How the prisoners of the main English prison lived: Banquets, executions, privileges and other secrets of the Tower of London

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The history of the Tower is fascinating and at the same time frightening, making you involuntarily flinch from the realization that a few centuries ago, quite terrible things were going on behind its walls. Luxurious and majestic, full of secrets and mysteries - it was not only the royal residence, but also the main prison in England, where some prisoners felt at home, while others prayed that everything would be over as soon as possible …

The Tower of London was built as a reliable fortress and a symbol of royalty. Outside the walls of the castle were warehouses for storing weapons, and the Royal Mint issued national coins. In addition to all this, the Tower was a royal residence with luxuriously furnished apartments and a menagerie. But the tower was also used to contain people who posed a serious threat to national security. Despite its formidable reputation, the story of the imprisonment in the Tower is a kaleidoscope of colorful events, from horrific torture and executions to luxury, banquets and daring escapes.

1. The first prisoner of the Tower of London and other captives

The first prisoner, Ranulf Flambard, was allowed to bring the finest wines and host large feasts, and decided to use this to his advantage. He fed and watered his guards and seized the opportunity to sneak in a rope hidden in a wine barrel.

After a long feast, when the guards were drunk enough, Flambard managed to escape. According to legend, he went down from the tower window to his comrades who were waiting below with their horses. Flambard and his associates fled England to Normandy, where Flambard became Duke Robert's chief adviser. He later led Robert's army in an attempt to invade England, but these efforts were unsuccessful. Flambard was able to reconcile with Henry in 1101 and was restored to his former position in Durham.

When Jacobite William Maxwell was imprisoned in the Tower in the early 18th century, he and his wife used booze to distract their guards. Lady Winifred Maxwell came to London from their home in Scotland to ask the king to pardon her husband. King George refused, so when Lady Maxwell, her maid and two other men visited William the night before his execution, they distracted the guards with alcohol and women. While the guards were busy elsewhere, Lady Maxwell shaved her husband's beard and dressed him in the women's clothing they had brought. William and Winifred Maxwell fled the Tower together and were later smuggled out of England.

2. Torture

By the 16th century, the conditions of detention in the Tower had deteriorated significantly. Elite prisoners still lived here, but torture in the Tower became common in the mid-1500s. When England found itself in the midst of a religious crisis, the heretics were brought to the Tower and tortured until they renounced Catholicism. One Jesuit priest, Father John Gerard, returned to his native England after spending some time in Rome as a Catholic missionary. He was arrested in 1594 and then taken to the Tower for torture.

Gerard wrote about his experiences in horrifying detail: Gerard fled the Tower in 1597 and went into hiding for eight years until he left the country.

3. Anna Askew

The chump, used to stretch prisoners and maim, was used as a means of forcing heretics to renounce their faith during the 16th and 17th centuries. Sixteenth-century Protestant Anna Askew was tortured several times while imprisoned in the Tower of London and wrote about her experiences in a diary that was secretly taken out of prison. Anna refused to renounce Protestantism and, Anna was sentenced to death and burned at the stake in 1546. She was taken to a post and seated on a bench before lighting the fire due to her weakened condition.

Guy Fawkes, the frustrated Gunpowder Plot, lasted only thirty minutes on the rack before his muscles and joints stretched and stretched, until the ropes dug into his wrists and ankles, rubbing them until the blisters swelled. As a result, Fox could not resist and told his tormentors his real name, but continued to hide the names of his accomplices.

4. Philip Howard

Philip Howard, thirteenth Earl of Arundel, was sent to the Tower of London in 1585 for supporting the excommunication of Queen Elizabeth I and for leaving the country without permission. While imprisoned, Howard scrawled in Latin on the wall of the Beauchamp Tower:. It is believed that during his ten years in the Tower, he suffered a mental breakdown and died in the tower without seeing his son.

5. Walter Raleigh

During his long imprisonment in the Tower of London, Sir Walter Raleigh became a father. This indicates that sex was not forbidden while in prison. Raleigh's wife, Bessie, was one of Queen Elizabeth's maidservants (while Raleigh himself was one of the queen's lovers), but after she found out about Raleigh's secret marriage to Bessie, the monarch ordered them both to be thrown into the Tower. This confinement lasted only a few months, and later Raleigh bought their freedom, but when James I accused him of treason in 1603, Raleigh returned to prison. And the next year, Carew, the son of Raleigh, was born, who was later baptized in the Tower.

