The Tower of London - or to be more precise collection of Towers - has dominated the London skyline and the pages of history, ever since its construction by William The Conqueror in the aftermath of the Norman invasion.
Its cold walls have borne silent witness to all manner of officially sanctioned crimes, and many a murder has taken place in its darker recesses, several of which are covered on some of the sinister London walks that we offer in our ever expanding series of sightseeing tours.
It was in the Wakefield Tower that the weak and ineffectual reign of that most tragic of English monarchs, Henry V1, ended with his murder “in the hour before midnight” on 21st May 1471, as he knelt at prayer. Tradition asserts that the knife with which he was “stikk’d full of deadly holes” was wielded by the Duke of Gloucester (later the infamous Richard 111).
It was in the aptly named “Bloody Tower” that a series of intrigues reached their deadly climax during the reign of King James 1st.
Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset and a favourite of James 1st, had fallen in love with the beautiful Frances Howard, the child bride of Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex.
Wishing to save herself for Carr, Frances Howard consulted a quack astrologer who provided drugs that would render her husband impotent. For three years the unfortunate Devereux struggled to consummate his marriage before, following King James’s intervention, a divorce was granted on the grounds of non-consummation.
Frances Howard was at last free to marry Robert Carr. But Carr’s mentor, Sir Thomas Overbury, made no secret of his dislike for Frances and her ambitious family, and he urged his protégé to reconsider.
Unfortunately for him Overbury had seriously underestimated the influence that Frances and, more particularly her uncle, Henry Howard, wielded at court and, following another intervention by James 1st, Sir Thomas found himself incarcerated in The Tower of London.
Walks around the battlements were seemingly out of the question as he learned to accept what appeared to be his invevitable fate.
But, suddenly, he found himself sustained by a very unlikely ally in the form of Frances Howard, who, assisted by a compliant gaoler by the name of Gervase Elwys, began supplying him with delectable nibbles, such as jellies and tarts.
What the unfortunate Overbury didn’t know was that Frances Howard wished to be rid of him and each of the mouthwatering dishes that she brought to succor him in his dank cell were all laced with poison. Soon afterwards Sir Thomas Overbury died in excruciating pain.
The Howard’s managed to keep secret their involvement in his death for almost a year. But then, with rumours about what had happened gaining ever-wider circulation, the gaolor Elwys panicked and confessed everything.
The subsequent scandal severely discredited the court of James 1st, and he quickly withdrew his favouritism from Robert Carr who found himself incarcerated in the Tower of London in the Bloody Tower.
Fortunately for him, his social standing and previous place in James’s affections meant that he was spared the ignominy of execution.
Tags: Bloody Tower, Duke of Gloucestor, London walks, Richard 111, The Tower of London, Wakefield Tower
