THE TOWER OF LONDON BRASOV 2011 ELEV: FLAVIUS COLTEAPROFESOR COORDONATOR: DENISA ILEA COLEGIUL NATIONAL UNIREA CONTENTS I .Foreword..2 II. The Making of the Tower....3 II.1.Fortress and Palace3 II.2. State Prison, Garrison and Showplace..4 III. The Buildings of the Tower...5 III.1.The White Tower......5 III.2.The Innermost Ward.7 III.3.The Inner Ward.........8 III.4. The Outer Ward.9 III.5. Tower Wharf and Tower Hill...10 IV. The Royal Armories......11V. The Crown Jewels...12 VI. Tourism, Tradition and Community of the Tower....12 VII. Conclusion.....14

FOREWORDThe Tower of London is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and comes with the more formal name Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress. It is located on the north bank of River Thames, within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman conquest of England. The White Tower, which give the entire castle its name, was built in 1078 by William the Conqueror and was made to a fortress, palace and prison, serving as place for torture and execution of criminals.The Tower of London is composed of the main White Tower situated in the center, the Innermost Ward, the Inner Ward with thirteen towers and the Outer Ward with five towers facing the river. The tower is also encircled with a ditch that leads to the Lion Tower. A group of tour guides called the Yeoman Warders or Beefeaters provide security to the tower.The Tower of London has played a prominent role in English history. It was besieged several times and controlling it has been important to controlling the country. The Tower has served variously as an armory, a treasury, a menagerie, the home of the Royal Mint, a public records office, and the home of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.One of the reasons why i have chosen to present The Tower of London is actually the mystery that revolves around this castle. The Tower of London has the reputation of being the most haunted building in England. Rumors of ghosts included that of beheaded Queen Anne Bolyen, Henry VI, Margaret Pole and Jane Grey. In fact, a horror film entitled Tower of London (1962) was made to denote the haunted nature of the historical structure.Another reason is actually the story of the two princes in the Tower. According to Tudor historians, Richard, Duke of Gloucester invented a story declaring the boys illegitimate and convinced the Parliament that they cant become kings. Then he murdered the boys. They believe this because they think one of Richards former officials confessed 20 years after the crime was committed. Young skeleton bones were found under some stairs in the tower in the 17th century, so it is assumed that those are the bones of the two boys.

The Two Princes in the TowerThis is the story of the two princes in the Tower, story that speeded around the world for centuries. When I was younger and I read this story about the two princes in the Tower, I have been fascinated by the grandeur and the magical power of the Tower of London. So, I have tried to read and get a lot of information about this mysterious tower, which is the most famous in the word both for its size and for its prominent place in English history.I want my work to be a guide for those who are interested in the history of this magnificent building. Anyway, as in its earliest days, a whole community lives within the Tower: mainly Tower officers and the families of the Yeoman Warders, and six ravens, whose presence in the Tower, according to an old superstition, guarantees the kingdom from distraction. The Making of the TowerII.1. Fortress and Palace The First CastleOn Christmas Day 1066 the Duke William of Normandy was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey, two months after his victory over the Saxon King Harold at Hastings. At once William ordered the building of fortifications to help secure London, the main city of his new kingdom. One of these earth-and-timber castles was erected in the SE corner of the Roman city walls, to command the river Thames as well as the city. To close off the angle between the walls and complete the bailey of the new castle, the Normans made a ditch and bank surmounted by a palisade. Ten years later, by then in full control of England, William was determined to transform this simple fort into a massive palace-fortress. A great stone tower was built at once, entitled the Tower of London. Later, as the castle was enlarged around it, that name was to be given to the entire fortress, and the great central tower became known as the White Tower.The Castle TransformedIn 1189, while Richard I was away on crusade, his chancellor William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, began the first expansion of the Towers defense. It was completed by Richards brother John, who succeeded him in 1199. The bailey around the White Tower was almost doubled in area, and fortified with a new curtain wall and towers, and with a ditch beyond. Even so, the Londoners were not to be deterred from joining Johns enemies among the barons, and the King, having lost the city, had to agree to Magna Charta in 1215.Johns son, Henry III (1216-1272), at first turned his attention to improving the Tower as a royal residence. Within the space between the White Tower and the river a splendid new palace took shape, supplanting the royal accommodation within the White Tower itself. As one of the palace amusements, Henry established a royal menagerie.When Henrys lofty view of kingship brought him into dispute with his barons, he ordered a massive expansion of the Towers defenses. The area of the castle was again doubled, this time being extended on all three landward sides so that the White Tower now stood at its centre. The new curtain wall around the enlarged bailey was guarded by towers at regular intervals, and by a wide moat. Even then, Henry, like his father, had to submit for a time to an alliance of the Londoners and hostile barons and to surrender the Tower.The Castle CompletedHenrys son, Edward I (1272-1307), came to the throne determined to master the turbulent city. In ten years, between 1275 and 1285, he spent twice as much on the Tower as his father had done during his entire reign. A new moat was excavated, a new curtain wall was built along its edge, and Henry IIIs moat was filled in. A towered curtain wall was constructed along the river foreshore containing new royal accommodation, and the ground behind up. Edward paid particular attention to the elaborate fortification of the new landward entrance, across the moat.