6. Legendary prisoners of the Tower

It is also worth mentioning Anne Boleyn, King John II of France, John Balliol and other noteworthy captives. Anne Boleyn spent her last days in the same chambers in the Tower where she awaited her coronation three years ago. During her stay there in 1536, she had servants to fulfill all her needs.

Many centuries ago, the Scottish king John Balliol brought his servants with him when he was imprisoned in the Tower. In addition, he had his wife and hunting dogs with him, and when he was allowed to travel around England, he was accompanied by a group of servants, fulfilling all the whims of the monarch.

During the Hundred Years War, King John II of France was in the Tower with full royal privileges.

7. Privileges for prisoners

The more money an inmate had, the more he could afford, while supporting the guards, and as long as the inmate took the cost, almost anything was possible. King John II of France organized lavish feasts, regularly dining on chicken, juicy cuts of lamb, and jugs of the finest wine.

Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, enjoyed one of the most luxurious lifestyles while in captivity in the early 17th century. For seventeen years, Percy made one of the best menus every night he liked, contenting himself with delicious food and drink. Some sources say that the count did not disdain to cook food on his own, getting incredible pleasure from it.

8. Little Ease

Little Ease is a small cell under the White Tower, just under four square feet, where prisoners were deliberately cramped. There was not enough room to sit, lie down, stand up, or take a more or less comfortable position. The cell was completely dark, and the inmates sat in solitary confinement all day.

Guy Fawkes was one of the many prisoners who happened to be there. Jesuit Edmund Campion was also imprisoned in a small cell, and subsequently he was put on a rack three times. Later, the Bishop of London began to use the term "little lightness" to refer to the place where he placed religious heretics.

9. Tradition, or in the footsteps of Ranulf Flambard

The wealthiest and most senior prisoners during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries continued the tradition of Ranulf Flambard. Sir Walter Raleigh, for example, conducted chemical experiments and wrote part of his History of the World while imprisoned in the Tower. He also brought furniture from home to feel comfortable.

Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, lived in Martin's Towers, part of the tower complex, which he adorned with fine furniture and a rich collection of books. Percy also gathered guests, spent time with his beloved fox, followed fashion, and enjoyed access to tennis and fencing.

10. "Daughter of the Scavenger"

Prisoners who did not split on the rack were tortured with the Scavenger's Daughter. This invention, also called the Skeffington shackles, did the opposite of the rack and squeezed the captive until he or she was flattened.

Designed by Sir Leonard Skeffington, Lieutenant of Henry VIII's Tower, The Scavenger's Daughter was apparently not as common as the rack, so few mentions of it survive in the Tower Archives.

11. Prisoners were hung by the hands

Jesuit priest John Gerard described how torture was carried out in the tower using shackles and iron chains. As soon as John was taken to prison, he was asked to renounce Catholicism. When he refused, the unimaginable happened. Soon he was taken to a column with a couple of steps:

12. William the Conqueror and the White Tower

When William the Conqueror built the Tower of London in the 1070s, it was meant to be a showcase of the strength and authority of the new Norman king. The oldest part of the tower is the central castle, better known as the White Tower. It was built between 1078 and 1097 using stone from Kent and William's native Normandy. The British did all the work on the intimidating structure, building walls fifteen feet thick (about 4.5 meters) that reached ninety feet (about 27 meters) in height. The White Tower, built ten years after William's death, included a chapel, which, unfortunately, the king never used.

13. The tower was used to imprison Jews

The tower was again used as a prison, albeit temporary, during the reign of Henry III (1216-1272). Henry III expanded the Tower of London by adding defensive walls and other structures. He also made it his main residence.

Using the tower as a prison, Henry brought a group of Jews to the Tower who were accused of murdering Hugh Lincoln in 1255. Of the one hundred Jews imprisoned, eighteen were subsequently hanged.

Edward I (1272-1307) followed suit and imprisoned nearly seven hundred Jews in the Tower in 1278 for alleged coin-cutting offenses. Later, three hundred prisoners were executed.

There were also several cases of Jews taking refuge in the Tower of London during the 13th century. In the face of rising anti-Semitic sentiments in England, Jews sought refuge behind its thick walls. Edward I expelled the Jews from England in 1290.

Continuing the topic, read also about how in different historical periods of time.