shortly afterwards released, but sentenced to be -banished the country. For some unexplained reason Suffolk was intensely -disliked by the people, and all the misfortunes of the time—the English -defeats in France and the unpopularity of the government of the -day—were laid to his account by the populace. His end was pitiful. He -had taken ship at Dover to cross to Calais, but was seized on board by -the captain of another vessel named _Nicholas of the Tower_. On hearing -the name of the ship Suffolk is said to have lost all his fortitude, -for it had been prophesied to him that if he “could avoid water and -escape the danger of the Tower, he would be safe, and so his heart -failed him.” The old prophecy came true, for shortly after his capture -his head was hacked off by several strokes of a rusty sword, and his -body was cast upon the beach at Dover. Thus miserably perished William -de la Pole, Duke, Marquis, and Earl of Suffolk, Duke of Dreux, Earl of -Pembroke, Baron de la Pole of Wingfield, and other titles and dignities. - -[Illustration: _St. Thomas’s Tower, from the Wharf._] - -Jack Cade’s insurrection was the beginning of a long series of civil -strifes which at last broke out into the civil war that raged from 1450 -to 1471; this was the War of the Roses, so called from the badges worn -by the opposing factions, the Lancastrians wearing the Red, and the -Yorkists the White Rose. - -At the outset of the war, London was at the mercy of a riotous mob, -headed by the redoubtable Cade, who had assumed the name of Mortimer. -The charge of the Tower had been confided to Lord Scales and Sir Mathew -Gough. Lord Saye, who was at this time Lord High Treasurer, was a -prisoner in the Tower, an Order in Council having placed him there, as -a means, it was hoped, of pacifying the rioters, who, however, attacked -the fortress from the Southwark side of the river, aided by Cade -and his followers, but retreated at nightfall across London Bridge. -Scales, with the help of the Lord Mayor, made a sortie from the Tower, -barricading the bridge, whilst Gough commanded the rebels’ position -across the water from the battlements of the fortress. At this juncture -the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had taken shelter within the Tower, -called for a general amnesty, and this being granted, the rebellion -died out of its own accord, Cade being captured and killed by the -Sheriff of Kent, and his followers dispersed to their homes. Meanwhile -the King had sunk into a state of semi-idiocy, his mind, never a strong -one, having doubtless been affected by the unceasing trouble around -him; besides, he was the grandson of Charles VI. of France, so that -his mental condition is easily accounted for. The Duke of Somerset, -grandson of John of Gaunt, now took the foremost place in the Council, -but after a short period of seclusion, Henry was again able to act as -King. - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - THE WARS OF THE ROSES - - -There is much that is tedious in the accounts of the Wars of the Roses. -One battle is gained by the Lancastrians, and the next by the Yorkists, -this continuing for years in a see-saw fashion. At first the war was -not marked by much bloodthirstiness, but after the Battle of Towton no -quarter was given on either side, the prisoners being murdered in cold -blood, the most conspicuous amongst them being beheaded. This summary -method of disposing of the captives accounts for the small number of -State prisoners in the Tower during the twenty years of internecine -warfare which almost annihilated the peerage. Here are a few of the -principal battles fought throughout the length and breadth of England -between 1455 and 1461. In 1458 was fought the battle of St Albans, in -which Somerset was defeated and slain. In 1459 Lord Audley was slain by -Salisbury, who gained the Battle of Blore Heath; in 1460 the Yorkists, -led by Salisbury, Warwick, and March (afterwards Edward IV.), defeated -the King at Northampton and took him prisoner; in the same year -Margaret’s army routed the Yorkists at Wakefield, where the Duke of -York was killed, and Salisbury was beheaded at Pontefract. In 1461 the -Lancastrians were defeated at the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross by Edward, -the son of the Duke of York, and the future King; and in that same year -the decisive Battle of Towton was also gained by him, the Lancastrian -cause receiving its death-blow. Three months later, Edward was crowned -by the style of Edward the Fourth, and his brothers George and Richard -were made Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester respectively, whilst poor, -harmless, half-witted Henry was proclaimed a traitor. - -When Henry was told that he had no right to the style of King, he -replied: “My father was King; his father also was King; I myself have -worn the crown forty years from my cradle; you have all sworn fealty to -me as your sovereign, and your fathers have done the like to mine. How, -then, can my right be disputed?” “By force,” they might have replied. - -Queen Margaret, an infinitely more masculine being than the poor weak -King, her husband, would not give up the struggle, and even after the -Battle of Towton had destroyed the cause of her house, she raised -its standard in the North. Warwick crushed her army, and after the -Battle of Hexham in 1471, Margaret was forced to flee with her son. -She is traditionally said to have owed her escape to a robber, on -whose generosity she had thrown herself. Henry, meanwhile, was led a -prisoner to the Tower, being treated, by Warwick’s orders, with every -indignity. His gilt spurs were struck off when he reached the fortress, -and his legs tied to the stirrups of his horse, which was led round a -tree in front of the Tower which then served the purpose of a pillory. -Once inside his prison the fallen monarch appears to have been treated -with some kind of humanity, being allowed to see some of his friends, -the use of his breviary, and the company of a favourite bird and dog. -His prison was in the Wakefield Tower, and in one of the chambers—now -containing the Regalia—was the oratory in which tradition has it that -he was murdered by Gloucester. - -Later on Queen Margaret and her daughter-in-law, Lady Anne Neville, -were also imprisoned in the Tower, but the Queen never saw her husband -again, for although they were in the same building they were rigorously -kept apart. After an imprisonment of five years, part of which was -passed at Windsor, Margaret was allowed to return to her own country, -on the payment of a heavy ransom, where she died in 1482. - -All through the Wars of the Roses the Tower had been the scene of some -important events. When in 1460 the Earls of Warwick, Salisbury, and -March arrived in London from Calais, Lord Scales was in command of -the Tower. Scales was Lancastrian in his politics and sympathies, and -after vainly attempting to keep the three Earls from entering the city, -blockaded himself within the fortress; and it was only when the news of -King Henry’s having been taken prisoner came to his knowledge that Lord -Scales surrendered his trust into the hands of the Yorkists. - -The new King’s coronation took place on St Peter’s Day, the 29th June -1461. Edward arrived from the Palace of Sheen at Richmond three days -before the ceremony, and took up his quarters in the Tower, being -received at the gates of the fortress with much pomp and state. On -the eve of his coronation he gave a great feast to his adherents, -knighting thirty-two of them. According to the chronicler Fabyan’s -account, the new Knights of the Bath “were arrayed in blue gowns with -hoods and tokens of white silk upon their shoulders,” and they rode -before the King in the procession which took its course from the -Tower to the Abbey at Westminster. Edward soon showed his vindictive -nature by imprisoning, within the Tower, as soon as he felt himself -secure upon the throne, Henry Percy, the son and heir of the Duke of -Northumberland. Besides Percy, Aubrey de Vere, Earl of Oxford, with his -heir, were also placed in the Tower in 1462, with some other nobles and -knights who had fought upon the Lancastrian side; of these Sir Thomas -Tudenham and Sir William Tyrell were beheaded on Tower Hill. - -King Edward’s wife, Elizabeth Woodville, passed a few days in the -Tower previous to her coronation in 1465, and both the King and Queen -frequently lived in the Palace of the fortress, the Queen passing the -time there when Edward was occupied in putting down an insurrection in -the North. - -When the whirligig of events and Warwick, the “King-maker,” brought -back King Henry for a brief space of power, Elizabeth Woodville fled -with her children to the Sanctuary at Westminster. The “King-maker” was -defeated at the Battle of Barnet in 1471, and King Henry was brought -back to the Tower once more a prisoner. - -It was on Easter Sunday, in the year 1471, that Henry VI. re-entered -the fortress for the last time. The fatal day of Tewkesbury was his -doom, and Queen Margaret must be regarded as the cause of her luckless -husband’s death. Could they have changed their _rôles_ in life, Henry -would probably have died on the throne and have left sons to succeed -him. At Tewkesbury, Edward, who had left the Tower in charge of -Earl Rivers, his Queen’s brother, again met Queen Margaret in arms, -defeating her and taking her son prisoner. The death of this her only -son, slain, it is said in cold blood, by the Duke of Gloucester, for -whom she had waged unceasing war against the Yorkists, destroyed her -last hopes. And on the 22nd of May 1471, the day after the triumphant -Edward’s return to London, her husband lay dead in the Wakefield Tower. - -The manner of his death will never be known, but the crime has always -been charged to Gloucester. A great authority (S. R. Gardiner) thus -writes of the death of the sixth Henry: “There can be no reasonable -doubt that he was murdered, and that, too, by Edward’s directions.” Of -the earliest histories relating to Henry’s death there are many and -contradictory accounts. According to Polydore Vergil, Hall, Fabyan, -Grafton, Holinshed, the Warkworth Chronicle, de Commines, and Sandford, -King Henry was murdered by Gloucester himself. Hume alone avers that -“he (the King) expired in confinement, but whether he died a natural -death or a violent one is uncertain.” - -Thus at length the much-tried and weary King Henry of Windsor was at -rest after so many sore buffetings, defeats, perils, and misfortunes; -his life’s pilgrimage was at an end. - - “Good night, sweet Prince; - And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.” - -Henry’s corpse was taken, according to Holinshed, “unreverently from -the Tower” to St Paul’s, where it remained one night, and was next day -buried at Chertsey, “without priest or clerke, torch or taper, singing -or saying.” In later times Henry’s remains were re-interred at St -George’s, Windsor. On the pavement to the right of the choir in that -burying-place of our English kings, a flagstone bears written upon it -in large letters, “King Henry VI.” - -We have now arrived at the most dramatic point in the history of the -Tower. After Henry’s death a very host of bloody deeds took place -within the walls of the gloomy old fortress; murder succeeds to murder; -and the blood of princes seems to ooze from beneath its prison doors. - -The next royal victim was the King’s brother, George, Duke of Clarence, -“false, perjured Clarence.” For him, however, one feels little pity, -since he well merited to be called both “false” and “perjured.” The -old tale of his having been drowned in a barrel of Malmsey wine has -been believed these four hundred years, and, as it cannot be disproved, -it will serve as well as any other. It is the mystery which surrounds -these murders committed in the dark towers of the old fortress, which -adds not a little to their horror. An execution in broad daylight -seems, compared with the unknown manner in which a prisoner was killed -in some hole and corner of a dungeon, quite a cheerful event. One -shudders at the thought of the helpless victim struggling in his death -agony in the arms of his murderers. - -Clarence’s death took place on the 18th of February 1478, but even the -place of his imprisonment is unknown. By some he is said to have been -confined in the Bowyer Tower; but in Mrs Hutchinson’s Memoir she has -left on record that the Bloody Tower was the scene of his murder, and -as she was the daughter of Sir Allen Apsley, the Lieutenant of the -Tower in Charles the First’s reign, her authority on the matter is a -good one. The only contemporary, or nearly contemporary writers, in -favour of the story of the Malmsey butt are Fabyan and de Commines. The -former, a London citizen, writes: “The Duke of Clarence was secretly -put to death and drowned in a butt of Malmsay within the Tower.” Philip -de Commines considered this to be a true version of the manner of the -Duke’s death. It has been suggested that Clarence was poisoned. - -Edward IV., as has been said, lived a great deal in the Tower; he also -increased its fortifications, and, according to Stowe’s “Survey of -London,” built “a brick wall around a piece of ground on Tower Hill -west from the Lion’s Tower, now called the Bulwark.” This fortification -has long ago disappeared. Edward likewise, according to the same -excellent authority, renewed the moat and made considerable general -repairs to the buildings. He was the last of our Kings who added -materially to the Tower. - -With the appointment of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, to the office of -Protector, after the death of Edward the Fourth, on 9th April 1483, -the Tower plays a conspicuous part in the events which the next few -years produced. Edward had left two sons; the elder, now Edward V., -being twelve years old, his brother, Richard, Duke of York, being -a year or two younger. Gloucester had the reputation of being an -excellent soldier, and had not, as was the case with his brother -Clarence, been disloyal to the late King. Whether he was hump-backed -or whether, as some writers aver, he was scarcely less handsome than -his handsome brothers, or whether one of his shoulders was higher -than the other, is not of much consequence; for whether he was crooked -or not in person, Gloucester was certainly crooked in character. If -any faith can be put in the lineaments and expression of the human -face, that of Richard, to judge by the portraits that have come down -to us, was most evil. His face can be studied in the National Portrait -Gallery. The close-set cruel eyes, the heavy nose, the thin white -lips, the protruding jaw, are not inviting; but the expression is even -more remarkable—a mixture of cunning, boundless determination, and -remorseless cruelty. Gloucester possessed, writes Mr Gardiner, “a rare -power of winning popular sympathy, and was most liked in Yorkshire, -where he was best known. He had, however, grown up in a cruel and -unscrupulous age, and had no more hesitation in clearing his way by -slaughter than Edward IV. or Margaret of Anjou.” Mr Gardiner is almost -apologetic for Richard’s memory; but there is a great difference, it -seems to me, between being revengeful and even merciless in war, and in -murdering either with one’s own hands or by those of hired assassins, -one’s brother and one’s nephews. It was by shedding their blood that -Richard was enabled to mount the throne which he usurped: of that there -is no room for any reasonable doubt. That Shakespeare, in giving the -worst character of any in his great series of historical plays to this -monarch, is responsible for the popular opinion of King Richard is also -indisputable, for we English take our history from these plays, and -“crook-back’d” Richard will ever remain the deepest-dyed villain that -ever wore the English crown. The great Duke of Marlborough confessed -that all that he knew of English history had been learnt through -Shakespeare’s plays, and with all truth the majority of his countrymen -might say the same. It has also been said, “The youth of England take -their theology from Milton and their history from Shakespeare”; and -surely they might go further and fare worse. - -[Illustration: _View in the Inner Ward_] - -It should, however, in fairness both to Richard and to Shakespeare, -be remembered that the character of the Royal villain in the play -was drawn by one who wrote in the days of the Tudors, and at a time -when the house of Plantagenet was not in good odour with the reigning -Sovereign. Richard appears in three of the dramas—in the second and -third parts of _King Henry VI._, and as the hero or chief villain in -that which bears his name when King: the important part played by the -Tower in the usurper’s reign is strongly marked by the poet placing -four scenes of _Richard III._ within or near the fortress—twice as many -as occur in any other of his historical dramas. - -On the 13th of June 1483, Richard had the Archbishop of York, and -Morton, the Bishop of Ely, together with Lord Stanley and Lord -Hastings, arrested during a Council which he had summoned in the White -Tower. Without any pretence of a trial, Hastings was led out of the -Council Room by the soldiery whom Richard had concealed behind the -arras, and, according to Fabyan, his head was struck off on a piece of -timber which lay near St Peter’s Chapel. “I will not dine till they -have brought me your head,” said Richard to Hastings, as he was being -led away. The three other prisoners were placed in separate dungeons, -the Archbishop and Stanley being released in the following July. -Another victim was required by Richard. Lord Rivers, the late King’s -brother-in-law, like Hastings, had been a check upon Richard’s designs -for seizing the crown, therefore Rivers was executed, as was also Sir -Richard Grey. There only now remained Gloucester’s two nephews between -him and the throne. At this particular time they were living with their -mother, the Queen, Elizabeth Woodville, at Westminster, and it was only -by the strongest persuasion, followed by threats, that the unfortunate -Queen was induced to allow their uncle to take charge of them. -Gloucester, having first placed the Princes in the Tower, declared them -to be bastards, and as Clarence’s children were prevented by their -father’s attainder from coming into the succession, Richard openly -declared himself the rightful King. He even went to the length of -getting a preacher named Shaw to declare to the people that he alone -was the legitimate son of the Duke of York, and that his brothers, the -late King and the Duke of Clarence, were not his father’s sons. Perhaps -this attack on his mother’s good name was the most odious of the many -infamous acts of which Richard III. was guilty. On the 25th of June -1483 Parliament declared Gloucester the lawful heir to the throne, -and on the 6th of July he was crowned as Richard III. But during that -summer rumours as to the death of the sons of Edward IV. began to be -spread abroad, and the King’s name was linked with the report that they -had met a violent death in the Bloody Tower. - -In a wardrobe account for the year 1483 there is a long list of -articles of dress delivered at the Tower for Richard’s coronation. -Among the dresses mentioned, we find that Richard had ordered the -following elaborate costume:—“To our said Soverayne Lord the King for -his apparail the vigil afore the day of his most noble coronation, -for to ride from his Towre of London, unto his Palays of Westminster, -a doublet made of two yerds and a quarter and a half of blue clothe -of gold, wrought with netts and pyne-apples, with a stomacher of the -same, lined oon ell of Holland clothe, and oon ell of busk, instede of -green cloth of gold, and a longe gown for to ryde in, made of eight -yerds of p’pul velvet, furred with eight tymbres and a half and 13 -bakks of ermyn, and 4 tymbres, 17 coombes of ermyns powdered with 3300 -of powderings made of boggy shanks, and a payre of short spurs with -gilt.” To describe these queerly named habits of “apparail,” such as -“tymbres,” and “bakks of ermyn,” and “boggy shanks,” would require the -knowledge of an antiquarian deeply versed in the costume of the Middle -Ages, but this account of Richard III.’s coronation outfit proves that -he, at any rate, spared no expense in the decoration of his person, -whether that was deformed or not. - -His coronation was one of the most splendid on record up to that -period in the annals of the English sovereignty. From the Tower to the -Abbey he was followed by a cortege in which rode three dukes, nine -earls, and twenty-two barons, besides a host of knights and esquires, -all gorgeously arrayed. After the coronation festivities were ended, -Richard went to Warwick, leaving the Tower of London in the charge of -Sir Robert Brackenbury. Richard is supposed to have sent Sir Robert a -message, which he received whilst attending mass in the chapel of the -White Tower, asking him whether he would be willing to rid the King -of the Princes. Brackenbury indignantly refused to have anything to -do with such villainy, whereupon Richard relieved him of his charge -of the Tower, and handed it over to James Tyrell, who hired the three -murderers—Dighton, Green, and Forrest—these being admitted into the -prison of the Princes in the Bloody Tower at night, when the double -murder was accomplished. In describing the Bloody Tower, I have given -an account of the place where this deed was done and the passage -through which the murderers entered the prison. - -The murderers were well rewarded—Richard Tyrell being appointed -Governor of the town of Guisnes near Calais, also being given lands in -Wales; Green obtained the Receivership of the Isle of Wight; Forrest’s -widow (so probably Forrest died soon after the crime) received a -pension. Further, in order to protect all those who were concerned in -the affair, Richard issued under his royal hand and seal a general -pardon for all their former offences. - -The innocent blood was, however, avenged in the following reign. In -1502 Tyrell was beheaded, not on the charge of murdering the Princes, -but for aiding John de la Pole to make his escape; this John de la -Pole was Richard’s nephew, upon whom he had settled the succession -after his own death. Tyrell, it is said, confessed to the murder of -the little Princes shortly before his execution. Dighton, who was -hanged at Calais shortly after Tyrell’s execution, also confessed his -share in the murder, and his knowledge of the bodies of the children -having first been buried by a priest near the Wakefield Tower, and -subsequently in some other place unknown to him. - -[Illustration: _The Wakefield Tower, time of George III._] - -The earliest historian who wrote an account of this double murder was -the French chronicler, Philip de Commines, a contemporary of Richard -III. In his Chronicles occurs this passage relating to the King: “il -fist mourir ses deux nepheux, et se fist roy appellé Richard III.” Two -contemporary English authors have also written to the same effect. The -first of these is a Londoner named Arnold, who, in his “Chronicles of -the Customs of London,” states that in the year 1484 “the two sons of -Kynge Edward were put to silence.” The second is Fabyan, from whom I -have already quoted in these pages. He writes, “Kynge Edward V., and -his broder the Duke of York, were put under suer Kepynge within the -Tower, in such wyse that they never came abrode after,” and he adds, -“common fame went that Kynge Richard hadde within the Tower put unto -secrete deth the two sons of his broder Edward the IV.” Sir Thomas -More, in a history which he did not write himself, for it was written -by Morton, the Bishop of Ely, but which More published, also asserts as -a fact that the Princes were murdered. Polydore Vergil, Hall, Stowe, -and Bacon have all written to similar effect. - -Horace Walpole amused himself—much in the same way as did Archbishop -Whateley in later days—by writing a clever skit entitled, “Historic -Doubts of the Life and Reign of King Richard III.,” in which that -amusing and prolific writer of gossiping letters casts doubt on the -very existence of such a being as King Richard III., which, if proven, -would do away with the existence of the little Princes. But I imagine -that “Horry” had as firm a belief that the Princes were destroyed by -their uncle in the Tower, as the Archbishop had in the existence of -Napoleon. - -The tragic death of the sons of the fourth Edward has been a favourite -subject both with poets and painters. Two of Paul de la Roche’s finest -paintings represent the brothers in the Tower, and one of Millais’ most -successful and characteristic works is a group of the two boy princes -standing together on the prison stairs, and seeming to listen for their -murderers’ approach. And who does not recall, when thinking of that -tragedy, the matchless pathos of the lines describing the scene as -spoken by Tyrell in _Richard III._: - - “The tyrannous and bloody act is done: - The most arch deed of piteous massacre, - That ever yet this land was guilty of. - Dighton and Forrest, whom I did suborn - To do this piece of ruthless butchery, - Albeit they were flesh’d villains, bloody dogs, - Melting with tenderness and mild compassion, - Wept like two children, in their death’s sad story. - O thus, quoth Dighton, lay the gentle babes,— - Thus, thus, quoth Forrest, girdling one another - Within their alabaster innocent arms:— - Their lips were four red roses on a stalk, - Which, in their summer beauty, kissed each other. - A book of prayers on their pillow lay; - Which once, quoth Forrest, almost changed my mind; - But, O, the devil—then the villain stopp’d; - When Dighton thus told on,—We smothered - The most replenished and sweet work of nature, - That from the prime creation, e’er she fram’d. - Hence both are gone with conscience and remorse, - That could not speak; and so I left them both, - To bear the tidings to the bloody King.” - -A curious event occurred to one of the State prisoners in this reign, -Sir Henry Wyatt—the father of the poet, Sir Thomas Wyatt, and -grandfather of the Thomas Wyatt who lost his life for the part he -played in the rebellion against Mary in favour of Jane Grey—was a -Lancastrian in politics, and had been imprisoned in the fortress on -more than one occasion; “once,” the Wyatt papers say, “in a cold and -narrow tower, where he had neither bed to lie on, nor meat for his -mouth. He had starved then, had not God, who sent a crow to feed his -prophet, sent this and his country’s martyr a cat both to feed and -warm him. It was his own relation unto them from whom I had it. A cat -came one day down into the dungeon unto him, and, as it were, offered -herself unto him. He was glad of her, laid her on his bosom to warm -him, and, by making much of her, won her love. After this she would -come every day unto him divers times, and when she could get one, bring -him a pigeon. He complained to his keeper of his cold and short fare. -The answer was, ‘he durst not better it.’ ‘But,’ said Sir Henry, ‘if -I can provide any, will you promise to dress it for me?’ ‘I may well -enough,’ said the keeper, ‘you are safe for that matter’; and being -urged again, promised him, and kept his promise; dressed for him, from -time to time, such pigeons as his acater the cat provided for him. Sir -Henry Wyatt, in his prosperity, for this would ever make much of cats, -as other men will of their spaniels or their hounds; and perhaps you -shall not find his picture any where, but like Sir Christopher Hatton, -with his dog, with a cat beside him.” - -[Illustration: _Prison beneath the Wakefield Tower._] - -Sir Henry had the faithful cat portrayed with a pigeon in its claws -offering it through the grated bars of his prison window. There is a -similar story of a cat befriending Lord Southampton when a prisoner in -the Tower in the reign of Elizabeth. - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - THE TUDOR KINGS—HENRY VII. - - -When Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, had become Henry VII., after the -battle of Bosworth, a relative calm settled over the Tower, as it did -over the country generally. Not that State and ordinary prisoners -ceased to enter the Tower gates, the former to die on the adjacent -Hill, the latter at Tyburn, and some to be released. But we hear no -more of midnight murders within its prisons, and with the baleful -figure of Richard Plantagenet, such crimes ceased to cast their shadows -on the scene of his many misdeeds. - -The first notable State prisoner sent to the Tower by Henry VII. was -Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick, son of the murdered Duke of -Clarence. During the reign of Richard III., Warwick had been kept under -surveillance at Sheriff Hutton Castle, in Yorkshire; but Henry had him -brought to the Tower for greater security. There was some reason, from -Henry’s point of view, for this care; for Warwick, being descended from -Clarence, the elder brother of John of Gaunt, had a better and more -rightful claim to the throne than the first of the Tudors. So long as -Warwick lived, Henry felt his seat insecure; and he seized the earliest -opportunity for destroying him. - -In 1487, Lambert Simnel, the son of an Oxford tradesman, had been -declared by the Earl of Kildare and some malcontent English residents -in Ireland, to be the Earl of Warwick. A conspiracy was at once formed -to overthrow Henry, and a small army, partly recruited in Germany, -and partly formed by Irish troops furnished by Kildare, crossed St -George’s Channel. At Stoke, near Nottingham, this force encountered the -Royal troops, and was completely defeated. Simnel was taken prisoner, -and although the King publicly exposed his deception by showing the -Earl of Warwick to the people, the Pretender was considered too -insignificant for execution, and was relegated to the position of a -scullion in Henry’s kitchen. - -[Illustration: _All Hallows, Barking_] - -Warwick could in no way be considered affected by this rising, although -his mere existence gave it a _raison d’etre_; but two years later, when -Ferdinand of Spain refused to allow his daughter, Catherine of Arragon, -to marry Henry’s eldest son Arthur, on the ground that the Earl of -Warwick had a prior right to the crown, the King ordered a trumped-up -charge to be drawn up against the unfortunate Earl, of an attempt to -escape from the Tower; and on this charge he was tried, condemned, and -executed on the 28th of November 1499. With him ended the line male of -the House of Plantagenet. - -The records of the Tower are not entirely of the sombre colour of -imprisonments and executions. In the month of November 1487, we read -of the pageant that took place at the coronation of Henry’s Queen, -Elizabeth, the daughter of Edward IV.; their marriage united the rival -factions of the White and Red Roses. A few days before her coronation -at Westminster, Elizabeth had been brought to the Tower from the palace -at Greenwich by water, in barges “freshely furnyshed with baners and -stremers of silk, richly besene”; one barge was “a great red dragon, -spowting Flamys of Fyer into the Temmys.” She landed at the Tower -Wharf, where the “Kyngs Hyghnesse welcomede her in suche maner and -form as was to al th’ Æstats, and other ther being present, a very -good sight, and right joyous and comfortable to beholde,” as writes a -chronicler of the scene. The following day the Queen, being “rially -apparelde” in cloth of gold and damask, and a mantle of ermine, “her -faire yelow hair hanging downe playne byhynd her Bak, with a Calle of -Pypes over it, and a Serkelet of Golde richely garnyshed with precious -Stonys upon her Hede,” was borne in a litter which was “coverde with -Cloth of Golde of damaske, and large Pelowes of downe covered with lik -Clothe of Golde,” to the Abbey, through streets hung with tapestry and -lined with “the crafts in their Lyveryes,” through lines of children, -“some arrayde like Angells and others lyke Vyrgyns, to singe sweete -Songes as her Grace passed by” (Leland). - -The most serious danger to the stability of Henry’s monarchy was the -insurrection brought about by the impostor Perkin Warbeck, a man who, -by some writers, is said to have been a Florentine Jew, whilst by -others he is declared to have been a Fleming. Warbeck gave out that he -was Richard, Duke of York, the younger son of Edward IV., and that he -had not been murdered in the Tower, but had escaped. In 1491 he landed -at Cork with some followers. In Ireland he was supported by Desmond, -and was also assisted from Flanders by Margaret of Burgundy. Until the -year 1495, when he made a descent upon England, little was heard of -him. By this time Henry, owing to his avarice and tyrannical form of -government, had made himself extremely unpopular, and consequently his -enemies gladly availed themselves of such an opportunity, as Warbeck’s -claim presented, of injuring the King. In an evil moment for himself, -Sir William Stanley, who had so powerfully aided Henry in his victory -at Bosworth, and who had placed the crown, taken from Richard the -Third’s dead body, upon his head, and whom Henry had made his Lord -Chamberlain, declared that, “if he certainly knew” Perkin Warbeck to -be the son of Edward IV., he would never draw his sword or bear arms -against him. He was impeached upon a charge of uttering these words, -and tried by a Council summoned by the King, who was then in residence -in the Tower. He was found guilty, and executed on Tower Hill. - -Meanwhile Warbeck was received in Scotland as the rightful heir to -the English crown, and James III. believed his story so firmly, and -favoured him to such an extent, that he ordered his relative, Catherine -Gordon, Lord Huntley’s daughter, to marry the Pretender. Warbeck now -styled himself Richard IV., and advanced into England with an army; but -at the first reverse, he fled in panic, taking refuge in Ireland. In -1497 he made a second descent upon England; but after suffering defeat, -and again taking to flight, he was finally made prisoner at the Abbey -of Beaulieu in the New Forest, whence he was sent to the Tower, and -hanged on the 23rd November 1499. - -More festivities took place in the Tower in the year 1501, when the -nuptials of Henry’s eldest son, Prince Arthur, with Catherine of -Arragon were solemnised there, the execution of the Earl of Warwick -having at length enabled the Spanish King to give his consent to the -match. The bride and bridegroom were little more than children, Arthur -being fourteen, and Catherine a year older; but the marriage—that was -to be so fruitful of trouble and death in the next reign—was solemnised -with the greatest splendour, there being daily banquets within the -walls, and daily tournaments without. In the next year, Sir James -Tyrell met with his deserts for the part he had played in the murder -of the little princes in the Tower, being beheaded on Tower Hill; he -should have been hanged, but pleading his privilege of knighthood, he -was allowed death by the axe. In 1503 Henry’s Queen gave birth to a -daughter in the Tower, but soon afterwards mother and child followed -each other to the grave; and when six years had passed, Henry VII. -himself was taken to that stately mausoleum which he had created in the -Abbey of Westminster, and Henry VIII. reigned in his stead. