MASARYKOVA UNIVERZITA V BRNĚ Henry III and Tower of London
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MASARYKOVA UNIVERZITA V BRNĚ PEDAGOGICKÁ FAKULTA Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury Henry III and Tower of London Bakalářská práce Brno 2006 Autor práce: Petra Angelová Vedoucí práce: Andrew Oakland, M.A. Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................. 2 2. A brief history of the development of the Tower of London ........................ 3 2.1. Kings and queens, their Houses and the Tower of London ..................... 7 3. Henry III of the House of Platagenet .......................................................... 9 3.1. Henry III and architecture ......................................................................... 16 3.1.1. Architecture of the 13th century ............................................................. 17 4. The Tower of London during the reign of Henry III ..................................... 19 5. The present Tower of London and Henry III .............................................. 24 6. Conclusion ................................................................................................. 26 7. Bibliography ................................................................................................ 27 2 1. Introduction This dissertation is aimed at the Tower of London and Henry III. The magnificent Tower of London is officially called Her Majesty’s Palace and Fortress, the Tower of London. The Tower is actually not a single structure but a cluster of fortified buildings enclosed within a protective wall, which spreads over 13 acres [5.3 hectares]. Over 900 years of British history have taken place behind its walls. No wonder it became a leading historic attraction all over the world with its 2.5 million visitors per year. Throughout the years the Tower has served as fortress, armoury, treasury, zoo/menagerie, mint, palace, place of execution, public records office, observatory, shelter and prison. The huge contribution of William the Conqueror to the Tower is well known, but in my opinion Henry III’s contribution is often limitted. 3 2. A brief history of Tower of London There are legends of theTower of London being built in time of Julius Ceasar, this interesting thesis is mentioned in one of the famous plays [Richard III] by William Shakespeare. But the evidence shows that the first foundations of the building were laid in 1078 during the reign of William I [1066-87], Duke of Normandy. It all started when King Edward of England failed to not keep his promise to give the throne to William I, Duke of Normandy and gave the throne, instead, to Harold Godwinson, his English brother in law. Angry William sent his army across the English Channel to conquer England and, on October 14 th 1066, he defeated the last Saxon King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings. After this victory William I, later known as William the Conqueror [1066-87], was crowned at Westminster to be English king. After the shock of the Norman Conquest, the new king may not have received the warmest welcome from his new country. Building a fortress always helped to display a king’s rank and wealth, so after firmly establishing his rule William ordered his new fortress, the Tower of London, to be built. The location, just east of the City on the north bank of the river Thames, just downstream from the Old London Bridge, was perfect for a residence as well as for monitoring all ship movements up and down the river Thames. The fortress was also built as much to protect the king from the people of London as the people of London from anyone else, e.g. to protect the city from Danish attacks. The first building of the Tower of London was the Great Tower and the Norman Chapel, the oldest church in London. The building of the Great Tower and eventually the White Tower as we know it today started in 1078 and took around 20 years to complete. The new building replaced an earlier existing wooden fort built on the site. Although primarily the fortresses, e.g. the Roman one, were of wood, William ordered his tower to be built of stone. It was made of rough-hewn Kentish ragstone, which he had 4 specially imported from France, edged with finely cut Caen stone at the corners and around the windows. The walls of the White Tower were made 15 feet [4.50 m] thick and 90 feet [27.50 m] high. Initially there were conical caps at the top of the four turrets, but they were replaced by the present onion-shaped ones in the sixteenth century. The design was based on the castle palaces of the Norman dukes of the tenth century, and the work was overseen by Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester. This may seem to be a rather curious choice but actually, in this period, priests were perhaps the most experienced in building stone masons, learning through the construction of monasteries, cathedrals and churches. The Chapel of St John the Evangelist is a fine example of early Norman architecture. It is constructed of Caen limestone as part of the White Tower and it remains today much as it was when Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester built it. Another early addition or rebuilding was the Wardrobe Tower then the Broad Arrow Tower, which was built to serve a military purpose. Later on a 'fore-building' [now demolished] was added to the southern front of the White Tower to protect the entrance. The Bell Tower at the south-west corner was also built at that time. The area had already been doubled and covered by the fortress, and by a new and deeper ditch to the north and east, which was intended to flood naturally from the river, although this was not a success. Sections of curtain wall were built. Tower of London in 1200 5 In 1238 Henry launched a new building programme with the construction of a great new curtain wall round the east, north and west sides of the castle. The new wall doubled the area covered by the fortress, enclosing the neighbouring church of St Peter ad Vincula. It was surrounded by a moat, this time successfully flooded by a Flemish engineer, John Le Fosser. The wall was reinforced by nine new towers, the strongest at the corners [the Salt, Martin and Devereux]. King Edward I was determined to complete his father’s defensive works in the Tower of London. The work included building the existing Beauchamp Tower, but the main effort was concentrated on filling in Henry III's moat and creating an additional curtain wall on the western, northern and eastern side, and surrounding it by a new moat. This wall enclosed the existing curtain wall built by Henry III and was pierced by three new entrances, one from the land on the west, passing through the Middle and Byward towers, one from the east, and another under St Thomas's Tower, from the river. The King Edward I also built the infamous river entrance to the Tower of London known as Traitors' Gate. The entrance to the Tower became famous for being used for the admission of State prisoners who were brought to the Tower of London by the River Thames. The Well Tower was also part of Edward I's expansion to the London Tower. King Edward III was probably too busy fighting the French and concerned with the black death, so that his works at the Tower were fairly minor, although he built a new gatehouse between the Lanthorn Tower and the Salt Tower, together with the Cradle Tower and its postern, a further postern behind the Byward Tower and another at the Develin Tower. King Edward III was also responsible for creating the vault over the gate passage and rebuilding the upper parts of the Bloody Tower. The greatest achievement of King Edward III was to extend the Tower Wharf, which is situated between the river and the Tower. The Tower Wharf was 6 extended eastwards as far as St Thomas's Tower. Its present form was completed by his successor, King Richard II. In the reign of King Richard II [1377-99] the Bowayard improvements were completed. In the 15th century the castle was expanded for the last time. King Henry VII extended the Royal lodgings around the Lanthorn Tower. He added a new private chamber and built a library, a long gallery, and also laid out a garden. The Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula [dedicated to St Peter in chains] was rebuilt as the original building was destroyed by fire in 1512. The Chapel was rebuilt and re-sited so the south wall of the previous chapel. The Lieutenant's house was built in the 1540s and extended and modified during the reign of James I. More utilitarian buildings gradually took over the entire area previously covered by the medieval royal lodgings to the south of the White Tower; by 1800, after a series of fires and re-building, the whole of this area had become a mass of large brick Ordnance buildings. All of these, however, have been swept away, and the only surviving storehouse put up by the Ordnance is the New Armouries, standing against the eastern inner curtain wall between the Salt and Broad Arrow towers. Fortunately the First World War left the Tower largely untouched. There was no major damage to the Tower as the only bomb, which fell on the fortress, landed in the moat. The damage during the Second World War was however much greater. A number of buildings were severely damaged or destroyed including the Main Guard, a late 19th-century building to the south west of the White Tower. The role of the Tower as a place of imprisonment and execution was finally put to an end during the Second World War. The last prisoners were spy Joseph 7 Jakobs and Hitler’s deputy Reichsführer Rudolf Hess. The place was closed to the public and reopened after the war. Today the Tower of London has became a leading attraction and remains the storehouse of the Crown Jewels and regalia, as it has been for nearly 700 years.