The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-01 00:00:00

Aitt*Z--

EVENING SUN.

Ihe Tower was.the scene of many important events, and
was alternately held by- the King, and by the tithed
Barons whom his conduct had goaded into insurrection.
Edward L, soon after his accession to the throne, eon-
, siderably improved this fortress, by greatly enlarging the
1.1
ditch, or moat, that surrounds the whole ; he also
.I strengthened the principal entrance towards the west by
fresh outworks. These may be regarded as the
• last additions of an military importance that were
ever made to the Tower prior to the invention of
cannon. Of succeeding events relating to this fortress
a very brief account must suffice. Edward IL
occasionally retired into it as a place of security against
. his subjects, and still further strengthened the works.
: Ws Queen was here delivered of her eldest daughter,
( •alled, from her birth-placet Joan of the Tower. In Ed-
-1 vard the Third's reign this fortress, which bad been
1 ised as a state prison from the early Norman times, be-
came the place of confinement of many illustrious per-
s ons; among whom, at different periods, were David,
li :ing of Scotland, and John, King of -France, with Philip,
k is son.

" During the insurrection of 'Pat Tyler, King Richard
L I. took refuge here with all his Court, to the number
o f 600 persons. Being compelled, however, to attend a
.e .onference with the insurgents at Mile-end, when the
-gates were opened another party rushed into the
:. Tower, and seizing. Simon Sudbury, Archbishop of
Canterbury, the Chancellor, and Sir Robert Halos,
'',. Lord Prior of St. John's, the Treasurer, together
1 with the King's Confessor, and one of his Sergeaets-at-
a krms, they put them to the sword upon Tower-bill..
;tow, speaking of the Archbishop, says., ' There lay bis
Tiody unburied all that Friday, and the morrow, tin after-
ttaoone, none daring to deliver his body to the sepalture;
his head these wicked tooke, and nayling thereon his
!hoods, they fixed it on a pole, and set it on London-
'bridge, in place where before stood the head of Sir John
• . Minstarwor th.' After the quelling of this rebellion, by
the death of Vat Tyler audits subsequent consequence;
I:ethe Archbishop's head was taken down off the bridge,
ndelYat Tyler's head was set in that place.'
l`,l>iring the long and sanguinary contest between the
k. s.of York and Lancaster the Tower was the scena
ehtty memorable events. In 1460 Lord Scales was
' .... i ' here by the Yorkists, but in endeavouring to
1 Rapeby water, was taken and slain. Edward IV. fro-
kill tly kept his court in the Tower with great magni
3-
4.* e ; and in 1470, during the temporary subversion
t :f =>>s-power, it formed the chief residence of his queen.
I lenry VI. was twice imprisoned in this fortress;
r, Id it was also the scene of his death in 1471,
it ill a mystery. In 1478 George, Duke of Clarence, was,
le .cording to tradition, secretly drowned here in a butt of
tr.,airusey. ring.. - --........ -...44.:- '-ii-- .';'"r.-
" The death of tOird HarthrligrivAillhetuft '-
- -
,he 13th of June, 1483, lyeefe,er or tbe Pro ;or
_Glo-
cester (on a log of timber in front ofklieethepel)ethe7ei-
.!ure of the Crtni:n by Richard, ad the suilgen and niVs-