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - HENRY VIII. - - -After succeeding to the throne, Henry VIII. passed a few tranquil days -in the Tower, but his sanguinary nature soon showed itself, and his -first victims were his father’s most trusted counsellors. Having formed -a new Council, Henry had Sir Henry Stafford (the Duke of Buckingham’s -brother), Sir Richard Empsom, and Edmund Dudley arrested, the former -on some slight charge of disaffection of which he was able to clear -himself, and the two others on the charge of extortion during the late -reign. - -Empsom and Dudley were disliked throughout the country, having been the -tools of the late King’s intense avarice, which became his consuming -passion towards the close of his life; both men appear to have enforced -his tyrannical policy with extreme harshness. Henry VIII. benefited -by his father’s miserliness, however, for the seventh Henry left the -colossal sum, for those times, of one million eight hundred thousand -pounds. His son, in order to obtain popularity at the beginning of his -reign, gave up his father’s ministers to gratify the popular clamour -against them, and although Empsom and Dudley both deserved punishment, -it was deemed necessary for form’s sake not to condemn them without a -specified charge. The Council was instructed, therefore, to trump up a -charge of conspiracy against the King’s person; and, upon this the two -men were condemned and executed upon Tower Hill. - -Henry then bethought himself of marriage, and took to wife his -sister-in-law, Catherine of Arragon, he being then only nineteen -years of age, and Catherine five-and-twenty. For the first few years -this appears to have been a happy union; but it was one much to be -regretted, as it brought Mary Tudor into the world. - -Henry possessed a handsome presence and a genial bluff manner, and as -long as all went well with him, and his least wish was carried into -instant execution, he could be amiable and even attractive. But his -character was both cruel and crafty, and, in later years, these defects -became more strongly marked. With old age and infirmity, he became -more akin to a wild animal than to aught human; and although he was -personally popular amongst the great bulk of the people, on account of -his magnificence and prodigality, no greater tyrant ever sat upon the -English throne. - -Froude has in vain tried to whitewash Henry’s character. The early -years of his reign were indeed years of promise, but Henry must be -judged, not by his promise, but by his life and deeds; and the butcher -of Anne Boleyn, of More and Fisher, can only be regarded as a worthy -colleague of the worst tyrants that have from their height of place -been the curse and bane of their subjects. - -Henry, with his love of show and splendour, gave himself and Catherine -a gorgeous wedding ceremony. They had held their court at the Tower -previous to their nuptials, and on the 21st of June the wedding took -place. Never had the English court made so magnificent a show as at -this time. The costumes of the men vied in splendour with those of the -women, and many of the great nobles literally bore their fortunes upon -their backs. The King blazed in a habit of crimson velvet, lined with -ermine and covered with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and other gems. -And as he rode through the streets, bareheaded, on a charger arrayed -in damasked cloth of gold, he was surrounded and followed by a suite -of knights and nobles, all in crimson velvet or scarlet cloth, Sir -Thomas Brandon, the Master of the Horse, being the most splendid figure -in the procession next to the King. Brandon, the chronicler tells us, -was arrayed in “tissue broudered with roses of fine gold, and having -a massy balderick of gold.” He led the King’s spare horse by a silken -rein, “trapped barde wise, with harneis broudered with bullion golde,” -and he was followed by nine children of honour, “apparelled in blewe -velvet, poudered with floure delices of gold and chains of goldsmithes -woorke, every one of their horses trapped with a trapper of the King’s -title.” - -The Queen’s cortege was no less magnificent. Catherine was seated in a -chariot drawn by two white palfreys, and was attired “in white satyn -embroidered, her heire hangyng downe to her backe, and on her hedde -a coronall, set with many rich orient stones.” She was followed by a -crowd of ladies riding white palfreys, dressed in cloth of gold and -silver, these again being followed by an army of attendants. - -The coronation was soon followed by executions; Henry seems to have -required blood-shedding as a kind of relaxation, and to have caused -it to flow with as much delight as he participated in the pomps and -splendours of his regal state. His next victim, after Empson and -Dudley, was Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk. Although the only crime -that could be brought against him was his consanguinity to the Blood -Royal of the Plantagenets, it was quite a sufficient excuse for the -King, and Suffolk was beheaded in 1513. He had been born in 1464, his -father being John de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, and his mother Elizabeth -Plantagenet, daughter of Richard, Duke of York, consequently he was -of the Blood Royal by his mother’s side, and, through her, nephew to -Edward IV. and Richard III. Edmund de la Pole had surrendered the -Dukedom of Suffolk in 1493, but was attainted in 1504, imprisoned -in the Tower in 1506, and executed seven years later. “Audacious, -strong and prompt in council” is the character given to Suffolk by a -contemporary writer. The title of Duke of Suffolk was bestowed by Henry -upon his brother-in-law, Charles Brandon, who had made such a fine -figure at his marriage. - -Half-a-dozen years passed, and again the Tower prisons were filled, -some of the prisoners there having been concerned in a City riot. -With these was a Dr Bell, charged with “inflammatory and seditious -preaching.” During this riot the Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir Roger -Cholmondeley (whose effigy is in St Peter’s Chapel), fired the Tower -guns upon the City, but the damage done by the cannonade seems to have -been very slight. - -In 1521 a descendant of Edward II. was brought to the fortress; this -was Edward Bohun, Duke of Buckingham, who traced his descent from -the grandfather of Richard II. through Anne the eldest daughter of -Thomas of Woodstock. Wolsey, now all-powerful, hated Buckingham for -the arrogance of his manner towards him, the Duke never troubling -to conceal his contempt for the lowly born, but ambitious Cardinal. -Wolsey’s opportunity for being revenged upon the nobleman for his -insolence came, when some ill-guarded expressions uttered by Buckingham -were repeated to him; the Duke was immediately arrested and taken -to the Tower. This was on the 16th of January 1521, and on the 13th -of the following month he was tried on the charge of high treason -and sentenced to death. Holinshed, in his Chronicle, describes how -Buckingham was taken by water from the Tower to Westminster. A barge -had been furnished for the occasion with a carpet and cushions, and -when the Duke was brought back from Westminster in the same manner, but -with the axe’s edge turned towards him, he refused to take the seat -which he had occupied on his way to his trial, saying to Sir Thomas -Lovel, “When I came to Westminster I was Lord High Constable, and Duke -of Buckingham, but now, poor Edward Bohun.” It is interesting to see -how closely Shakespeare has followed Holinshed’s description of this -episode in Buckingham’s condemnation, in his play of _Henry VIII._: - - _Vaux._ Prepare there, the Duke is coming: see the barge be - ready; - And fit it with such furniture as suits - The greatness of his person. - - _Buckingham._ Nay, Sir Nicholas, - Let it alone; my state will now but mock me. - When I came hither, I was Lord High Constable - And Duke of Buckingham; now, poor Edward Bohun— - -In Brewer’s Introduction to the third volume of “Foreign and Domestic -State Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII.,” is the following interesting -account of Buckingham’s trial and execution:— - -“As trials for treason were conducted in those days it was little -better than a question of personal credibility, assertion against -assertion; and very few reasonable men could entertain doubts as to -the issue. The King had already pronounced judgment, he had examined -the witnesses, encouraged and read their correspondence, and expressed -his belief in the Duke’s guilt. Who was to gainsay it? Who should be -bold enough to assert that the King had arrived at a false conclusion, -and that such manners of procedure were fatal to justice? In a court -also, constituted of men who were not lawyers by profession, who had -received no training for such nice questions, who understood nothing of -the salutary laws of legal evidence, what hope could there be for the -accused? How could he expect that protection which not only innocence -but guilt had a right to demand until the charge be fairly and fully -proven? The only lawyer employed was the Attorney-General, on behalf of -the Crown. But in those days Attorneys-General regarded themselves as -the servants of the Crown, who had to earn their wages by establishing -the guilt of the prisoner. So the Lords retired, and on their return -into court the sentence of each peer was taken one by one. Then said -the Duke of Norfolk to the Duke of Suffolk, ‘What say you of Sir -Edward, Duke of Buckingham, touching this high treason.’ ‘I say that he -is guilty,’ answered the Duke, laying his hand upon his heart. Every -peer made the same response; and against each of the names entered on -the panel—a little scrap of dirty parchment, still preserved in the -Record Office—there is to be seen to this day, in the handwriting of -the Duke of Norfolk, ‘Dicit quod est culpabilis.’ - -“Then was the Duke brought to the bar to hear his sentence. For a few -moments he was overpowered by his situation. In the extremity of his -agony, he chafed and sweat violently.[8] Recovering himself after a -while, he made his obeisance to the court. After a short pause, a -death-like silence! ‘Sir Edward,’ said the Duke of Norfolk, ‘you hear -how you be indicted of high treason, you pleaded thereto not guilty, -putting yourself to the judgment of your peers, the which have found -you guilty.’ Then bursting into tears (he was an old man, and had faced -death unmoved in the field of Flodden), he faltered out: ‘Your sentence -is, that you be led back to prison; laid on a hurdle, and so drawn -to the place of execution; there to be hanged, to be cut down alive, -your members cut off and cast into the fire, your bowels burnt before -your eyes, your head smitten off, your body quartered and divided at -the King’s will. God have mercy on your soul. Amen.’ The Duke heard -this horrible sentence with proud dignity and composure. Turning to -the Duke of Norfolk, he quietly replied, ‘You have said, my lord, as a -traitor should be said unto; but I was never one.’ Then addressing the -court, he requested that those present would pray for him, assuring -them that he forgave them his death, and expressing his determination -not to sue for mercy. In compliance with the custom of the time he -entered his barge at Westminster stairs, and was delivered, on landing -at the Temple, to Sir Nicholas Vaux and Sir William Sandys, by whom -he was conducted through the city to the Tower. This was about 4 P.M. -The trial had lasted some days, having commenced on a Monday, and on -the following Friday (17th of May), between eleven and twelve in the -forenoon, when the hills of Surrey were cloathed in their freshest -verdure, and the then unoccupied banks of the Thames, steeped to the -water’s edge with the tender green and delicate blossom of the white -thorn, the Duke’s favourite flower, the sombre procession threaded -its way through the dark passages of the Tower, and emerged upon the -Green. Amidst the sobs and tears of the spectators, the Duke, led by -the Sheriffs, mounted the scaffold with a firm and composed step. -Turning himself to the crowd, he requested all men to pray for him, -‘trusting,’ he said, ‘to die the King’s true man; whom through his own -negligence and lack of grace he had offended.’ With this brief request, -he kneeled at the block. There was a sudden glimmer for an instant in -the air, then a dull thud, and the head rolled heavily from the body. -The headsman wiped his axe; the attendants threw a cloak over the -headless trunk, to conceal the blood which streamed in a torrent over -the scaffold and dripped through the platform on the grass beneath. In -rough frieze, barefooted and bareheaded, six poor Augustinian friars, -shouldering a rude coffin, emerged from the shuddering and receding -crowd. Gathering up the remains of the once mighty Duke of Buckingham, -for the King, satisfied with his condemnation, had commuted the last -extremities of the sentence, they carried the corpse to the church -of the Austin Friars. The Duke in his lifetime had been kind to poor -religious men, and this was the last and only office they could render -him.” - -[Illustration: _Queen Anne Boleyn_ - - (_From an Engraving after a portrait of the time._)] - -Thus closed the life of Edward Bohun, Duke of Buckingham, Earl of -Hereford, Stafford, and Northampton. - -Lords Montague and Abergavenny, and Sir Edward Nevil, were also -committed to the Tower with Buckingham, being charged with having -concealed their knowledge of his so-called treason; but they were all -three liberated after an imprisonment of some months duration. - -In the fifth volume of “Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic,” in -the reign of Henry VIII. is the following memorandum of repairs made -in the Tower during the summer of 1532:—“Work done by carpenters and -taking down old timber, etc., at St Thomas’s Tower; and for alteration -in the Palace.” “There has also been taken down the old timber in -the four turrets of the White Tower; and the old timber of Robyn the -Devil’s Tower—that is, Julius Cæsar’s Tower; and of the tower near -the King’s Wardrobe. Half of the White Tower is new embattled, coped, -indented, and cressed with Caen stone to the extent of 500 feet.” The -return to this memorandum estimates the total expense of the alteration -at £3593, 14s. 10d. - -The Tower was again the scene of festivities when, in the month of -May 1533, Anne Boleyn—to whom Henry had been secretly married on -January 25 of the previous year—was taken there in state. Again, as -five-and-twenty years previously, the old fortress put on its gala -apparel and became splendid for the new Queen’s coronation. The old -chronicler Hall describes the wondrous scene of “marvellous cunning -pageants,” of the fountains running wine, “Apollo and the Muses, -the Graces and all the Virtues, Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and her -children” welcoming the beautiful Queen, coming in all the glory of -youth and loveliness from Greenwich to the Tower, where she landed at -“five of the clocke, where also was such a pele of gonnes as hathe not -byn harde lyke a great while before, and on her landing was met by the -Kyng, who received her with loving countenance, at the Posterne by the -Water syde, and kyssed her.” - -The next day, through streets strewn with gravel and gay with tapestry, -silks, and velvets, Anne wended her triumphal way to the old Abbey at -Westminster. The order of Anne’s coronation has been given at full -length by Shakespeare in the scene in the Abbey in _Henry VIII._: - - “At length her grace, and with modest paces - Came to the altar; where she kneel’d, and saintlike - Cast her fair eyes to heaven and pray’d devoutly. - Then rose again and bow’d her to the people: - When by the Archbishop of Canterbury - She had all the royal makings of a queen; - As holy oil, Edward Confessor’s crown, - The rod, and bird of peace, and all such emblems - Laid nobly on her: which performed, the choir - With all the choicest music of the kingdom, - Together sung ‘Te Deum.’ So she parted - And with the same full state paced back again - To York Place where the feast is held.” - - (_Henry VIII._, Act iv. scene 1.) - -Three short years passed away and a pall of darkness falls over this -brilliant scene, and Anne’s regal state and “royal makings of a queen” -are changed to the prison and the scaffold. - -In September 1533, Anne brought a daughter into the world, the future -Queen Elizabeth. In the following year Parliament passed an Act of -Succession, devised by Henry, by which his former marriage with -Catherine of Arragon was declared to be an unlawful one, and Anne’s -daughter was made successor to the Crown, thus excluding the Princess -Mary from the succession. All the King’s subjects were commanded to -acknowledge this new Act, but the Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, and -Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, whilst willing to obey the Act as an Act -of Parliament, declined to allow that the King’s marriage with the -Spanish Princess was illegal. Henry, on hearing this, burst into one of -his Tudor furies, and both More and Fisher were, by his orders, sent -to the Tower. At the same time Henry sent Commissioners through the -length and breadth of England to suppress all the religious communities -that refused to obey the Act, and also those who were not willing to -conform to his new Law of Succession. - -Thomas Cromwell was the principal agent in carrying out Henry’s -commands against the monasteries. No fitter man for the task could -have been found. Risen from a humble station, Cromwell, who had been -introduced to the King’s notice by Wolsey, after his patron’s fall had -become private secretary to the sovereign; and in 1534 he was appointed -Henry’s Vicar-General in all matters appertaining to Ecclesiastical -affairs. - -One of the Orders of Friars, styled Friars Observant, had openly -expressed their opinion concerning Henry’s second marriage, and for -this the Order was ruthlessly suppressed, many of its members being -executed. The same fate befell the Carthusians, some of whom were -imprisoned in the Tower for refusing to conform to the oath of this -Act of Succession. The Prior of Sion Hospital was hanged as a felon, -and many other priests and friars were put to death with every brutal -detail appertaining to the manner of execution for high treason. - -Among all these martyrs for their faith, none were more eminent for -holy living than the aged prelate, John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester. He -was in his seventy-ninth year when Henry ordered him to be imprisoned -in the Tower; he appears to have been a frail, emaciated old man, and, -to judge from the life-like drawing of him by Holbein, had the look -of a man who has but a few years before him. So beloved was he in his -diocese, that when the order came to remove him from his see, the whole -city of Rochester turned out to bid its revered Bishop farewell. The -grounds for the charge of treason that was brought against him were -that he had listened to the prophecies of a woman known by the name -of the “Nun of Kent”; but Henry’s real reason for ridding himself of -Fisher was the Bishop’s refusal to comply with the Act of Succession. -Fisher, being a fervent servant of Rome, declared that Henry’s first -marriage had the sanction of the Pope, and consequently of the Church, -and therefore could not be declared illegal and invalid. Neither would -he acknowledge Henry’s new title of “On earth supreme Head of the -Church of England,” a title assumed by the King in 1534. This combined -refusal was, in the eyes of Henry and his Council, tantamount to a -penal offence, and both More and Fisher were condemned and executed for -denying the King’s supremacy in the State. - -Fisher was imprisoned in the Bell Tower on the 21st April (1534), -and in the following November an Act of Parliament declared him to -be attainted of high treason, and his Bishopric to be vacant. His -household goods were seized and his library, which he had intended -bequeathing to his College of St John’s, Cambridge, was confiscated. -In the chapel of that same College the good Bishop had prepared -his tomb, which, however, was fated never to contain his shrunken -frame. The aged Bishop suffered much from the cold of the winter, -1534–35, in his prison, and there is a piteous letter from him, still -existing, addressed to Cromwell, in which he describes his hardships. -“Furthermore,” he writes, “I byseche you to be gode, master, unto me in -my necessite; for I have neither shirt nor sute, nor yett other clothes -that are necessary for me to wear, but that bee ragged, and rent so -shamefully. Notwithstanding I might easily suffer that, if they would -keep my body warm. But my dyett also, God knoweth how slender it is at -any tymes, and now in myn age my stomak may nott awaye but with a few -kynd of meats, which if I want, I decay forthwith, and fall into coafs -and diseases of my bodye, and kan not keep myself in health.” He then -begs Cromwell to soften the King’s heart on his behalf; he might as -well have asked Cromwell to soften the nether millstone. - -[Illustration: _John Fisher. Bishop of Rochester_ - - (_From the drawing by Holbein at Windsor._)] - -Bishop Burnet has written that news of Fisher’s sufferings reached the -ears of Pope Clement, who, “by an officious kindness to him, or rather -to spite King Henry, declared him a Cardinal, and sent him a red hat. -When the King heard of this, he sent to examine him about it; but he -protested that he had used no endeavour to procure it, and valued it so -little that, if the hat were lying at his feet, he would not take it -up. It never came nearer him than Picardy, yet did this precipitate his -ruin.” Henry had sworn that before the cardinal’s hat could arrive the -Bishop should have no head upon which to place it. - -When asked by the Lord Chancellor, after he had been declared guilty of -high treason, what he had to say in arrest of judgment, the venerable -old man answered: “Truly, my lord, if that which I have said be not -sufficient I have no more to say; but only to desire Almighty God to -forgive them who have condemned me, for I think they know not what they -have done.” The Chancellor then read out the sentence by which the -Bishop was doomed, by the usual ghastly form of words, to a traitor’s -death. As Fisher was passing under Traitor’s Gate, where he had been -landed on his return to the Tower from his trial, he turned to his -guard of halberdiers and said: “My masters, I thank you for all the -great labours and pains which ye have taken with me to-day. I am -not able to give you anything in recompense, because I have nothing -left, and therefore I pray you accept in good part my hearty thanks.” -Those who were present were struck by the “fresh and lively colour in -his face, as he seemed rather to have come from some great feast or -banquet rather than from his trial and condemnation, showing by all his -carriage and outward behaviour nothing else but joy and satisfaction.” -Three more days of prison and the good old man’s troubles ceased. - -At five o’clock in the morning, on the 22nd of June, the Lieutenant -of the Tower awoke Fisher from his sleep, telling him that he had -come with a message from the King—namely, that he was to die that -day. “Well,” answered the Bishop, “If this be your errand you bring -me no great news, for I have sometime looked for this message. I most -humbly thank his Majesty that it pleases him to rid me of all this -worldly business, and I thank you also for your tidings. But pray, Mr -Lieutenant,” he added, “when is my hour that I must go hence?” “Your -hour,” said the Lieutenant, “must be nine of the clock.” “And what hour -is it now?” said Fisher. “It is now about five.” “Well then, let me by -your patience sleep an hour or two, for I have slept very little this -night; and yet, to tell you the truth, not for any fear of death, thank -God, but by reason of my great weakness and infirmity.” “The King’s -further pleasure is,” said the Lieutenant, “that you should use as -little speech as may be upon the scaffold, especially as to anything -concerning his Majesty, whereby the people should have cause to think -otherwise than well of him and his proceedings.” “For that,” remarked -the Bishop, in answer to this practical confession of the injustice -of his sentence, “for that you shall see me order myself so, by God’s -grace, as that neither the King nor any one else shall have occasion to -dislike what I say.” - -He then slept on for two hours more, when he rose and was helped to -dress; a hair shirt, which he wore next to his body, he removed, -replacing it with a clean white one. Upon his ordering his attendant -to give him his best clothing, the latter remarked upon the care and -attention that he was bestowing upon his dress that day. “Dost thou -not mark that this is our wedding-day,” said Fisher in answer, “and it -behoves me therefore to be more nicely dressed than ordinary for the -solemnity of the occasion.” - -At nine o’clock the Lieutenant called for him. “I will wait upon you -straight,” said the Bishop, “as fast as this body of mine will give me -leave.” He then called for his furred tippet, which he placed round -his neck, “Oh, my Lord,” said the Lieutenant, “what need you be so -careful of your health for this little time, which you know is not -much above an hour.” “I think the same,” said Fisher, “but yet, in the -meantime, I will keep myself as well as I can to the very time of my -execution. For I tell you truly, though I have, I thank our Lord, a -very good desire and a willing mind to die at this present, and so that -of His infinite goodness he will continue it, yet will I not willingly -incommodate my health in the meantime one minute of an hour, but I -will still continue the same as long as I can by such reasonable ways -and means as God Almighty hath provided for me.” With that, taking a -little book in his hand—it was a Latin New Testament—that lay by him, -he made the sign of the cross upon his forehead, and then went out of -the chamber with the Lieutenant, being so weak that he could scarcely -go down the stairs. For this reason he was placed in a chair, and -carried by two of the Lieutenant’s men to the Tower Gate, surrounded -by a small number of guards. At the Gate he was to be delivered over -to the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex for his execution, but when -the procession arrived there it had to wait until a messenger, who had -been sent to the Sheriffs, returned to say whether those officials -were ready to receive him. During this waiting the Bishop rose from -his chair, and stood leaning against the wall with his eyes raised to -the sky. Then he opened the Testament he was carrying in his hand, -and said, “O Lord, this is the last time that I shall ever open this -book, let some comfortable place now chance to me, whereby I, Thy poor -servant, may glorify Thee in this my last hour!” Looking into the book, -the first words he espied were these! “And this is the life eternal, -that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou -hast sent. I have glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished the work -which Thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with -thine own self.” Fisher then closed the book, saying, “Here is learning -enough for me to my life’s end.” From the Gate he was carried to the -scaffold on Tower Hill, praying as he went, and when several persons -offered to help him to mount the steps, he turned to them and said, -“Nay, masters, seeing that I am come so far, let me alone, and you -shall see me shift for myself well enough.” - -The sun shone brightly on the old man’s face when, standing on the -scaffold, with uplifted hands, he pronounced the words “Accedite ad eum -et illuminamini, et facies vestrae non confundentur.” The headsman, -as was the custom, knelt and asked the Bishop’s forgiveness for the -task he was about to perform. “I forgive thee with all my heart, and I -trust thou shalt see me overcome this storm with courage,” answered the -Bishop. Before kneeling down, he spoke a few words to the dense crowd -gathered around the scaffold. He had come there, he said, to die for -the Faith of Christ’s Holy Catholic Church, he begged their prayers -that he might be enabled at the point of death, and at the moment of -the supreme stroke, to continue steadfast without wavering in any one -point of that Faith. Then he prayed for the King, and for the realm, -being so cheerful that he seemed glad to die, and “although he looked -death itself in the human shape,” according to one of the writers of -the time, “his voice was full, strong, and clear.” When on his knees -before the block, the venerable Bishop repeated certain prayers, the -Te Deum, and the Thirty-first Psalm, “In te Domine speravi.” Then the -axe fell, and his head rolled on the scaffold. Thus died John Fisher, a -true martyr to his Church and Faith, far worthier of canonisation than -many enrolled in