The Tower of London castle diagram, 1457The Tower, with its moat, now extended over 18 acres (7.3 ha), had nothing lacking to make it an impregnable fortress except that, as in earlier times, the readiness of the defenders to fight still mattered more than the strength of the defenses. This was to be strikingly shown during the Peasants Revolt of 1381 when after the young Richard II had left the Tower to negotiate with some of the rebels, others appeared demanding entry. The garrison dared not to resist and put the King at risk when an exuberant crowd swept in, seeking loot and revenge. Again, in 1460 during the Wars of Roses, after the Towers had been besieged and bombarded, the garrison preferred to surrender on conditions, rather than fight on in a lost cause.II.2. State prison, Garrison and ShowplaceIn medieval times the Tower also found room for prisoners who in one way or another were accounted the kings enemies, ranging from rioting London apprentices to foreign monarchs and nobles captured in war. From the later years of Henry VIIIs reign (1509-1547) the Tower gradually went out of use as a royal palace as Whitehall become the monarchs usual London residence. The Tower grew in number of prisoners of state, the victims of court rivalries, dynastic disputes and religious animosities.Of the many hundreds of prisoners brought to the Tower, a small number were kept in deliberately harsh conditions and put to torture. They, and a large number who were spared such horrors, left the Tower only to suffer a traitors death. The great majority of men and women held there were sooner or later released and stories of innumerable prisoners suffering in deep dungeons and torture chambers are mostly the inventions of propagandists at the time or romantic novelists of later age. But there were famous people executed or imprisoned at the Tower : Queen Elizabeth I she is known to be the only one who left the tower unexecuted, Anne Boleyn she was murdered because Henry VIII was unsatisfied with the fact that she couldnt give him a son, Sir Thomas More ,Lady Jane Grey . An important writer of the time was Sir Walter Raleigh who wrote History of the World while being imprisoned there.

