Tower of London: Medieval Palace

Gone Medieval

History Hit

History

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2026

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the first of two special episodes from the iconic Tower of London, Dr. Eleanor Janega charts the transformation of the William the Conqueror's Norman fortress by Henry II and Edward I into an opulent royal palace. Now imaginatively recreated, the palace is brought to life with furniture, tapestries, original artefacts, and vivid illustrations. Eleanor is guided by curator Dr. Charles Farris who tells the stories of ambition, intrigue and the royal court within the Tower’s grand medieval rooms.

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Recorded at the Tower of London with thanks to Historic Royal Palaces.

Gone Medieval is presented by Dr. Eleanor Janega. Audio editor is Amy Haddow, the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music used is courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.

Gone Medieval is a History Hit podcast.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Dr. Eleanorianaga, and welcome to Gone Medieval from History Hit, the podcast that delves into the greatest millennium in human history.
0:11.1	We uncover the greatest mysteries, the gobsmacking details, and the latest groundbreaking research from the Vikings to the Normans, from kings to popes, to the
0:22.5	Crusades. We delve into the rebellions, plots, and murders that tell us who we really were.
0:30.7	And how we got here.
0:41.3	Today we've come to the Tower of London.
0:50.6	800 years ago, this was the beating heart of a restless, magnificent city, the largest in medieval England.
0:56.2	By 1,300, around 80,000 people lived just beyond these walls.
1:04.8	Merchants and craftsmen, nobles and servants, and a thriving Jewish community, until their explosion by King Edward I.1st and 1290. We're standing at the crossroads of a thousand stories. It's part fortress, part
1:14.5	palace, part prison. In every direction that you look, the Tower of London seems to whisper,
1:22.2	remember what happened here. And the strange thing is, somehow the air seems to change from the busy modern world outside.
1:33.2	It's a bit cooler.
1:35.2	It's quieter.
1:36.9	It's charged with the weight of the past.
1:40.3	To my left rises the outer defensive wall, punctured by arrow slits the tell of archers and
1:46.8	sieges long ago.
1:49.7	Ahead of me is the heart of the fortress, the white tower.
1:54.7	It's a massive square keep.
1:57.7	It's made a pale limestone that gleams faintly, even under cloudy skies.
2:04.3	This is the oldest part of the tower complex, built by William the Conqueror nearly
2:09.0	a thousand years ago. And it's a castle within a castle. To my right is the inner curtain
2:16.7	wall, which is lined with smaller towers, each with its own grim story.
2:22.3	There's the bloody tower, infamous for the mystery of the princes of the tower.
	...

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