the long list of hagiology. - -Henry was not content with merely putting this aged and venerable man -to death, but, if Cardinal Pole is to be believed, he ordered the -headless body of the Bishop to be treated with insult. It was left -naked for hours on the scaffold, until some charitable soul with a -touch of humanity, cast some straw over the poor remains of one who, -but a short time before, had been among the best, if not the greatest -of English Churchmen (Dr Hall’s “Life of the Bishop of Rochester”). -Fisher’s head was stuck upon a pike and placed on London Bridge. Dodd, -in his history of the Church, recounts that after the head had been -some days on the Bridge, it was taken down and thrown into the river, -the reason for this being that rays of light were seen shining around -it. Hall, in his “Life of the Bishop,” states that “the face was -observed to become fresher and more comely day by day, and that such -was the concourse of people who assembled to look at it, that almost -neither cart nor horse could pass.” - -[Illustration: _Sir Thomas More_ - -(_From the drawing by Holbein at Windsor._)] - -The Bishop of Rochester’s judicial murder was immediately followed by -that of Sir Thomas More; it would not be easy to say which execution -was the greater crime: their blood lies equally on Henry’s soul. - -In many respects a parallel might justly be drawn between More and -Gladstone. Their fame as statesmen and scholars in both cases was -European. More’s life was equally pure, learned, and brilliant as that -of Gladstone. Both men were as well known on the continent of Europe as -in their own country, and the friend of Erasmus in Germany, and Colet -in England, in the sixteenth century, was as celebrated as the friend -of Dollinger and Hallam in the nineteenth. Their very faults only -brought their great qualities into higher relief. More showed a stern -severity to the Reformers which must always be deplored; Gladstone, in -his Irish and foreign policies, proved the frailty of even the best -intentioned motives. But the very fact of these being the only shadows -of weakness that obscured the brilliancy of both these noble lives, -speaks trumpet-tongued to their undying renown. - -Although More had been one of Henry’s greatest friends, and had been -treated by him like a close companion—for Henry could appreciate More’s -humour and admire his learning—at the first sign of his old favourite -standing in the way of his wishes, the monarch turned upon the subject -in deadly rage. - -Condemned for the same reason as that for which Fisher had been -executed, More met his fate with similar firmness and cheerful courage. -Neither complaint nor remonstrance troubled the serene calm of his -demeanour throughout the last days of his beautiful life. After his -condemnation, when he had been brought back from judgment to the Tower, -the porter at Traitor’s Gate asked for More’s cloak as a perquisite. -Sir Thomas gave him his cap as well, regretting that they were “not -better.” He was allowed one attendant in his prison, who was unable to -read or write, and although Sir Thomas had no writing materials, he -managed, with a coal in lieu of ink, to write a letter to his beloved -daughter, Margaret Roper. That letter was full of the perfect peace -that reigned in him, and of the affection he felt for her to whom he -wrote; it concludes with these words,—“Written with a cole by your -tender, loving father, who in hys pore prayers forgetteth none of you -all, nor babes nor your nurses, nor your good husbands, nor your good -husbands shrewde wyves, nor your fathers shrewde wyfe neither, nor -our other frendes. And thus fare ye hartely well, for lack of paper. -Thomas More, Knight.” Sir Thomas was allowed ink and paper after he -had written this letter, and he passed the time of his imprisonment in -writing a treatise on Our Lord’s Passion; but his writing materials -were then taken away from him, and he spent the rest of his days in -prayer and meditation. - -One day the Lieutenant asking him why he kept his prison room so dark, -More answered, “When all the wares are gone, the shop windows are to -be shut up.” Early in the next year (1535) his wife was allowed to see -him; she urged him to conform to the King’s wishes, but it is needless -to say that he declined to do so. And when he was told that the King -had been mercifully pleased to allow him, as having held the highest -office in the realm, to be beheaded instead of being hanged, drawn, and -quartered, Sir Thomas laughingly said, “God forbid the King shall -use any more such mercy to any of my friends.” - -[Illustration: _A Daughter of Sir Thomas More, supposed to be Mʳˢ. - Roper_ - - (_From the original drawing by Holbein_)] - -There are few more touching scenes in the history of the Tower than -that when, after his final trial, More’s daughter, Margaret Roper, made -her way through the crowd to give her father a farewell embrace when -he landed at the fortress, and to receive his last blessing. Kneeling -before him, the poor creature could only say again and again, “Oh, my -father! oh, my father!” Those standing around, hardened as they were to -scenes of cruelty, could not help being moved at the piteous sight. - -Early on the morning of the 6th July Sir Thomas Pope, an old friend of -More’s, entered his prison to tell him that the hour for his execution -was fixed for nine o’clock that day. As in the case of Fisher, Sir -Thomas More was asked not to “use many words” on the scaffold, for -the King feared the effect of a speech from his old friend upon the -public. At parting Sir Thomas said to Pope, who was deeply moved, “Be -not discomfited, for I trust that we shall in Heaven see each other -full merrily, where we shall be sure to live together in joyful bliss -eternally” (Roper’s “Life of Sir T. More”). - -Punctually at nine o’clock Sir Thomas left his prison. He was dressed -in an old frieze cloak; his beard had grown long, and his face and -form were thin and worn; in his hand he carried a red cross. At what -appears to have been a kind of public-house, near the gate of the -Tower, a woman came out and offered him a glass of wine, but he refused -it, saying, “Marry, my good wife, I will not drink now, my Master had -vinegar and gall, and not wine given Him to drink.” Another woman asked -him for some papers that she had given him to keep for her when he was -Lord Chancellor: to her he said that she must have patience for an -hour, “and by that time the King’s Majesty will rid me of the care I -have of thy papers, and all other matters whatsoever.” - -On reaching the scaffold he found it in a very shaky condition, -and turning to the Lieutenant, he said, laughing, “I pray you, Mr -Lieutenant, see me safe up, and for my coming down let me shift for -myself.” When on the platform he turned to the people, and, like -Fisher, told them he had come there to die for the Holy Church and -begged their prayers; then, kneeling down, he repeated the Misere to -the end. When the executioner asked his forgiveness Sir Thomas, who -meanwhile had risen from his knees, embraced him, saying, “Pluck up thy -spirits, man, and be not afraid to do thy office. I am sorry my neck is -short, therefore strike not awry.” He then bound a cloth which he had -brought with him over his eyes, and placed his head upon the block. An -instant before the axe fell he turned his head towards the executioner -while he moved his beard, “Pity that should be cut,” he said, “that has -not committed treason.” - -The head was placed on London Bridge, but Margaret Roper obtained that -sacred relic, and it was buried with her when she followed her beloved -father in 1544, “to where beyond these voices there is peace.” Both -the bodies of Bishop Fisher and of Sir Thomas More were buried in St -Peter’s Chapel in the Tower, where they rest side by side. - -One of the earliest inscriptions to be found on the walls of the -Beauchamp Tower is that of Thomas Fitzgerald, who was known as “Silken -Thomas,” from the costliness of his attire. He was the eldest son of -Gerald Fitzgerald, ninth Earl of Kildare, Lord-Deputy of Ireland. Earl -Gerald had been summoned to London, leaving Thomas in Ireland as Deputy -in his place during his absence. On arriving in London, the father -was arrested and thrown into the Tower. When the news reached Thomas -Fitzgerald he broke into open rebellion, and together with five of his -uncles laid siege to Dublin Castle, and having captured Archbishop -Allen, put him to death. Dublin Castle was defended by Sir J. White, -and would probably have fallen into the hands of the rebels had not the -Earl of Ormonde raised the siege with a powerful force. In retaliation, -the Castle of Maynooth, one of the Geraldine strongholds, was taken, -and the garrison incontinently hanged by Lord Leonard Grey; when the -news of this disaster reached Earl Gerald in the Tower, he died, it is -believed, of a broken heart, on the 12th December 1534, and was buried -in St Peter’s Chapel. “Silken Thomas” surrendered with his five uncles, -on the promise of a pardon, to Leonard Grey, who, oddly enough, was -another of his many uncles, Lord Leonard’s sister having married Earl -Gerald. These Geraldines were imprisoned in the Beauchamp Tower, where, -as we have seen, a fragmentary inscription cut by “Silken Thomas” is -still visible in the principal dungeon. Despite the promise of pardon, -Thomas and his uncles were all hanged at Tyburn, only one member of -the Fitzgeralds, a youth, escaping the King’s fury; and so great was -Henry’s anger, that he ordered Grey to be condemned to death for -allowing the youth in question to save himself: Henry had determined to -utterly extirpate the whole Geraldine race. The unfortunate Grey was -beheaded, six years after these events occurred, on Tower Hill. “The -fair Geraldine,” sung by Surrey, was the sister of “Silken Thomas.” - - - QUEEN ANNE BOLEYN - -On May Day of the year 1536 a tournament was held at Greenwich Palace, -at which great surprise was caused by the King leaving suddenly whilst -the jousting was in progress. The next day Queen Anne Boleyn was -arrested, and interrogated by some members of the Council, of whom her -uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, was the President. From Greenwich the Queen -was brought to the Tower by water, arriving at five o’clock in the -afternoon; with her came Secretary Cromwell, the Lord Chancellor, Sir -J. Audley, and the Constable of the Tower, Sir William Knighton. Her -journey up the river and her reception at the grim old fortress were -in bitter contrast with the triumphant progress she had made the day -before her brilliant coronation. Arrived at the Tower, Anne sank upon -her knees in prayer, and, rising, declared her innocence to those about -her. She then inquired of the Constable where she was to be lodged, and -was told that she would occupy the rooms in which she had lived at the -time of her coronation three years before. “It is too good for me,” -said the poor Queen. She appears to have fallen into violent hysterics, -“weeping a great pace, and in the same sorrow fell into a great -laughing, and so she did several times afterwards,” writes Knighton to -Cromwell. - -The Queen’s sudden arrest must have fallen upon the Court like a bolt -from the blue, although probably some of the courtiers had noticed -Henry’s growing _penchant_ for Jane Seymour: Anne herself had seen it -only too clearly, as well as the peril in which this new attachment of -the King’s placed her. - -On the 3rd May, Archbishop Cranmer wrote as follows to the King:—“I -think your Grace best knoweth, that next unto your Grace I was most -bound unto her of all creatures living, and my mind is clean amazed, -for I never had better opinion in woman than I had in her; which maketh -me to think that she should not be culpable. I wish and pray that -she may declare herself inculpable and innocent.” But this would not -have served Henry’s purpose, even if the poor Queen could have proved -her innocence. He was determined to be rid of her, and as quickly as -possible, in order that he might satisfy his new passion, and all the -Archbishops in Christendom would not have stopped him. - -A letter, supposed by such good authorities as Sir Henry Ellice and -Froude to be authentic, was written by Anne to the King from her -prison. This letter was found amongst Cromwell’s papers, being endorsed -by the Secretary thus, “To the King from the Ladye in the Tower.” It -is too long to quote in its entirety, but concludes as follows:— - - “Try me, good King, but let me have a lawful trial; and let not - my sworn enemies sit as my accusers and my judges; yea, let me - receive an open trial, for my truth shall fear no open shame. - Then you shall see either mine innocency cleared, your suspicions - and conscience satisfied, the ignominy and slander of the world - stopped, or my gilt lawfully declared; so that, whatsoever God - or you may determine of me, your Grace may be freed of an open - censure; and mine offence being so openly proved, your Grace is at - liberty, before God and man, not only to execute worthy punishment - upon me as an unlawful wife, but to follow your affection already - settled on that party for whose sake I am now as I am, whose name - I could some good while since have pointed unto; your Grace not - being ignorant of my suspicion therein.” (This pointed allusion to - Henry’s attentions to Jane Seymour was surely unfortunate?) “But - if you have already determined of me; and that not only my death, - but an infamous slander, must bring you the joying of your desired - happiness; then I desire of God that He will pardon your great sin - therein and likewise my enemies, the instruments thereof; and that - He will not call you to a straight account for your unprincely and - cruel usage of me, at His general judgment seat, where you and - myself must shortly appear; and in whose judgment I doubt not, - whatever the world may think of me, mine innocence shall be openly - known and sufficiently cleared. - - “My last and only request shall be, that myself may only bear the - burden of your Grace’s displeasure, and that it may not touch the - innocent souls of those poor gentlemen, who, as I understand, are - likewise in straight imprisonment for my sake. If ever I have found - favour in your sight, if ever the name of Anne Boleyn hath been - pleasing in your ears, then let me obtain this request; and I will - not so have to trouble your Grace any further; with mine earnest - prayers to the Trinity to have your Grace in His good keeping, and - to direct you in all your actions. From my doleful prison in the - Tower, this 6th of May. Your most loyal and ever faithful wife, - Anne Boleyn.” - -This does not read like the letter of a guilty person; it has a fine -brave note running all through it, and the petition for the unfortunate -men accused with her, shows Anne’s unselfish nature in thinking of -others in her own time of dire misfortune. - -[Illustration: _The Curfew Tower, from the Moat_] - -Knighton’s wife, whose husband was the Constable of the Tower, was set -to watch the Queen, and repeat all she said to her husband, who was in -correspondence with Cromwell. In writing to the latter, Knighton says -that Lady Boleyn (Anne’s aunt) and a “Mestrys Cosyn” were kept in -the same room with the Queen; both of these ladies were Anne’s bitter -enemies, and they acted as spies upon the unhappy prisoner. “I have,” -writes Knighton, “everything told me by Mestrys Cosyn that she thynks -mete for me to knowe.” - -The trial was held in the large room, called at that time the King’s -Hall, which is on the second floor of the White Tower, adjoining the -Chapel of St John’s. Here a gallery had been erected for the judges, -and seats and benches for the Lords. The Duke of Norfolk, who presided, -sat under the “clothe of estate,” and represented the King as High -Steward of England. By a singular coincidence Norfolk was uncle to both -Anne Boleyn and the second wife whom Henry beheaded, Catherine Howard. -At Norfolk’s feet sat his son, the Earl of Surrey, both holding staffs -in their hands—Norfolk that of the Lord High Steward, Surrey that of -Earl Marshal. On the Duke’s right hand sat the Lord Chancellor, and on -his left the Duke of Suffolk, the peers occupying seats on either side -of the chamber, in the order of their degree. Led by the Constable of -the Tower and the Lieutenant (Sir Edmund Walsingham), the Queen was -brought to the bar. Anne Boleyn’s defence was admirable, and must have -greatly disconcerted her judges, who knew that no defence, however -convincing, could avail her; she was already sentenced by the King. -Not one of these men, with their high-sounding names and titles, dared -to give their vote in her favour. All, to a man, declared on their -consciences that the Queen was guilty. Surely some of the innocent -blood counted against these noble cowards as well as against their -master, when their day of reckoning arrived. Norfolk, whose tears -appear always to have been at command, wept “so that the water,” writes -Constantyne in his Memorial, “roune in his eyes,” when he pronounced -the sentence, which ran thus: “Because thou hast offended our -Sovereign the King’s Grace, in committing treason against his person, -and here attainted of the same, the law of the realm is this; that thou -shalt be burnt here within the Tower of London, on the Green, else to -have thy head smitten off as the King’s pleasure shall be further known -of the same.”[9] - -According to Froude, Anne Boleyn’s trial was conducted “with a -scrupulousness without a parallel in the criminal history of the time.” -One can only wonder what kind of a trial that would be which was not -conducted with the “scrupulousness” that characterised the proceedings -in the King’s Hall, under the Duke of Norfolk, when Anne Boleyn was -condemned to die. - -On the 17th of May the Queen was taken to Lambeth Palace, where she -made her confession to Archbishop Cranmer, but, according to Bishop -Burnet, any statements that she made then were induced by the prospect -of saving her life; but this cannot be proved. - -Up to the last Anne appears to have maintained her cheerfulness and -lightness of heart. Knighton writing to Cromwell tells him that, whilst -dining with him, the Queen had announced her intention of going to -Antwerp, as if she fully expected to be released. Another time she said -to him, “If any man accuse me, I can say but nay, and they can bring -no witness”; and also, “I think the King does this to prove me.” In -Burnet’s “History” the following incident, which took place shortly -before Anne’s execution, and which I think goes far to prove her -innocence of the charges brought against her, is recounted: “The day -before she suffered, upon a strict search of her past life, she called -to mind that she had played the step-mother too severely to Lady Mary -(afterwards Queen Mary), and had done her many injuries. Upon which, -she made the Lieutenant of the Tower’s lady sit down in the Chair of -State; which the other, after some ceremony, doing, she fell down on -her knees, and with many tears charged the lady, as she would answer -it to God, to go in her name, and do, as she had done, to the Lady -Mary, and ask her forgiveness for the wrongs she had done her.” Speede, -alluding in his “History” to this scene, says, “as she cleared her -conscience of the lesser crimes, so undoubtedly could she have done of -the greater, if any had been committed.” - -In a long letter Knighton wrote to Cromwell on the 18th of May, he says -that the Queen had sent for him to be present when she received the -Sacrament in her prison. “And at my commyng,” he writes, “she sayd, -‘Mr Knighton, I hear say that I shall not dye affore noon, and I am -very sory therefore; for I had thowtt to be ded by thys time and past -my payne.’ I told hyr it should be no payne it was so suttel, and then -she sayd, ‘I have heard say the executioner was very good and I have a -lyttel neck,’ and put her hand about it lawying hartely. I have seen -many men and also women executed, and that they have been in grate -sorrow; and to my knowledge thys lady hasse muche joy and plesur in -dethe.” One may infer from the tone of this letter that Knighton did -not believe in Anne’s guilt. - -A little before noon on the 19th May, Anne Boleyn, accompanied by four -of her ladies, came out of her prison on to Tower Green, attended by -Sir William Knighton. Near the scaffold stood the Duke of Suffolk and -the Duke of Richmond, the latter a natural son of the King’s; there -also were the Lord Chancellor and Secretary Cromwell, the Lord Mayor -and the Sheriffs of London and Westminster; in all, about thirty -persons gathered at the Tower that bright May morning to behold a -sight that had never been witnessed in England before—the execution -of a Queen. Henry had given orders that the execution should be as -private as possible, fearing the effect of the public sympathy with -his victim, if many persons were admitted to see her die. To the very -last Anne showed a steadfast courage, and may be said to have looked -death fearlessly and without faltering in the face. After a few words -full of resignation to her fate, and of forgiveness for those who had -brought about her death, even for the chief of these, she said: “And -thus I take my leave of the world, and of you all, and I heartily -desire you all to pray for me.” After she had finished speaking her -ladies came to her and placed a bandage over her eyes, and left her, -all weeping bitterly. Kneeling, but keeping her upright position of -body, for on this occasion no block was used—and the headsman, who had -been specially brought over from Calais, did his work with a sword—she -received the stroke of death “with resolution,” writes a contemporary -and eye-witness, “and so sedately as herself to cover her feet with -her garments.” And thus, and without more to say or do, was her head -stricken off, she making no confession of her fault, and only saying, -“O Lord God, have pity on my soul.” - -[Illustration: _Traitors’ Gate, from the River_] - -When all was over, one of the ladies took up her head, the others the -body, and covering them with a sheet, placed them in a chest which was -ready for the purpose, and carried the remains to St Peter’s Chapel, -“where they say she lieth buried.” - -“Such,” writes Lord de Ros in his “Memorials of the Tower,” “was -the end of this most unfortunate lady, who but three years before -had entered the Tower in triumph as the idol of the King, and the -admiration of all around her. Levities, which even now would be -thought slight and pardonable, but which in that coarse and licentious -Court could hardly deserve a moderate censure, were the only offences -found against her, unless the extorted accusation of Smeaton was to -be regarded as proof of any deeper guilt.” At about the time of -Anne’s execution, her brother, Lord Rochford, and three gentlemen of -the Court, Brereton, Western, and Norris, were sentenced to death -as accomplices in the crime of which she was accused. Mark Smeaton, -a musician who, on the promise of pardon, had confessed his and the -Queen’s guilt whilst under torture, was hanged. The accusation against -Anne Boleyn and her brother, Lord Rochford, consisted only of the -charge that he had one morning entered his sister’s chamber, and, -whilst conversing with her in the presence of her attendants, had -rested his hand upon the bed. Rochford died declaring his innocence, as -did the other gentlemen who died with him. They were all buried in the -churchyard of the Chapel of St Peter. - -The day after Anne Boleyn’s execution, Henry married Jane Seymour. -There is a tradition that the King had ordered a gun to be fired from -the roof of the White Tower, then mounted with cannon, which he could -see from his palace, as a signal that Anne Boleyn had ceased to live. - -When Queen Victoria visited the Tower for the first time, and was shown -the place on the Green on which the scaffold had stood where Jane Grey -and Anne Boleyn had been executed, and where the grass, tradition said, -never grew, Her Majesty ordered the brass tablet that now records those -tragic events, to be placed on the spot, with the words, “Site of the -ancient scaffold: on this spot Queen Anne Boleyn was beheaded on the -19th May 1536.” - -The year 1537 saw the Tower full of prisoners, the result of the rising -in the North, called the Pilgrimage of Grace. Thomas Cromwell’s crusade -against the religious endowments of the country, his spoliation of -the monasteries, his wholesale butchery of the monks and friars, had -stirred up a violent feeling of resistance in the north of England. A -report had been spread that as soon as the monasteries had been ruined -and destroyed, it would be the turn of the parish churches, and the -people of Lincoln and Yorkshire took instant alarm. A zealous Roman -Catholic, named Robert Aske, headed the rebellion, bearing a banner -emblazoned with the five wounds of Christ. The peril became so great -that Henry found it necessary to send an army against the insurgents, -the Duke of Norfolk being appointed its general. But Norfolk hesitated -to bring matters to a crisis, and temporised. He promised that the -grievances of the people should be heard, and a Parliament was summoned -in the North to consider their complaints, and mend or end them. -However, in 1537, Henry, breaking faith with the Pilgrimage of Grace, -seized the ring-leaders, and established a Council in the North, which -was a precursor, in cruelty and bloodshed, of Jeffreys’ Bloody Assize -in Devonshire, a century and a half later. Cromwell instituted a reign -of terror. His commissioners tore down, among others, such incomparable -buildings as Fountains, Rievaulx, and Jervaulx Abbeys; the sacred fanes -were gutted, their roofs torn off, and the holy shrines abandoned to -the bats and owls, serving as quarries for anyone who cared to cart -away the materials. The Abbots and heads of these, and many other -religious houses, were either hanged out of hand, or sent in droves -to London, and placed in the Tower. Among many others, the Abbots of -Rievaulx, Fountains, and Jervaulx, and the Prior of Bridlington, after -being imprisoned in the Tower, were hanged as traitors at Tyburn. -Two peers, Lord Darcey and Lord Hussey, who had taken part in the -Pilgrimage of Grace, were beheaded, the former on Tower Hill, and the -latter at Lincoln; Sir Robert Constable, Sir Francis Bagot, Sir Thomas -Percy, the brother of the Earl of Northumberland, Sir Stephen Hamilton, -William Lumley, Nicholas Tempest, Robert Aske, and Sir John Bulwer, -also suffered death, and, horrible to relate, the wife of the last was -burnt at Smithfield. - -[Illustration: _The Block and Axe_] - -Thomas Cromwell, in his treatment of women, resembled Judge Jeffreys, -and, monstrous as is the fact of a woman being burnt to death in the -reign of Henry VIII. for a political offence, it is not quite so -revolting as the case of Elizabeth Gaunt, executed in the reign of the -second James for sheltering one of the followers of Monmouth after the -Battle of Sedgemoor. Both Cromwell and Jeffreys were the obedient tools -of their masters, who, to quote the great Duke of Marlborough’s remark -when describing James II., “This marble,” he said, laying his hand on a -marble chimney-piece, “is not harder than the King’s heart.” - -Secretary Cromwell, having put down the rising in the North of the -country in this ruthless fashion, turned his attention to the West, -where there yet lingered, amongst the descendants of the great houses -of de la Pole and Courtenay, the last hopes of the Yorkists. In order -to accomplish his object of exterminating them, Cromwell required -the services of a traitor; and this he soon found in the person of -Sir Geoffrey de la Pole, brother of Viscount Montagu. How it was -that Geoffrey turned traitor, and denounced his own kith and kin to -Cromwell is not known, but his treachery threw into the Secretary’s -power not only his own brother, Montagu, but also Henry Courtenay, -Marquis of Exeter, together with Sir Edward Nevill and Sir Nicholas -Carew. They were charged with maintaining a traitorous correspondence -with Cardinal Pole; and all perished on Tower Hill on 9th January -1539. Geoffrey’s brother, Henry de la Pole, Lord Montagu, was the son -of Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, and the brother of Cardinal Pole. -Born in 1492, he was consequently about fifty when he was executed. -He had served in the Army, had fought in France, and had been one of -the most conspicuous of Henry’s followers on the Field of the Cloth of -Gold. He had married Jane Nevill, a daughter of Lord Abergavenny, but -had no son to succeed him. Another of Geoffrey de la Pole’s victims, -Henry Courtenay, was one of the most distinguished of Henry’s nobles. -Three years previously he had commanded the Royal army, and only a few -months before his own trial he had presided as High Steward of England -at the proceedings which had resulted in the condemnation to death of -Lords Darcey and Hussey. He was son of the tenth Earl of Devonshire, -and head of the great house of Courtenay, whose descent from the -Eastern Emperors has been so eloquently set forth by Gibbon. His mother -was imprisoned in the Tower at the same time as himself; she shortly -afterwards died there. Courtenay was forty-five at the time of his -execution. Geoffrey de la Pole’s treachery brought him little good, for -shortly after the death of his kinsmen we find him a prisoner in the -Beauchamp Tower, where his name can still be seen carved with the date, -1562. He died there after Elizabeth’s accession. - -There is in the possession of Lord Donnington, an interesting portrait -of a stately young lady in the costume of the days of Henry VII. The -face is handsome and refined, although somewhat too long; the neck -is finely formed, but this, too, is unusually long. In her jewelled -left hand she holds a sprig of honeysuckle, or it may have been the -intention of the artist to represent the broom flower, the French -_genet_ (Planta Genesta), the badge and origin of the name Plantagenet. -This portrait represents Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury, -the daughter of the murdered Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV.; -her mother was a daughter of the great Earl of Warwick, the King-maker. -Thus, as the representative of the Plantagenets and of the Nevills, -her position was second only to that of the reigning family. She had -married Sir Richard Pole, and was the mother of Lord Montagu, of the -distinguished prelate, Reginald Pole, who had fled to Rome, where a -Cardinal’s red hat awaited him, as well as of the traitor Sir Geoffrey. -Born in 1470, Lady Salisbury was nearly seventy years old when, by -Henry’s orders, she was imprisoned in the Tower. There was no charge -which could possibly be brought against the aged noblewoman, and she -was kept more as a hostage on her son, the Cardinal’s, account, than -for any alleged cause of offence. Her close relationship to the late -dynasty was in reality her only crime, but this was sufficient to bring -her grey head to the block. - -Lord Herbert of Cherbury, in his history of Henry VIII., tells -the story of Lady Salisbury’s horrible but heroic death as -follows:—“Shortly after,” Lord Herbert writes, alluding to the death -of the Marchioness of Exeter, the mother of Courtenay, in the Tower, -“followed the Countess of Salisbury’s execution (27th May 1541), the -old lady being brought to the scaffold, set up in the Tower, was -commanded to lay her head on the block; but she, as a person of great -quality assured me, refused, saying, ‘So should traitors do, and I am -none’; neither would it serve that the executioners told her it was -the fashion, so turning her grey head every way, she bid him, if he -would have her head, to get it as he could; so that he was constrained -to fetch it off slovenly.” Lingard quotes a passage from a letter of -Cardinal Pole’s in which he says his mother’s last words were, “Blessed -are they who suffer persecution for righteousness sake”; but, to judge -from Lord Herbert’s account of the frightful scene at her death, the -poor old Countess, although she may have said