Following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, with the return from exile of Charles II, the Tower underwent major renovation, with substantial changes to its buildings and character. To ensure that the King should never lose control of London, as his father Charles I had done on the eve of the Civil War, a large permanent garrison was housed in the Tower and batteries of guns set in palace along the walls, while the arsenal, by then under the control of the Board of Ordnance, was expanded. Soon the coronation regalia were put on public show at the Tower, and the historic arms and armor, as well as parts of the new arsenal, were arranged in spectacular exhibitions calculated to impress sightseers with the strength and splendor of English monarchy. Meanwhile, the Tower remained the prison of state, though not much used except in national emergencies, such as the Jacobite Rebellions of 1715 and 1745 and the French Revolution; and it still accommodated the Royal Mint and state records. These diverse institutions and uses coexisted uneasily until the primacy of the Towers military role was re-asserted following the appointment of the Duke of Wellington as Constable in 1826. Wellington, like many others at the time, believed England to be on the brink of revolution, and he saw the security and strength of the Tower as his first responsibility. Already the Royal Mint had moved out. Wellington had the menagerie closed and obtained agreement that the public records were to be removed. When the main Ordnance building, the Grand Storehouse, was destroyed by fire in 1841, it was replaced by a vast new barracks block. The defenses were strengthened, and Wellington even urged, though in vain, that the public sightseeing should be excluded, as a threat to the Towers security. The Buildings of the TowerIII.1.The White Tower The White Tower is a keep (also known as a donjon), which was often the strongest structure in a medieval castle, and contained lodgings suitable for the lord-in this case the king or his representative. According to military historian Allen Brown, "The great tower was also, by virtue of its strength, majesty and lordly accommodation, the donjon par excellence". As one of the largest keeps in the Christian world, the White Tower was considered the most complete eleventh-century palace in Europe .The White Tower, not including its projecting corner towers, measures 36 by 32 meters (118 by 105 ft) at the base, and rises to a height of 27m (90 ft) at the southern battlements. The structure was originally three-storeys high, comprising a basement floor, an entrance level, and an upper floor. The entrance, as is usual in Norman keeps, was above ground, in this case on 1-Allen Brown; Allen Browns English Castles,1976the south face, and accessed via a wooden staircase which could be removed in the event of anattack. During HenryII's reign (11541189), a forebuilding was added to the south side of the tower to provide extra defenses to the entrance, but it has not survived. Each floor was divided into three chambers, the largest in the west, a smaller room in the north-east, and the chapel taking up the entrance and upper floors of the south-east. At the western corners of the building are square towers, while to the north-east, a round tower houses a spiral staircase. At the south-east corner is a larger semi-circular projection which accommodates the apse of the chapel. As the building was intended to be a comfortable residence as well as a stronghold, latrines were built into the walls, and four fireplaces provided warmth. The main building material is Kentish rag-stone, although some local mudstone was also used. Although little survives, Caen stone was imported from northern France to provide details in the Tower's facing, much of it replaced by Portland stone in the 17thand 18thcenturies. As most of the Tower's windows were enlarged in the 18thcentury, only two original albeit restored examples remain, in the south wall at gallery level.The tower was terraced into the side of a mound, so the northern side of the basement is partially below ground level. As was typical of most keeps, the bottom floor was an undercroft used for storage. One of the rooms contained a well. Although the layout has remained the same since the tower's construction, the interior of the basement dates mostly from the 18thcentury when the floor was lowered and the pre-existing timber vaults were replaced with brick counterparts. The basement is lit through small slits.

The original entrance to the White TowerThe entrance floor was probably intended for the use of the Constable of the Tower and other important officials. The reopened until 1973. Those heading to the upper floor had to pass through a smaller chamber to the east, also connected to the entrance floor. The crypt of StJohn's Chapel occupied the south-east corner and was accessible only from the eastern chamber. There is a recess in the north wall of the crypt; according to Geoffrey Parnell, Keeper of the Tower History at the Royal Armories, the windowless form and restricted access, suggest that it was designed as a strong-room for safekeeping of royal treasures and important documents.

St John's Chapel, inside the White TowerThe upper floor contained a grand hall in the west and residential chamber in the east both originally open to the roof and surrounded by a gallery built into the wall and StJohn's Chapel in the south-east. A new floor level was inserted into the top level in the 15thcentury, along with the present roof. StJohn's Chapel was not part of the White Tower's original design, as the apsidal projection was built after the basement walls. Due to changes in function and design since the tower's construction, except for the chapel little is left of the original interior. The chapel's current bare and unadorned appearance is reminiscent of how it would have been in the Norman period. In the 13th century, during HenryIII's reign, the chapel was decorated with such ornamentation as a gold-painted cross, and stained glass windows that depicted the Virgin Mary and Holy Trinity.III.2.The Innermost WardThe Innermost Ward encloses an area immediately south of the White Tower, stretching to what was once the edge of the River Thames. As was the case at other castles, such as the 11th-century Hen Domen, the innermost ward was probably filled with timber buildings from the Tower's foundation. Exactly when the royal lodgings began to encroach from the White Tower into the innermost ward is uncertain, although it had happened by the 1170s. The lodgings were renovated and elaborated during the 1220s and 1230s, becoming comparable with other palatial residences such as Windsor Castle. Construction of Wakefield and Lanthorn Towers located at the corners of the innermost ward's wall along the river began around 1220.

