(Editor: "Awesomer" is not a word. Writer: The English language is still evolving, so I just invented a new word unless someone beat me to it. I just googled it, and. . .eh someone beat me to it.)
William I, aka the Conqueror, built the White Tower in 20 years, from 1077-1097, and it still stands today at the heart of the Tower of London. He did it to keep the defeated Londoners in line, and to watch for invaders attacking the city via the River Thames.
Royals after William built additional walls and moats to make it 18 acres large. It has served as a prison, a royal residence, the Royal Mint, the Royal Jewel House, and, of course, an execution site for some of those who dwelled in the prison.
We had 10:00 entry tickets, which is the opening time. The line was quite long when we got there around 9:50, but the Tower is large enough that it did not seem crowded once we got in.
The Crown Jewels
I made the case that we should go directly to the Crown Jewels, in hopes of avoiding the lines that get longer and longer. We breezed right in. I must have seemed like a professional tour guide to Rick and Sandy, as when we came out of the Crown Jewels building, the line was already wrapped around all of the barriers they use to create a wavy line of people.
(Editor: You are more of a travel idiot savant than a professional tour guide. Writer: Yeah, well. . .((speechless)))
Not shockingly, you can not take photos of the Crown Jewels in the building. This is one time I will allow it without being bitter. As a collection, they are simply the most impressive jewels I've ever seen, but I really can't say I've seen a ton of royal jewels before.
They show a number of videos as you wait in line, but we didn't have to wait in line (even writing that makes me smile!). It was great to just blow past those videos and get to the display rooms.
You start in a room with that display ceremonial maces, swords, and trumpets with flags that lead the coronation procession into Westminster Abbey (see the link between the two? Both were built nearly 1,000 years ago).
Next is the royal regalia. The incoming monarch is anointed with hold oil poured from the eagle-beak flask (I gotta say, with all the eagle and lion motifs, the whole royalty thing is cool, as long as we don't have to live under a monarch). Then he/she received the jeweled Sword of Offering and dressed in the 20 pount gold robe (but wait, there's more!).
Alas, many of the medieval-era crown jewels were lost during Oliver Cromwell's 1648 revolution. (By the way, Dan Brown could write a pretty adventure about those lost Crown Jewels and a modern search for them.) But the 1661 version Crown Jewels are still stunning and have been used nearly 400 years.
You ride a moving sidewalk (obviously to keep the line from bogging down) to see the scepter and orb, which includes the world's largest cut diamond -- the 530 carat Star of Africa, which is only slightly bigger than my wife's wedding ring.
From there you see St. Edward's Crown, the five pound crown of jewels and gold that is only worn by the new monarch for 20 minutes, then locked away for the next time it is needed. Realize that it did not have to serve its ceremonial purpose for 70 years until Charles III's coronation!
Along the moving sidewalk, you get to view various other crowns, such as the three Prince of Wales crowns. Here's some crown trivia for you -- the non-king/queen crowns only have two arches (like McDonald's, but different) so they are actually called coronets. Then there's the crown of the Queen Mother (Mum for those who know her well). If Camilla outlives King Charles III, she will be the next to wear it. I shudder to think about that. Then there are additional crowns, including the tiny, cute Queen Victoria crown that she wore atop the veil she wore in mourning for her husband.
The White Tower
Inside the 90-foot-high tower, a total of 204 stairs up awaits, but the climb is broken up by the exhibits on each of the three floors. Painted white in the 1200s, the Tower communicated that it's good to be the king, and even better to be a powerful one who could imprison those plotting against him.
I found the first exhibit, the Line of Kings, to be a tad underwhelming. There are models of kings and their horses, wearing their royal suits of armor., as well as other suits of armor, including those of a 6'8" tall man and a 3'1" child.
The next level has various guns and cannons from the Royal Armoury as well as the St. John's Chapel of 1080. It happens to be the oldest church in London, and features Norman arches and columns.
On the top floor, there's a giant dragon (not live) made from old weapons, the execution ax and chopping block, last used in 1747 to separate Lord Lovat's head from the rest of his body.
(Editor: Well, your readers will be relieved to know the dragon is not live. Writer: The dragon lived by the sea, and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee.)
After going down the circular stairs, you exit through the gift shop (Disney!) and past displays on the prison and torture chamber.
Beauchamp Tower
This tight quarters is worth going to, even if you have to show some patience with the crowds. Upstairs is a room with graffiti carved into the stone by bored or desperate prisoners. The displays tell the stories of some of those prisoners, and the carvings are kept safe behind plexiglass.
Among those imprisoned over the years in this Tower were the Earl of Arundel (not as historically influential as the Earl of Baltimore), Lord Guilford Dudley (the young husband of Lady Jane Grey), and Nazi Rudolf Hess, who secretly flew to England in 1941 in hopes of brokering a peace. The four days he was imprisoned there was the last time someone spent time unwillingly in the Tower.
Bloody Tower
Up the stairs, the first thing to see is the portcullis gate and pulley, designed to keep any invaders who managed to get through the moats and walls of the outer Tower from getting into the heart of the Tower.
It's also where Sir Walter Raleigh, the poet, explorer, political radical in the early 1600s. He is also known for owning a now-defunct eponymous chain of affordable steakhouses in the Washington, DC area back in the 1970s through early 2000s. I never understood why it was the Sir Walter Raleigh Inn even though there were no rooms to let.
(Editor: No, just because those restaurants were named after him does not mean he was the owner. Writer: I had my first ever filet mignon there whilst in college. It was the site of some honors dinner, so I didn't even have to pay for the meal -- because I wouldn't have been able to afford it, no matter how cheap it was.)
Upon his return to England in 1618 from a failed expedition to search for El Dorado (and the untold wealth of gold allegedly therein), the King had him beheaded, but that was after Raleigh had dodged a death sentence for plotting against the King in 1603.
There's an interesting (and mercifully brief) presentation about King Edward V and his younger brother who were kidnapped by their uncle Richard III in 1483, locked in the Bloody Tower, and never seen again. Richard III then conveniently became King in Edward's absence. Two hundred years later, the skeletons of two unidentified boys were found. All of England hopes for royal approval of a DNA test, as the remains of Richard III has been found.
The Wall
Anytime you have the chance in Europe to walk the walls of a city, a fortress, a palace you should take it. So I always walk the stretch of the wall and towers on the north side of the Tower, affording great views of the City of London's skyscrapers, the Shard, Tower Bridge, and more.
Other Highlights
There's a lot more to see in the Tower, including:
- The entrance, consisting of a drawbridge, iron portcullis, 120-foot moat, island with wild animals (no longer live, just models), a wall enemies would need to scale whilst boiling oil is poured on them, a second moat, and an even higher wall. It was easier to get in as a prisoner than as an invader.
- Traitors' Gate, which is the boat entrance to the Tower from the Thames. Some prisoners were brought down the river and through the gate on the barge.
- The Tower Green, a now peaceful stretch of grass that served as the town square for those who lived there. There's the site where executions took place, including the chopping block. Oddly enough, it was an honor to be executed (if that was your punishment) on Tower Green because you're prominent, as opposed to being hanged outside the Tower like the common criminals. Apparently, the palace has held +/-8,500 prisoners, but only 120 were executed, and just six were whacked inside it.
- We did not go into the Salt Tower, the Royal Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula (closed for renovations), or the Fusilier Museum, but that doesn't you shouldn't go in.
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