these words at some -period of her imprisonment, could scarcely have uttered them at its -awful close. Henry appears to have added intentionally severe hardships -to his kinswoman’s imprisonment in the Tower, probably hoping that -she would die in consequence, and save him the ignominy of butchering -her in public. One of the Tower gaolers, named Phillips, writing to -a member of the Privy Council about Lady Salisbury, says, “The Lady -Salisbury maketh great moan, for that she wanteth necessary apparel, -both for change, and also to keep her warm. Her gentlewoman, Mistress -Constance, has no manner of change, and that she hath is sore worn” -(Miscellaneous Exchequer Documents). - -Lady Salisbury was Lady of the Manor of Christchurch in Hampshire, and -there she had built a chapel in the church, called after her the -Salisbury Chapel. This building was adorned with elaborate carving and -tracery wrought in Caen stone, her effigy being within the chantry, -representing the Countess kneeling before the Trinity; beneath were -a coat of arms and the motto, “Spes in deo est.” Thomas Cromwell’s -Commissioners caused this chapel to be dismantled. The effigy was -destroyed, but the chantry itself still remains as a memorial of the -last of the Plantagenets. The aged Countess’s mutilated remains were -buried in St Peter’s Chapel in the Tower. - -[Illustration: _St. Peter’s Chapel and the Site of the Scaffold on - Tower Green_] - -Five years after the judicial murder of More and Fisher, their traducer -and bitter enemy, Thomas Cromwell, who had been created Earl of Essex -by Henry in 1540—only three months before his sudden fall—suffered -death on Tower Hill. A parallel has been drawn between Cromwell and -Jeffreys in their brutal administration of what they considered -justice, and a second parallel might very fittingly be drawn between -Henry’s secretary and Maximilian Robespierre. Both sprang from the -people; both rose to almost supreme power; both attained their ends -by the force of their overwhelming ambition and intense determination -of character; both were untroubled by any touch of pity or qualm of -conscience; and both ended their lives upon the scaffold. - -Very little is known of Cromwell’s early years. He was the son of a -blacksmith, and was born at Putney in 1490. At Wolsey’s death he darted -into power, and his influence with the King became stronger than even -the Cardinal’s had ever been. Cromwell once owned to Cranmer, after -he had attained the position of the most powerful subject in the -realm, that in early life he had been a “ruffian,” and a ruffian he -remained until his death on Tower Hill. Henry required an unscrupulous -instrument to carry out his schemes in suppressing the religious -orders, and in Cromwell he found a man as utterly lacking in principles -as he himself. Cromwell was exactly what he described himself as having -been in his youth to Cranmer, but a ruffian without heart, feeling, -or conscience. I have compared Thomas Cromwell to Robespierre, and the -likeness can be even traced in their lineaments. There is an admirable -engraving which has all the marks of being a faithful likeness of -Cromwell in the “Herologia,” and a portrait of him in the National -Portrait Gallery, and in both the facial resemblance to Robespierre -is remarkable. The features are of the ferret type, not brutal by any -means, but the suggestion of the weasel in both faces is strongly -marked. Cromwell made a close study of Machiavelli, and “The Prince” -was his constant companion, philosopher, and guide; Cæsar Borgia could -not have followed the precepts of the cynical Florentine more literally -than did the ennobled son of the Putney blacksmith. - -It was his aim to make the King supreme both in Church and State. In -order to achieve this object, the Church was first pillaged, and when -he and his master were glutted with the spoils of monasteries and -abbeys, he turned his attention to the State, sweeping off the heads -of those nobles whom he considered sufficiently independent in their -views to resist the merging of the supreme power in the sovereign. For -ten years—from 1530 to 1540—there was an English “Terror.” Even Henry -himself, who seemed to fear neither man nor God, feared Cromwell. It -was Cromwell who was more responsible than Henry for the deaths of -More and Fisher; it was Cromwell who, when the Pilgrimage of Grace -took place, carried fire and sword into Yorkshire, and afterwards into -Devonshire; it was Cromwell who instigated Henry to exterminate the -families of de la Pole and Courtenay; it was Cromwell who threatened -to destroy Cardinal Pole, although the latter had put the seas between -himself and the terrible instrument of the King’s enmity. “There may -be found ways enough in Italy,” he wrote to the Cardinal, “to rid a -treacherous subject. When justice can take no place by process of law -at home, sometimes she may be enforced to take new means abroad.” The -Cardinal soon learnt what Cromwell meant by “justice at home,” when the -news reached him in Italy that Cromwell and the King had butchered his -aged mother upon Tower Green. Shortly before his fall—and this fact -of his career is similar to that of Robespierre—Cromwell had attained -what was practically the supreme power. Besides being Earl of Essex, -he was also Great Chamberlain of England, Vicar-General of the Church, -the head of all foreign and domestic affairs, and President of the Star -Chamber—the most supreme and most redoubtable council in the land, -which corresponded in its power to the Council of the Ten at Venice. - -Like Robespierre again, in private life Cromwell lived simply and -without ostentation—a strong contrast this to his old master and -patron, the magnificent Wolsey. Whether Cromwell possessed any -redeeming points in his character history has not recorded, but his -fall was singular, as sudden and as unexpected as had been his rise. -It was brought about by a woman, although indirectly. Cromwell had -arranged the marriage of Henry with Anne of Cleves, and when the King -found that princess lacking in all the charms with which she had been -accredited both by painters and courtiers, he not only spoke of her as -“a Flanders mare,” but visited his disappointment upon the negotiator -of the marriage, and, from being Henry’s most trusted adviser, Cromwell -became the object of his royal master’s implacable hatred. - -The old historian Stowe thus relates the fall of the newly created Earl -of Essex: “The King’s wrath was kindled against all those that were -preferrers of this match, whereof the Lord Cromwell was the chief, for -the which, and for dealing somewhat too far in some matters beyond the -King’s good liking, were the occasions of his hasty death.” On the 10th -of June 1540, Cromwell, who had been in his place in the House of Lords -the same afternoon, was arrested and placed in the Tower; so sudden -was the effect of Henry’s rage. Cranmer, who appears to have been a -true friend of the fallen Minister, wrote to Henry in his behalf, but -with the usual result. - -Foxe, the martyrologist, bears witness to the courage and unshaken -firmness evinced by Cromwell during his imprisonment. On the 29th of -the month he was condemned to death by both Houses of Parliament. The -day after he wrote a piteous letter to the King, which ends thus, -“Most Gracious Prince, I can say but mercy, mercy, mercy!” But Henry -and mercy were strangers, and the former slayer of women and children -must have bitterly regretted the little of the same quality that he had -shown to others in the days of his power. - -A month later he was beheaded. On his way to Tower Hill he met Lord -Hungerford, bound on a similar errand—the distance from the Tower to -Tower Hill takes but five minutes, walking very slowly—and whilst these -two were making their way to their final earthly destruction, Cromwell -appears to have encouraged his fellow-sufferer, who was complaining and -bewailing the approach of death, as they faced the Hill together, and -the grim shadow that was closing round them. “And so,” writes Foxe, -“went they together to the place of execution, and took their death -patientlie.” - -What Cromwell said in his dying speech on the scaffold has been made -uncertain by the garbled accounts of his words; but, to judge from -these, he made a better exit from the world than his career in it would -have led one to expect. The executioner was awkward, and, according to -the chroniclers, Stowe, Hall, and Foxe, “very ungoodly performed his -office.” Cromwell was fifty years of age when his career thus ended. -From the son of a blacksmith, and with no manner of advantages, he -had risen from his humble surroundings at Putney to become an Earl, a -Knight of the Garter, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Keeper -of the Privy Seal, and Lord Great Chamberlain of England. He did much -evil, but he accomplished two good things for the benefit of his -country, which should be put upon the other side of his account; he -caused the Bible to be printed in English in 1538, and he instituted -the system of parish registers, which he himself superintended. - -[Illustration: _St. Thomas’s and Curfew Towers_] - -The Lord Hungerford of Heytesbury, who has been mentioned as having -been beheaded at the same time as Cromwell, had been accused of having -persuaded some persons to prophesy how long the King would live. It -was probably only a trumped-up charge, and certainly, if true, not of -any greater offence than that of _lèse majesté_, but it was considered -quite sufficient to bring the too curious inquirer to the scaffold. -In the same year, as has already been stated, Lord Leonard Grey was -executed. - -An apparently justifiable execution took place in the year 1541, that -of Lord Dacre, on Tower Hill, he being, according to Holinshed’s -Chronicle, guilty of murder. - -Cromwell, although not a professed Protestant, had always protected the -followers of that faith, but with his death they were again persecuted -by Henry, and at the end of July 1541 three of the most prominent of -the Lutherans, Dr Robert Barnes, Thomas Gerard, and William Jerome, -were haled to the dungeons of the Tower, and thence dragged through -the City on hurdles, and burnt at Smithfield. On the same day (30th -July) Henry, with his almost incredible impartiality when engaged -on persecution, caused four Roman Catholic priests—Doctor Abel, -Fetherstone, Powel, and Cooke—to be burnt to death at the same place -(Hall). - -In the Beauchamp Tower is a carving, representing a bell, on which the -capital letter “A” is cut. This is a rebus carved by the learned and -unfortunate Dr Abel, while he was awaiting his trial and execution in -this tower. Abel was a man of great learning, and had been domestic -chaplain to Catherine of Arragon, and had offended the King by -championing Catherine’s cause during the trial of divorce between her -and Henry. Below Dr Abel’s rebus appears the name of “Doctor Cooke, -1540,” which is the inscription of Lawrence Cooke, Prior of Doncaster. -These four priests were martyrs for the old faith, like More and -Fisher, and many less known Roman Catholics, who preferred death rather -than acknowledge Henry’s supremacy in the Church of England. - - - QUEEN CATHERINE HOWARD - -Six years after Anne Boleyn’s execution upon Tower Green, another of -Henry’s Queens was led out from her prison in the Tower, to a similar -doom on that same spot. - -In the case of Queen Catherine Howard, one cannot, alas! feel that -the poor victim was innocent of the charge which the King had brought -against her. Catherine Howard was an erring woman, much to be pitied. -She confessed her guilt both to Archbishop Cranmer and many Lords of -the Council, to Suffolk, Southampton, and also to Thirlby, the Bishop -of Westminster—the only Bishop who ever occupied that see. - -On the 10th of February 1542 Queen Catherine Howard was brought from -Sion House, where she and Lady Rochford had passed the winter in close -confinement, to the Tower, and three days later both these unhappy -ladies were beheaded on the scaffold on Tower Green. Both died with -courage, and both confessed their guilt before the axe fell, for on -this occasion the services of the Calais executioner were not called -into requisition. An eye-witness of their deaths, named Otwell Johnson, -in a letter written by him (and which is undoubtedly genuine, as Sir -Henry Ellice includes it in his first series of “Original Letters”), -declares that both victims “made the moost godly and chrystian end, -that ever was hard tell of I thynke sins the world’s creation.” So the -last act in these poor women’s lives atoned for the evil of which they -had been undoubtedly guilty. Weever, a contemporary, alludes thus -to the Queen’s burial: “Within the choir of this chapel (St Peter’s) -lieth buried near the relics of the said Annie Bollein, the body of -Katherine, the fifth wife of King Henry VIII., who, having continued -his wife but the space of one year, six months, and four days, was -attainted by Parliament and beheaded here in the Tower upon the 13th of -February 1542.” Lady Rochford shared her mistress’s place of interment. -Catherine Howard was but twenty-two years of age when her life closed -so tragically. Culpepper and Dereham, who were charged with being the -Queen’s paramours, were hanged at Tyburn, and some of her relatives -suffered imprisonment in the Tower on her account. Among these were -her grandmother, “old Duchess of Norfolk,” as Shakespeare calls her; -Lord and Lady William Howard, and the Countess of Bridgwater, the -daughter of Thomas, second Duke of Norfolk. By a singular coincidence, -the Duke of Norfolk, who had presided at the trial of Anne Boleyn, -was uncle both to that unfortunate Queen and to Catherine Howard, and -when the latter was attainted, he wrote thus to Henry: “The abominable -deeds done by two of my nieces against your Highness have brought me -into the greatest perplexity that ever poor wretch was in” (State -Papers: Domestic Series). The “poor wretch” himself came within an ace -of losing his own head by Henry’s orders, and the King’s death the -day before that fixed for Norfolk’s execution, alone saved him from -perishing on the scaffold. - -An unusual occurrence happened in the Tower in this same year of -Catherine Howard’s death, Arthur Lisle Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle, -dying of joy, according to old Hall, on hearing that he was declared -innocent of the charge upon which he had been placed in the Tower, -that he had intended to betray the town of Calais. Arthur Lisle was -a natural son of Edward IV., and had served in the Navy, of which he -was a Vice-Admiral. He had been knighted and created Viscount Lisle in -1523, and given the Garter in the following year. - -It is about this time that the first mention is made of that most -uncomfortable dungeon in the White Tower, named from the smallness of -its size, “Little Ease,” Hall, in his “Chronicles,” stating that one -of the officers belonging to the Sheriffs of London was placed in this -prison. - -The disaster to the Scottish Army at Solway Moss in 1542 brought many -Scottish prisoners to the Tower, thus repeating the history of the -building during the reigns of the first and third Edwards. Among them -were the Earls of Cassillis and Glencairn, Maxwell, Oliphant, and -Somerville, together with some twenty knights; they were not long in -the Tower, however, being sent to various places to undergo their terms -of imprisonment. - - - ANNE ASKEW - -One of the most memorable names connected with the Tower in the -reign of Henry VIII. is that of Anne Askew, or Ascue, as it is -sometimes spelt, the daughter of Sir William Askew, the head of an old -Lincolnshire family. In early life she had married a Mr Kyme, so that -when her persecution for her faith took place—a persecution which has -immortalised her name—it would have been more correct to have called -her by her husband’s name; however, her maiden appellation has clung to -her, and will always remain the one by which she is known. Kyme appears -to have been a bigoted Roman Catholic, and his wife’s strong attachment -to the Reformed faith may have been increased by his conduct towards -her, for he seems to have been a good-for-nothing fellow who made her -life the reverse of a happy one. Amongst Anne’s friends in London who -belonged to the Reformed faith, was no less a person than Catherine -Howard’s successor as Henry’s wife, Queen Catherine Parr. Anne, it -appears, had some post about the Queen’s person; at any rate, she was -known to many of the principal ladies of the Court. An Act known as -“The Six Articles,” which obtained the popular name of “The Whip with -Six Strings,” had been made law in 1539. The first clause of this Act -ordained that whoever disagreed with the declaration of the Statute of -Transubstantiation or the Real Presence, that the “Natural Blood Body -and Blood of Christ” were present in the Sacrament, should suffer death -by fire. Many men and women had been barbarously killed for denying -the truth of this doctrine, and amongst those who suffered martyrdom -was Anne Askew. To the horror of such a death Henry and his Council -added that of torture, in order to force the victim to recant; torture, -although illegal, was often, nay commonly, used in Henry’s reign. - -Lord de Ros’s account of Anne Askew’s sufferings and death are too -interesting to need an apology for my quoting it here: - - “In March 1545, she was summoned before an Inquest or Commission - at the Guildhall, and subjected to a long examination by one Dare, - when she displayed an intelligence and shrewdness, which, with her - modest, gentle demeanour, drew the admiration even of her enemies. - Being remanded to the Compter, she was shortly after brought before - Bishop Bonner for examination, who exercised all his subtlety to - entangle her in her replies; and at length drew out a written - summary, in which he had grossly perverted their meaning, and - desired her, after hearing it read, to declare whether or not she - would subscribe to its contents. Her answer merits to be recorded, - ‘I believe,’ she said, ‘as much therof as is agreable to the Holy - Scriptures; and I desire that this sentence may be added to it.’ - Furious at what he called her obstinate evasions, Bonner was about - to proceed to violent extremities, when by the interference of some - powerful friend, and probably for other reasons, she was allowed - to be released on the bail of her cousin, one Brittayne, who, - during the examination, at which he was present, had judiciously - cautioned her ‘not to set her weak woman’s wit to his lordship’s - great wisdom.’ We have no record of the cause, or rather pretext, - of her being, about three months afterwards, again arrested. This - time her husband, Kyme, was brought up along with her before the - Privy Council, sitting at Greenwich. Wriothesley, the Chancellor, - now undertook her examination, and chiefly on the great point of - Transubstantiation, on which she firmly refused to abandon her - own convictions, and was committed to Newgate; from whence she - wrote some devotional letters, which show her to have possessed - considerable talent. Her next appearance was before the Council at - the Guildhall, when, after an examination by a silly Lord Mayor - (Martin), in which she entirely foiled him by her simplicity - and good sense, she was plainly told, that unless she renounced - her errors, and distinctly declared her acquiescence in the Six - Articles, she must prepare to die; and, on her firm refusal, - she was condemned, without any trial by jury, to be burned as - an heretic. Meantime, instead of being sent back to Newgate, - she was committed to the Tower, with a view to subject her to - the torture of the rack, for which the gloomy seclusion of that - fortress afforded greater convenience than the ordinary prison of - Newgate, with the hope of inducing her to incriminate the Duchess - of Suffolk, the Countess of Sussex, the Countess of Hertford, and - other ladies who were supposed to have assisted her with money for - her support in prison. She was too high-minded and grateful to - betray them; and whatever might have been the case, she declared - that she had been chiefly kept from starvation by her faithful - maid, who went out and begged for her of the ‘’prentices and others - she met in the street.’ - - “The unhappy lady was now carried to a dungeon, and laid on the - rack in the presence of the Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir A. - Knyvett, and Wriothesley, the Chancellor, Rich, a creature of - Bonner, and a secretary, sitting at her side to take down her - words. But when she endured the torture without opening her lips - in reply to the Chancellor’s questions, he became furious, and - seizing the wheel himself, strained it with all his force, till - Knyvett, revolting at such cruelty, insisted on her release from - the dreadful machine. It was but in time to save her life, for she - had twice swooned, and her limbs had been so stretched, and her - joints so injured, that she was never again able to walk without - support. Wriothesley hastened to Westminster to complain to the - King of the Lieutenant’s lenity; but the latter, getting into - his barge with a favourable tide, arrived before him, obtained - immediate audience, and told his tale so honestly and with such - earnestness, that Henry’s hard heart was softened for once, and - approving his conduct he dismissed him with favour. A stronger - reason for this may have been that the rack was regarded with such - horror by the people as to be applied only in secrecy; and had Anne - expired under it, and the fact became known, some violent outbreak - might have been apprehended in the City. She was shortly afterwards - carried to Smithfield and there burnt to ashes, together with three - other persons for the same cause, in the presence of the Duke of - Norfolk, the Earl of Bedford, Sir Thomas Wriothesley, the Lord - Mayor, and a vast concourse of people. One of the peers, learning - that there was some gunpowder about the stakes, became frightened - lest any accident should happen to himself from the faggots being - blown into the air; but the Earl of Bedford assuring him that no - such chance could occur, and that it was only to hasten the deaths - of the sufferers, he remained looking on with the same barbarous - indifference as the brutal mob who had assembled to witness the - dreadful spectacle.” - -[Illustration: _Traitors’ Gate, from the Bloody Tower_] - -Anne Askew’s fellow-sufferers were named John Lascels (? Lascelles), -John Adams, and Nicholas Beleinian; there is a woodcut of their -martyrdom in Foxe’s book. - -Anne Askew’s death appears to have been fraught with some danger to -Queen Catherine Parr. Aware of the Queen’s sympathy for Anne, and -her leaning towards the Reformed faith, Wriothesley, the bigoted -Lord Chancellor, went so far as to draw up a warrant for Catherine’s -arrest. Fortunately for the Queen she was warned of her danger, and -either was actually frightened into a fever, or feigned illness. -During an interview with the King, the suffering Queen so worked upon -his feelings, that when Wriothesley appeared with a guard to take her -into custody, Henry turned upon him, and, heaping the foulest abuse -upon him, drove him from the presence (Speed’s Chronicle). Luckily for -Catherine Parr the days of Henry were near their end, or it is more -than probable that she would have shared the fate of Anne Boleyn and -Catherine Howard. - -In 1546 peace had been made between England and France, and in order -to ratify the treaty the French sent their Lord High Admiral to -England, with the Bishop of Evreux, and some other nobles. Landing at -Greenwich, they were conducted with great ceremony to the Tower—where -a splendid banquet awaited them in the palace of the fortress—by the -Earls of Essex and Derby in the royal barge. After leaving the Tower -they proceeded to Lambeth Palace, and thence to Hampton Court, where -the treaty was signed. These were the last guests of the Sovereign in -the Tower. The last State prisoner to be executed in Henry’s reign was -the gifted and brilliantly endowed Earl of Surrey, the eldest son of -Thomas Howard, third Duke of Norfolk, who, as I have said before, also -narrowly escaped with his life. - -Henry VIII., for the good of his people, was dying fast at the close of -the year 1546. His once handsome and athletic form had become a bloated -mass of corruption. His nature, always cruel, became fiend-like during -his later years, owing to his physical sufferings. He knew that death -was gaining upon him rapidly, but whilst he lived he determined still -to destroy, and when even in the very grasp of the King of Terrors, -still sent out his death orders. No cause can be assigned for the King, -while his wicked old life was fast ebbing away from him, ordering the -death of Norfolk and his son Surrey. The only possible reason was that -perhaps Henry feared they might wield too great an influence after his -death, when his heir, Edward, should have become King. - -Henry intended that his son’s uncle, Lord Hertford, Queen Jane -Seymour’s brother, should be his sole guardian, and for a wretched -pretext Norfolk and Surrey were arrested, imprisoned in the Tower, -and sentenced to death. Of the Duke of Norfolk, Sir Walter Raleigh -wrote in the preface to his great History: “Henry knew not how to -value his deservings, having never omitted anything that concerned his -own honour and the King’s service.” Despite his weakness for tears, -Norfolk may rank amongst the English worthies, for he had done good -service to the State, both in arms and council. He had commanded the -English army at the Battle of Flodden, and had led another army during -a second victorious war in Scotland; he had also led the English van in -the war with France. In Ireland he had been one of the best and most -just of the English Lords-Deputy. By the accident of birth the Duke -was of the blood-royal, being descended from the Mowbrays; further -than this, he had married one of the daughters of Edward IV., and two -of his nieces had been Queens of England. For his own safety he was -perilously near the steps of the throne, and his birth was too high, -the story of his life too romantic, for Henry to tolerate his surviving -himself, consequently, with reason or without, his death was determined -upon; Henry was never troubled by lack of just cause. The dying King -excused his treatment of the Duke and his son Surrey to foreign courts, -by giving out that they had conspired to take upon themselves the -government of the State; this was a pure invention. Another and a -still more ridiculous charge brought against them was that Norfolk and -his son had quartered in their shield the royal arms of Edward the -Confessor. This charge could not have hoodwinked the most simple, for -it had been the custom of the Duke’s family long before he himself was -born to have these arms quartered upon their shield. However, on the -14th of January 1547, the House of Lords, without even the form of a -trial, and without examining either the Duke or his son, passed a bill -of attainder against them, and the end of the month was fixed for their -execution. - -While awaiting his trial in the Tower Norfolk appears to have been -inclined—to make use of a racing expression—to “hedge,” as regarded his -religious opinions. The Duke had always professed himself a Catholic, -both by birth and conviction, but from his prison he sent a petition -to the Lords of the Council in which, after asking their permission -to have some books sent to him from Lambeth, he adds, “for unless I -have books to read ere I fall asleep, and after I wake again, I cannot -sleep, nor have done these dozen years. That I may have mass, and be -bound upon my life not to speak to him who says mass, which he may do -in the other chamber whilst I remain within. That I may be allowed -sheets to lie in; to have licence in the daytime to walk in the chamber -without, and in the night be locked in as I am now. I would gladly -have licence to send to London to buy one book of St Austin, ‘de -Civitate Dei,’ and one of Josephus, ‘de Antiquitatibus,’ and another -of Sabellius, who doth declare most of any book that I have read, how -the Bishop of Rome from time to time hath usurped his power against all -Princes by their unwise sufferance” (“Seward’s Anecdotes,” Ed. 1798). - -Surrey was placed in the Tower at the same time as his father. Not -only was Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, a charming poet, especially -when writing of love, of which his verses addressed to the “Fair -Geraldine” are perhaps his best, but he was also remarkable in the -history of English literature as having been the first writer of blank -verse in our language; he was also a distinguished soldier. But thirty -years old when his fate came upon him, he was a national loss, and in -killing Surrey, Henry destroyed one of England’s most gifted sons. Not -being a peer, Surrey was tried before a Common jury at the Guildhall -on the 13th January 1547. He made a splendid defence where no defence -was necessary, and where no defence, however eloquent, and no career, -however blameless, would have saved him. With the axe’s edge turned -towards him he left the Guildhall for the Tower, and six days later one -of the wisest, noblest, and most gifted heads that England possessed, -rolled in the bloody sawdust of the scaffold on Tower Hill. Norfolk’s -life was only saved by the providential death of Henry VIII., which -took place only a few hours before the time fixed for the Duke’s -execution. He remained a prisoner in the Tower until the reign of Mary -Tudor, and lived to preside at the trial of the Duke of Northumberland, -and again to take up arms when Wyatt’s rebellion broke out, although -then in his eightieth year. He died a natural death in his bed—a rare -event with the heads of his house—in 1554, aged eighty-one. Norfolk had -lived in the reign of eight English sovereigns—from the reign of Henry -VI. to that of Mary Tudor. - -[Illustration: _Back of the Byward Tower_] - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - EDWARD VI - - -The boy King Edward VI. was only ten years of age when he succeeded to -the throne. On the 30th of May 1547, he was brought in state to the -Tower amidst an outburst of the people’s gladness, which, considering -all the troubles they had for so long endured under the savage rule of -the late monarch, must have been heartfelt and genuine. - -Near the town of Midhurst in Sussex are the ruins of one of the finest -of the old Tudor mansions, Cowdray House, the old home of the Montagus. -In the reign of Edward VI. Cowdray belonged to Sir Antony Brown, who -held the proud office of Grand Standard Bearer of England. Here it -was that the boy King in the year of his accession was entertained -by Sir Antony, and in his precocious diary the little monarch wrote -that he was “marvellously, yea, rather excessively banketted.” Cowdray -House—and that is my reason for writing about it here—contained a -most interesting series of paintings upon its walls illustrating the -events in the reign of Henry VIII. and that of his son, who was so -“excessively banketted” within its halls. Among these paintings were -representations of the siege of Boulogne by Henry VIII.; the Field of -the Cloth of Gold; and a huge painting of the coronation of Edward VI., -in which the long procession is seen wending its gorgeous length from -the Tower to Westminster Abbey. All these paintings perished in the -disastrous fire which destroyed Cowdray on the 24th of September 1793. -Fortunately, George Vertue copied these paintings and engraved the -copies in the middle of the eighteenth century, the engravings being -published by the Society of Antiquaries. Next to the Bayeux tapestry, -nothing more interesting than these pictured records of English history -have come down to us. - -Among the pageants and devices with which the joyous Londoners graced -the occasion when the young King rode through the festive streets, -was a very quaint one, which Holinshed thus describes: “An argosine -(a sailor) came from the batilment of Saint Poule’s Church, upon a -cable, beyng