Roseburg review. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 1885-1920, 1885-05-08
THE TOWER or LONDON.
An Account of Those Who Have Been Ex
ecuted There.

An Account of Those Who Have Been Ex-
/ ecuted There.
| The White Tower was built by Bishop
Gundulph, of Rochester, under instruc-
tions of William the Conqueror, shortly
after the battle of Hastings, in about
the year 1910, and is practically in the
same condition to-day as it was when,
in 1140, King Stephen kept his court
there during Whitsuntide. Before
Stephens. time, however, both William
Rufus. the same who in 1897 built West
minister Hall, and Henry L, sons of the
Conquernr, had added other fortified
places ia the immediate neighborhood
of the principal structure. Rufus COM
| pleted his improvements by adding q
surrounding wall of stone, nearly pro-
voking an insurrection by his tyrannical
way of forcing the people of the neigh
boring counties to supply labor and ma
| terial.
The first prisoner of state confined In
the Tower was Ranulph Flambord,
Bishop of Durham. who was placed
there by Henry on the death of Rufus,
as a punishment for his expressions of
the commons, Henry was somewhat of
a demagogue, and posed before the
people as a reformer. From this time
the Tower was for ages used as royal
palace or royal prison, with
| the varying accompaniment of
public beheadings and secret assas-
sinations to add flavor to its history.
Geffrey de Vaudeville, Earl of Essex,
grandson of the De Vaudeville who
fought under William at Hastings, was
hereditary custodian of the Tower under
Henry IL, and subsequently prisoner
in the same pile. King John was be-
sieged in it by the barons who brought
him to terms at Runnymede, and was
compelled by them to cede its possess
sion to the Archbishop of Canterbury as
| a pledge for the performance of certain
conditions of the Great Charter But
John broke faith as soon as he regained
the Tower and the barons invited Lewis,
Dauphin of France, to England, and
gave him possession.
The citizens of London in those days
were desperately ill-disposed to the
| Tower, looking upon it as threat to
their liberties. It was so, also, with
| the barons and burgesses of the king
dom generally This was shown when,
| in 1886, Henry Ill. summoned Parlia-
ment to meet him within the walls.
| They unanimously refused to obey the
summons, and the King had to return
| to Westminster. This monarch made
several attempts to further strengthen
| the royal stronghold, but, after spend
| ing $4,000 marks on the undertaking,
the works he had erected fell to the
ground amid the reioicings of the peo-
pie.
The saddest epoehs in all the sad his
| tory of the Tower were when Henry VI,
| the weak but amiable husband of Mar.
garet of Anjou, after the final defeat Of
| the Lancastrians at Barnet, was MUIR
dered within its precincts; when George,
Duke of Clarence, brother of the con-
quering Yorkist, Edward ". was done
to death at the instigation of Richard.
and when the latter, the crook backed
ruffian of whom Shakespeare has given
us such terrible picture, cau' ID his
nephews, the sons of Edward, to be
murdered. Tradition says that this last
crime was perpetrated in a certain
1 tower facing the south side of the White
Tower, and which forms a sort of inner
gateway to the main entrance from the
river.
1t is, however, in connection with the
Beauchamp-pronou Beecham-
Tower that the longest list of tragic
records is to be found. This tower
stands eastward, apart from the main,
or White Tower, between which and
it is the ground which has been
| reddened with the best and
worst blood of England. Here
the walls are eloquent with carven
work left by prisoners. The Percrills
of Derbyshire; the Poles or Pooles, de-
| scendants of Edward of York; the
Dudleys, the Denes, and hundred
others have left their names engraven
on the melancholy roll. with inscriptions
testifying to their sorrow and their
worth. There is one simple name there,
however, which will stir the sympathies
| of mankind more than all else COM
| bined. Jane is the word that is
| twice repeated. 1t is the name of the
poor girl who fell victim to the am
| bitions of Northumberland and her hus-
band, Robert Dudley; who was crowned
queen for but few days, and then laid
her gentle head upon the block that
| Mary might reign. This, and such
| tragedies as this, stain the annals OF the
Tower; its bloody records were carried
on through the reign OF Elizabeth and
the Stuarts, and even within hundred
years some sad work has been wrought
there; but none that can touch the
heart like the short story that ends with
"Jane. st. Louis Globe-DeDaocrat.