Interior of the Innermost Ward. To the right is the 11th-century White Tower; the structure at the end of the walkway to the left is Wakefield Tower

They probably served as private residences for the queen and king respectively. The earliest evidence for how the royal chambers were decorated comes from HenryIII's reign: the queen's chamber was whitewashed, and painted with flowers and imitation stonework. A great hall existed in the south of the ward, between the two towers. It was similar to, although slightly smaller than, that also built by HenryIII at Winchester Castle. Near Wakefield Tower was a postern gate which allowed private access to the king's apartments. The innermost ward was originally surrounded by a protective ditch, which had been filled in by the 1220s. Around this time, a kitchen was built in the ward. Between 1666 and 1676, the innermost ward was transformed and the palace buildings removed. The area around the White Tower was cleared so that anyone approaching would have to cross open ground. The Jewel House was demolished, and the Crown Jewels moved to Martin Tower. III.3.The Inner WardThe inner ward was created during Richard the Lionheart's reign, when a moat was dug to the west of the innermost ward, effectively doubling the castle's size. HenryIII created the ward's east and north walls, and the ward's dimensions remain to this day. Most of Henry's work survives, and only two of the nine towers he constructed have been completely rebuilt. Between the Wakefield and Lanthorn Towers, the innermost ward's wall also serves as a curtain wall for the inner ward. The main entrance to the inner ward would have been through a gatehouse, most likely in the west wall on the site of what is now Beauchamp Tower. The inner ward's western curtain wall was rebuilt by EdwardI.The 13th-century Beauchamp Tower marks the first large scale use of brick as a building material in Britain, since the 5th-century departure of the Romans. The Beauchamp Tower is one of 13towers that stud the curtain wall. Anti-clockwise from the south-west corner they are: Bell, Beauchamp, Devereux, Flint, Bowyer, Brick, Martin, Constable, Broad Arrow, Salt, Lanthorn, Wakefield, and the Bloody Tower. While these towers provided positions from which flanking fire could be deployed against a potential enemy, they also contained accommodation. As its name suggests, Bell Tower housed a belfry, its purpose to raise the alarm in the event of an attack.The royal bow-maker, responsible for making longbows, crossbows, catapults, and other siege and hand weapons, had a workshop in the Bowyer Tower. A turret at the top of Lanthorn Tower was used as a beacon by traffic approaching the Tower at night.As a result of Henry's expansion, StPeter ad Vincula, a Norman chapel which had previously stood outside the Tower, was incorporated into the castle. Henry decorated the chapel by adding glazed windows, and stalls for himself and his queen. It was rebuilt by EdwardI at a cost of over 300 (about 142,000 as of 2008), and again by HenryVIII in 1519; the current building dates from this period, although the chapel was refurbished in the 19thcentury.Immediately west of Wakefield Tower, the Bloody Tower was built at the same time as the inner ward's curtain wall, and as a water-gate provided access to the castle from the River Thames. It was a simple structure, protected by a portcullis and gate. The Bloody Tower acquired its name in the 16thcentury, as it was believed to be the site of the murder of the Princes in the Tower. Between 1339 and 1341, a gatehouse was built into the curtain wall between Bell and Salt Towers.During the Tudor period, a range of buildings for the storage of munitions was built along the inside of the north inner ward. The castle buildings were remodeled during the Stuart period, mostly under the auspices of the Office of Ordnance. In 1663 just over 4,000 (about 460,000 as of 2008) was spent building a new storehouse (now known as the New Armories) in the inner ward. Construction of the Grand Storehouse north of the White Tower began in 1688, on the same site as the dilapidated Tudor range of storehouses; it was destroyed by fire in 1841. The Waterloo Barracks were built on the site, and remain to this