* 2rious disappearance, and suppoerdee ()Otis
i ephews, Edteard V. mad the beila,:of York,: ere aillir-,
....., emstances of ill-fez-Win the annals of this fertres,
In the -reign of Henry VII. the: T'Oti•br teas
rt.egifertiy. used as- a Royal 'resiclen4.;. be et ' ftare
,ftieeularly by the Queen, who sought riqlk, sere
• from '' the society of her sullen and -mid- 43,c1
..--
/I eshand:' 'Henry held his Court .here in 1414, ets:'
. .1r Winiaire-Stanlexe,Lord Chamberlain, was consigned le
1 G an ninnerlfed -patkon Tower-hill, for an expression
el lich was construes . to' favour Perkin, Warbeek. In
15( )1, tht King held a splendid tournament in the Tower.
i ' Henry- VIII. frequently held leis Cori in this for-
tr.t., ,s, and here many of -the victims of-liiS tyranny stif-
f. 4 ed'ieftprisonment and death. Among Omit *ere iwo
CA eensa 'the beauteous but ill-fated Anne holeyAlaid
the infanions Catherine Howard ; the former wia 6-,
hee led in front of the chaßel, on the 19th oillay, :534
an i. 1 the latternelir the same spit, on the 11th of Fe-
bi s tary, 1542. At
a" Edivardstrkheld his CeuttAiarelor,nearly a month
p I,ior to his.coronation; and hdre his urafprfunate unclp„
t h. e Protector-SOnSerset, was twice imprisoned boTorc his ,
d .e capitation, on Towerehill, on ;Jae 224 of January 1552.:.,
I ):t his decease Lady Jane Grey, OfiCrIIITI a vietim to the
ambitions viewsiof her lather-in-law, John Dudley, I,`n. '
)f Northumberland, entered this fortress as Queep of
3 3ngland ; but in the short space of three weeks shesvas
t eimmitteh to it as a captive, together with her youthful
I (usband, titeJeckrAi .Cs etilcif.utait Dnelley. .The Duke% of
_I Vorthumbeßiint-vfith many of bis partisans, ha& been
r reyiously consigned to these gloomy towers, before' he
IA gas decapitate& on 'Tower-Nth During the early part
o r these ptocteielingt, Queen Mary`heldher Court in the
'1 'ower .; " and it wus there that slio fdrined her rouribil,
a d first openly showed her deterMination to subvert
tl le religion -a the Reformed Church," by celebrating
th t - funeral exequies of her brother according to the
Re •i sish ritual, although the Prince was buried at, West-
mi ti ster, according to the Protestant faith. Theyising
of ~.. .ir Thornis 'Wyatt furnished the Tower with fresh ~.
.
ca:)t ives. 'His insurrection was followed.--by.a dreadful
sc, ei a of. eapguizear,e, .triepgeige Deciej)ileary 1,,,eee1f,,
in e the- hexer of .116i.yrIfItd hitio respected the
your' th and 'virtues of Lady 7"06 —Grey, but she
W a,i' now (}evaled to death, togoill& with her bus-
ba,v 1, Lord Gnihlford Dudley t• and both of them
weee beheaded on the 12th of 'February, 1554, - the
forme er on the green before th¢ chapel-Within ihe Timer,
and i the latter on Tower-hill. Elievew days afterweerels . .
the 1 Nike of Suffolk, Lady Jane's father, was decapifiletT -
.
on tl to same scaffold. Nntuesers Other victims of
vent e and intolerance bebatne inmates of the Tower.
dune 1g this sanguinary reign, among whom, passing over
mare y per,oere of inferior rank, were the Bishops Ridley
and. Latimer, and Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury
(ally of whom were burnt at Oxford in 1554 and 1555),
the Earl of Warwick, the Marquis of Northampton,
Colt :tenay, Earl of Devonshire, Lord Cobham, and Sir
Jo! a i Cheke.

