The Tower
Fortress
Very few visitors to the Tower of London think of the site as a castle. This role is much less famous than its others as state prison and home of the Crown Jewels. However, both of these functions were only made possible because the Tower was a place of strength, and many of its other historic functions, such as the Royal Mint, the Armoury and Arsenal and the State Record Office, were also based there because it was perceived as secure. The proper name of the site is still 'Her Majesty's Palace and Fortress, the Tower of London'.
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The first historical references to the Tower come in the context of outbreaks of violence. The chronicle The Deeds of William by the Norman William of Poitiers reports that, in December 1066, William the Conqueror would not enter London until his advance guard had built 'a fortification in the city'. After his coronation on Christmas Day 1066 (which had been spoiled when his soldiers set fire to houses in Westminster), he left the city again 'while fortifications were built in the city against the fickleness of the huge and fierce population, for he perceived that it was most important to bring the Londoners to heel'.
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The Tower of London is the only survivor of at least three royal castles in the City of London. Two of the others were at the western end of the City: Baynard's Castle and Mountfichet's Tower. Their approximate locations are marked today by Blackfriars and City Thameslink railway stations. Both castles had been demolished by the late 13th century, though earlier writers described them as 'most strongly fortified'.
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There were several instances when, contrary to legend, the Tower of London was successfully attacked. The most famous of these was in 1381 during the Peasants' Revolt, when a party of rebels entered the Tower, broke into various parts of the castle – including the royal apartments, where they kissed the queen mother and searched for traitors under her bed – and dragged several of the king's ministers from sanctuary in the chapel, to behead them outside the castle.
The Tower had previously fallen in 1191, when Londoners under Prince John successfully besieged the bishop of Ely, then acting as regent for the absent Richard the Lion-Heart; and in 1216, when rebels handed it to an invading French force under Prince Louis (it served for a time as the French headquarters).
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The identity of the military genius who designed Edward I's brilliant new defences at the Tower is a mystery. It is possible that he was Brother John of Acre, a member of a crusading military order – the Order of Saint Thomas of Acre. Brother John appears in numerous documents concerned with the defences of the Tower of London, especially the digging of the moat. In this task, he was advised by Master Walter of Flanders, thought to be an expert in hydraulic engineering.
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The portcullis in the Byward Tower is the only one surviving of at least four that guarded Edward I's south-western entrance to the Tower. It functioned alongside at least three sets of gates, three drawbridges and numerous arrow-loops from which attackers could be stopped by crossbow bolts.
The examination of the portcullis in November 2001 showed that the structure had been reinforced by thick elm boards across the lower sections, creating a solid barricade behind which defenders could shelter. (This may have happened in the 16th century – unfortunately elm cannot be dated by dendrochronology.) This elm barricade contained a circular gun-port, set slightly off-centre to the north, to avoid firing into one of the kinks in the roadway that leads up to the Byward Tower. Documents, drawings and early photographs suggest that there was a 'gate gun' specifically for the defence of the Byward Tower in an emergency.
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A second portcullis survives in the Bloody Tower. In 1846, this was saved from destruction by the personal intervention of the duke of Wellington, then constable of the Tower, who quite correctly saw it as a nationally important example of military design.
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Many of the Tower's surviving defences were created in the 13th and 14th centuries, before the rise of artillery, but a few later adaptations for fire-arms can still be seen. In the north turret of the Byward Tower are small round openings for muskets, set above the medieval arrow-loops, and in numerous places in the north and east curtain walls, there are gun-ports. Some gun emplacements were improvised: in Henry VIII's reign, the White Tower's roof needed to be strengthened to take the weight of cannon.
Only one surviving building at the Tower was definitely built with guns in mind: the Byward Postern, a turret on the south side facing the river, built at an unknown date in the 15th or 16th century. It may have been constructed as a response to events of 1471 during the Wars of the Roses, when the Tower came under fire from the river: the defenders were forced to set up barrels full of sand to deaden the impact of the artillery.
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The numbers of the Tower's military garrison fluctuated. Documents suggest that, like many castles, the Tower was often only lightly defended in the Middle Ages: 34 'serjeants at arms' are mentioned in 1327, while in April 1425, the garrison numbered 21 men-at-arms, 35 archers and 8 crossbowmen.
Under the Tudors, the men-at-arms were formally incorporated as yeoman warders, their numbers being set at 21 in 1555. In addition to these, there were to be 17 'skilful gunners' and, in times of need, men recruited from Tower Hamlets, an area north-east of the fortress.
However, after the English Civil War, the military force at the Tower was placed on a more regular footing and permanent barracks were established. This culminated in the building of the Waterloo Barracks in the 1840s and 1850s. Intended to hold nearly 1,000 soldiers, this is now used as offices and as the treasury of the Crown Jewels.
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The military guard at the Tower of London is now mainly responsible for ceremonial duties, particularly for standing guard outside the Jewel House and the Queen's House. They also take part in the nightly Ceremony of the Keys.
Any regiment from HM Forces may serve at the Tower. These duties are often performed by one of the various Guards regiments, but occasionally they are done by the Gurkhas or servicemen from the Commonwealth. To celebrate royal anniversaries and visits from foreign heads of state, gun salutes are fired from the Tower's wharf by the Honourable Artillery Company.
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The Ceremony of the Keys may have its origins in the Middle Ages: there are documented orders from the 14th century that special care should be taken in locking the Tower's gates at night. More likely still is an order of 1555 that 'there shall be a place under lock and key where the keys of the gates shall be laid in the sight of the constable, porter and two of the Yeoman Warders or three of them at least, and by two or three of them to be taken out when they shall be used ...'
