The Queen's House and the Memorial to the Executed...Day 5r

                                 View of the Queen's House from the White Tower...

 


The Queen's House, built by Henry VIII for his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, then refurbished for his second wife, Anne Boleyn, who enjoyed it in the days prior to her coronation and not so much in the days after her arrest. Lady Jane Grey was also held here, after her short nine day reign as Queen of England.

The Tower Green, in front of the Queen's House, was reserved for the executions of the most high profile cases, such as members of royalty or of the nobility. Only seven people were beheaded here within the walls of the Tower of London, including three queens: Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard and Lady Jane Grey. The other executions took place in various locations through out London such as Tower Hill (which was actually outside the walls of the castle complex) Tyburn, Smithfield, Charing Cross, and Westminster.

The method of execution by beheading was thought to be more humane than the other methods of the time and were generally reserved for people of noble or royal birth. Generally, the axe was the instrument used for the beheading. Very rarely, a sword was used, as in the execution of Anne Boleyn. Henry was thoughtful enough to bring in a skilled swordsman from France. Quite big of him.


 



Another view of the Tower Green...from the opposite direction...The Jewel House is in the center while the chapel is the building to the left.

                      Memorial on the site of the execution...Tower Green...Tower of London

Inscribed on the memorial:

"Gentle visitor pause a while, where you stand death cut away the light of many days.  Here jewelled names were broken from the vivid thread of life.  May they rest in peace while we walk the generations around their strife and courage under these restless skies."
~ Brian Catling, who was also the artist responsible for the memorial

 Those people beheaded on or near this site were:
William Hastings
Anne Boleyn
Margaret Pole
Catherine Howard
Jane Boleyn
Jane Grey
Robert Devereux







Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula where the remains of those beheaded on the Tower Green were interred.

The prayer of St. Thomas More...Day 5q

Give me the grace, Good Lord:
To set the world at naught.
To set the mind firmly on You and not to hang upon the words of men’s mouths.

To be content to be solitary.
Not to long for worldly pleasures.

Little by little utterly to cast off the world and rid my mind of all its business.

Not to long to hear of earthly things, but that the hearing of worldly fancies may be displeasing to me.

Gladly to be thinking of God, piteously to call for His help.
To lean into the comfort of God.
Busily to labor to love Him.
To know my own vileness and wretchedness.
To humble myself under the mighty hand of God.
To bewail my sins and, for the purging of them, patiently to suffer adversity.
Gladly to bear my purgatory here.


To be joyful in tribulations.                                                                            
To walk the narrow way that leads to life.
To have the last thing in remembrance.
To have ever before my eyes my death that is ever at hand.
To make death no stranger to me.
To foresee and consider the everlasting fire of Hell.
To pray for pardon before the judge comes.
To have continually in mind the passion that Christ suffered for me.
For His benefits unceasingly to give Him thanks.
To buy the time again that I have lost.
To abstain from vain conversations.



To shun foolish mirth and gladness.
To cut off unnecessary recreations.

Of worldly substance, friends, liberty, life and all, to set the loss at naught, for the winning of Christ.

To think my worst enemies my best friends, for the brethren of Joseph could never have done him so much good with their love and favor as they did him with their malice and hatred.




These minds are more to be desired of every man than all the treasures of all the princes and kings, Christian and heathen, were it gathered and laid together all in one heap. Amen.

Prayer of Sir Thomas More

Princess in the Tower: Elizabeth I ...Day 5p

Quick review:    King Henry VIII had three surviving children from his first three wives:  Mary I, Elizabeth I and Edward VI. The girls went in and out of the line of succession with dizzying speed by various acts of Parliament, spurred on by the king's whims and marital status. When the king died, Edward VI, at the age of nine, became king, although he never really ruled. When it became apparent that he was on his deathbed, he named his cousin, Lady Jane Grey to succeed him, rather than either of his sisters. Mary, with powerful supporters, was able to depose Lady Jane Grey and take the crown for herself in less than a month. However, Elizabeth also had powerful supporters and soon Thomas Wyatt led a rebellion in an effort to depose Mary and enthrone Elizabeth. The conspirators were rounded up and imprisoned and it is here we take up the story.

Elizabeth was suspected of being involved in Wyatt's rebellion, a natural assumption I suppose, since she was the one to gain by it's successful conclusion. Well, she and all those Protestants who were being persecuted by her sister. She was subsequently arrested and taken by boat down the Thames River to the Tower of London.

 

 Traitor's Gate as seen approaching from the Thames...                           getting closer...

               View from the outside. The gates would open to admit the boat through the Traitor's Gate.

 

 The boat would have docked here (water from the river covered the gravel here) and the princess climbed up the stairs in a heavy downpour of rain, all the while vehemently protesting she was not a traitor and was indeed loyal to her sister Queen Mary.

