This is the Tower of London, the Capital of London and as a capital it was very important to have a magnificent castle to display your authority as king of
your country and those dare cross you ought to think twice before going against the crown. This castle played a hugely important role in the development of London as
city and is home to many truely grizzly stories from kings gone. It played its part in the history of the persecution towards many figures living in England at the time.
The castle was originally constructed in the 11th century and it was created by William the Conqueror after the Norman invasion in 1066. It was hated by many when
it first was constructed as it represented the oppression of the people from the ruling elite. London at the time was the largest town in England and so he set to make it the
capital of his governance. originally the castle was made of timber but timber is not great for longevity so they set to started to turn to stone, afterall to protect one self from the unruly
peasent, one must have a fortification to keep themselves safe. So they begun building the White Tower out of stone, while the rest of the grounds would be developed over time.
The castle was used as a treasury and under Edward I reign in 1275 to 1285, Edward started to remodel the castle as he himself was a avid castle builder. he help to make the castle more self-sufficenet by adding two watermills.
During this time, it was very common for coin clipping to take place, and it this was greatly annoying the King as he to build lavish castles he needed money. The problem was so vast, that it led to the persecution of Jewish people
as the king saw to blame them for the clipping of coins and used them as a scapegoat to thereby create a singular-system centralised mint within the Tower of London and controlled by the King. This saw 600 Jews being imprisoned in
the tower in 1278.
This castle has seen riots where it saw the "Peasents Revolt" take place in 1381 where the gates where siezed and the folk of London rose against the elite opposing Richard II
It has found itself evolving over the years and has been used as a prison, In the 16th century it gained a reputation as a foul, foridding prison where people. It served as a prison to political prisoners and high enemies of the state.
It is even believed that the ghost of Anne Boleyn haunts the Church of St Peter ad Vincula in the Tower. It is said that you can see her ghost walking around the white tower with her body carrying her head under her arm.
The Tower also became infamous to the story "Princes in the Tower," where it is believed that the notorious murder of Edwards IV two prince sons. The tail goes that after their fathers death, Edward V (the prince) was too young to become King,
so his uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester was declared Lord Protector, and would eventually give reign to him at his coming of age. Edward and his younger brother Richard were believed to be held in the tower. It has traditionally been thought
that the most likely reason for their disappearence was that the Duke killed them so that he could then rule to become King. The princes last public apperance was in June 1483, shortly after the Duke was proclaimed King Richard III in the same month.
Bones have thought to been discovered which could very well belong to the two princes but they have never been tested, so the story is left without a decisive answer... "What happened to the Two Princes?"
In the modern era the castle has been open to tourism, it even was once used as a zoo to gain public attention, which later on went on to become the zoo in regents park.
It is one of the most visited castles in the UK as when tourist come to London it is in the heart of the city and is right next to the river Thames. It pulls people in their millions every year thanks to
its connections to the royal family. Most recently it is famous for playing home to the crown jewel of her majesty "the Queen" Elizabeth the Second where it has been doing so for the
best part of 600 years. It still possesses some military capacity till this day where has guards deployed to protect the jewels.
Remarkably the Castle has had a great deal of fortune on its side. Over the years there were two events in London that could of ultimately seen the Tower-of-London crumble to the ground like a pile of ash. The First real event that it managed to come
out unscathed was the Great Fire of London that took place on the Sunday Night of the 2nd of September in 1666 and raged for four whole days to the 6th. This fire gutted the mediecal City of London inside the old Roman city wall but fortunately like only
a few other areas like the City of Westminster and Charles II's Palace of Whitehall. It came out the other end unharmed. whereby not all places where as fortunate. It reeped havoc to London, destroying St Pauls Cathedral, 13,200 houses and 87 parish churches.
The estimated total damage was that it destroyed 90% of the homes to the City's 80,000 population.
The second major event that it managed come out rather ok from was "The Blitz". The Blitz was an intense bombing campaign that the Nazis used to try and pound England into submission and fall in line to Hilters regime. The campaign started following the
Battle of Britian in 1940, soon after the Luftwaffe lost the battle, they were ordered to attack London, in order to try and get Air Chief Hugh Dowding to commit his fighters into a fight. Dowding didn't take the bait because they used the time of the bombing
on London to help repair the strain that the battle of Britain had taken on the RAF. The second main purpose of bombing England was to disrupt their economy and industrial industry and crush the British spirit. on the 7th of September 1940, London was relentlessly
bombed for 56 out of the following 57 day and nights. The most notable large scale attack came on the 15th of September during the day. The Luftwaffe gradually changed their stratergy in favour of night raids to avoid the occasion dogfights that the RAF sent pilot
to battle them. These attacks weren't just confined to London as Hitler targeted any dock cities and industrial cities to try cripple the British war effort.
More than 40,000 civilians died in the bombings and what is most impressive is that of almost half the bombs dropped where in the captial of London where more than a million houses where destroyed or damaged. As The east end of Londons docks became a target for the Luftwaffe,
natrually that put the castle in harms way. On the Night of 23rd September 1940, high-explosive bombs were dropped on the Tower, destroying Large sections of Mint and the Old Hospital Block to the east of the white Tower. Following more raids, another bomb struck on the
fortress on the 5th October blowing apart the North Bastion whilst narrowly missing the White Tower. The Tower of London lives on, and it was a miracle that it wasn't levelled to ground. In true British spirit, the Brits saw their way throught the Blitz along with the Tower
and in time was restored to its former glory. So much history and beauty this castle has to offer easily makes it one of the most popular places in the UK and know wonder why when you have stories like these...