made faste to an anker at the deane’s doore, liying uppon -his breaste, aidyng himself neither with hande nor foote, and after -ascended to the middes of the same cable, and tumbled and plaied many -pretie toies, wherat the Kyng and other of the peres and nobles of the -realme laughed hartely.” A few days before his coronation Edward had -taken his place upon a throne in the Tower, and had had his little -hand kissed by the peers, receiving the accolade of knighthood from -the hands of his maternal uncle, the Protector Somerset. But whilst -he received knighthood from one uncle, to another he gave lodging in -the Tower. The latter was Thomas, Lord Seymour of Sudley, Lord High -Admiral of England. Lord Sudley—or as it is also written Sudeley—was -an over-ambitious personage. He had married the late King’s widow, -Catherine Parr, and after her death, which he is supposed to have -hastened, he began to pay very marked attentions to the Princess -Elizabeth. Although one does not wish to allude to any scandal that -may have attached itself in the gossip of the time to the name of that -Princess, the flirtation—to give Elizabeth’s conduct with the Lord -High Admiral its mildest description—was at one time too notorious an -episode in the future “Gloriana’s” career to be wholly omitted from -mention. Who has not read of the “high jinks” carried on between them? -How on one occasion Seymour was found cutting the Princess’s gown -“into a hundred pieces,” in the gardens of Hanworth, and how on another -he had the audacity to pay Elizabeth a visit in her bed-chamber, on -which occasion she “ran out of her bed to her maidens, and then went -behind the curtains of her bed.” Seymour was certainly uncommonly -handsome, and it is well known that Elizabeth was very impressionable -in the matter of manly beauty. Probably Elizabeth’s chances of one day -succeeding to the Crown may have helped to make Seymour so forward in -his advances, but it was neither his flirtation with the Princess, -nor his marriage with Catherine Parr, that brought about his ruin; he -was discovered to be intriguing against his all-powerful brother, the -Protector Somerset. A warrant was issued for his arrest on the 17th of -January 1549, and he was taken to the Tower, in spite of his threat to -poignard any person who dared to lay hands on him (“State Papers,” Dom. -Ed. VI.). “By God’s precious soul,” he wrote, “whosoever lays hands -on me to fetch me to prison, I shall thrust my dagger into him.” It -is not recorded whether he carried his threat into execution. He was -repeatedly interrogated whilst in the Tower, but without any effect, -and on the 25th of February the bill of attainder against him was -introduced into the House of Lords. On the 2nd of March it passed the -Commons, and three days later received the royal assent; on the 15th, -Goodriche, Bishop of Ely, communicated to Seymour that he was to suffer -death on the 20th. - -The Protector has naturally been greatly blamed for the part he took in -bringing his brother to the scaffold, and there is a curious passage -in a letter written by the Princess Elizabeth to her sister Queen -Mary, shortly after she herself was sent a prisoner to the Tower, in -which she says, “In late days I hearde my Lorde Somerset say, that if -his brother had bine suffered to speke to him, he had never suffered; -but the persuasions were made to him so gret, that he was brought in -beleafe that he could not live safely if the admirall lived; and that -made him give his consent to his dethe.” The young King’s entry in -his diary regarding his uncle’s death is extremely laconic: “The Lord -Sudley, admiral of England, was condemned to death, and died in March -ensuing.” Burnet in his “History” says, “What his behaviour was on the -scaffold I do not find,” and indeed no record, as was the case with -so many of his distinguished contemporaries, has come down to us of -his last moments, except that Strype in his “History” says, that just -before the end the Admiral bade his servant, “speed the thing that he -wot of.” - -This last message appears to have regarded two letters which he had -written in the Tower, one to the Princess Elizabeth, and the other to -the Princess Mary. They had been written in some kind of invisible ink, -and, having no pen, he had written them with the point of an “uglet” -which “he had plucked from his hose,” and they had been sewn between -the sole of one of his velvet shoes. “By this means these letters -came to light, and fell into the hands of the Protector and Council. -The contents of these tended to this end, that the two sisters should -conspire together against the Protector, enforcing many matters against -him, to make these ladies jealous of him, as though he had, it may be, -estranged the King their brother from them, or to deprive them of the -right of their succession. Both these papers Latimer himself saw, and -repeated publicly in his fourth sermon before the King, though in the -last edition of his sermons the passage is left out.” The following, -however, is the passage from Latimer’s most strange discourse on the -death of the Lord High Admiral, which he preached before the King -regarding his uncle’s death; a less charitable or courtly address is -not often met with: “As touching the kind of his death, whether he be -saved or no, I refer that to God. In the twinkling of an eye He may -save a man or turn his heart. What he did I cannot tell, and when a man -hath two strokes with an axe, who can tell but between two strokes he -doth repent? It is hard to judge, but this I will say, if they will ask -me what I think of his death, that he died very dangerously, irksomely -and horribly. He was a wicked man and the realm is well rid of him” -(“Latimer’s Sermons”). - -The death of his brother made the Protector still more disliked by -the people; he was already unpopular by reason of his rapaciousness -and the manner in which he attained great wealth by the seizure of -Church property. The huge palace he had built by the riverside, and -called after himself Somerset House, was a standing witness of his -overpowering greed in the eyes of all men. In order to increase the -size of this building he had committed desecration by pulling down a -church, and casting away the human remains that had been buried within -it; such an action in those days was considered by the populace as a -crime. - -The elder brother soon followed the younger along the same gloomy road -to the grave, thus fulfilling the words of the chronicler Grafton, who, -when Seymour died, had written, “It was commonly talked that the fall -of one brother would be the overthrow of the other, as soone after it -came to passe.” - -The Protector’s fall was brought about by John Dudley, Duke of -Northumberland, his rival. At a meeting convened at Ely House, Holborn, -at which Lord St John, the President of the Council, Northumberland, -Southampton, Arundel, and five other members of the Privy Council -were present, the Protector’s arrest was decided upon. When Somerset -heard this startling news he took the young King from Hampton Court -to Windsor, and prepared to defend himself by force to the last. His -call to arms, however, met with no response; none of his former friends -came forward in his support, and he felt that his cause was lost. -Meanwhile the Privy Council had taken possession of the Tower and -despatched Sir Philip Hoby as its messenger to the King at Windsor, -with letters, “beseeching his highness to give credit to that which he -should declare in their names; and the King gave him libertie to speak, -and most gentlie heard all that he had to saie, and trulie he did so -wiselie declare his message, and so gravelie told his tale in the name -of the Lords, yea therewithal so vehementlie and greevous so against -the Protector, who was also there present by the King, that in the end, -the Lord Protector was commanded from the King’s presence” (“Grafton’s -Chronicle”). - -On the 12th of October, two days after the meeting of the Privy Council -at Ely House, the Protector occupied the prison chamber at Beauchamp -Tower. The once all-powerful Duke was brought to his knees in every -sense of the term, for, on the 21st of January 1550, he actually signed -a confession, kneeling before his nephew the King. Apparently, in -consequence of this submission, Somerset was released from the Tower, -as Edward records in his diary on the 6th of February, that his uncle -“supped at Sir John Yorke’s, one of the sheriffes of London, where the -Lords assembled to welcome him”; and on the 31st of March he reappeared -at Court, the King writing under that date, “My Lord Somerset was -delivered of his bondes and came to court.” On the 21st of April the -King recorded, “It was granted that my lord of Somerset should have all -his moveable goodes and leases, except those that be alreadie given.” - -Warwick, who had about this time been created Duke of Northumberland, -had arranged a marriage between his eldest son, Lord Lisle, and -Somerset’s daughter, Lady Anne, in June 1550; but in spite of this -alliance, the old feud between these enemies broke out again, with -the result that on the 16th of October 1551, Somerset was again a -prisoner in the Tower, on a charge of high treason. And that evening -the royal diarist writes, “This morning none were at Westminster of -the conspirators. The first was the duke, who came later than he was -wont, of himself. After dinner he was apprehended.” On this occasion -Somerset’s wife shared his imprisonment. - -The indictment against the Duke was presented at the Guildhall on the -21st of November, a true bill being found by a jury of Middlesex. -Strict orders were given to the Lord Mayor “to cause the citie to be -well looked to and garded all to-morrow and the next night.” Two days -afterwards the King entered in his diary, “The Lord Treasurer (this was -William Paulet, created Marquis of Winchester in 1555) apointed high -stuard for the arraignment of the Duke of Somerset.” - -[Illustration: _The King’s House_] - -Stowe writes on the 2nd of December, “The sayde Duke brought out of -the Tower of London, with the axe of the Tower borne before him, with -a great number of billes, glaves, holbardes, and polaxes attending -upon him; and was had from the Tower by water, and having shot London -Bridge at five of the clock in the morning, so came unto Westminster -Hall, where was made the middle of the Hall a new scaffold, where all -the Lordes of the King’s Counsaill sate as his judges, and there was he -arraigned and charged with many articles both of treason and felony. -And when, after much speeche, he had answered not guiltie, he in all -humble manner put himself to be tryed by his peeres who, after long -consultations among themselves, gave their verdict that he was not -guiltie of the treason, but of the felony.” - -The King gave a long and very involved account of the Duke’s trial -in his diary, far too long to quote; at the close he writes as -follows:—“So the lordes acquited him of high treason and condemned -him of treason feloniouse, and so he was adjudged to be hanged. He -gave thankes to the lordis for their open trial and cried mercy of the -Duke of Northumberland, the Marquis of Northamptoon, and the Erie of -Pembroke for his ill meanings against them and made suet (suit) for his -life, wife and children, servantes and dettes, and so departed without -the axe of the Tower. The people knowing not the matter, shrieked half -a dozen times so loud that from the halle dore it was heard at Charing -Crosse plainely, and rumours went that he was quitte of all.” - -Grafton writes of the Duke’s trial: “But nevertheless he was condemned -to death, wherof shortlye after he tasted. The felony that he was -condemned of was upon the statute made the last yere agaynst rebelles -and unlawfull assemblyes, wherein among thinges is one branch that -whosoever shall procure the death of any counsellor, that every -such attempt or procurement shall be felonye, and by force of that -statute the Duke of Somerset being, accompanyed with certain others, -was charged that he purposed and attempted the death of the Duke -of Northumberland. After the Duke was thus condemned he was agayne -returned to the Tower, through London, where were bothe exclamations, -the one cried for joye that he was acquitted, the other cried out -that he was condemned. But howsoever they cried he was conveyed to -the Tower where he remained until the twenty-second daye of January -next following.” Burnet says that everything was done to prevent -the young King taking the fate of his uncle to heart, there being -many festivities at Court during the month, but the Bishop adds -significantly, “he was not much concerned in his uncle’s preservation.” - -The 22nd of January was a Friday, and at seven o’clock in the morning -the fatal Hill was covered with a dense crowd, who had come out from -all sides of London to see the Protector die. An eye-witness of the -scene has left the following account of the Duke’s execution:— - -“Soon after eight o’clock of the morning, the Duke of Somerset was -beheaded on Tower Hill. There was as gret company as have been -syne: the King’s gard behynde them with ther halbards and 1000 men -with halbards of the priviledge of the Tower, Ratcliffe, Lymhouse, -Whytechappell, Saint Katheryn, and Stretford, Bow, Hogston, and -Shoerdyche, and ther were two sheriffs ther present seying the -execuyson of my Lord” (Machyn). - -Grafton adds that the Duke, “nothing changing voyce nor countenance, -but in a manner with the same gesture that he partely used at home, -kneeling down upon both his knees, and lifting up his handes, erected -himself unto God. And after that he had ended a few shorte prayers, -standing up agayne, and turning himself unto the East syde of the -skaffolde, he uttered to the people these words.” Then follows a long -speech in which the Duke rather praised himself for having upheld -religion when he was in power. In the midst of his speech a great -tumult arose, and Sir Anthony Browne of Cowdray was seen riding up -the Hill, at the sight of whom loud cries of “Pardon! Pardon!” and -“God save the King!” were raised by the people. Grafton continues -his account thus: “The truth of this hurly-burly grewe hereof, as it -was afterwards well knowen. The manner and custome is that when such -executions are done out of the Tower, the inhabitants of certayne -hamlets round about London, as Hogsden, Newynton, Shordiche, and -others, are commanded to give their attendance with weapons upon the -Lieutenant. And at this tyme, the Duke being upon the scaffolde, the -people of one of the hamlets came late, and coming through the postern -gate and espying the Duke upon the scaffolde, made haste and beganne -to roune, and cried to their felowes that were behind, ‘Come away, -come away.’ The people sodainely beholding them to come rounning with -weapons, and knewe not the cause, cried, ‘Away, away,’ by reason -whereof the people roun every way, not knowing whither or wherefore.” -So great was the panic that many persons fell into the Tower moat. -The Duke appears to have waited calmly until the disturbance ceased, -and then resumed his speech. He gave a scroll to Dr Coxe, the Dean -of Westminster, who attended him upon the scaffold, which probably -contained a confession of faith. Coxe was afterwards made Bishop of Ely -by Queen Elizabeth, after having been imprisoned in the Tower by Queen -Mary, who deprived him of his Deanery, and it was to him that Elizabeth -wrote her famous letter, “Proud Prelate, you know what you were before -I made you what you are; if you do not immediately comply with my -request, by God I will unfrock you.” - -After bidding farewell to his friends about him, Somerset gave himself -over to the executioner, “and kneling downe agayne in the straw untyed -his shirtstrings, and the executioner coming to him, turned downe his -collar rounde about his necke, and all other things which did let or -hinder him. Then he, covering his face with his own handkerchiefe, -lifting up his eyes unto heaven, where his only hope remained, laid -himself downe alone, and there suffered the heavie stroke of the axe, -which dispersed the head from his bodye, to the lamentable sight and -griefe of thousands that heartily prayed God for him and entirely loved -him.” Burnet declares that the people were generally “much affected by -the execution,” which was somewhat strange, seeing how deeply unpopular -the Protector had been, “and many threw handkerchiefs into the Duke’s -blood, to preserve it in remembrance of him. One lady that met the Duke -of Northumberland when he was led through the city in Queen Mary’s -reign, shaking one of these bloody handkerchiefs, said, ‘Behold the -blood of that worthy man, that good uncle of that excellent King, which -was shed by thy malicious practice, it doth now begin apparently to -revenge itself upon thee.’” In Edward’s diary is this laconic entry on -22nd January (1551–52): “The Duke of Somerset had his head cut off upon -Towre hill between eight and nine a cloke in the morning.” The boy-king -was certainly not much “concerned,” as Bishop Burnet remarked, for the -fate of his uncle. - -The Protector, like his brother the Admiral, was a singularly handsome -man even in that age of handsome men, and according to Sir John -Hayward, one of his contemporaries, was “courteous and affable.” A -French writer of the period is not so complimentary in his appreciation -of the Duke of Somerset, writing that he was a “homme de quelque -entendement, couvert et simulé en ses actions, de la nature commune -des Anglois, douce apparence, gracieuses paroles, et maligne volonté.” - -One of the invariable results of the fall of a party chief in these -so-called “good old days,” was that his most trusted friends and -adherents fell after him; this occurred in the case of the Protector. -The Earl of Arundel, Lords Grey and Paget, with others of his -supporters, were sent to the Tower at the same time as the Duke, and of -these, Sir Ralph Vane, Sir Michael Stanhope, Sir Thomas Arundel, and -Sir Miles Partridge, were executed. Sir Ralph Vane had distinguished -himself at the siege of Boulogne in 1544, where he had gained his -knighthood, a distinction given in those times only for distinguished -services on the field. James I. was the first monarch to prostitute -this honour by making it a thing of sale. Vane had also fought in the -Scottish campaign. “A man of fierce spirit,” Hayward characterises -him, “both sodaine and bold, of no evill disposition, saving that he -thought scantnesse of estate too great an evill.” Sir Ralph had in -some manner offended the all-powerful Duke of Northumberland, and on -some now unknown charge, he was lodged in the Tower in the March of -1551. He was released, but again imprisoned on a charge of conspiring -with Somerset. He fled, hiding himself in a stable in Lambeth, but was -re-arrested, and again placed in durance in the Tower. When examined -by the Privy Council he showed a bold, even a defiant, front, “The -time hath been,” he exclaimed, “when I was of some esteeme; but now we -are at peace, which repenteth the coward and the courageous alike,” -“and so with an obstinate resolution he made choice rather not to -regard death than by any submission to intreat for life” (Hayward’s -Edward VI.). When found guilty and sentenced to death he said that his -blood would make Northumberland’s “pillow uneasy to him,” and Edward -hearing of Sir Ralph’s replies to the Court, wrote in his diary under -the date 27th January 1551–52, “Sir Ralph Vane was condemned of felony -in treason, answering like a ruffian.” Sir Michael Stanhope was a -cousin of Somerset’s, a fact sufficient in itself to condemn him. Sir -Thomas Arundel, another of the condemned knights, was of Lamberne in -Cornwall, and had been one of Wolsey’s attendants, being made a Knight -of the Bath at Anne Boleyn’s coronation. In 1549 he was appointed -Receiver-General of the Duchy of Cornwall. He had been accused of -forming a conspiracy in Cornwall, for participation in which his -relative, Humphrey Arundel, Governor of St Michael’s Mount, had been -hanged at Tyburn in 1549, but Sir Thomas had been released from his -imprisonment, the charge against him not having been proved. Shortly -afterwards, however, he was again thrown into prison, charged with -complicity in the Somerset conspiracy, the nature of this fresh charge -being indicated by King Edward’s brief entry in his diary of 11th -October 1551, “Sir Thomas Arrundel had ashuired my Lord that the Tower -was sauf.” On the 16th October he was sent to the Tower, and Edward -writes, “Arrondel was taken.” Arundel was tried the day after Sir Ralph -Vane, and also sentenced to die. These and the two others were all -executed on the same day, 26th February 1552. Sir Ralph Vane—or, as it -should be spelt Fane, for he belonged to the same stock as the Fanes, -Earls of Westmoreland, but in those days of euphonious spelling, it -is found as Vane, Fane, Perne, and even Phane—and Sir Miles Partridge -were hanged, whilst Sir Thomas Arundel and Sir Michael Stanley were -beheaded. “Ther body wher putt into dyvers new coffens to be bered, and -heds, into the Towre in cases, and ther bered” (Machyn’s Diary); the -Earl of Arundel, Lords Grey and Paget were acquitted. - -Edward’s short reign of six years ended on the 6th of July 1553, -and considering the brief time he occupied the throne, there was a -sufficiency of blood shed upon the scaffold, through the machinations -of those around him, to have pleased the insatiable Henry the Eighth -himself. - - - - - CHAPTER X - - MARY TUDOR - - -Northumberland had persuaded the dying King to pass over his sisters, -Mary and Elizabeth, in favour of Lady Jane Grey, the grand-daughter of -Henry VII. by the marriage of Mary, daughter of that King, with Charles -Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, as well as cousin to the late King Edward -VI., and his own daughter-in-law; and the Privy Council, immediately -after Edward’s death, had confirmed this measure. Northumberland’s -plan, in which he had induced Edward to acquiesce, annulled both the -Statute of Succession and the will of Henry VIII., for not only did it -set aside both the late King’s sisters, but also the direct successors, -to whom the crown would hereditarily fall, failing Henry’s daughters. -These were the descendants of Henry’s eldest sister Queen Margaret, -wife of James IV. of Scotland, who was represented by the girl Queen -Mary Stuart, and, after her, by the descendants of Queen Margaret’s -second marriage with the Earl of Angus, who were represented by Henry -Stuart, Lord Darnley, Queen Margaret thus being grandmother to both -Queen Mary Stuart and Lord Darnley. Henry VIII. himself, however, had -passed over Queen Margaret’s claims in his will, and had placed the -children of his younger sister, Mary, Duchess of Suffolk, next to -his daughter Elizabeth in the succession. The Duchess of Suffolk’s -daughter—Lady Frances Brandon—had married Henry Grey, Marquis of -Dorset, by whom she had had three daughters, of whom Lady Jane Grey -was the eldest.[10] Dorset, who became Duke of Suffolk during the -Protectorate, having been given his father-in-law’s dukedom, was a -fervent follower of the Reformed faith, his children sharing his -religious beliefs. - -The Duchess of Suffolk, Jane’s mother, who was still alive at this -time (1553) was passed over in Northumberland’s scheme, since he had -succeeded in wedding the daughter to his fourth son, Guildford Dudley, -his firm expectation being that as the future Queen’s father-in-law -he would have the government of the realm in his own hands. But -Northumberland’s ambitious dream was a short one, and the awakening was -terrible. - -At the time of Edward’s death Lady Jane Grey (Lady Jane Guildford as -she should be called, but as was the case with Anne Askew, the paternal -name has always been retained) was living at Sion House, a house -belonging to her father-in-law, and here a deputation of the Council, -headed by Northumberland, Suffolk, Pembroke, and others, went to pay -their homage to the new Queen; on the 9th of July 1553, Lady Jane, or -as she was now styled, Queen Jane, entered the Tower in state. - -Jane Grey was but a girl of sixteen when the ambition of her relatives -drew her from the retired and studious life that she loved, and forced -her to take up all the perils and troubles that surround a throne. A -more perfect creature, according to the unanimous testimony of her -contemporaries, never gladdened God’s earth. Her brow was lofty, her -features were delicate and refined, bearing a winning sweetness and -bright cheerfulness which made all those who were fortunate enough -to approach her, at once attached to her with a sentiment little -short of devotion. Young as she was, her knowledge, even for those -days when the daughters of great houses received an education which to -us would appear almost encyclopædic, was prodigious. According to her -tutors, Aylmer and Roger Ascham, Jane Grey knew Greek, Latin, French, -and Italian, being able to both write and speak these languages. -Besides, she knew something of Hebrew, Arabic, and even Chaldee. She -was proficient in music, and could play upon a variety of instruments, -singing to her own accompaniment. In addition to these accomplishments -she wrote a beautiful hand—a rare talent for the time—and was a past -mistress in the use of her needle. - -[Illustration: _Queen Mary Tudor_ - - (_From a portrait at Latimer._)] - -Ascham’s account of his visit to Lady Jane at Broadgate has often been -quoted, but it will bear quoting again: - -“Before I went into Germany, I came to Broadgate in Leicestershire -to take my leave of that noble lady, Lady Jane Grey, to whom I was -exceedingly much beholden. Her parents the Duke and Duchess, and all -the household, gentlemen and gentlewomen, were hunting in the park. I -found her in her chamber reading the Phaedron of Plato in Greek, and -that with as much delight as some gentlewomen would read a merry Tale -of Boccaccio. After salutations and duty done, with some other talk, -I asked her why she should lose such pastimes in the park. Smiling, -she answered me, ‘All their sport in the park is but a shadow to the -pleasure I find in Plato.’ However illustrious she was by fortune, and -by royal extraction, these bore no proportion to the accomplishments -of her mind adorned with the doctrines of Plato and the eloquence of -Demosthenes.”[11] - -With all her learning and her great accomplishments Lady Jane appears -to have been entirely lacking in that provoking superiority and -aloofness which, for want of a better word, we call “priggishness.” She -was indeed that rare creature, a perfect woman in mind, and character, -and person. - -Most unwillingly did Lady Jane comply with Northumberland’s wishes. No -crown could add to her happiness, which was not dependent upon this -world’s state or station, nor one bestowed by the tinsel and glitter of -earthly power or riches, but a “peace above all earthly dignities, a -still and quiet conscience.” Jane Grey was not known to the Londoners, -and Northumberland was heartily disliked because of his arrogance and -overbearing manners, so it was not surprising that when they entered -the city on the 10th of July, as the Duke himself said afterwards in -deep chagrin, “not a single shout of welcome or God speed was raised as -they passed through the silent crowd on their way to the Tower,” “With -a grett company of lords and nobulls, and there was a shott of gunne -and chambers as has nott been seen oft, between four and five of the -clock” (Machyn). Jane Grey’s reign was not a long one. - -On the 14th of July, Northumberland had left the Tower with his sons -to take command of the troops that had been despatched against Mary, -who, in the meantime, had been proclaimed Queen throughout London, -whilst the fleet at Yarmouth had also declared for her, a warrant -being issued for the arrest of Northumberland as a consequence. The -Duke was at Cambridge when he was taken prisoner; he showed great -cowardice, throwing his cap up in the air when he saw that his hopes -were useless, crying, “God save Queen Mary!” and furthermore, when the -Earl of Arundel, who had been sent by Mary, appeared on the scene, the -Duke literally grovelled on his knees before him. But his tardy loyalty -and his entreaties availed him little, for on the 25th of July he was -lodged a prisoner in the Tower, where only a month before his word had -been the supreme command. On the 18th of the following month he was -arraigned for high treason in Westminster Hall, the Duke of Norfolk, -who acted as Lord High Sheriff, breaking his wand upon giving sentence, -which was a signal for the court to break up. Northumberland was taken -back to the Tower and occupied a room in the Beauchamp Tower, where -several inscriptions cut by his sons and himself are to be seen to this -day. - -[Illustration: _Lady Jane Grey_ - - (_From the original portrait at Madresfield Court by Lucas van - Heere_)] - -The day after he entered the Tower the Duke received a visit from -Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, to whom he declared that he was a -Roman Catholic at heart, and that he had always been a member of that -faith. But although he “ratted” in his religion as well as in his -politics, his facility of opinion was in vain. Gardiner was only too -pleased to prove the Duke’s apostacy by a public ceremonial in which -the changeable nobleman was the principal actor. Mass was said in the -Chapel of the White Tower in which the Duke took part, and, that ended, -he made a public confession, and a formal recantation of his former -religion. - -To return to Lady Jane Grey. When the news of Northumberland’s arrest -at Cambridge reached the Tower, Lady Throckmorton, one of Lady Jane’s -gentlewomen, on entering the Presence Chamber in the Palace, found -that the canopy of state, and all the other ensigns of royalty had -been removed. The nine days’ reign was at an end, and not unwillingly -did Jane cease playing a part that she must have felt did not by right -belong to her, and which must have been distasteful to her noble and -upright nature. But a prison awaited both herself and her boy-husband, -Guildford Dudley. - -The tradition that Jane was imprisoned in the Brick Tower is incorrect, -for at first she occupied a room in the Lieutenant’s House, now the -King’s House, and later was removed to a house on the Green adjacent -to the Lieutenant’s lodging, then occupied by the Gentleman gaoler of -the Guard, Nathaniel Partridge by name. When Northumberland was led -from the Beauchamp Tower to abjure his religion in the White Tower, -Stowe writes that “Lady Jane looking through the windowe sawe the -Duke and the reste going to the Church.” Jane’s feelings on learning -Northumberland’s apostacy in the vain hope of saving his life, have -been recorded in an anonymous MS. of the time, now in the British -Museum (Harleian MSS. No. 194). The writer, who dined on the afternoon -of the same day (29th August) with Partridge at the Gentleman gaoler’s -house, met Lady Jane Grey there. After noting her graciousness to all -present, he says that Lady Jane inquired whether Mass was being said -in all the London churches, and on being answered that such was the -case, she said that she did not think that so strange as the sudden -conversion of the Duke, “for who would have thought,” she said, “that -he would have done so?” On someone remarking that probably he had -done so in order to obtain his pardon, “Pardon,” quoth she, “woe unto -him! He hath brought me and our stock in most miserable calamity by -his exceeding ambition. But for the answering that he hoped for his -life by his turning, though other men be of that opinion, I utterly am -not; for what man is there living, I pray you, although he had been -innocent, that would hope of life in that case; being in the field -against the Queen in person as general, and after his taking, so hated -and evil-spoken of in the Commons? And at his coming into prison so -wondered at, as the like was never heard at any man’s time. Should I, -who am young in years, forsake my faith for the love of life? But God -be merciful to us, for he sayeth who so denieth Him