"Here stands as true a subject, being prisoner, as ever landed on these stairs."
Princess Elizabeth


She was then led to the tower where she was to be imprisoned. She couldn't have helped but think about the fate of her mother, Anne Boleyn, at the tower many years ago, when Elizabeth was just a toddler. And she probably walked right past the scaffold where Lady Jane Grey had been recently executed.

She was held in the Bell Tower and took her exercise on the battlements between Beauchamp Tower and Bell Tower. Eventually, she was released from the Tower when Thomas Wyatt confessed that Elizabeth had no part in the rebellion. She was then put on house arrest at the manor of Woodstock, for her own safety as much as for quashing any possibility of another rebellion.

Many years later, when it was apparent she would never bear a child, Queen Mary named Elizabeth as her heir. When she did indeed die about a month later, Elizabeth heard the news of her sister's death, knelt down and whispered: "This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes." At the age of twenty-five she became Queen Elizabeth I.

The Bell Tower...Day 5o

The Bell Tower. Although the name is charming and conjures forth happy images, it had much to do with King Henry VIII and his all encompassing efforts to find a wife who could bear him a son.

Located next to the Queen's house, the Bell tower was originally built to serve in the defense of the tower during the reign of King Richard, the Lionheart 1189-1199, making it the second oldest tower in the whole Tower of London.  There is a small wooden turret on top of the tower, which can be barely seen in my one and only picture of the Bell Tower. The curfew bell rang when it was time to return to their cells for those prisoners lucky enough to be given liberty to leave their cells and wander through the grounds.

The Bell Tower is the rounded tower on the left with the bell tower partially obscured by leaves

Locking people up in the Tower was Henry's solution for some of his subjects who weren't cooperating with his efforts to secure an heir. All he wanted to do was to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, which would certainly not earn him any points with his in-laws who just happened to be the reigning monarchs of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella.  Catherine's nephew also happened to be the emperor of Rome, which had its own interests in the Roman Catholic church. And Catherine did not want to lose her husband of almost 24 years or her status as queen of England. So it appeared an annulment was just not going to happen. Henry's response was to break away from the Catholic church and establish the Church of England. And imprison a few of his more prominent opponents.

And the Bell Tower is where they ended up.

Such as Sir Thomas More, secretary and personal advisor to the king, as well as chancellor over much of Northern England. More was steadfast in his refusal to support the king's divorce from Catherine and was duly incarcerated in the Bell Tower where he was treated rather leniently at first, I suspect, in hopes that he would repent and help Henry VIII in his attempts to discard Catherine in favor of Anne Boleyn. However, More remained staunch in his refusal to support the annulment of the marriage and spent a year and a few months there in the Tower before he went to trial and was convicted, then beheaded on the Tower Green.

Imprisoned in the room just above Sir Thomas Moore was John Fisher who was the Bishop of Rochester. He refused to support a marriage between Henry and Anne Boleyn and vehemently opposed the King's efforts to break away from the Roman papacy and become head of his own new denomination. Fisher and More were imprisoned at the same time and sent messages back and forth via their servants. They were imprisoned, tried and executed within days of each other.

Also spending her share of time in the Bell Tower was Princess Elizabeth, Henry's second daughter, who was to become Queen Elizabeth I. But let's save that story for another post.

Lion, Middle and Byward Towers...Day 5n

Throughout its history the Tower was home not only to royal families and unfortunate prisoners but also prisoners of the animal variety. The Royal Menagerie included such animals as lions, leopards, mastiffs, tigers, elephants, monkeys and a Polar bear.  Oftentimes the King of England would be given exotic animals and rather than risk offending the giver, the animals wound up in the menagerie at the Tower. This occurred from the 1300's until the 1800's.  Each animal or animal family, had its own cage and there was a communal exercise yard as well. During the Elizabethan era, the Royal Menagerie was opened to the public and curious subjects could pay an admission fee and view the animals.  By the 1700's, three half-pence was the price to get in, unless one brought a dog or cat to be fed to the lions, in which case the admission fee was waived. 

Throughout the Tower of London complex, various wire-framed animals were strategically placed apparently to remind us of the Royal Menagerie and all that we were missing out on by living in the 21st century.

The animals were housed in, what else, the Lion Tower which is no longer standing but the ruins of which can still be seen.

The Middle Tower was a gatehouse of the Tower of London during the late 1200's. There was a portcullis and a drawbridge over a moat.

                                                      Middle Tower (on the right)

                                                 the two turrets of the Middle Tower

This beautiful piece of art on the Middle Tower is a representation of the Royal Coat of  Arms of King George I. The lion is the symbol of England and the unicorn is the symbol of Scotland. (please, please, please don't ask about the symbol of Ireland and why it is not included on King George's coat of arms) (thank you, I knew you would be understanding about the limitations of my time and interests)


 There was another drawbridge linking the Middle tower to Byward Tower, offering that little extra bit of protection for the Tower.