w
~ti.

A tno period of our history was it more " cohstantly
thr.l aged with delinquents" than in the reign of Eliza-
beth . The Archbishop of York' the Bishops of Win-
che s 'er,'Lincoln, Ely, Worcester, Exeter, and. Bath, and
the Abbot of Westminster, were very early imprisoned
het x • for denying the Queen's supremacy. The more
ilb e arions captives in the same reign were Thomas
Hol card, Duke of Norfolk (beheaded on Tower-hill on
the 2d of June, 1571) ; Philip, Earl of Arundel ;
ILu ry, Earl of Northumberland (who shot himself in
con! nement in June, 1585) ; Sir John Perrot (the
Que. m's natural brother) ; Robert Devereux, Earl of
Es:;t •x (Eiizabeth's great favourite, yet consigned by her
to t 4 e scaffold, and beheaded within the Tower on Ash
Weil nesday, February 25, 1601).
..,i Tames L kept his Court at the Tower for a sly•rt
time, after his accession and arrival in London ; and, on
two ( e. three different occasions, that Monarch and his
Quct n gratified their curiosity by witnessing combats
of r 4 ld beasts, which were kept there. In this reign the
unfortunate Lady Arabella Stuart, was imprisoned in
the '1 ower, to which also was committed the gallant Sir
Watts r Raleigh, Lord Cobham, Lord Grey, of Wilton,
and ~j tilers, on a charge of plotting to raise that .Lady to
the throne. Raleigh, on the 29th of October, 1618, fell
ben ti th the axe of the headsman in Old Palace-yard.
" In the same reign, aimo '1605 the gunpowder con-
spii tttors were imprisoned in this &tress, which also in
161 t - became the scene of the murder of Sir Thomas
Ove elniry. Gervase, Lord Clinton • Sir Thomas Lake ;
the .E.s.rls of Suffolk, Armidel, and' Oxford ; the Lord
Chance llor Bacon, and Sir Edward Coke were also con-
fined lit re in the same reign.
Durit g the disastrous contention between Charles I.
and the Parliament, many of the leading partisans in the
transacts ons of that period were imprisoned here.
Among t hose of the greatest distinction were Lord Lou-
don ; Wontworth, Earl of Strafford, beheaded May 12,
1641 ; Li .ud, Archbishop of Canterbury, beheadeo Ja •
nuary 10, 1644 ; the Earl of Pembroke, &c.
Under the. Government of Oliver Cromwell, and in the
reigns of Charles IL and James 11., the Tower was oc-
casionally thronged with prisoners, the victims of State
p y. , The late King's judges were particularly the
objectsic . of vengeance ; and with them, between the
Tower and the scaffold, there was but little space. Al-
gernon Sydney, and William, Lord Russell, were among
the last imprisoned here in King Charles's reign ; the
former was beheaded in Lincoln's-inn-fields, on the
21st of July, 1684, and the latter on Tower-hill on the
7th of December, in the same year.
In King J ames IL's reign, the King's unfortunate nephew,
the Duke of Monmouth, after a confinement in the Tower
of two dajvs only, was beheaded on the alamnt scaffold
on July it., 1685. On the eve of the gltriang revolution,
of 1688, ti.e Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishops
were committed to the Tower, by a warrant signed by
Lord Chmacellor Jefferies, and others of the Council.
During the reign of William lIL, numerous Jacobites
and other conspirators against the King and State were •
confined here, and several executed on Tower-hill. In
the succeeding reign feW persons were committed to this
fortress, bra in that of George 1., when the Stuart in-
terest had gained strength, it was again more fully
tenanted.
In the summer of 1715 the Earls of Oxford and Scars-
dale, Lord Powis, and Sir William Wyndham, were
ot
com-
mitted to the Tower; and on the quelling of the
rebellion in the latter part of the same
Derwentwater, Nithsdale, Viscount Kenmure, and others
were and
were also sent • thither as traitors. Derwentwater
• 'll on February
Kenmure were decapitated on Tower-hill .
owasto
the 24th, 1716; but the Lord Nithsdale, 11
year theE!c,rlseorfs'
have suffered with them, made his escap
ing night in female apparel, which had becenwnctohnevel;de to
ing
celebrated Bishop Atterbury was
kingdom on June the
him by his own mother. At a subsequenteommitte7iriottl the
Tower, and thence banished the
17th, 1723.
d
by the Chevalier St. George, In the year 1745 a fresh
eldestrebellionsinon St: otthl
the
npd;eltieeittle
with new inmates. Of these the
furnished- the Towe
end Lord Balmerino were beheaded
Earl of KilmarnockAugust the 18th, 1746; Ratcliffe under .
on tats Bth of December. following;
s decapitated on April the 7th, 1747,
Lord Lord Lovat
ownenTtoawasrim-bilaia; fate
Has in his 80th year, and although from old
obliged o e supported to the scaffold
t 1)
warders, he met . ,
his fate with a dignified jocose
by He expressed surprise that so vast a concourse
ness.
le should assemble to witness the t
Perron was
taking off of an
alerttiroL°d rnafitrmw
infirmity
of people
old gray head.
,‘ On the 13th of February, 1760, Earl
committed to the Tower for shooting his steward, for
which crime he was hanged at Tyburn on the sth of May
following. During George lll.'s reign many persons
were imprisoned here on charges of high treason and
other political offences. Among others was the patriot
Wilkes, for a libel, 1762 ; Lord George nordon, in 1780,
as the presumed instigator of the great riots in London' in
that year ; Francis Henry de la Motte, the French spy,
who was executed at Tyburn on the 27th o (July, 1781 ;
John Horne Tooke, Thomas Hardy, John Thelwall,
Wm. Holcroft, and several others, in 1794 -,_ Arthur
O'Connor and James O'Coigley, in 1768 ; and Sir FrF-
cis Burdett, Bart., in April, 1,1110. Sir Francis was im-
prisoned by order of the House of Commor3, for an
alleged libel on the House, in a letter to hie constituents,
the electors of Westminster. •
." On the 3d of March, It2o, the following persons who
had engaged in an atrocious plot to subvert the Govern-
ment by assassinating his Majesty's Ministers whilst at