day, housing the Crown JewelsIII.4.The Outer WardA third ward was created during EdwardI's extension to the Tower, as the narrow enclosure completely surrounded the castle. At the same time a bastion known as Legge's Mount was built at the castle's north-west corner. Brass Mount, the bastion in the north-east corner, was a later addition. The three rectangular towers along the east wall 15meters (49 ft) apart were dismantled in 1843. Although the bastions have often been ascribed to the Tudor period, there is no evidence to support this; archaeological investigations suggest that Legge's Mount is Edwardian. Blocked battlements (also known as crenellations) in the south side of Legge's Mount are the only surviving medieval battlements at the Tower of London (the rest are Victorian replacements). A new 50-metre (160 ft) moat was dug beyond the castle's new limits; it was originally 4.5meters (15 ft) deeper in the middle than it is today. With the addition of a new curtain wall, the old main entrance to the Tower of London was obscured and made redundant; a new entrance was created in the south-west corner of the external wall circuit. The complex consisted of an inner and an outer gatehouse and a barbican, which became known as the Lion Tower as it was associated with the animals as part of the Royal Menagerie since at least the 1330s. The Lion Tower itself no longer survives. Edward extended the south side of the Tower of London onto land that had previously been submerged by the River Thames. In this wall, he built StThomas' Tower between 1275 and 1279; later known as Traitors' Gate, it replaced the Bloody Tower as the castle's water-gate. The building is unique in England, and the closest parallel is the now demolished water-gate at the Louvre in Paris. The dock was covered with arrowslits in case of an attack on the castle from the River; there was also a portcullis at the entrance to control who entered. There were luxurious lodgings on the first floor. Edward also moved the Royal Mint into the Tower; its exact location early on is unknown, although it was probably in either the outer ward or the Lion Tower. By 1560, the Mint was located in a building in the outer ward near Salt Tower. Between 1348 and 1355, a second water-gate, Cradle Tower, was added east of StThomas' Tower for the king's private use. III.5. Tower Wharf and Tower HillWhen the Tower was the chief storehouse of armaments in the country, much of the wharf was kept up with the movement and storage of munitions, and it accommodated at different times cannon-foundries, a small arms factory and proof yard. The wharf also had a ceremonial role as the landing-place of royalty and foreign dignitaries before they entered the city, while ever since the time of Henry VIII who first had the Tower well defended with ordnance, the guns along the wharf have been fired on occasions of national rejoicing. Royal salutes are nowadays fired from the gunpark, at the western end of the wharf.As the artillery at the Tower is part of the Royal Armories collection, the guns for salutes are brought in by a detachment of the Honourable Artillery Company, towing four 25-pounders behind Landrovers. Sixty-two gun salutes are fired for royal occasions, on the anniversaries of the birthdays, actual and official, of the Queen, of the Queens accession, and of the birthdays of Prince Philip and the Queen Mother. Forty-one guns are fired at the State Opening of Parliament and when a foreign Head of State arrives on an official visit to the Queen.Most of Tower Hill was once part of the Liberties of the Tower, the area outside the walls which was nonetheless under the jurisdiction of the Tower and independent of the City of London. The Liberties are now marked by 31 boundary-stones, each bearing the broad arrow denoting royal ownership, from Tower Pier around the Hill and down by St Katherines Way to the Iron Gate by Tower Bridge. Every third year, on Ascension Day, the Towers authority is re-asserted in the ceremony of Beating the Bounds. The Tower Hill postern, the foundations of which are the end of the subway leading to the underground station, was built soon after the completion of the new moat, around 1300, in effect as part of the Towers defenses.

