sign in sign up
<<
Home , 1080s, Josef Jakobs, London

Tower of ’s 1,000 year old Facebook timeline: list of dates

View the timeline at www.facebook.com/toweroflondon

Date Event Description

1066 First royal Having defeated the English at the Battle of fortress , builds a established Norman stronghold to keep hostile Londoners on site at bay. Work Work on the White Tower begins - and takes begins on about twenty years to complete. The stone the White tower becomes the tallest building in the Tower country, dominating the London . 2 February Flambard Ranulf Flambard, chief tax-collector, is 1101 becomes imprisoned by King for extortion. He the first has a smuggled inside a barrel of wine, prisoner and climbs out of a - whilst the and first drunken guards are asleep. escapee

1241 Earliest It is reported that a vision of St Thomas known Becket, Keeper of Works at the Tower before sighting of his murder in 1170, ‘appears’ to a during a ghost at the building of the inner curtain wall, the Tower apparently reducing the work to rubble by striking it with his cross.

1255 An elephant Henry III receives the Tower’s biggest animal joins the gift: a male African elephant from King Louis Royal IX of . For over 600 years, strange and Menagerie exotic animals are sent as royal gifts and kept at the , as symbols of foreign lands and political connections. 1275-79 Traitors’ Edward I builds St Thomas’ Tower and the Gate is built gate known as Traitors’ Gate - famous for being the way into the Tower for those soon to be executed 1279 The Royal For nearly 600 years ’s coins are Mint moves mass produced on Mint at the Tower. to the Those doing the dirty and often dangerous Tower work ranged from unskilled labourers and children to the prestigious ‘Master of the Mint’, and often live, work and sleep on site. 14 1381 The Tower The Tower is breached for the first – and only is breached – time during the Peasants' Revolt. Simon of during the Sudbury, Archbishop of , is Peasants’ dragged out of the Tower and murdered by Revolt the mob on Tower Hill. 1389 Chaucer The poet , whose day job oversees was as a royal administrator, supervised the building works at the Tower. His most famous completion (and famously bawdy!) work is the Canterbury of Tower Tales. Wharf July 1483 The ‘Princes The sons of King Edward IV, 12-year-old in the Edward V and his younger brother Richard, Tower’ are sent to the Tower by their uncle, the Duke disappear, of Gloucester. The Duke is soon crowned King

1 presumed Richard III and the Princes are never seen murdered again. Debate as to who the murderer was continues to this day. 6 July 1535 Thomas Henry VIII's former friend and , More is Sir Thomas More, is beheaded on Tower Hill. executed He had been imprisoned in the Tower for refusing to accept the King as Head of the Church, and is later made a Catholic saint.

19 1536 Anne King Henry VIII’s second wife, tried and Boleyn is executed within the walls of the Tower for beheaded ‘adultery and incest’, is beheaded by a on Tower swordsman brought specially from France. Green She is buried in the of St ad Vincula inside the Tower of London. 13 February Catherine Henry VIII's fifth wife is arrested at Hampton 1542 Howard is Palace, accused of past love affairs and beheaded present adultery. She is later taken to the on Tower Tower of London and beheaded by axe, Green probably aged only 20. 1544 The Charged with storing and supplying arms and of equipment to British military forces, the site is Ordnance is both a and a major arsenal for founded by guns, gunpowder and shot. Henry VIII 12 Lady Jane Queen for just days in July 1553, Lady February Grey, the Jane Grey is executed in the Tower for high 1554 ‘Nine Days’ treason against her cousin, Mary I who also Queen’, is imprisons Princess Elizabeth, later Elizabeth I, executed at the Tower. November Guy Fawkes Explosives expert Guy Fawkes is imprisoned 1605 is tortured at the Tower following his part in the ‘’ - the failed attempt to and assassinate King James I. He is interrogated over many days, almost certainly under torture on the rack, and later executed at - dying the traitor's death of being hanged, drawn and quartered. 1649 Crown After Charles I's execution at Banqueting Jewels House, ’s Parliament sells the destroyed King’s possessions to raise money. Orders by were issued to Jewels and Parliament ‘cause the same to be totally broken, and that they melt down all the and silver, and sell the jewels to the best advantage of the Commonwealth’. 4 Tower The resident garrison prevent the flames escapes the reaching the Tower - and its massive 1666 Great Fire gunpowder store - by blowing up the houses of London in the vicinity to create a firebreak. 9 May 1671 Colonel Colonel Thomas Blood and his gang Blood overpower the elderly Jewel House keeper. nearly They crush the Imperial State Crown to hide it steals the under a cloak, saw the Sceptre in half and Crown stick down their breeches. About to Jewels escape, the keeper’s son returns unexpectedly and raises the alarm. Blood is arrested, but is pardoned by Charles II and even given a pension! Security is tightened as a result - iron bars are installed, and visitors are no longer allowed to touch the jewels.