before man, he will -not know him in His Father’s kingdom.” Whether Lady Jane spoke thus -at Partridge’s dinner table is not possible of proof, “methinks the -lady doth protest too much” for these to be the _ipsissima verba_ of -Lady Jane. Of her sorrow for Northumberland’s cowardice and smallness -of spirit in allowing himself to be made an exhibition for the -glorification of Queen Mary’s priests and creatures, there can be no -doubt. - -[Illustration: _Lord Guildford Dudley_ - - (_From the original portrait at Madresfield Court by Lucas van - Heere._)] - -The day after his recantation in the chapel of St John’s, -Northumberland was beheaded. With him there went to the scaffold on -Tower Hill, Sir John Gates and Sir Thomas Palmer, both these knights -having been concerned in his conspiracy. Still clinging desperately -to the hope of being pardoned at the last moment, Northumberland -continued, as he was led to death, to profess his zeal for the -Roman Catholic faith, and in the speech he made to the crowd from -the scaffold declared that he was a fervent Papist. His example was -not followed by his fellow-sufferers, both of whom died with manly -fortitude, meeting their fate with a calm and unflinching demeanour. -Others who had been implicated in Northumberland’s schemes, amongst -whom were Lords Northampton, Warwick, and Ferrers, who had also been -placed in the Tower, were pardoned, but their prisons were soon -filled by fresh batches of captives. Of these new prisoners, the most -important were Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, Cranmer, Archbishop -of Canterbury, and Ridley, Bishop of London, and the fortress was -so full that these three prelates were obliged to share the same -prison-chamber. On the 8th of March in the following year, the Bishops -were taken from the Tower to their martyrdom at Oxford. - -During the month of September in this year, Lady Jane was allowed -to walk in the garden of the Palace, her husband, according to a -chronicler of the time, also being given, with his brother, Lord Harry -Dudley, what was called “the liberty of the leads” in the Beauchamp -Tower. This meant that they were allowed to promenade on the outer -passage running along the top of the wall which connects the Beauchamp -with the Bell Tower. - -Queen Mary had entered the Tower on the 3rd of August, practically in -triumph, and there she held her court until after the funeral of her -brother, the late king; Mary was again in the Palace of the fortress -prior to her coronation, which took place on the 1st of October. On -her first visit to the Tower in August she found, on reaching Tower -Green, a group of State prisoners who awaited her arrival on their -knees. Among these prisoners of the late reign was the old Duke of -Norfolk; near him knelt the young and handsome Edward Courtenay, Earl -of Devonshire, who had passed most of his short life in the Tower. -Here, too, was the Duchess of Somerset, imprisoned at the same time -as her husband, who had so lately been beheaded on Tower Hill. Here, -too, knelt the Bishops of Winchester and Durham, Gardiner and Tunstall. -To all of these Mary spoke with some emotion; she had come as their -deliverer, and for once she appeared a woman as well as a Queen. On -the eve of her coronation Mary was accompanied to the Tower by her -half-sister Elizabeth. - -It is strange to picture three such strangely different women as Queen -Mary, Elizabeth Tudor, and Lady Jane Grey, together within the walls -of the fortress at this time. The first a Queen, who has left behind -her a more hateful memory than many far worse women among monarchs; -the second, then but a powerless and semi-captive princess, whose -future fame as a sovereign and ruler might well excite the envy of the -mightiest potentate, but who, as a woman, lacked all that is best and -most admirable in her sex; and the third, an uncrowned girl-queen of -but seventeen summers, whose fate has called forth the love and pity of -thousands, and whose brief life and death are the brightest and saddest -in all history. - -Mary’s coronation was marked by all the wonted splendour and elaborate -ceremonial of such functions at such a period, and Holinshed has -recorded that her head was so weighed down by her jewelled crown that -“she was faine to bear up her head with her hand.” A month later the -State trials commenced. - -On the 13th of November a remarkable procession passed through the -Tower Gate, and wended its way through the streets of the City to the -Guildhall. Preceded by the axe, borne by the Gentleman Chief Warder, -first came Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, followed -by Lord Guildford Dudley and Lady Jane Grey, attended by two of her -ladies. Lady Jane wore a dress of black from head to foot which is thus -described by the chronicler Machyn:—“A black gown of clothe, turned -downe, the cappe lyned with fese velvett, and edged about with the -same; in a French hoode, all black, with a black habilment; a black -velvet boke before her, and another boke in her hande open.” This -account does not give a very clear idea of Lady Jane’s costume, but the -curious reader, if he visits the National Portrait Gallery, will find -a little full-face portrait of Lady Jane Grey as she then appeared, -in which she is represented in this very dress, which she wore at her -execution as well as during the trial. - -The trial was held before the Lord Mayor of London, Thomas White, by -special commission, the Duke of Norfolk presiding as High Steward. -All the prisoners who pleaded guilty were attached for high treason, -“for assumption of the Royal authority by Lady Jane, for levying war -against the Queen, and conspiring to set up another in her room,” and -Lady Jane was sentenced “to be burned alive on Tower Hill or beheaded -as the Queen pleases,” the verdict being afterwards confirmed by Act of -Parliament.[12] After sentence had been pronounced the prisoners were -taken back on foot to the Tower. - -During the few days that remained to Jane on earth, she was allowed -to walk in the garden of the Palace, a three-cornered plot of ground -enclosed on the north by the Queen’s Gallery, on the east by the Salt -and Well Towers, and on the south and river side by the Ballium wall, -which ran from the Well to the Cradle Tower. Sad and solitary must -these gardens have been in those dark December days, and the heart of -Jane Grey must have been very heavy when she recalled the days of her -free and happy girlhood at Broadgate and Sion. Guildford Dudley was -also allowed his daily walk on the wall passage between the towers, but -he and his young wife were not to meet again on this side of eternity. -At the last hour, however, permission was given that Dudley might bid -farewell to Jane on his way to death on Tower Hill, but she, fearing -the effect of such a supreme leave-taking for both, declined to avail -herself of this sad opportunity. - -If, after the trial, there had been any intention on Mary’s part to -pardon Lady Jane Grey, such intention was frustrated by the action of -Jane’s father, who, in an evil moment for himself and his children, -joined in Wyatt’s rebellion. Baker, in his chronicle, writing of these -events, says: “The innocent lady must suffer for her father’s fault, -for if her father, the Duke of Suffolk, had not this second time made -shipwreck of his loyalty, his daughter had perhaps never tasted the -salt waters of the Queen’s displeasure, but now on a rock of offence -she is the first that must be removed.” - -A few days before the end, Jane wrote the following letters to her -father, probably just before his own arrest, which took place on the -10th of February 1554. These letters bear no dates; this feminine fault -of not dating her letters is the only one that can be found with gentle -Lady Jane Grey. - - “Father, although it has pleased God to hasten my death by you, - by whome my life should rather have beene lengthened, yet I can - soe patiently take it, that I yield God more hearty thanks for - shortening my woful dayes, than if all the world had been given - into my possession, my life lengthened at mine owne will. And - albeit I am well assured of your impatient dolours, redoubled - many wayes, both in bewaling your own woe, and especially as I am - informed, my wofull estate, yet my deare father, if I may, without - offence, rejoyce in my own mishaps, herein I may account myselfe - blessed that washing my hands with the innocence of my fact, my - guiltless bloud may cry before the Lord, Mercy to the innocent! And - yet though I must needs acknowledge, that beyng constraynd, and as - you know well enough continually assayed, yet in taking upon me, I - seemed to consent, and therein greivusly offended the Queen and her - lawes, yet doe I assuredly trust that this my offence towards - God is so much the lesse, in that being in so royall estate as I - was, mine enforced honour never mingled with mine innocent heart. - And thus, good father, I have opened unto you the state wherein I - presently stand, my death at hand, although to you perhaps it may - seem wofull yet to me there is nothing that can bee more welcome - than from this vale of misery to aspire, and that having thrown off - all joy and pleasure, with Christ my Saviour, in whose steadfast - faith (if it may be lawfull for the daughter so to write to her - father) the Lord that hath hitherto strengthened you, soe continue - to keepe you, that at the last we may meete in heaven with the - Father, Sonn, and Holy Ghost.—I am, Your most obedient daughter - till death, - - “JANE DUDLEY.” - -(_Harleian MSS., and Nichols’ Memoirs of Lady Jane Grey._) - -Here is another of her letters to her father: - - “TO THE DUKE OF SUFFOLK. - - “The Lord comforte your Grace, and that in his worde, whearin all - creatures onlye are to be comforted. And thoughe it hathe pleased - God to take away two of your children, yet thincke not, I most - humblye beseache your Grace, that you have loste them, but truste - that we, by leavinge this mortall life, have wonne an immortal - life. And I for my parte, as I have honoured your Grace in this - life, wyll praye for you in another life.—Your Grace’s humble - daughter, - - “JANE DUDLEY.” - -[Illustration: IANA GRAYA DECOLLATA. - - _Regia stirps tristi cinxi diademate crines - Regna sed omnipotens hinc meliora dedit_ - - _H.Holbeen in._ _E. V. Wÿngaerde ex_] - -On the 8th of February Queen Mary’s favourite priest, Feckenham, had -an interview with Jane in her prison, of which Foxe the martyrologist -has recounted the details at great length; but, needless to say, Lady -Jane remained unshaken in her firm faith, and in her attitude to the -Reformed religion. It had been ordered that Guildford Dudley should -die on Tower Hill, whilst Jane suffered within the walls the same day, -Monday the 12th of February being fixed for the double execution. -On the eve of this day Jane was sufficiently calm to write a long -“exhortation” for the use of her sister, Catherine Grey, writing it in -the blank pages of a manuscript on vellum, entitled “De Arte Moriundi.” -This exhortation is as full of devotion and perfect faith in the mercy -of her Saviour as were the beautiful lines she wrote to her father. - -Although Guildford wished for a last interview with Jane on the morning -of their execution, she was firm in deciding that “the separation would -be but for a moment” as she is reported to have said, adding, that if -their meeting could benefit either of their souls she would be glad to -see her husband, but she felt it would only add a fresh pang to their -deaths, and they would soon be together in a world where there would -be no more death or separation. The last moments of this unfortunate -lady were inexpressibly tragic. About ten o’clock on the morning of -the 12th of February, Guildford Dudley was led forth from his prison -to the scaffold on Tower Hill, being met at the outer gate by Sir -Thomas Offley, and passing under his wife’s windows as he crossed the -Green. Bidding farewell to Sir Anthony Brown and Sir John Throgmorton, -Guildford met his fate with high courage. His body was brought back to -the Tower in a handcart, the head being placed in a cloth; and looking -forth from her prison, Lady Jane was suddenly confronted with the -remains of what a few minutes before had been her husband. But nothing -could shake her fortitude, as the following account, taken from the -Chronicles of Queen Jane and Queen Mary, shows:— - -“By this tyme was ther a scaffolde made upon the grene over agaynst -the White Tower for the saide Lady Jane to die upon.... The saide Lady -being nothing at all abashed, neither with feare of her own deathe, -which then approached, neither with the ded carcase of her husbande, -when he was brought into the chappell, came forthe the Lieutenant (who -was Sir John Bridges, afterwards Lord Chandos of Sudeley) leading -hir, in the same gown wherein she was arrayned, hir countenance -nothing abashed, neither her eyes mysted with teares, although her two -gentlewomen Mistress Elizabeth Tylney and Mistress Eleyn wonderfully -wept, with a boke in hir hand, whereon she praied all the way till she -came to the saide scaffolde, whereon when she was mounted, this noble -young ladie, as she was indued with singular gifts both of learning -and knowledge, so was she as patient and mild as any lamb at hir -execution.” - -After praying for her enemies and herself, Jane turned to the priest -Feckenham and inquired whether she could repeat a Psalm, and he -assenting she repeated the fifty-first. She then handed her gloves and -her handkerchief to one of her ladies, giving the book she had brought, -to Thomas Bridges for him to give to his brother, Sir John. On a blank -page of this book[13] she had written: - - “For as mutche as you have desyred so simple a woman to wrighte in - so worthye a booke, good mayster Lieuftenante, therefore I shall - as a frende desyre you, and as a christian require you, to call - uppon God to encline your harte to his lawes, to quicken you in his - wayes, and not to take the worde of trewethe utterlye oute of youre - mouthe. Lyve styll to dye, that by deathe you may purchas eternall - life, and remember howe the ende of Mathusael, whoe as we reade in - the scriptures was the longeste liver that was a manne, died at the - laste; for as the precher sayethe, there is a tyme to be borne, and - a tyme to dye: and the daye of deathe is better than the daye of - oure birthe.—Youres, as the Lord knowethe, as a frende, - - “JANE DUDDELEY.” - -The chronicle of her death continues thus: - -“Forthwith she untied her gowne. The hangman went to her to have helped -her off therwith, then she desyred him to let her alone, turning -towards her two gentlewomen, who helped her off therwith, and also her -frose paste” (this most singular term means a matronly head-dress) -“and neckercher, geving to her a fayre handkercher to knytte about her -eyes. Then the hangman kneled downe, and asked her forgiveness whom she -forgave most willingly. Then he willed her to stand upon the strawe, -which doing she sawe the blocke. Then she sayd I pray you despatche me -quickly. Then she kneled downe saying, ‘Will you take it off before I -lay me downe?’ And the hangman answered her, ‘No, madame.’ She tied -the kercher about her eyes. Then feeling for the block, saide ‘What -shal I do, where is it?’ One of the standers by guyding her therunto, -she layde her head downe upon the block, and stretched forth her body, -and said, ‘Lord, into thy handes I commende my spirite,’ and so she -ended” (Holinshed, and Chronicles of Queen Jane and Queen Mary). - -No wonder that good old Foxe could not refrain from shedding tears -when he recounted this tragedy, but sad as is the story of Jane Grey’s -death, her life and its close are amongst England’s glories. Heroines -are rare in all times and in all countries, but in Jane Grey we can -boast of having had one of the truest and noblest of women, a perpetual -legacy to us for all time. The name of Jane Grey shines out like some -brilliant star amid the storm wrack that surrounds it on every side. -Amidst all the bloodshed, crime, and cruelty of this sanguinary age -of English history to read of that gentle spirit, that marvellously -gifted, and most noble, pure, and gifted being, is like coming suddenly -upon a beautiful white lily in the midst of a tangle of loathsome weeds. - -Fuller, of “English Worthies” fame, has, in his quaint manner, summed -up Jane Grey’s life in these words: “She had the birth of a Princess, -the life of a saint, yet the death of a malefactor, for her parent’s -offences, and she was longer a captive than a Queen in the Tower.” Both -Jane and her husband were buried in the chapel of St Peter’s of the -Tower. - -The news of the Queen’s approaching marriage with Philip of Spain -set half the country in a blaze. The men of Kent rose, headed by -Sir Thomas Wyatt, as did those of Devon, led by Sir Peter Carew. As -we have already seen, the Duke of Suffolk headed another rising in -Leicestershire, but he was soon defeated and captured, and together -with his brother Lord John Grey was taken to London and imprisoned in -the Tower, on the 10th of February, two days before his daughter, Jane -Grey’s, execution. It was only four months before, that Suffolk had -received his daughter at the fortress as Queen of England, and he must -have felt more than the bitterness of death at the thought that it was -owing to his conduct in again leading an armed force against Queen Mary -that Jane’s life, as well as his own, were sacrificed. - -Five days after Jane had met her death on a scaffold which stood -close to her father’s prison, he himself was taken to his trial at -Westminster Hall. It was noted that when he left the fortress the Duke -went “stoutly and cheerfully enough,” but that on his return when he -landed at the water gate, “his countenance was heavy and pensive.” This -is scarcely to be wondered at for he had been sentenced to death, and -was beheaded on Tower Hill on the 23rd of the same month. - -In the brief speech which he delivered to the people before his death -the unfortunate Duke admitted the justice of his sentence, saying, -“Masters, I have offended the Queen and her laws, and thereby I am -justly condemned to die, and am willing to die, desiring all men to -be obedient; and I pray God that this my death may be an example to -all men, beseeching you all to bear me witness that I die in the faith -of Christ trusting to be saved by his blood only, and by no other -trumpery, the which died for me, and for all men that truly repent and -steadfastly trust in him. And I do repent, desiring you all to pray to -God for me that when you see my head depart from me, you will pray to -God that he may receive my soul.” - -Of Suffolk, Bishop Burnet writes; “That but for his weakness he would -have died more pitied, if his practices had not brought his daughter to -her end.” - -Although it is probable that Suffolk’s body was buried in St Peter’s -Chapel, his head is believed to be in the Church of the Holy Trinity in -the Minories, a building which is within the ancient liberties of the -Tower. The Duke’s town house was the converted convent of the church -of the nuns of the order of Clares, so called after their foundress -Santa Clara of Assisi. They were known as the “Sorores Minores,” -whence the name of the district—the Minories. This building had been -made over to Suffolk by Edward VI., and the present church of the Holy -Trinity actually stands upon the site of the old convent chapel. This -interesting edifice is now (1899) threatened with destruction, and in a -few years it is extremely probable that the ground upon which it stands -will be covered with warehouses or buildings connected with the London -and North-Western Railway. - -The head was found half-a-century ago in a small vault near the altar, -and as it had been placed in sawdust made of oakwood, it is quite -mummified, owing to the tannin in the oak. There is the mark of the -blow of a sharp instrument above the place where the head was severed -from the neck, and Sir George Scharf, than whom a better judge of -an historical head whether on canvas or in a mummified state, never -existed, wrote of it thus: “The arched form of the eyebrows and the -aquiline shape of the nose, correspond with the portrait engraved in -Lodge’s series from a picture at Hatfield; a duplicate of which is -in the National Portrait Gallery.” This grim _memento mori_ may some -day find its way to the Tower, where it would be an object of much -interest, although, if Suffolk’s ghost be consulted, it would perhaps -plead for this melancholy relic of frail mortality to be placed in -consecrated ground. - -It was during Wyatt’s rebellion that the Tower was attacked for the -last time in its history. Wyatt had defeated a force commanded by the -old Duke of Norfolk and Sir Henry Jerningham, at Rochester, and from -thence marched on to Gravesend, where he was met by some members of the -Privy Council who had been sent to find out the exact nature of his -demands: “The custody of the Tower, and the Queen within it!” was his -modest request. - -[Illustration: _Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk_ - - (_From the portrait by Joannes Corvus in the National Portrait - Gallery._)] - -Mary, cruel and bigoted as she was, had inherited the courage of the -Tudors, and as Wyatt approached the City, resolutely refused to take -shelter in the Tower as she was strongly urged to do, offering a -pension of one hundred pounds a year (about £1000 of our money value) -to any one who would bring her Wyatt’s head. On the 3rd of February -he arrived opposite to the Tower, cannonading the fortress from the -Southwark side of the river, but without causing any hurt either to -the buildings or to their defenders. In attempting to cross the river -at London Bridge he was driven back, practically being compelled to -retreat along the Southwark side as far as Kingston, where was the only -other bridge by which he could gain the City and the Tower. Crossing -this bridge, Wyatt now marched to the east upon a dark and stormy -night; his men were worn out with fatigue, their spirits dashed by -the recent repulse, and the consequence was that they melted away in -shoals. Very few remained with him when he encountered the Royal troops -drawn up at Hyde Park to bar his passage, and although he succeeded in -pushing his way through the soldiers with a handful of his friends, he -sank down utterly exhausted when he reached Temple Bar. The gate of -the Bar was closed and he and his companions were immediately taken -prisoners by Sir Maurice Berkeley. - -There is a lengthy list of prisoners who were brought with Wyatt -into the Tower, or shortly after his arrest. Amongst these were, Sir -William Cobham and his brother George Cobham; Hugh Booth, Thomas Vane, -Robert Rudstone, Sir George Harper, Edward Wyatt, Edward Fog, George -Moore, Cuthbert Vaughan, Sir Henry Isley, two Culpeppers, and Thomas -Rampton, who had been Suffolk’s secretary. Wyatt was beheaded on the -11th of February, the day before Lady Jane Grey and her husband, -stoutly maintaining to the end, even under the torture of the rack, -that Elizabeth had had no cognisance of his insurrection and had played -no part in it as Queen Mary suspected. With all these prisoners the -headsman and the hangman of the Tower had a busy time, and blood flowed -freely on Tower Hill in the springtime of 1555. Some of these prisoners -were, however, executed out of London. Sir Henry Isley and his brother -suffered at Maidstone, the Knevets at Sevenoaks, and Bret, who had -cannonaded the Tower during Wyatt’s rebellion, was hanged in chains at -Rochester. - -London in those days must have looked like some vast Golgotha. Gibbets -were placed in all the principal streets, each bearing its ghastly -load; and the decapitated heads and limbs of Queen Mary’s victims were -stuck over many gates of the town, standing up in horrid clusters, -especially on London Bridge, the air being tainted far and near with -these grisly fragments of mortality. London had indeed been turned into -a shamble; it had become a veritable city of blood, a precursor of an -African Benin. - -Whilst these scenes were taking place in her capital, Mary wedded -Philip of Spain at Winchester, vainly attempting to make herself -attractive to that morose prince. - -From some words let fall, it is said by Wyatt, Mary ordered three -members of the Privy Council to go to Ashbridge in Hertfordshire where -her half-sister, the Princess Elizabeth, was then living in a state -of semi-captivity. These three Privy Councillors were Sir Richard -Southwell, Sir Edward Hastings, and Sir Thomas Cornwallis; they were -accompanied by a guard of two hundred and fifty horsemen. On arriving -late at night at Ashbridge they were told that the Princess was ill and -was in bed, but they nevertheless forced their way into her bedroom. -“Is the haste such,” cried Elizabeth, “that you could not have waited -till the morning?” Their answer was that they had orders to bring -her hence, dead or alive, and early the next morning she was taken -in a litter by short stages to London, the journey, however, taking -six days to accomplish, the people showing the Princess the most -marked sympathy as she passed along the roads. On reaching Whitehall, -Elizabeth was closely confined, being examined there by the Council; -a fortnight later she was taken by water to the Tower and landed at -Traitor’s Gate. Her proud attitude and indignant words on leaving her -barge are well known, but, like most of her recorded sayings, are well -worth repeating:—“Here landeth,” she exclaimed on putting her foot on -the stone steps of that historic gate, “as true a subject, being a -prisoner, as ever landed at these stairs, and before thee, O God, I -speak it, having none other friends but thee.” She then seated herself, -in spite of the heavy rain then falling, on a stone—some accounts -have it on the steps themselves—saying with true Tudor determination, -“Better sit here than in a worse place.” And it was not until the -Gentleman Usher burst into tears that she could be induced to rise and -enter her prison. - -[Illustration: _Middle Tower_] - -Elizabeth once within the Tower, it became the more difficult for Mary -and her Council to know how to act. Judging from her general character, -Mary would have been only too ready to shed her sister’s blood, but the -Council were more humane than the Queen, and while the followers of -Wyatt, and Wyatt himself, were being tortured in order to extract some -admissions whereby Elizabeth might be incriminated, the Princess was -kept in close confinement. But nothing could be proved against her. In -vain the crafty Gardiner examined and cross-examined Elizabeth herself; -for a whole month she was not allowed to leave her prison room, mass -being said daily in her apartment;—this must have been intensely -irritating to the proud spirit of the Protestant Elizabeth. At length -her health broke down and she was permitted to walk in the Queen’s -Privy Garden, but always accompanied by the Constable of the Tower, the -Lieutenant, and a guard of men. There is a story, and probably a true -one, of a little boy, aged four, who was wont to bring the Princess -flowers to brighten her prison room. On one occasion he was watched -as he left, and strictly questioned, with the result that the little -fellow’s kind attentions had to cease, by order of Sir John Gage, the -Constable. Holinshed has narrated a quarrel that occurred between -Elizabeth’s attendants with her in the Tower, and the Constable. The -latter had given orders that when her servants brought the Princess’s -dinner to the gates of the fortress they were not to be admitted, but -were to hand over the provisions to the “common rascall souldiers.” -Elizabeth’s servants strongly objected to this arrangement, complaining -that the “rascalls” took most of the Princess’s dinner themselves -before it reached her, but the only satisfaction they obtained from -Sir John was that “if they presumed either to frown or shrug at him” -he would “sette them where they should see neither sonne nor moon.” An -application to the Privy Council forced the Constable to give way, but -Holinshed remarks that he was not over-pleased at having to do so, “for -he had good cheare and fared of the best, while her Grace paid for all.” - -It being impossible to prove anything against Elizabeth she was at -length allowed to leave her prison. This she did on the 19th May 1554, -under the charge of Sir Henry Bedingfield, and was taken to Woodstock. -There is a tradition that when it was known in the City that the -Princess had been released from the Tower, some of its church bells -rang merry peals of joy, and that when she became Queen she gave those -churches silken bell-ropes. - -The Earl of Warwick and his three brothers, Ambrose, Robert, and Henry -Dudley, were still confined in the Beauchamp Tower, but the Earl died -on the 21st of October 1554, and his brothers were released in the -following year. About the same time other notable personages were set -free, in order, it is thought, to curry favour with the populace and -make the Spanish match less unpopular. These included the Archbishop of -York, Sir Edward Warner, and some dozen other knights and gentlemen. - -Then came the religious persecutions which were carried on by Mary -with zest, and it has been estimated that during her short reign, and -during the three and a half years that the persecution of the reformers -lasted, no less than three hundred victims perished at the stake. -These martyrs, however, did not suffer in vain, “You have lost the -hearts of twenty thousand that were rank Papists within these twelve -months,” wrote a Protestant to Bonner; and Latimer’s dying words to -his fellow-martyr, as he was being tied to the stake at Oxford, will -never be forgotten in England, “Play the man, Master Ridley, we shall -this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England as I trust shall -never be put out.” - -At length, on the 17th of November, Mary died, and the people had -peace, the last political prisoners in the Tower in her reign being -Thomas, second son of Lord Stafford, and some of his followers, who had -raised a rebellion against Mary’s government in the north of England. -Stafford was beheaded on Tower Hill, and his followers were hanged at -Tyburn. - - - - - CHAPTER XI - - QUEEN ELIZABETH - - -The important position occupied by the Tower at the commencement of -the reign of Elizabeth, and its connection with all branches of State -affairs is shown by the great antiquary of that reign, John Stowe, who -says it was “The citadel to defend and command the city, a royal palace -for assemblies and treaties, a State prison for dangerous offenders, -the only place for coining money, an armoury of warlike provisions, the -treasury of the Crown jewels, and the storehouse of the Records of the -Royal Courts of Justice at Westminster.” - -Elizabeth’s imprisonment, four years previous to her accession, had -not left kindly impressions of the Tower, and although her first visit -to any royal palace after she became Queen on 28th November 1558, was -to the fortress, she did not take up her abode there for any length -of time, remaining at Somerset House, and at the palace at Whitehall, -until Mary’s funeral had taken place. - -Three days, however, before her coronation, Elizabeth entered the -Palace of the Tower, the crowning taking place on Sunday the 15th -January 1559. Elizabeth’s love of show and magnificence must have been -amply gratified by the great pageant in which she was the central -figure, the procession from the Tower to the Abbey being more brilliant -than any in the history of the English Court. - -Seated in an open chariot which glittered with gold and elaborate -carvings, Elizabeth, blazing with jewels, passed through streets hung -with tapestry and under triumphal arches, the ways being lined with the -City companies in their handsome liveries of fur-lined scarlet. In -Fleet Street a young woman, representing Deborah, stood beneath a palm -tree, and prophesied the restoration of the House of Israel in rhymed -couplets, whilst Gog and Magog received her Majesty at Temple Bar. - -Although