On the other side of the roadway, in Trinity Gardens, lies the marked site of the scaffold on Tower Hill. Some 125 Tower prisoners died there, most by beheading which was the honorable from the execution allowed the nobles and gentlemen found guilty of treason. Their deaths were watched by unruly crowds numbering many thousands. Viewing stands were put up around the scaffold, and sometimes collapsed under the weight of eager spectators.Traitors of lower status suffered death by hanging, drawing and quartering, sometimes on the Hill but most often at Tyburn, near the site of Marble Arch. Not all who lied on Tower Hill were convicted traitors. Some were burned as heretics, and others hanged as common criminals, as were the last of those to be executed on this spot, in 1780. The Royal ArmoriesA medieval castle, as well as being the stronghold and residence of its lord, was also the place that held his treasure, armory and prisoners. The Tower, as a great royal castle adjoining London, the commercial capital, and near Westminster, which had become the seat of government, was a major centre of power and wealth for England monarchs.Following Edward Is expansion of the Tower, it soon come to contain one of the main royal treasuries, a storehouse for official documents, the largest of the royal mints, the only one coining in gold as well as silver and the chief arsenal in the kingdom, storing and assembling armaments for the royal armies and fleets. The Royal Armories derives from the great arsenal at the Tower which supplied armor and weapons to the medieval English kings and their armies. The present collection took shape in the reign of Henry VIII who re-stocked the Tower arsenal, and also set up a workshop at Greenwich to make fine armor for himself and his court. Henrys armors, and those of the early Stuarts, were eventually brought together at the Tower, and early in Charles IIs reign the historic collection was opened to the public, along with artillery and weapon-stores of the working arsenal. Subsequently the Tower Armories were enriched by the return of obsolete weapons to store, and by the quickening inflow of the spoils of British conquest in every part of the world. As the scholarly study of arms and armor developed in the 19th century, a systematic attempt began to fill in the gaps in the inherited collections.At the present time, European armor and weapons, ranging from the age of the Saxons and Vikings up to the modern times, are displayed in the White Tower and New Armories. Some pieces from the Royal Armories Oriental collection as well as the instruments of torture and punishment are also on view in the White Tower.The display includes arms and armor for war, for the tournament, for hunting, for self-defense and for display and fashion, each type designed carefully for its particular purpose. There are striking examples of technological innovation and ingenuity, and fine works of art created for wealthy patrons. As well as the Tudor and Stuart royal armors, still the centerpiece of the collections, the visitor will also encounter many exhibits of immediate appeal: armors for a giant and a dwarf, and for children, and for horses; gunshields and combination weapons; fearsome staff and elegant rapiers; and the arsenal displays in the vaults of the White Tower. The Crown JewelsThe Tower of London was one of the chief treasuries of the medieval kings, and some of the Crown Jewels were always kept there. The coronation regalia, however, which were regarded as the relics of St Edward (King Edward the Confessor, who ruled before the Norman Conquest) were kept at Westminster Abbey, where the royal saint was buried and coronations took place.Following the execution of Charles I in 1649, Parliament ordered the coronation ornaments to be brought to the Tower, the precious metals to be melted down for coinage, and the gems sold off. Nevertheless, several of the old regalia, or parts of them, reappeared and were refashioned for use at Charles IIs coronation in 1661. The lower half at least of the coronation crown itself was made up of a medieval crown, perhaps the crown of Edward the Confessor.Later monarchs added to the regalia, most notably the Jewelled State Sword made for the coronation of George IV in 1821, and the Imperial State Crown with which Queen Victoria was crowded in 1837. The major gemstones set in the crown, however, had a much longer history, including a sapphire taken from the ring said to have been buried with Edward the Confessor in 1066, and the balas ruby presented to the Black Prince in 1367.

The Imperial State CrownAs well as the coronation ornaments and robes, a number of historic crowns are displayed, including the Crown of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, which holds the legendary Koh-i-noor diamond. The Jewel House also contains banqueting and church plate, state swords, processional maces and trumpets, the robes and insignia of the orders of chivalry, and decorations and medals. Tourism, Tradition and Community of the TowerOnce, the tower must have contained as many as a thousand inhabitants. Nowadays, about 150 people live within its walls, chiefly the Yeoman Wardens and resident Tower officers and their families.From sometime early in the Towers history, the custody of the gates and the safekeeping of prisoners were entrusted to a body of wardens headed by a porter appointed directly by the king. From the reign of Henry VIII these duties were carried out by a body of the kings yeoman at the Tower, who were accounted members of the royal guard and were entitled to wear the royal Both the yeomen Wardens of the Tower and the Yeomen of the Guard are popularly known as Beefeaters, but the nickname was first given to the latter as early as the 17th century, when indeed any well fed domestic retainer might be called a beefeater.Nowadays, there are about 40 Yeoman Wardens, who are former warrant officers in the Army, Royal Marines or Royal Air Force, with an honorable service record of at least 22 years.The Tower guard is detached for duty at the Tower from the same regiment which provides the guard at Buckingham Palace and St Jamess Palace. When one detachment replaces another, the ceremonial changing of the guard takes place on Tower Green.

