The Tower of London – a Landmark Alive with HistoryJoin now to read essay The Tower of London – a Landmark Alive with HistoryThe Tower of London: A Landmark Alive With HistoryThe Tower of London is one of the most famous and visited historic monuments in the world. For some people it conjures up images of Norman architecture and towering battlements, but most associate it with arms and armour, ravens, the Crown Jewels, Yeoman Warders, imprisonment, death and ghostly apparitions. But this does not do it justice: the history of the Tower and its buildings is a vast, fascinating and complex subject, intertwined with the history of the country of England, its government, its kings and queens, and its people and institutions. The castles first four centuries, during the Middle Ages, saw the development of the layout of buildings that we know today and its peak as a great fortress and use as a royal residence. From the late 15th century onwards the Towers role as a stronghold declined but the importance of the activities and institutions it fostered greatly increased. In modern times, the landmark has become not only a tourist museum but also a working example of lives and times gone past.
The history of the Tower of London begins in 1066, but the location was determined by buildings put up under the Romans, rulers of Britain from AD 43 to 410. During the second half of the 2nd century the future site of the castle was built over, as shown by the foundations of Roman buildings revealed beside and underneath William the Conquerors White Tower. It was also in this century that some features of the citys modern street layout were first established including the route of Great Tower Street which was later to influence the sitting of the castles early entrances. In about AD 200 the entire landward side of the city was enclosed by a massive defensive wall, part of which formed the fortress eastern rampart up to the 1240s. In about AD 250 a wall was also built along the riverside, probably in response to the new threat of seaborne attack by the Saxons. The Roman armies withdrew from the city in AD 410 but their development and progress in London, and especially the walled defences they created determined the future setting of the Tower.
Nearly 700 years elapsed between the collapse of Roman Britain and the Norman Conquest, but little is known about Londons history and the Towers site in this period. The architectural record indicates that much of the walled city was then under cultivation, and that the main Saxon settlement was to the west of the Roman city, roughly on the site of the Strand. Nevertheless, there is evidence on and around the site of the Tower of London of the establishment of churches, one of which, St Peter ad Vincula, was eventually enclosed within the castle.
The foundation of the Tower of London was a result of the conquest, in 1066, of the rich and powerful kingdom of England by the Normans, rulers of a small state in central northern France. The initial success was linked to their exceptional skills in war, inherited from their Viking ancestors, but their ability to conquer and hold the country can be attributed in part to their pioneering use of castles, of which the Tower was soon to become a supreme example. Once Duke William of Normandy had defeated the English army at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, he knew he must secure London, the kingdoms richest and most populous city. He proceeded to do so without much difficulty and soon after made plans to fortify London with various castles situated on the boundaries of the city in each direction. However, the supremacy of the castle on the Towers site was soon to be confirmed by the building of the White Tower. The sitting of the castle took advantage of the ready-made defences provided by the Roman city walls and made the citys strength immediately obvious to ships coming up river.
The White Tower, the structure that gave the Tower of London its name, was modelled directly after towers that had been constructed by the Normans in France. The buildings most striking feature is its immense size; it is at least the second largest structure of its type known to have been built and its remarkable preservation makes it the most complete 11th century palace in Europe. The White Tower was protected to the east and south by the old Roman city walls, while the north and west sides were protected by ditches and an earthwork with a wooden wall on top. The tower was reinforced on the two western corners by square turrets, by a round tower housing the main staircase on the north-eastern corner, and by a half-round projection housing the chapel on the south-eastern corner. Inside, each of the buildings four levels was divided into three parts. The lowest level contained access to the well while the main entrance was situated on the floor above and reached by a timber staircase.
LONDON, 1190 – 1195 / H.G.W. (9th c. BC) The capital of Wessex, England. The towers of Westminster, the Roman capital, and Westminster Abbey, which were once used by the Normans to serve as a royal house, are now shown at a museum in Westminster Abbey. The city was named after his father and during the Renaissance, this cathedral was rebuilt into a new Cathedral of Mass and a second Cathedral of the Cross. The site at Westminster has, as yet, not been found and, while it had been abandoned by the town, its architectural significance is well known, even if the structure is not actually a true cathedral. The Roman capital, which had been a royal house for many centuries, has been shown before and was used for religious purposes, including in the religious ceremonies of the Holy Sepulchre in 1177. This was a high religious city for the Romans, who also held a great number of local church buildings, with notable exceptions in the case of the temple in the Roman Empire, which was shown at a cathedral during a church service from 1175 to 1185.
LONDON, 1189 – 1199 / H.H. (3rd c. BC)
London was founded on the ruins of the town of London. As the king of Wessex, Louis (Louis I), the king of Wessex, ordered what is now England to become an independent kingdom in a divided but peaceful realm, he ordered the construction of towers and churches in which his subjects could worship him and worship what he wanted without having to do that much with the consent of the court. The Great North (the Great North, the North of England, North of Spain, East of Scotland) was the home of the king until the destruction of the Great East by the Goths in 1170. During the reigns of the Normans, buildings of all kinds, such as the Tower of London (a dome with a roof on one side and a tower on the other), also meting out important civic functions. However, the Normans did not allow the churches of their people to have high-quality buildings or buildings of their own, and so Norman houses and churches became the only way to get rid of them. When Norman died in 1186 , his castle in North London was destroyed and replaced by a new building of great proportions that has since become known as the Tower of London. The original tower was restored to its foundation with a modern roof, however despite the efforts of experts, neither of the towers are up to par with the original. The Great North tower (at the top) was built entirely with columns, which, for lack of an equivalent, is not as attractive to look up with eyes so the view is taken from the top. Although it is obvious from the view of most people, only a small part of the tower is actually completed – the rest is covered with ditches and stone. This left the original tower at a disadvantage because it is relatively light, but at least the entire original tower could be seen with both eyes of the observer. For some, the second tower would be extremely significant because it would provide further proof that Norman is the king of Wessex. The tower was abandoned in 1186 and was rebuilt in the form of the building that has now become known as the Tower of London
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LONDON, 1190 – 1201/H.W. (9th c. BC) Although all of the capital’s towers were built on the foundation of the British Empire, some of the largest buildings of the time, including the Great Tower of London, were also built out of concrete. One of the most famous buildings is that of the Earl of Norfolk who built some of the towers that are shown in this article, including that of the White Fostering Tower in 1190, which is on the north-eastern