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The Tower of London

The Tower of London is a 900-year-old castle and fortress in central London that has served many purposes throughout its history, including housing the crown jewels and imprisoning famous and infamous prisoners. It was first built by William the Conqueror in 1066 as a fortress to protect against the inhabitants of London. Throughout the centuries, the Tower of London imprisoned many notable people, including queens, princes, and clergy. Today, it is one of the most famous castles in the world and a top tourist destination, though car exhaust now poses a threat to preserving its historic stone walls.

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Ovidiu Coblis
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173 views2 pages

The Tower of London

The Tower of London is a 900-year-old castle and fortress in central London that has served many purposes throughout its history, including housing the crown jewels and imprisoning famous and infamous prisoners. It was first built by William the Conqueror in 1066 as a fortress to protect against the inhabitants of London. Throughout the centuries, the Tower of London imprisoned many notable people, including queens, princes, and clergy. Today, it is one of the most famous castles in the world and a top tourist destination, though car exhaust now poses a threat to preserving its historic stone walls.

Uploaded by

Ovidiu Coblis
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The tower of London

The Tower of London is a 900-year-old castle and fortress in central


London that is notable for housing the crown jewels and for holding
many famous and infamous prisoners. Throughout its history, the
tower has served many purposes: it housed the royal mint (until the
early 19th century), a menagerie (which left in 1835), a records
office, an armory and barracks for troops. Until the 17th century, it
was also used as a royal residence. William the Conqueror created
the first fortifications after the conquest of London in A.D. 1066.
The Norman invader lacked support among the people of the city
and he feared its inhabitants could throw him out. William of
Poitiers, an 11th century writer who described William the
Conqueror and his conquests, wrote that “certain strongholds were
made in the city against the fickleness of the vast and fierce
population.” These would come to include what is now called the
“White Tower,” the innermost building in the castle, which gained its
named after the exterior was whitewashed in the 13th century by
King Henry III.Throughout its history the tower was used to imprison
a wide range of prisoners, from deposed monarchs to more common
criminals. Prisoners included Lady Jane Grey, who was queen for
about a week in the 16th century before she was deposed by Mary I.
Also imprisoned there were two princes, Edward and Richard, ages
12 and 9, who were the sons of Edward IV (died 1483). They appear
never to have left the tower alive and some thought they were killed
by Richard III, their uncle who took the throne for himself. Two of
Henry VIII’s wives, Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, were both
imprisoned and later executed. Henry VIII, who turned England into a
Protestant country, also had a number of dissenting clergyman
committed to the tower and later killed, including his former
counselor Thomas More. Another notable prisoner was Guy Fawkes,
who in 1605 attempted to blow up the House of Lords and the
monarch by detonating gunpowder in the cellars below. He was
imprisoned in the tower and tortured.
Today, the Tower of London is one of the most famous castles in
the world and is now a World Heritage Site attracting more than 2
million visitors a year. The main threat to the site today is not rebels,
foreign armies or falling bombs (bomb damage happened during
World War II) but rather the exhaust of cars. It’s a problem that
threatens to turn the White Tower into a yellow color, something
which none of the previous threats could ever do.

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