A recreation of EdwardI's bedchamberBy tradition, there have been ravens at the Tower from its very beginnings, when these scavengers flew in to feed off the abundant refuse of the castle. Their presence has been protected by the legend that without ravens the Tower will fall and the kingdom with it. Nowadays, their wings are clipped to prevent them straying. Normally replaced birds are brought to the Tower from Scotland, Wales or the west of England. However, in recent years some have been hatched at the Tower. Ravens are long-lived, averaging 25 years.There are usually six ravens in residence, cared for by one of the Yeoman Wardens, with the title of Ravenmaster. The ravens cage is near the Wakefield Tower, and their cemetery is in the moat between the Middle Drawbridge and St Thomass Tower.Of all the traditions and ceremonies of the Tower one above all evokes its essential character as a royal palace and fortress, the nightly Ceremony of Keys. The outer gates of the fortress are locked and the keys taken to the monarchs representative in the Tower, the Resident Governor. Then, for a few hours, the Tower reverts to its original condition, a community separate and secure, until the next morning the gates are unlocked and this great national showplace is once more open to the world.By the time of Wellingtons death in 1852, the fear of revolution had passed. For the first time in its history the Tower was no longer seen as a significant military presence that might help to subdue riot or rebellion in London. Instead, with the encouragement of Queen Victorias husband, Prince Albert, the Tower began to take on the character of a national monument. Ordnance buildings which had replaced or obscured the historic fabric were gradually demolished, and the medieval walls and towers were restored or even totally re-created. At the end of Victorias reign in 1901, half a million people visited the Tower every year, largely drown by the romantic appeal of the darker side of its history as popularized in novels, paintings and engravings of the time. Nowadays, the number of visitors is about two million annually, three-quarters of them from overseas. The Tower has become one of the worlds great tourist attractions. Nevertheless, it remains a community, as it has always been, and it is this continuing village life within the walls which links the present-day Tower to its long and eventful past, no less than its buildings, ceremonies and traditions. ConclusionThe Tower of London is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest of England. The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078, and was a resented symbol of oppression, inflicted upon London by the new ruling elite. The castle had been used as a prison since at least 1100, although that was not its primary purpose.A grand palace early in its history, it served as a royal residence. As a whole, the Tower is a complex of several buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and a moat. There were several phases of expansion, mainly under Kings Richard the Lionheart, HenryIII, and EdwardI in the 12th and 13thcenturies. The general layout established by the late 13thcentury remains despite later activity on the site.The Tower of London has played a prominent role in English history. It was besieged several times because having the control over it represents an important phase in controlling the country. The Tower has served variously as an armory, a treasury, a menagerie, the home of the Royal Mint, a public records office, and the home of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. From the early 14thcentury until the reign of CharlesII, a procession would be led from the Tower to Westminster Abbey on the coronation of a monarch. In the absence of the monarch, the Constable of the Tower is in charge of the castle. This was a powerful and trusted position in the medieval period. In the late 15th century the castle was the prison of the Princes in the Tower.Under the Tudors, the Tower became used less as a royal residence, and despite attempts to refortify and repair the castle its defenses lagged behind developments to deal with artillery.The community of the Tower used to contain about one thousands inhabitants, but nowadays there are only 150, mainly the Tower officers and their families. By tradition, there have been ravens at the Tower from its very beginnings. Their presence has been protected by the legend that without ravens the Tower will fall and the kingdom with it. There are usually six ravens in residence, cared for by one of the Yeoman Wardens, with the title of Ravenmaster.The Tower of London is one of the worlds greatest tourist attractions, being visited by two million people annually since it was opened to the public and seen as a national monument, thanks to Prince Albert and his wife, Queen Victoria.The Tower of London is one of the most imposing and mysterious attractions in England, probably all over the world. Being the centre of power for Britain rulers and also a prison, a Royal Armory and the Jewel House for the Crown Jewels, this outstanding palace will last for thousands of years in the world's history.

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