the horrors of Smithfield and other _auto-da-fés_ had ceased -with Mary’s reign, religious persecution on the part of the Reformers -was all too rampant under Elizabeth. The new Queen inherited far too -much of her father’s nature to brook any kind of opposition to her -wishes. She was a strange compound of the greatest qualities and the -meanest failings. Endowed with prodigious statecraft, her vanity was -no less immense, and her jealousy of all who came between herself and -those whom she liked and admired, caused her not only to commit acts of -injustice, but actual crimes. Her mind, which had a grasp of affairs of -state and policy that would have done credit to a great statesman, had -also many of the weaknesses and pettinesses of a vain, frivolous, and -foolish woman. Elizabeth’s conduct towards the unfortunate Catherine -Grey, her cousin, and the younger sister of Lady Jane, shows the -jealousy of her character in its worst light. - -It was to Catherine Grey that Lady Jane, on the eve of her execution, -had sent the book in which she had written the “exhortation.” Lady -Catherine had married Lord Herbert of Cardiff, but had been separated -from him, being known by her maiden name. In 1560 she had met at -Hanworth, the house of her friend the Duchess of Somerset, the latter’s -eldest son, Lord Hertford, the result of this meeting being that an -affection had sprung up between them which was followed by a secret -marriage, as it was known that Elizabeth would not approve of the -match. The only confidante was Hertford’s sister, Lady Jane Seymour, -and the young couple—he was only twenty-two and she twenty—were married -as secretly as possible. - -Catherine, accompanied by Lady Jane Seymour, walked from the Palace at -Whitehall—they were both ladies-in-waiting on the Queen—along the river -side at low tide, to Lord Hertford’s house near Fleet Street. Here the -marriage took place, but, by a strange want of foresight or by some -strange oversight, neither of the contracting parties were afterwards -able to remember the name of the clergyman who married them, “with such -words and ceremonies, and in that order, as it is there” (the Prayer -Book) “set forth, he placing a ring containing five links of gold on -her finger, as directed by the minister.” The Hertfords afterwards -described the minister as being of the middle height, wearing an auburn -beard and dressed in a long gown of black cloth. - -The newly-wed Lady Hertford was too nearly related to the Queen to be -allowed to please herself with regard to whom she married, and when the -time drew near when further concealment was impossible, the poor lady -was in a terrible dilemma. Lord Hertford appears to have been the more -timid of the two, for when he found that his wife was about to become -a mother, he, dreading the Queen’s anger, fled to France, leaving poor -Lady Hertford to bear the brunt of Elizabeth’s imperious temper alone. -To complicate matters, Lady Jane Seymour, who throughout this adventure -had been the young couple’s only friend, died early in the year 1561. -When concealment was no longer possible, Lady Hertford threw herself -upon the mercy and generosity of her terrible mistress. But on being -informed of what had happened, Elizabeth’s anger knew no bounds, and -poor Lady Hertford was at once sent to the Tower, where shortly after -her arrival her child was born. Hertford now returned to England, and -was promptly arrested, being also imprisoned in the Tower, where he -remained for many a long year. - -In the meantime the Queen declared that the marriage was illegal, and a -Commission sitting upon the matter, consisting of the Primate, Parker, -and Grindal, Bishop of London, declared it null and void. Matters -might perhaps have been arranged had not another child been born to -the Hertfords. When Elizabeth heard that Lady Hertford had been again -confined, her rage was ten times greater than before. She summarily -dismissed the Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir Edward Warner, for having -allowed the unfortunate couple to meet again, and ordered Hertford to -be brought before the Star Chamber, when he was heavily fined and sent -back to his prison, where he remained for the next nine years. - -In the Wardrobe accounts of the Tower in the Landsdowne MSS. at the -British Museum, there is a list of the furniture supplied to Lady -Hertford in her prison. Tapestry and curtains are mentioned, also a -bed with a “boulster of downe,” as well as Turkey carpets and a chair -of cloth of gold with crimson velvet, with panels of copper gilt and -the Queen’s arms at the back. All this furniture, which sounds very -magnificent, is noted by the Lieutenant of the Tower as being, “old, -worn, broken, and decayed,” but in a letter he addressed to Cecil he -wrote that Lady Catherine’s monkeys and dogs had helped to damage it. -One is glad to know that the poor lady was allowed her pets, however -harmful to the furniture, to amuse her in her lonely prison, where she -lingered for six years, dying there in 1567. - -Considering Elizabeth’s own experience of the amenities of imprisonment -in the Tower one would have thought that she might have shown more -mercy to her unfortunate kinswoman. In later years Hertford consoled -himself by marrying twice again, both his second and third wives being -of the house of Howard. His marriage with Catherine Grey was only made -valid in 1606, when the “minister” who had performed the ceremony was -discovered, a jury at Common Law proving it a _bonâ fide_ transaction, -and making it legal. - -Another unfortunate lady who was a victim of Elizabeth’s implacable -jealousy was Lady Margaret Douglas, who married the Earl of Lennox. -The Countess, like Lady Catherine Grey, was one of Elizabeth’s -kinswomen, and owing to her near relationship her actions were a -source of continual suspicion to the Queen. Lady Lennox suffered three -imprisonments in the Tower; as Camden has it, she was “thrice cast -into the Tower, not for any crime of treason, but for love matters; -first, when Thomas Howard, son of the first Duke of Norfolk of that -name, falling in love with her was imprisoned and died in the Tower of -London; then for the love of Henry, Lord Darnley, her son, to Mary, -Queen of Scots; and lastly for the love of Charles, her younger son, to -Elizabeth Cavendish, mother to the Lady Arabella, with whom the Queen -of Scots was accused to have made up the match.” In the description of -the King’s House, reference has been made to the inscription in one of -its rooms recording the imprisonment of the Countess of Lennox there; -that inscription refers to her second incarceration in the Tower in -1565. Few women can have suffered so severely for the love affairs of -their relatives as this unfortunate noblewoman. - -The long struggle between Elizabeth and Mary Stuart, which only closed -on the scaffold at Fotheringay in 1589, brought many prisoners of State -to the Tower. Some of the earliest of these belonged to the de la Pole -family, two brothers, Arthur and Edmund de la Pole, great-grandchildren -of the murdered Duke of Clarence, being imprisoned in the Beauchamp -Tower in 1562, on a charge of conspiring to set Mary Stuart on the -English throne. There are, as we have seen, several inscriptions in -the prison chamber of the Beauchamp Tower bearing the names of the two -brothers. These two de la Pole brothers ended their lives within their -Tower prison, whether guilty or not who can tell? - -Few can realise the terrible and constant danger in which Elizabeth -lived from the claim of Mary Stuart to the throne of England. Compared -with France, England at the close of Mary Tudor’s reign was only a -third-rate power, and never had the country sunk so low as a martial -power as in the last years of her disastrous rule. We had no army, no -fleet, only a huge debt, whilst the united population of England and -Wales was less than that of London at the present time. - -Motley has conjectured that at that time the population of Spain -and Portugal numbered at least twelve millions. Spain possessed the -most powerful fleet in the world, an immense army, with all the -wealth of the Netherlands and the Indies wherewith to maintain them; -consequently, when difficulties arose between France and England, -Philip trusted that to save herself England would become a firm ally -of Spain. But the Spanish monarch had left out of his reckoning the -magnificent courage of England’s Queen, and the indomitable pluck, and -bull-dog determination of her subjects to hold their own. All this -should be remembered when the stern repression of all and every kind -of conspiracy is brought against Elizabeth and her principal advisers, -of whom Walsingham and Burleigh were the foremost. It was a desperate -position, only possible of being defended and upheld by desperate -means. The horrors perpetrated by the Romish bishops in the name of -religion whilst Mary Tudor reigned, had given the English but too vivid -a suggestion of the fate that would befall their country if the King -of Spain were again to become its ruler, either as conqueror or as -King-consort. This terror was the principal cause of the passionate -tide of patriotism that under Elizabeth stirred our glorious little -island to its very foundations, and had it not been for the detestation -of foreign rule there would not have been that universal rallying round -the Queen and country in the hour of danger, which was the marked -feature of our people during that courageous woman’s reign. - -A suspicion of conspiracy was sufficient in those days, electrical -with perils for the Queen and the country, and on the 11th of October -1589 Thomas Howard, fourth Duke of Norfolk, the son of the ill-fated -Surrey, and the grandson of the old Flodden duke, was brought a -prisoner to the Tower on the charge of high treason, his intended -marriage with Mary of Scots constituting the charge against him. In the -following month the Queen thus directed Sir Henry Neville to attend to -Norfolk’s safekeeping in the Tower. “The Lieutenant is permitted to -remove the Duke to any lodging in the Tower near joining to the Long -Gallery, so as it be none of the Queen’s own lodgings; and to suffer -the Duke to have the commodity to walk in the gallery, having always -of course the said Knollys in his company” (Hatfield Calendar of State -Papers). Owing to the plague which raged in London in the following -year, Norfolk was allowed to leave the Tower for his own home at the -Charter House, still a prisoner; but he was soon back again in the -fortress, a correspondence which he had carried on with Mary Stuart’s -adherents having been discovered. Others implicated in the undoubted -conspiracy to set Mary on the throne, were the Earls of Arundel and -Southampton, Lord Lumley, Lord Cobham, his brother Thomas Cobham, and -Henry Percy; these were all arrested. On his return to the Tower, -Norfolk was confined in the Bloody Tower. About this time a batch of -letters, written by a Florentine banker named Ridolfi to the Pope and -to the Duke of Alva, on the perpetually recurring subject of Mary’s -succession to the English throne after Elizabeth’s dethronement, were -intercepted by Elizabeth’s government, with the result that a fresh -batch of prisoners, with the Bishop of Ross, Sir Thomas Stanley, and -Sir Thomas Gerrard amongst them, entered the fortress. These letters -disclosed a conspiracy which was known under the name of the Italian -Ridolfi, its prime instigator. Ridolfi, who was a resident in London, -had crossed over to the Netherlands, where he had seen the Duke of -Alva, informing that Spanish general that he had been commissioned by -a large number of English Roman Catholic noblemen to send over a -Spanish army to drive Elizabeth from the throne, and place Mary Stuart -in the sovereignty in her stead. The Duke of Norfolk would then marry -Mary, and by these means the English would return to the benign sway -of the Holy Father, and become the faithful subjects of the gentle -Philip. Alva had suggested that Elizabeth should be got rid of before -he himself came to London with his army, Philip entirely agreeing with -his general as to the necessity for her removal. - -[Illustration: _Queen Elizabeth’s Walk, from the Curfew Tower to the - Beauchamp Tower_] - -The mere chance of a packet of letters being intercepted not only saved -Elizabeth’s life, but probably England as well from a terrible disaster. - -The Ridolfi Plot conspirators were distributed in the various prisons -of the fortress, in the Beauchamp and the Salt Towers, and in the -Cold Harbour, much of the information regarding the conspiracy having -been obtained from a young man called Charles Bailly, who was seized -at Dover on his way to the Netherlands with a packet of treasonable -letters. He was brought back to London, placed in the Tower and -tortured, whereupon he confessed the names of several other persons -implicated. Bailly left several inscriptions on the walls of the -Beauchamp Tower where he was imprisoned. - -On the 16th of January 1572 the Duke of Norfolk was taken from the -Tower to Westminster to undergo his trial. He was charged with having -entered into a treasonable conspiracy to depose the Queen and to take -her life; of having invoked the aid of the Pope to liberate the Queen -of Scots, of having intended to marry her, and for having attempted to -restore Papacy in the realm. - -The Duke, who was not allowed counsel, pleaded in his own behalf, -attempting to prove that his intended marriage with Queen Mary of Scots -would not have affected the life or throne of Elizabeth. “But,” replied -the Queen’s Sergeant, Barham, “it is well known that you entered into a -design for seizing the Tower, which is certainly the greatest strength -of the Kingdom of England, and hence it follows, you then attempted -the destruction of the Queen.” By his own letters to the Pope the Duke -stood condemned, as well as by those written by him to the Duke of -Alva, and to Ridolfi, in addition to others written from the Tower to -Queen Mary by the Bishop of Ross. Norfolk was accordingly condemned, -but Elizabeth appears to have wavered regarding the signing of his -death warrant, for the Duke was her cousin. At length, however, the -House of Commons insisted that the Duke must die for the safety of the -State, and Elizabeth signed the warrant, and the 2nd of June was fixed -for his execution. - -The Duke wrote very appealingly to the Queen for pardon, beseeching -her to forgive him for his “manifold offences” and “trusts that he may -leave a lighter heart and a quieter conscience.” He desired Burghley -to act as guardian to his orphaned children, and concluded his letter -thus: “written by the woeful hand of a dead man, your Majesty’s most -unworthy subject, and yet your Majesty’s, in my humble prayer, until -the last breath, Thomas Howard.” - -Fourteen years had passed since anyone had been executed on Tower -Hill. The old wooden scaffold had fallen into decay, and it was found -necessary to build a new one. Compared with former reigns the fact of -no execution having taken place amongst the State prisoners for such a -length of time does credit to Elizabeth’s clemency, Norfolk being the -first to die for a crime against the State during her long reign. The -Duke has found apologists among historians, and has been regarded as a -hardly-used victim of Elizabeth and her Ministers. But his treason to -the Queen he had sworn to obey and defend was proved beyond all manner -of doubt, and his particular form of treason was the worst, having no -possible extenuation, since he plotted for the admission of a foreign -army into the realm, composed of the most bloodthirsty wretches that -ever desecrated a country, and led by a general whose cruelty -resembled that of a devil, and has left him infamous for all time. - -[Illustration: _Queen Elizabeth’s Walk, from the Beauchamp Tower to the - Curfew Tower_] - -Norfolk merited his doom, and the more illustrious his name and rank, -the more grievous his fault. As to finding cause for pitying him on the -ground of his attentions to Queen Mary, that, too, seems unnecessary. -The Duke had never seen the Scottish Queen, nor is he likely to -have felt much affection for a woman who had been implicated in her -husband’s murder, and had allowed herself to be carried off by that -husband’s assassin. Norfolk was accompanied to the scaffold by his old -friend, Sir Henry Lee, the Master of the Ordnance.[14] Norfolk refused -to have his eyes bandaged, and begging all present to pray for him, -met his fate with calmness. “His head,” writes an unknown chronicler -(Harleian MSS.), “with singular dexteritie of the executioner was with -the appointed axe at one chop, off; and showed to all the people. -Thus he finyshed his life, and afterwards his corpse was put into the -coffyn; appertaninge to Barkynge Church, with the head also, and so was -caryed by foure of the lyeutenant’s men and was buried in the Chappell -in the Tower by Mr Dean (Dr Nowell) of Paules.” The Duke’s last words -are worthy of remembrance. While reading the fifty-first Psalm, when -he came to the verse, “Build up the walls of Jerusalem,” he paused an -instant, and then said, “The walls of England, good Lord, I had almost -forgotten, but not too late, I ask all the world forgiveness and I -likewise forgive all the world.” - -One of Queen Mary Stuart’s most devoted adherents was John Leslie, -Bishop of Ross, who, like Norfolk, had been deeply implicated in the -Ridolfi conspiracy, and had been imprisoned in the Bell Tower. When -tried for treason, the Bishop pleaded that being an Ambassador he was -not liable to the charge; he was kept for two years in the Tower and -then he was banished. - -Priests, and especially those who were Jesuits, were very harshly dealt -with at this time, the utmost rigour being shown to all who opposed the -Queen’s acts or intentions. We have one instance of this in the fate -which befell that eminent theologian, John Stubbs, who had written a -pamphlet against the proposed marriage of Elizabeth with the Duke of -Anjou, the brother of the King of France, Charles IX., and himself -afterwards King of that country under the title of Henry III. Dr Stubbs -was sentenced to have his right hand cut off by the hangman, the -unlucky printers of his pamphlet being treated in the same barbarous -manner. Immediately his hand was cut off, Stubbs raised his cap with -the other, shouting, “God save the Queen!”; this truly loyal incident -was witnessed by the historian Camden. - -Besides the penalty of losing the right hand for writing or printing -matter which might be disapproved by the Queen or her Council, the -same punishment was awarded to any person striking another within the -precincts of the royal palaces, of which the Tower was one. Peter -Burchet, a barrister of the Middle Temple, had been committed to the -Tower in 1573 for attempting to kill the celebrated Admiral Sir John -Hawkins, whom he had mistaken for Sir Christopher Hatton. During his -imprisonment he killed a warder, or attendant, by knocking him on the -head with a log of wood taken from the fire. For this he was condemned -to death, but before being hanged at Temple Bar, his right hand was -cut off for striking a blow in one of the royal palaces. At this time -Elizabeth found it essential to drastically assert her authority, and -in 1577 an individual named Sherin was not only imprisoned in the Tower -for denying her supremacy, but was afterwards drawn on a hurdle to -Tyburn, where he was hanged, disembowelled, and quartered. In that same -year six other poor creatures were treated in the same manner, after -being imprisoned in the fortress, for coining. From 1580 until the -close of Elizabeth’s reign the penal laws were enforced with terrible -rigour, owing to the invasion of the Jesuit missionary priests led by -Parsons and Campion. Cardinal Allen’s seminary priests were ruthlessly -hunted down, and when caught, imprisoned, generally tortured, and -invariably executed. The Cardinal, who had set up a seminary for -priests at Douai, maintained a large and ever increasing staff of young -men who were ready to sacrifice their lives in what they believed to -be the cause of Heaven. The first to suffer of these was Cuthbert -Mayne. Between Elizabeth and the Cardinal the war became fierce and -sanguinary. Plot was met by counter-plot, and Cecil showed himself as -astute and deep as any Jesuit of them all, the priests of Douai and -Allen’s Jesuits faring ill in consequence. Both Campion and Parsons -had been at the English Universities, and both for a time succeeded -in their mission of bringing over to their religion many from among -the higher classes of this country. But Elizabeth’s great minister -proved too strong for them, and Campion was arrested and sent to the -Tower, whilst Parsons sought safety on the Continent. Campion, with -two other priests named Sherin and Brian, was hanged at Tyburn. Many -of the imprisoned priests were tortured in the Tower; some were placed -in “Little Ease,” where they could neither stand up nor lie down at -full length; some were racked, others subjected to the deadly embrace -of the “Scavenger’s Daughter,” others being tortured by the “boot,” or -the “gauntlets,” and hung up for hours by the wrists. Sir Owen Hopton, -the Lieutenant of the Tower at this time, seems to have been a very -hard-hearted gaoler, and on one occasion when he had forced some of -these wretched priests, with the help of soldiers, into the Chapel of -the Tower whilst service was being held, he boasted that he had no one -under his charge who would not willingly enter a Protestant Church. - -From 1580 onwards, the Tower was filled with State prisoners. In -that year the Archbishop of Armagh and the Earls of Kildare and -Clanricarde, and other Irish nobles who had taken part in Desmond’s -insurrection, were imprisoned in the fortress, and three years later -a number of persons concerned in one of the numerous plots against -Elizabeth’s life were likewise sent there, among them John Somerville, -a Warwickshire gentleman, and his wife, together with her parents, and -a priest named Hugh Hall, declared to have designs to murder the Queen. -Mrs Somerville, her mother, and the priest were spared; her husband -committed suicide in Newgate, where he had been sent to be executed, -and her father was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Smithfield. In the -following year (1584) Francis Throgmorton, son of Sir John, suffered -death for treason like his father, a correspondence between Queen Mary -and himself having been discovered. In the month of January 1585, -twenty-one priests lay in the Tower, but were afterwards shipped off to -France. In this same year Henry Percy, eighth Earl of Northumberland, -a zealous Roman Catholic, with Lord Arundel, the son of the fourth -Duke of Norfolk, were imprisoned in the Tower. But Northumberland -killed himself, locking his prison door, and shooting himself through -the heart with a pistol he had concealed about him, being supposed to -have committed suicide in order that his property should not come into -possession of the Queen—whom he called by a very offensive epithet—as -would have been the case had he been attainted of treason. Arundel died -in the Beauchamp Tower after a long imprisonment, as has been told -in the account of that building. His death was no doubt owing to the -severity of his confinement, combined with the austerities he thought -it his duty to inflict upon himself; he certainly deserves a place in -the roll of those who have died martyrs to their faith. - -Another conspiracy against the Queen’s life came to light in this -same year, when a man named Parry was arrested on a charge of -having received money from the Pope to assassinate Elizabeth, a -fellow-conspirator named Neville being taken at the same time, it being -alleged that they intended to shoot the Queen whilst she was riding. -Neville, who was heir to the exiled Earl of Westmoreland, hearing -of that nobleman’s death abroad, turned Queen’s evidence, hoping by -this treachery to recover the forfeited Westmoreland estates. His -confederate was hanged, and although Neville escaped a similar fate, he -remained a prisoner for a considerable time in the Tower. - -Axe and halter once more came into play in extinguishing what was known -as the Babington Plot in 1586. Elizabeth had never run a greater peril -of her life, and it was owing to this plot that Mary Stuart died on the -scaffold at Fotheringay on the 8th of February in the following year. -Anthony Babington was a youth of good family, holding a place at Court, -and, like many other of Elizabeth’s courtiers, belonged to the Roman -faith, the Queen being too courageous to forbid Roman Catholics from -belonging to her household. The soul of the plot was one Ballard, a -priest, who had induced Babington, with some other of his associates, -also of the Court, to adventure their lives in order to release Mary -Stuart, and to place her upon the throne after having got rid of -Elizabeth. Walsingham, with his lynx-eyed prevoyance, discovered the -plot, and Ballard with the rest were arrested, tried and condemned. -According to Disraeli the elder (in his “Amenities of Literature”) -the judge who presided at the trial, turning to Ballard, exclaimed, -“Oh, Ballard, Ballard! What hast thou done? A company of brave youths, -otherwise adorned with goodly gifts, by thy inducement thou hast -brought to their utter destruction and confusion.” Besides Ballard and -Babington, thirteen of these young conspirators were executed—to wit, -Edward Windsor, brother of Lord Windsor, Thomas Salisbury, Charles -Tilney, Chidiock Tichburn, Edward Abington, Robert Gage, John Travers, -John Charnocks, John Jones, John Savage, R. Barnwell, Henry Dun, and -Jerome Bellarmine. Their execution, accompanied with all its horrible -details, lasted for two days, Babington exclaiming as he died, “Parce -mihi, Domine Jesu!” On the second day the Queen gave orders that the -remaining victims should be despatched quickly without undergoing the -attendant horrors of partial hanging, drawing, and quartering.[15] - -Mary’s execution followed in the next year, but it was Elizabeth’s -secretary, Davison—he had been appointed about this time co-secretary -with Walsingham—who had to bear all the odium of her death, Elizabeth -accusing him of having despatched the death-warrant without her -sanction. She sent him to the Tower and caused him to be fined -so heavily that he was completely ruined in consequence. Another -scandalously unjust imprisonment in the Tower of a loyal and faithful -servant of the Queen, was that of Sir John Perrot, a natural son of -Henry VIII. Perrot was a distinguished soldier, and had acted as -Lord-Deputy in Ireland, where, by his justice and humanity and clear -common-sense, he had done much to restore order and comparative -prosperity to that distracted island. Sir John Perrot was cordially -hated by the Lord Chancellor, Sir Christopher Hatton, who was -particularly noted for his skill in dancing, this hatred having been -aroused, it is said, by Perrot remarking that the Lord Chancellor “had -come to the Court by his galliard.” This criticism resulted in Perrot’s -being arrested, after being summoned from Ireland on a trumped-up -charge of treason, and committed to the Tower in 1590. At his trial -two years later, nothing could be proved against him except a few idle -words that he had uttered concerning the Queen, and which had been -repeated to her; nevertheless he was found guilty. When brought back -to the Tower, Sir John exclaimed angrily to the Lieutenant, Sir Owen -Hopton, “What! will the Queen suffer her brother to be offered up as -a sacrifice to the envy of my strutting adversary?” On hearing this, -the Queen burst out into one of her finest Tudor rages, and swearing -“by her wonted oath,” as Naunton writes, “declared that the jury which -had brought in this verdict were all knaves, and that she would not -sign the warrant for execution.” So Sir John escaped the headman, -but the gallant knight died that September in the Tower, Naunton -thus describing the close of his life: “His haughtiness of spirit -accompanied him to the last, and still, without any diminution of -courage therein, it burst the cords of his magnanimitie.” In his youth -Perrot had been distinguished for his good looks and strength of body. -“He was,” writes Naunton, “of stature and size far beyond the ordinary -man; he seems never to have known what fear was, and distinguished -himself by martial exercises.” During a boar hunt in France in 1551, it -was related of him that he rescued one of the hunters from the attack -of a wild boar, “giving the boar such a blow that it did well-nigh part -the head from the shoulders.” - -From a memorandum drawn up by Sir Owen Hopton for the use of his -successor, Sir Michael Blunt, in the Lieutenancy of the Tower in 1590, -we find that the following prisoners were at that time confined in -the fortress:—James Fitzgerald, the only son of the Earl of Desmond, -who had come from Ireland as a hostage, Florence Macarthy, Sir -Thomas Fitzherbert (who died in the Tower in the following year), -Sir Thomas Williams, the Bishop of Laughlin, Sir Nicholas White, Sir -Brian O’Rourke, “who hath the libertie to walk on the leades over his -lodging,” and Sir Francis Darcy. All these prisoners were connected -with the war in Ireland, or were suspected of conspiring against the -Queen and her government. - -The year 1592 is a memorable one in the life of the great Sir Walter -Raleigh, for it was then that he began his long acquaintance with the -prisons of the Tower, and from this time until his execution a quarter -of a century later, Raleigh’s days were mainly passed within the walls -of that building. - -Raleigh’s first imprisonment in the Tower was owing to his marriage -with Elizabeth Throgmorton, one of the Queen’s ladies, and the daughter -of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton. Raleigh had wooed, won, and wedded his -wife without Elizabeth’s knowledge or consent. The Queen, then over -sixty years of age, was still as jealous and as vain as any young girl -of sixteen, and for any of her favourites—and Raleigh at this time -was the principal one—to marry without her august permission, and -especially to marry one of her ladies, was in her eyes a most heinous -crime, an aggravated form of _lése-majestè_, and it was only by the -most fulsome flattery, the most grovelling abasement, that Sir Walter -gained his freedom. In a letter from Sir Arthur Gorges, a cousin of -Raleigh’s, to Sir Robert Cecil, there is an account of an extraordinary -scene enacted by Sir Walter whilst in the Tower. “I cannot choose,” -writes Gorges, “but advertise you of a strange tragedy that this day -had like to have fallen out between the captain of the guard and the -lieutenant of the ordnance, if I had not by great chance come at the -very instant to have turned it into a comedy. For upon a report of -Her Majesty’s being at Sir George Carew’s, Sir Walter Raleigh having -gazed and sighed a long time at his study window, from whence he might -discover the barges and boats about the Blackfriars stairs, suddenly -he brake out into a great distemper, and swore that his enemies had on -purpose brought Her Majesty thither to break his gall in sunder with -Tantalus’s torment, that when she went away he might see death before -his eyes, with many such like conceits. And as a man transported with -passion, he swore to Sir George Carew that he would disguise himself, -and get into a pair of oars to cure his mind with but a sight of the -Queen, or else he protested his heart would break. But the trusty -jailor would none of that, for displeasing the higher powers, as he -said, which he more resented than the feeding of his humour, and so -flatly refused to permit him. But in conclusion, upon this dispute they -fell flat to choleric outrageous words, with straining and struggling -at the doors, that all lameness was forgotten, and in the fury of the -conflict, the jailor he had his new periwig torn off his crown, and -yet here the struggle ended not, for at last they had gotten out their -daggers. Which when I saw, I played the stickler between them, and so -purchased such a