Byward Tower served as as another line of defense to protect the central palace and other buildings. In order to deter would-be invaders there was a drawbridge which could. of course, be raised and lowered, and not one but two portcullises (portcullisi?)  Arrow loops, narrow vertical windows through which arrows might be shot, were built into the tower walls. You can see them on the side of the tower.


It is thought the tower got its name because of its location near the Warders Hall.  By Ward (Hall)   get it?





  

Apparently, there is a magnificent painting on one of the walls in the Byward Tower. I say apparently because sadly, it is not accessible to the general public. It is said to be the only surviving medieval interior (circa 1309) in the entire Tower of London. No expense was spared as the artist employed gold leaf, azurite, vermilion and lac in his representation of the Crucifixion of Christ.(I know what gold leaf is but I had to research a bit to find out about the other pigments. Azurite is a deep blue pigment, made from finely ground copper crystal, vermilion is a brilliant scarlet obtained from the gem cinnabar and lac is a shellac made from the secretion of the lac insect which is native to southern Asia. I was pretty excited about all this until I found out what "lac" was...)

These days the rooms in the Byward Tower are offices for the Chief Yeoman Warder and the Yeoman Gaoler. (I am idly wondering why the position of Yeoman Gaoler still exists. Perhaps for the occasional rowdy tourist) (or maybe to chase down a particular American young lady who seeks to make off with one of the tour radios. Not that I would have any personal knowledge of such a heinous offense)

I guess if one wants to see the medieval mural, one would have to have a Yeoman Warder for a chum. (how does one go about befriending one of those guys???)

And the Birds Still Sang...April 19,1995

Birds cheerfully whistling and chirping and singing in my backyard.

Strangely, this is what I remember most about those moments before our lives and our hearts were changed 20 years ago. The sun was shining, the grass was green, there was a noisy little posse of kids around my breakfast table and new life kicking happily inside me...and the birds were singing.

And...then they weren't. Actually, they might have been but I didn't hear them. We all heard and felt the explosion and went outside to look at the sky. There was smoke rising from the area of downtown Oklahoma City. Perhaps the birds were still singing in those moments...perhaps not.

In horror, we learned what the explosion meant. In disbelief, we listened as the death toll rose. In mind-numbing shock, we saw the pictures that will never leave our consciousness. 

And the birds still sang...

Concerning a Very, Very Obscure Link Between Gladys Aylward and The Tower of London...Day 5m

Writing this blog has been a delight and will be a treasure for me to read in the years to come! It has been so much fun revisiting in my mind the places we traveled to, viewing photos of the things we saw and remembering all those *special* moments, some of which may never make it into this blog. (don't thank me yet,  chums, and don't heave a sigh of relief, you're not out of the woods yet because, after all, I am only on Day 5 of the 13 day trip...)

But, making this even more fun, are the serendipity moments I have experienced in the research I am doing to make sure I am referring to each tower by its correct name or accurately identify each restaurant or tube station or verifying that all my facts are correct such as when Handel lived in London or how Queen Victoria met Albert, you know, important stuff like that.

Since I have been writing about the Tower of London, one of my favorite sources on the Internet has been a fascinating old book The Tower From Within, written by George Younghusband who was a cavalry officer and major-general in the British Indian Army. He served in several wars, and retired in the middle of the First World War when he was severely wounded. He recovered, though, and here is where the fun begins. He was appointed as keeper of the Jewel House at the Tower of London and subsequently wrote a book about the entire history of the Tower. which is actually on the Internet if you have a few spare hours (and the interest) (and the intestinal fortitude) (and a love of Victorian literature) to read it.

  The link to The Tower From Within by George Younghusband
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=iYNnAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22The+Tower+from+Within%27%27+by+George+Younghusband&hl=en&sa=X&ei=D8wWVbPqLuzZsATaiIDIBw&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22The%20Tower%20from%20Within%27%27%20by%20George%20Younghusband&f=false

What does this have to do with Gladys Aylward you ask? Well, I am glad you asked... George's younger brother, Francis Younghusband, was a British army officer as well and an explorer and an author. When he wasn't out exploring China, India, Tibet and other regions in Asia, serving in the army or researching spiritual new age stuff for his books (yes, he was a bit of a hippy way before the 1960s) and mystical pantheism, he lived in London. And like most well-to-do families of the era, he hired domestic help for his wife. One housemaid is of particular interest: Gladys Aylward who saved every penny she earned working for this family in order to fund her journey to Yangcheng China.

And there you have it, the very, very obscure link between Gladys Aylward and the Tower of London. Isn't it just the way God works? He used a non-Christian to help His daughter fund her dream to become a missionary in China. And I love the fact that the cherished dream of Gladys Aylward was to lead others to God, rather than go to college or become a concert pianist or paint a masterpiece...just to humbly serve God in China.