Tower of London

Tower of London Engels presentatie

I am going to tell you something about the tower of London, because I went to London this year.

Nowadays the Tower of London is a famous and popular attraction of London, but why?

That,s what I am going to tell you.

The Tower was through the years a fort, royal palace, stateprison, the home of the Royal Mint, armoury and a zoo. The historic castle stays on the nord bank of the river Thames in central London. At the moment the tower is a huge museum, where also the crown jewels are highly secure.

The tower was founded at 1066 by William the Conqueror as a part of the Norman conquest of England. After he had won the battle of Hastings, he spent the rest of the year securing his holdings. He founded several castles on tactical clever places around London. The tower was built to be an fortress to watch over the people. The White tower was the square castle in the middle of the Tower of London named after the white stones in this tower. After a couple of years, the Tower was extended with a ditch, huge defencewalls.In the 13th century, the tower contained also a menagerie, the royal private zoo. Till 1625 the Tower had served mainly as a royal palace, after the royal family moved to a new palace, the tower had became a prison and an execution place, where various famous people were killed and kept prisoned. A few famous people were William Hastings and two of the ex’s of king William the 8th, Anne Boleyn and Catherina Howard.

The rumours say that the ghost of Anne Boleyn walks through the White Tower with her head in her hand. Because of the huge amounts of people who had been executed in the Tower, the soul of these people haunt the Tower.

The bloody tower is the most famous tower of the castle. Originally this tower was known as the Garden tower, it gained its present name in the 16th century when the two sons of king Richard the 4th were locked up in this part of the tower after their father passed away. Their uncle wasn,t happy with them and after he had became king, the boys were never seen again. The story tells us that the guards killed them by order of Richard the 3th, their uncle.

Traitors gate is the only gate in the thames, where prisoners entered the tower through. This gate was built by king Edward the first, as a water entrance for the royal family. The name Traitors' Gate has been used since the early seventeenth century, prisoners were brought by barge along the Thames, passing under London Bridge, where the heads of recently executed prisoners were displayed on pikes. Queen Anne Boleyn, Sir Thomas More, Queen Catherine Howard, all entered the Tower by Traitors' Gate.

At least 6 ravens are held on the grounds of the tower at all times. The old legend sais that if the ravens disappear, the kingdom will fall. The name of the ravens now are Hardey, Thor, Odin, Gwyllum, Cédric, Hugin and Munin. Who counted well? There are 7 of them, one of them is a spare rave. The ravens are all members of the royal army! These ravens are under care by the yeomen warders, or a more popular name, the beefeaters. The yeomen warders are the guards of the tower since 1485, when they became the bodyguards of hendrik the 8th. A long time ago, they guarded the tower and the prison, but nowadays they guide you through the tower of London.

To become a beefeater, you must be in military service for 22 years, without punishment.

There are 2 stories about the name ‘beef-eater’. The first story says that they had to taste the food for the king, and at the time the king ate a lot of beef. The second story sais the guards earned a lot of money serving the king, so they could afford it to eat meat.

Some of the people who work in the tower of london live in the houses nowadays.

The Ceremony of keys is the traditional locking up of the tower of london by night. It,s one of the oldest and most colorful ceremonies of its kind and it took place for the last 700 years in this form. Every evening at seven minutes to 10 o clock the chief warder emerges from the Byward Tower carrying in one hand a candle lantern and in the other hand the Queens Keys he moves along Water Lane, to Traitors Gate. They walk an route and lock several gates. After they have played a little show, it,s exactly 10 o clock, and the tower of london is officially closed.