rap on the knuckles, that I wished both their pates -broken, and so with much ado they stayed their brawl to see my bloody -fingers. At first I was ready to break with laughing to see them two -scramble and brawl like madmen, until I saw the iron walking, and then -I did my best to appease their fury. As yet I cannot reconcile them by -any persuasions, for Sir Walter swears, that he shall hate him for so -restraining him from the sight of his mistress, while he lives, for -that he knows not (as he said) whether ever he shall see her again, -when she is gone the progress. And Sir George on his side, swears -that he would rather lose his longing, than he would draw on him Her -Majesty’s displeasure by such liberty. Thus they continue in malice -and snarling; but I am sure all the smart lighted on me. I cannot tell -whether I should more allow of the passionate lover, or the trusty -jailor. But if yourself had seen it, as I did, you would have been as -heartily merry and sorry, as ever you were in all your life, for so -short a time. I pray you pardon my hasty written narrative, which I -acquaint you with, hoping you will be the peacemaker. But, good sir, -let nobody know thereof, for I fear Sir Walter Raleigh will shortly -grow to be Orlando Furioso, if the bright Angelica persevere against -him.” - -Here is a portion of a letter written by Sir Walter himself to Sir -Robert Cecil, which the writer evidently wished should be shown to the -Queen. “My heart,” he writes, “was never broken till this day, that I -hear the Queen goes away so far off, whom I have followed so many years -with so great love and desire, in so many journeys, and am now left -behind her in a dark prison, all alone.” (This “dark prison” from which -Raleigh writes, was probably the Brick Tower; in later years Sir Walter -was to become acquainted with other prisons in the Tower.) “While she -was yet at hand,” he continues, “that I might hear of her once in two -or three days, my sorrows were the less, but even now my heart is cast -into the depth of all misery. I, that was wont to behold her riding -like Alexander, hunting like Diana, walking like Venus, the gentle -wind blowing her fair hair about her pure face like a nymph, sometimes -sitting in the shade like a goddess, sometimes singing like an angel, -sometimes playing like Orpheus”—Alas! Sir Walter! - -How long, in spite of the above fulsome letter, the Queen would have -kept “her love-stricken swain,” as Raleigh called himself, within -the Tower there is no knowing, if it had not been for the accident -of his good ship, the _Roebuck_—which had escaped from the Spanish -fleet sent to capture her—falling in, off Flores, with some great East -Indian carracks bound for Lisbon. When the _Roebuck_ had taken the -great Spanish ship, the _Madre de Dios_ and brought her into Dartmouth -with a huge treasure on board, which Raleigh himself estimated at -half-a-million pounds, Elizabeth’s covetousness completely overmastered -her resentment, and “her love-stricken swain” was set at liberty in -September 1592, to arrange the disposal of the Spanish treasure—of -which the Queen took the lion’s share. - -Two attempts to poison Elizabeth were discovered in 1594. The first -of these dastardly schemes was concocted by the Queen’s physician, a -Spaniard or Portuguese named Lopez, who had been bribed by the Spanish -governors of the Netherlands, Fuentes and Ibara, to administer poison -to his royal mistress in some medicine. This plot is said to have -been discovered by Essex. Lopez and two of his confederates met the -fate they deserved, after being imprisoned in the Tower. According to -Camden, Lopez declared on the scaffold that “He loved the Queen as much -as he did Jesus Christ.” This sentiment coming from a Jew was received -with much merriment by the spectators at the execution. The second plot -was much more curious. - -Walpole, a Jesuit priest, had bribed a groom in the royal stables, -named Edward Squire, to rub some poison on the pommel of the Queen’s -saddle, but, as may be supposed, the poison had no harmful effect, and -priest and groom, being convicted, were hanged at Tyburn. - -The last year of the sixteenth century saw the fall of one of -Elizabeth’s most brilliant courtiers, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. -After forty years of stern repression, Ireland, towards the close of -Elizabeth’s reign, had become more Irish than ever. All the cruelties -committed in that country by the Government of the Queen, cruelties in -which Raleigh played so flagrant a part, had not crushed the Irish, and -a larger army of occupation was found necessary. - -Essex and Raleigh were bitter enemies. The chief cause of their -dissension was the treatment of the Irish, Raleigh advising that they -should be completely trodden under foot, whilst Essex urged a show -of justice and some degree of goodwill towards the country and its -inhabitants; but the favour shown by the Queen to both these remarkable -men was also an additional cause for their mutual jealousy. Both were -extremely self-willed, and their immense egotism, and lust for place -and power, was the common ruin of each of them. - -Essex was the youngest and last of that brilliant combination of -soldier, statesman, and courtier, that added to the glory and charm of -those “spacious days.” - -Robert Devereux had many personal claims to Elizabeth’s good will. -Strikingly handsome in face and form, he shone equally in the Court or -in the field, and both by birth and marriage he was related to some -of the most prominent persons attached to the Court. His father had -been a personal friend of Elizabeth’s; his step-father was the Earl -of Leicester; Sir Francis Knollys was his grandfather; Walsingham his -father-in-law; Lord Hemsdon was his great-uncle, and the all-powerful -Burleigh his guardian. To us Essex’s most conspicuous merit was that -Shakespeare called him his friend. The poet was closely linked in -the bonds of friendship both with Essex and with his dearest friend -Southampton, and their fall is thought to have thrown the shadow of -their misfortunes over the drama composed about the time of Essex’s -execution, and Southampton’s disgrace and imprisonment. _A Midsummer -Night’s Dream_ had been written in honour of Essex’s marriage, and the -only two books of verse that Shakespeare published had been dedicated -to Southampton; and it was probably to the latter that the Sonnets were -addressed, if he was not their actual inspirer. - -On the eve of Essex’s disastrous expedition to Ireland, Shakespeare -referred to his friend in the prologue of Act v. of the play of _Henry -V._ After “broaching rebellion in Ireland,” Essex is thus referred to: - - “Were now the general of our gracious empress - As in good time he may, from Ireland coming, - Bringing rebellion broached on his sword, - How many would the peaceful city quit - To welcome him!” - -But the poet’s prophecy was not to be fulfilled; for two years after -the declamation of these proud lines foretelling Essex’s glory, both -their subject and Southampton—who had accompanied Essex to Ireland as -Master of the Horse—were charged with treasonable conduct and neglect -of duty. Thus Shakespeare lost his two most influential friends by one -and the same fatality. - -Essex, half mad with rage and disappointment at his failure, and -smarting under the bitterness of mortified vanity and ambition, and -under what he considered the ingratitude of the Queen, lost his -self-control. Raleigh, he believed, had poisoned Elizabeth’s mind -against him, quite forgetting his own insolences to his Sovereign -on many occasions. Had he not during one of his outbursts of temper -exclaimed in the hearing of some of the people attached to her person, -that Elizabeth was as crooked in her mind as she was in her body? Essex -must have been well aware that the aged monarch would never pardon such -a speech; and it was probably one of the chief causes which led her to -sign the warrant that consigned her former favourite to the scaffold. - -[Illustration: - - HIC TVVS ILLE COMES GENEROSA ESSEXIA NOSTRIS - QVEM QVAM GAVDEMVS REBVS ADESSE DVCEM.] - -Enraged at the charges brought against him and the failure of the Irish -expedition, Essex formed a wild plot to seize the Queen’s person, being -assisted in the scheme by Southampton and some other hot-heads, amongst -them, Rutland, Sandys, Cromwell, and Monteagle; with these were a band -of about three hundred armed men. Although Essex was immensely popular -with the Londoners, the sober citizens had no idea of imperilling their -lives and possessions in such a harum-scarum adventure as this promised -to be. Consequently Essex and his friends found no support, and instead -of seizing the Queen and upsetting the Government they themselves were -taken prisoners after a short siege in Essex’s townhouse. Early in -February 1601 Essex with Southampton passed under Traitor’s Gate. - -Essex occupied a prison in the Tower which owes its name to his having -spent the last days of his short and brilliant life within its walls. -On the 19th of February, Essex and Southampton were taken to their -trial at Westminster Hall, and there were both adjudged guilty of high -treason. - -It appears that up to the last Essex expected a reprieve, as he took -no leave of his family or of his friends. Lady Essex appealed to Cecil -for her husband’s life, and Cecil perhaps might have saved him, had -it not been—one regrets to write it—that Raleigh strongly urged the -great minister by letter, to carry out the sentence (Lansdowne MSS. and -Ellis’s “Original Letters”) and the law took its cruel course. Essex -was so beloved by the people that, perhaps, for fear of an attempted -rescue by the Londoners when they saw their favourite led out to die, -his execution was arranged to take place within the gates of the -fortress instead of upon Tower Hill. Camden indeed states that it was -Essex’s own desire to die within the walls of the Tower, his reason for -doing so being that the “acclamations of the citizens should have heven -him up,” whatever that meant. He himself admitted that so long as he -lived the Queen’s life would not be in safety, a most suicidal remark -to make, but which he made nevertheless to Cecil four days before the -end. - -The following account of Essex’s last evening upon earth, and of his -death, was written by an eye-witness of the execution, and is taken -from the Calendar of State Papers (Dom. Series, 1598–1601). - -“Feb. 25. 112.—Account of the execution of the Earl of Essex at 8 A.M. -in the Tower. - -“On Tuesday (24th February) night, between ten and twelve o’clock, he -opened his window and said to the guards, ‘My good friends, pray for -me, and to-morrow you shall see in me a strong God in a weak man; I -have nothing to give you, for I have nothing left but that which I must -pay to the Queen to-morrow in the morning.’ When he was brought from -his lodging by the Lieutenant, he was attended on by three divines, -and all the way from his chamber to the scaffold he called to God to -give him strength and patience to the end, and said: ‘O God, give me -true repentance, true patience, and true humility, and put all worldly -thoughts out of my mind’; and he often entreated those that went with -him to pray for him. - -“Being come upon the scaffold which was set up in the midst of the -court, he was apparelled in a gown of wrought velvet, a satin suit, and -felt hat, all black; and first turning himself towards the divines, -he said, ‘O God, be merciful unto me, the most wretched creature -on the earth,’ and then turning himself towards the noblemen that -sat on a form placed before the scaffold, he vayled his hat, and -making reverence to the Lords, laid it away, and with his eyes most -attentively fixed up to Heaven, spoke to this effect: ‘My Lords, and -you my Christian brethren who are to be witnesses of this my just -punishment, I confess to the glory of God that I am a most wretched -sinner, and that my sins are more in number than the hairs of my head; -that I have bestowed my youth in pride, lust, uncleanness, vainglory -and divers other sins, according to the fashion of this world, wherein -I have offended most grievously my God, and notwithstanding divers -good motives inspired unto me from the Spirit of God, the good which I -would I have not done; and the evil which I would not I have done; for -all which I humbly beseech our Saviour Christ to be the Mediator unto -the Eternal Majesty for my pardon; especially for this my last sin, -this great, this bloody, this crying and this infectious sin, whereby -so many, for love of me, have ventured their lives and souls, and have -been drawn to offend God, to offend their Sovereign, and to offend the -world, which is as great grief unto me as may be. Lord Jesus, forgive -it us, and forgive it me, the most wretched of all; and I beseech Her -Majesty, the State, and the Ministers thereof, to forgive it us. The -Lord grant Her Majesty a prosperous reign, and a long one, if it be his -will, O Lord, grant her a wise and understanding heart; O Lord, bless -her and the nobles, and ministers of Church and State. And I beseech -you and the world to have a charitable opinion of me for my intention -towards Her Majesty, whose death, upon my salvation and before God, I -protest I never meant, nor violence to her person; yet I confess I have -received an honourable trial, and am justly condemned. And I desire all -the world to forgive me, even as I freely and from my heart forgive all -the world. - -“‘And whereas I have been condemned for my religion, I was never, I -thank God, Atheist or Papist, for I never denied the power of my God, -not believing the word and scriptures, neither did I ever trust to -be justified by my own works or merits, but hope as a true Christian -for my salvation from God only, by the mercy and merits of my Saviour -Jesus Christ, crucified for my sins. This faith I was brought up in, -and therein am now ready to die; beseeching you all to join with me -in prayer, not with eyes and lips only, but with lifted-up hands and -minds, to the Lord for me, that my soul may be lifted up above all -earthly things, for now I will give myself to my private prayer; yet -for that I beseech you all to join with me, I will speak that you may -hear.’ - -“Then putting off his gown and ruff and presenting himself before the -block, he was, as it seemed, by one of the chaplains encouraged against -the fear of death; to whom he answered, that having been divers times -in places of danger, yet where death was never so present nor certain, -he had felt the weakness of the flesh, and therefore desired God to -strengthen him in that great conflict, and not to suffer the flesh to -have any rule over him. - -“Preparing to kneel down, he asked for the executioner, who on his -knees also asked his pardon, to whom he said, ‘Thou art welcome to -me; I forgive thee; thou art the minister of true justice.’ And then, -with eyes fixed up to Heaven, he began his prayers, ‘O God, creator -of all things and judge of all men, thou hast let me know by warrant -of thy word, that Satan is then most busy when our end is nearest, -and that Satan being resisted, will fly, I humbly beseech thee to -assist me in this my last combat, and since thou acceptest even of our -desires as of our acts, accept of my desires to resist him as with -true resistance and perfect grace; what thou seest of my flesh to be -frail [strengthen?] and give me patience to be as becometh me, in this -just punishment inflicted upon me by so honourable a trial. Grant me -the inward comfort of thy Spirit; let the Spirit seal unto my soul an -assurance of thy mercies; lift my soul above all earthly cogitations, -and when my life and body shall part, send thy blessed angels to be -near unto me, which may convey it to the joys in Heaven,’ then saying -the Lord’s Prayer, he iterated this petition, ‘As we forgive them that -trespass against us,’ saying, ‘As we forgive _all_ them that trespass -against us.’ - -“Then one of the divines put him in mind to say over his belief, which -he did, the doctor saying it softly before him, and added these words, -‘Lord Jesus, receive my soul; into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my -spirit.’ He was likewise remembered by the divines to forgive and pray -for his enemies. Whereupon he beseeched God to forgive them as freely -as he did, ‘because,’ said he, ‘they bear the image of God as well as -myself.’ - -“Asking what was fit for him to do for disposing himself to the block, -and his doublet being taken off, after he had asked the executioner -whether he would hinder him or no in a scarlet waistcoat, he bowed -himself towards the block, and said, ‘O God, give me true humility and -patience to endure to the end, and I pray you all to pray with me and -for me, that when you shall see me stretch out my arms and my neck -on the block, and the stroke ready to be given, it would please the -everlasting God to send down his angels to carry my soul before his -mercy seat,’ and then lifting up his eyes devotedly towards Heaven, he -said, ‘Lord God, as unto thine altar I do come, offering up my body and -my soul for a sacrifice, in humility and obedience to thy commandment, -to thy ordinance, and to thy good pleasure, O God, I prostrate myself -to my deserved punishment.’ Lying flat along the boards, his hand -stretched out, he said, ‘Lord, have mercy upon me, thy prostrate -servant,’ and therewithal fitting his head to the block, he was willed -by one of the doctors to say the beginning of the 51st Psalm, Have -mercy upon me, O God, etc., whereof he said two verses; the executioner -being prepared he uttered these words, ‘Executioner, strike home. -Come, Lord Jesus, come, Lord Jesus, and receive my soul; O Lord, into -thy hands I commend my spirit.’ In the midst of which sentence his head -was severed by the axe from the corpse at three blows, but the first -deadly, and depriving all sense and motion. - -“The noblemen present at his death were the Earls of Cumberland and -Hertford, Lords Bindon, Darcy, Compton, and Thomas Howard, Constable -of the Tower, Sir John Peyton, lieutenant with fifteen or sixteen -partizans of the guard, and three divines, Messrs Montfort, Barlow, and -Ashe Ashton.” - -Writing of Essex’s death, Stowe says, “The body and the head were -removed into the Tower, put into a coffin ready prepared, and buried -by the Earl of Arundel and Duke of Norfolk in the Church of St Peter.” -The above reads as if Essex’s remains had been buried by Arundel and -Norfolk, but it is of course intended to convey the fact that the body -of the Earl was placed alongside their graves. - -There is a ghastly story told by G. S. Brandés in his work on -Shakespeare, in which the Duke de Biron, Henry III. of France’s envoy -to Elizabeth, relates a conversation he held with Elizabeth about -Essex, in which she jested over her departed favourite; the Queen -opened a box and took out of it Essex’s skull which she showed to -Biron. This story has no shadow of proof or foundation, for had Essex’s -head been taken out of the historic soil in which it mouldered in St -Peter’s Chapel, and been given to the Queen, such an extraordinary -proceeding would have been recorded; besides Elizabeth was not a -monster, as such conduct with which Biron here credits her, would -proclaim her to be. - -Raleigh, at his own execution and speaking on the edge of the grave, -solemnly denied that he had rejoiced over the death of Essex. He had, -he acknowledged, watched the execution of his rival from the windows of -the Armoury, those at the north end of the White Tower, which commanded -a view of the scaffold—“where I saw him,” Sir Walter said, “but he -saw not me, and my soul hath been many times grieved that I was not -near to him when he died because I understood afterwards that he asked -for me at his death, to be reconciled to me.” Thus at the early age of -thirty-three ended the noble and gifted Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex -and Eu, Viscount Hereford and Bourchier, Baron Ferrers of Chartley, -Bourchier and Louvain. - -When quite a youth Essex had married Frances, daughter of Sir Francis -Walsingham, and his son Robert, born in 1592, lived to lead the army of -the Parliament against Charles the First. - -Contemporary writers have extolled Essex’s charm of character and -beauty of person. Sir Robert Naunton, in his “Fragmenta Regalia,” -writes that “there was in this young lord, together with a most goodly -person, a kind of urbanity or innate courtesy.” So popular was Essex -with the Londoners that he scarcely ever quitted the capital without a -poem or song being sung and sold in the streets. After Essex’s death -Raleigh, who, probably owing to his arrogance, was never a favourite -with the citizens, was hooted by the mob, as were also Bacon and -the other judges who had condemned the Earl. Even Elizabeth’s own -popularity paled after Essex’s death, and she was ever after coldly -received whenever she appeared amongst her lieges. - -Southampton was kept a prisoner in the Tower until released by the -order of James I. in the month of April 1603. During his imprisonment, -a favourite cat of his appeared suddenly in his room, having come to -his master by way of the chimney, and after his deliverance Southampton -had his portrait painted with his faithful friend beside him. At -Welbeck Abbey there are two portraits of this nobleman, and in one of -them the cat appears by its master’s side. - -Of the other conspirators in Essex’s plot, Sir Christopher Blunt, Sir -Charles Danvers, Sir Gilley Merrick, and Henry Cuffe were executed, -the first four being beheaded, and the two last hanged at Tyburn. -Cuffe, who was Essex’s private secretary, appears to have been the -principal instigator in the scheme for kidnapping the Queen; the other -prisoners were pardoned. - -For a long time the Queen hesitated to sign her old favourite’s death -warrant; but finally wrote her name upon the fatal document, and by -so doing probably shortened her own time on earth, for after Essex’s -execution she fell into a state of morbid dejection which never -lightened till the end. Her last days were lonely and full of terror, -if not of despair. There are few accounts more tragic in history than -the description given by those who saw the poor, painted old woman at -this time—half delirious as the shades of death closed around her, -thrusting a sword through the tapestry of her chamber, or lying on the -ground propped up with cushions, refusing all nourishment, and having -no one near her to whom she could turn for one loving look or tender -word. There is no truth in the popular tale of the ring which Elizabeth -is supposed to have given to Essex to be returned to her in any time of -trouble, and detained until too late by Lady Nottingham. - -Thus in domestic trouble and bloodshed closed the great Queen’s reign. -When Elizabeth mounted the throne England was wretchedly weak and -distracted, and apparently almost in the grasp of the huge Spanish -octopus, the baleful arms of which were closing in around her. When the -great Queen died, England was self-reliant and powerful. Elizabeth had -not only been regarded by her own people with pride and admiration, -but all Europe proclaimed her greatness. Bacon truly said that little -or nothing was wanting to fill up the full measure of Elizabeth’s -felicity; she had triumphed over all her enemies; and her bitterest -foe, Philip of Spain, had gone to his grave five years before her -own death, beaten and discredited, and like his so-called Invincible -Armada, a wreck and a derision. The only other European sovereign who -in any way could be compared with Elizabeth, and who survived her, was -Henry of Navarre; and he had called Elizabeth his “other self.” In the -next generation Cromwell, a still greater man than Henry IV. of France, -speaking of Elizabeth said, “Queen Elizabeth of famous memory; we need -not be ashamed to call her so.” - - - END OF VOL. I. - - - THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED, EDINBURGH - -[Illustration: The Tower - - T. Way, Lith: London.] - - -+--------------------------------------------------------------------+ -| FOOTNOTES: | -| | -| [1] Mr G. H. Birch, F.S.A., the Curator of the Soane Museum, | -| says of the extent of the Roman city, that it was “originally | -| of smaller extent, and did not include the space now marked out | -| by the line of apparently Roman walls, the proof being that | -| interments have been found in the extended space, notably at | -| the Union Bank of London and at Bow Churchyard, Cheapside. The | -| first Roman city extended from the Tower to Aldgate, then along | -| Leadenhall Street to Cornhill, returning by Wallbrook to Dowgate, | -| and thence along Thames Street. Several of the bastions, notably | -| the one in Camomile Street, are composed of destroyed Roman | -| buildings and sculpture, and the work, although built in the | -| Roman manner—that is, with courses of Roman tiles or bricks—is | -| coarser in execution than the portion of the real Roman wall at | -| Postern Row and Aldgate.” | -| | -| [2] “As to the date of the extension,” writes Mr Birch, “it is | -| difficult to say, but it was probably after the withdrawal of the | -| Romans, but I hardly think as late as Alfred. The building points | -| to the work of partly Romanised inhabitants, who would have been | -| able to build only in the manner taught them by the Romans.” | -| | -| [3] The wax effigies of the Kings and Queens covered with tawdry | -| robes and gilt pasteboard crowns are far more attractive to the | -| holiday crowd of visitors in the Abbey of Westminster than the | -| tombs and shrines of the dead; and Madame Tussaud’s show attracts | -| the public more than the National Gallery. | -| | -| [4] This is the King’s or Queen’s House, according to the sex of | -| the reigning Sovereign. | -| | -| [5] He was the youngest son of John Apsley of Pulborough, Sussex. | -| He purchased the office of Lieutenant of the Tower from his | -| predecessor Sir George Moore, for £2500, and was sworn into | -| office, March 3rd, 1617, which he held until his death, May 24th, | -| 1630; he was also Surveyor of Victuals for the Navy. Whilst | -| Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir Walter Raleigh was in his custody. | -| He was thrice married. His second wife was Anne, daughter and | -| heiress of Sir Peter Carew, by whom he had issue two sons and | -| a daughter, Jocosa or Joyce, who married Lyster, second son of | -| Sir Richard Blount, of Mapledurham, whose ancestors were also | -| Lieutenants of the Tower. His third wife was Lucy, youngest | -| daughter of Sir John St John, Knight of Lydiard Tregoz, Wilts, | -| to whom he was married at St Anne’s, Blackfriars, on the 23rd | -| December 1615, at which time he was of the age of forty-eight, | -| whilst the lady was but sixteen. By this marriage he became | -| brother-in-law of Sir Edward Villiers, Viscount Grandison, | -| half-brother of George Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham. His | -| eldest son by this marriage, who also became Sir Allen Apsley, | -| was a zealous Royalist, and was successively Governor of Exeter | -| and Barnstaple Castles, and, after the Restoration, Falconer to | -| King Charles II., and Treasurer of the Household to James, Duke | -| of York, afterwards James II. His daughter Frances married Sir | -| Benjamin Bathurst, Knight, Governor of the Royal African and East | -| India Companies and Cofferer to Queen Anne, and ancestor of Lord | -| Chancellor Bathurst. Sir Allen Apsley, the Lieutenant of the | -| Tower, had also four other sons and two daughters; of the latter, | -| Barbara married Lieutenant-Colonel Hutchinson, and Lucy became | -| the celebrated wife of his brother, Colonel John Hutchinson, | -| Governor of Nottingham Castle, an earnest Parliamentarian. The | -| life of the latter was written by his wife, who also left behind | -| her her own autobiography, printed in 1808. | -| | -| [6] Mr Birch thinks this improbable, and that the depth and clay | -| bottom of the river would have rendered such a work impossible. | -| | -| [7] Thomas of Woodstock, seventh son of Edward III., Duke of | -| Gloucester and Aumarle, was born in 1355. He had held many | -| important offices in the State. Froissart says he was “orguilleux | -| et présomptueux de maniére.” At the time of his death he was | -| fifty-two years of age. | -| | -| [8] | -| “When he was brought again to the bar, to hear | -| His knell rung out, his judgment, he was stirr’d | -| With such an agony, he sweat extremely, | -| And some thing spoke in choler, ill, and hasty: | -| But he fell to himself again, and sweetly | -| In all the rest show’d a most noble patience—” | -| | -| _Henry VIII._, Act i. scene 4. | -| | -| [9] There is a large number of records now in the State Paper | -| Office, which are known as the “Baga de Secretis,” and are | -| the official papers connected with many of the most important | -| State trials; these records are kept in ninety-one small bags | -| or pouches, whence the name of the collection. They have been | -| calendared in the third, fourth, and fifth Reports of the | -| Deputy-Keeper of the Public Records. These interesting documents | -| begin with the trial of Edmund Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick, | -| in 1499, and end in the year 1813. In Pouch Nine there are | -| the reports of the trials of Anne Boleyn and her brother Lord | -| Rochford. | -| | -| [10] On her father’s side Lady Jane Grey’s descent was as | -| follows:—Thomas Grey was Queen Elizabeth Woodville’s (the Queen | -| of Edward IV.) eldest son by her first marriage to Sir John Grey, | -| eighth Lord Ferrers of Groby in Leicestershire. Sir John was | -| killed at the second battle of St Albans, fighting on the side of | -| King Henry. His son Thomas Grey was created Earl of Huntingdon in | -| 1471 and Marquis of Dorset in 1475. In the latter year he married | -| Cicely, the daughter and heiress of William, Lord Bonville and | -| Harrington. By this marriage he had a family of seven sons and | -| eight daughters, and his grandson was the father of Lady Jane | -| Grey. | -| | -| [11] I know of only one satisfactory portrait of Lady Jane Grey, | -| and that belongs to Lord Beauchamp and is kept at Madresfield | -| Court. By Lord Beauchamp’s kindness I am allowed to reproduce | -| that portrait, together with its companion picture of Lord | -| Guildford Dudley. | -| | -| [12] The minutes of this trial are in the Baga de Secretis, Pouch | -| xxiv. in the Public Record Office. | -| | -| [13] This book, a manual of prayers in square vellum, is now in | -| the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum. It is thought that Lady | -| Jane had borrowed it from Sir John Brydges, carrying it with her | -| to the scaffold, and there returning it to its owner by the hands | -| of his brother, although, as the Lieutenant was present, it is | -| difficult to understand why she did not give it to him personally. | -| | -| [14] Sir Henry Lee was a great lover of jousts and tournaments, | -| and was noted for his prowess in the lists. He died in 1611. His | -| descendant, the present Lord Dillon, has inherited his ancestor’s | -| love of armour and all that appertains to the study of knightly | -| panoply and weapons. The country owes Lord Dillon a debt of | -| gratitude for the admirable manner in which he has classified and | -| re-arranged the collection of arms and armour in the White Tower, | -| and for the exhaustive and excellent catalogue of the same. | -| | -| [15] These executions took place on the 20th and 21st September | -| 1586. Seven on the first day, and the remainder the next. The | -| centre of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which at that time had not been | -| laid out, was the scene of these horrible barbarities. | -+--------------------------------------------------------------------+ - - - Transcriber’s Notes: - - - Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). - - Blank pages have been removed. - - Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TOWER OF LONDON, (VOL. 1 OF -2) *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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