Its Showcase Friday - Lets be off to Jolly Old England!
I know its Monday kids but been busy with my job, the end of the month and being a Accountant means your very busy. but here is my Showcase Friday pick of this week. Lets be off to the a place nicknamed "The Bloody Tower". Yes you guessed it right again I am talking about the famous.......
TOWER OF LONDON
BRIEF HISTORY
Founded nearly a millennium ago and expanded upon over the centuries since, the Tower of London has protected, housed, imprisoned and been for many the last sight they saw on Earth.
It has been the seat of British government and the living quarters of monarchs ... the site of renown political intrigue, and the repository of the Crown Jewels ... It has housed lions, bears, and (to this day) flightless ravens ... not to mention notorious traitors and framed members of court, lords and ministers, clergymen and knights. The Tower of London has a very interesting story behind it. It was begun by a man who was not even English, William of Normandy. At the time he was the cousin of England's Kind Edward. It all started because William became outraged when Edward backed down on his promise to give the throne to William and ended up giving the throne to his English brother-in-law, Harold. William sailed his army across the English Channel to conquer England. On October 14, 1066, he met Harold at Hastings and conquered him. On Christmas Day later that year, William - now called William the conqueror - was crowned King of England. Immediately after William took over as king, he built forts everywhere. One stood in the southeastern corner of London, near an old Roman wall on the north bank of the Thames River. William ordered that this fort be removed in 1078 to be replaced by a huge stone stronghold. This would be the "symbol of his power, a fortress for his defense, and a prison for his enemies". (Fisher, 1987) He named it the Tower of London.The Tower was finished twenty years later, rising nearly one hundred feet high, with its walls fifteen feet thick in certain places. Inside was a chapel, apartments, guardrooms, and crypts. The Tower was protected by a wide ditch, a new stone wall, the old Roman wall, and the river. This was done to secure the fact that this tower was a prison that no prisoner would escape from. The Bishop of Durham was probably the Tower's first distinguished prisoner. He was very fat, greedy, and unpopular. He was dragged to the prison by his brother with his servants and bags of money. But the Bishop lived very well inside the Tower because he could bribe the guards with gold. One night in February,1101, he gave a huge banquet with a lot of food and liquor. When he had gotten the guards very drunk, he pushed his bags through a window and slid down a rope to freedom.
"THE BLOODY TOWER" - ITS MURDERS AND ITS GHOSTS
The Bloody Tower was the scene for the infamous disappearance of the two princes; Edward V (12) and Richard Duke of York (10), who are thought to have been murdered in 1483 on the probable command of the Duke of Gloucestershire, who was to be crowned Richard the III. According to one story, guards in the late 15th century, who were passing the stair in the Bloody Tower, spotted the shadows of two small figures gliding down the stairs. These figures were identified as the ghosts of the two princes. In 1674 workmen found a chest that contained the skeletons of two young children, they were thought to be the remains of the princess, and were given a royal burial not long afterwards. Ann Boleyn is said to be one of the most enduring ghosts of the Tower, she haunts the vicinity of the White Tower, the King's House, Tower Green, and the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, where her headless body was interred in an arrow case under the floor. She was executed in 1536, after Henry VIII had become tired of her. In 1864 a sentry is said to have challenged a headless figure thought to be Ann Boleyn, his bayonet passed straight through her, and he fainted in shock. He was saved from court martial for being asleep at his post, on the word of other guards, who said they had witnessed a similar occurrence. In another account a Captain of the Guard is said to have seen a light source coming from within the locked empty Chapel Royal in the White Tower. He climbed a ladder to peer down into the chapel, and witnessed a procession of people in ancient dress, with an elegant woman walking in front of them. He recognised the slender figure as Ann Boleyn from portraits that he had seen. Sir Walter Raleigh makes an appearance now and again, and has been seen as recently as 1983 by a Yeoman Guard on duty in the Byward Tower. The same apparition was also seen a year and a half later by a different sentry in the same area. Sir Walter is said to wander the tower as he did when he was imprisoned, he was not as restricted in movements as some of the other prisoners during his incarceration.
The bungled execution of Lady Salisbury is said to be enacted on Tower Green, on the anniversary of her execution in 1541. She ran from the block in hysterics with the axe man chasing behind her. She was finally felled with a number of heavy blows from behind, the whole bloody scene is said to be replayed in full. Lady Jane Grey, the 9-day queen, is also said to appear on the anniversary of her death on the 12th February 1554. She has been seen on the Salts Tower, although it is difficult to reason how you would recognise one royal figure from the next. Other ghostly traditions include the screams of Guy Fawkes echoing through the tower, as they did when he was tortured before being hung drawn and quartered, the ghost of Lord Northumberland who was executed in 1553, and various other apparitions and shades from its bloody history.
I hope one day to go to beautiful England and maybe be able to see the Tower of London. It would even be better if my Ghost Hunting group S.I.G.H.T. could go there and actuall do a investigation of the old Tower itself. Well kids thats all for now and as always I say to you.....Happy Haunting!!!
You can read up more on Englands Tower at the official website:
http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/