2 1675 Charles II According to popular myth, King Charles II protects the orders the resident ravens’ be destroyed after ravens by their 'incontinence' compromises the work of royal his Astronomical Observator John Flamsteed. decree However, reminded of the legend that "the kingdom and the Tower will fall if the six resident ravens ever leave the fortress", the King instead insists that the ravens should be protected - and the Royal Observatory moved to . 1699 Isaac Isaac gets the top job as Master of Newton the Mint. He'd spent the past three years as becomes Warden, tracking down and convicting many the Master of London's notorious counterfeiters, who of the Mint were then hanged for their crimes - including his nemesis . 1826 Wellington Duke of Wellington becomes of the professional Tower and appoints Yeoman Warders based ises the on their exemplary military service. Previously, Beefeaters the post could be bought for 250 guineas, or even inherited within families. August 1835 Royal After several incidents where the animals Menagerie escape and attack each other, visitors and moves to Tower staff, the ‘royal beasts’ are sent to London Zoo in ’s Park. 1840 Ainsworth's Harrison Ainsworth’s ‘historical’ romance fiction 'The novel becomes a bestseller. It becomes the Tower of most popular of the Victorian melodramas London' is that characterise the Tower as a gruesome published place of execution and torture. Their influence survives in the popular imagination to this day. 30 October Crown When fire breaks out in the Grand Storehouse, 1841 Jewels are near where the Crown Jewels were stored, saved from keepers are unable to fetch the keys in time the Grand and have to hack the bars apart with an axe to Storehouse pull out the jewels. The replacement Waterloo fire Block, a barracks for 1,000 men is named after the Tower’s Constable, the Duke of Wellington’s greatest victory. 3 July 1850 Koh-i-nûr Meaning ‘Mountain of Light’ in Persian, the diamond Crown Jewels’ most famous diamond, the presented 105.6 Koh-i-Nûr originates in the to Queen Golconda mines in central southern India. It Victoria has passed through the hands of conquering Mughal princes, Iranian warriors, Afghan rulers and Punjabi Maharajas before coming to Britain as the spoils of Empire. The Koh-i-Nûr, is surrendered in 1849 to Queen Victoria’s representatives following the -Sikh wars in the Punjab, and presented to her the following year. 17-21 May Hitler’s The Deputy Fuhrer of Nazi was 1941 Deputy, apprehended after he flew his own plane from Rudolf Germany and was forced to bail out over Hess, held . He stays in the Tower just a few at the days, and is eventually sentenced to life Tower imprisonment in the . This is his autograph, on a piece of Tower stationery, displayed to this day in the Yeoman Warders’ . Josef After being captured parachuting into 1941 Jakobs , German is charged as a

3 becomes spy. He is shot by a firing squad in the East the last Casemates Rifle Range, whilst seated in this person chair, the last person to be executed at the executed at Tower of London. the Tower 1988 Designated The Tower is judged to be of ‘outstanding a UNESCO universal value' and designated a World World Heritage Site by the Heritage Educational, Scientific and Cultural site Organisation (UNESCO).

The iconic is judged "to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time" and "to be an outstanding of a type of building which illustrates significant stages in human history". July 2007 First female Amidst global media attention, Moira ‘Beefeater’ Cameron becomes the Tower's first female joins the Yeoman Warder. Like all Yeoman Warders, Tower Moira had already served 22 years in the military, reached the rank of Officer Class 2, and had been awarded her Long Service and Conduct medals. 2012 London The 4,700 gold, silver and bronze medals to 2012 be awarded to the athletes in the London 2012 Olympic Olympic and are locked in and the Tower's vaults for safekeeping. The Paralympic also stays at the Tower, medals overnight on the 21 July 2012, at the start of stored the London leg of the Olympic Torch Relay. The Flame is used to light the lantern for the Tower's 700 year old Ceremony of the Keys that

Notes to editors

For further information, please contact Cat Steventon in the press office on 020 3166 6302 or email [email protected]

General images of the Tower of London can be accessed via our press image library http://hrp.newsteam.co.uk/tower-of-london/

Historic Royal Palaces is charity that looks after the Tower of London, , the Banqueting House, Palace and Palace. We help everyone explore the story of how monarchs and people have shaped society, in some of the greatest palaces ever built. We receive no funding from the Government or the Crown, so we depend on the support of our visitors, members, donors, volunteers and sponsors. These palaces are owned by The Queen on behalf of the nation, and we manage them for the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. Registered charity number 1068852. For more information visit www.hrp.org.uk

4