Tower of London: Most Infamous Prisoners

Gone Medieval

History Hit

History

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2024

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From William Wallace and King Henry VI, to Anne Boleyn and Sir Walter Raleigh, London's iconic Tower of London has held some of history's most notorious figures over its 1000 year history. Host of Gone Medieval podcast Matt Lewis joins Dan to uncover the secrets embedded within the tower's formidable walls. They dive into the deep history of this mighty fortress built by William the Conqueror and tell the stories of the executions, the escapes and the animals that have called the tower home, including a 13th century polar bear who would swim and catch fish in the Thames.

You can find out more about the Tower of London and its notorious prisoners in the History Hit Miscellany book available in bookshops and online.

Produced by Mariana Des Forges, edited by Dougal Patmore and remixed by Joseph Knight

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to this episode of Gone Medieval, I'm Matt Lewis. I was recently allowed out of the GM
0:08.5	dungeon up to the throne room of Dan Snow's history hit. Blinking in the bright light, I got to talk about some of the high-profile prisoners who've seen the inside of the Tower of London for the wrong reasons.
0:20.0	In almost a millennium of its history, the tower has served several purposes, from a palace to a zoo, from an armory to a mint,
0:28.0	but it's now perhaps best known as a prison.
0:31.0	This is my chat with Dan about some of that long and often terrifying history. Hi everybody welcome to Dan Snow's history in the 10-
0:50.0	just a few years after the conquest of England and during the ongoing struggles to make that
0:55.3	conquest an enduring occupation, William the Conqueror started building a massive castle
1:01.6	on the edge of what was probably his most important city of this new kingdom, London.
1:06.5	It was downriver to the east of London. Ships could come and go uninterrupted by having to pass through the arches of bridges.
1:15.6	Reinforcements could be brought across the channel from Normandy.
1:19.7	If necessary, those ships could also evacuate members of the royal family from the troublesome city altogether.
1:26.6	It was a massive statement of Norman control.
1:30.6	Even the rock itself was transported from Normandy to build this huge tower inside which
1:38.4	William, his family, key officers of state would be able to shelter from the wrath of Londoners. The tower was
1:45.1	so pronounced that even to this day a thousand years later it's still simply known as
1:49.8	the Tower. The Tower of London is one of the most powerful
1:53.2	fortunes in Europe because of its central place
1:55.8	in the nation's capital as an important
1:58.1	royal centre of power.
1:59.8	It has been enlarged over the centuries.
2:02.3	It is still in use today. It's where the crown jewels are housed
2:06.4	in their impenetrable basement deep underground. And safeguarding royal treasure is just one of its many uses and purposes over nearly
	...

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