Tower: An Epic History of the Tower of London (73 page)

Chapter Fifteen: Civil Wars and Uncivil Peace

For Sir John Eliot see
The Life of Sir J. Eliot
by J. Forster (1864) and
Sir John Eliot
by Conrad Russell (
DNB
, 2004).

For Strafford see
Thomas Wentworth, First Earl of Strafford 1593–1641: A Revaluation
by C. V. Wedgwood (1961).

For Archbishop William Laud see
William Laud
by Anthony Milton (
DNB
, 2004).

For William Prynne see
William Prynne
by William Lamont (
DNB
, 2004).

For William Davenant, John Suckling, Edmund Waller and the Royalist plot to take the Tower see
Reprobates
by John Stubbs (2011).

For John Lilburne and the Levellers see
Freeborn John
by Pauline Gregg (1961, 1986).

For General Monck see
The Life of General George Monck: For King and Cromwell
by Peter Reese (2008).

Of the many biographies of Charles I and Oliver Cromwell, two are outstanding:
Charles I
by Pauline Gregg (1988) and
Cromwell: Our Chief of Men
(1973) by Antonia Fraser. Another woman historian C. V. Wedgwood’s masterly overview of the Civil War,
The King’s War
(1978), though dated, still repays reading. See also John Aubrey’s charming
Brief Lives
(17th c. 1949) for vignettes of many of the players.

Chapter Sixteen: Iron Dukes and Lunatic Lords

For the Duke of Monmouth, see B. Bevan,
James, Duke of Monmouth
(1973) and J. N. P. Watson,
Captain-General and Rebel Chief
(1979).

For Judge George Jeffreys and the Bloody Assize see William Humphrey,
The Life of Judge Jeffreys
(1852, reissued 2006) and
The Bloody Assize
by I. G. Muddiman (1929).

For the Duke of Marlborough see Winston Churchill’s monumental hagiography of his ancestor,
Marlborough: His Life and Times
(1929). For a more objective view see Richard Holmes,
Marlborough: England’s Fragile Genuis
(2008); or read Christopher Hibbert’s gossipy and entertaining
The Marlboroughs
(2001) which gives the irrepressible Sarah her due too. Richard Holmes has also written the best modern biography of
Wellington: The Iron Duke
(2002).

The villainous Lord Lovat deserves – but sadly lacks – a biography. But
Bonnie Prince Charlie
(2003) by Frank McLynn is a reliable account of the rising which cost the old man his head.

For Lord George Gordon and the riots that bear his name see Christopher Hibbert’s.
King Mob
(1958); and John Nicholson’s
The Great Liberty Riot of 1780
(2008).

The Cato Street Conspiracy
by John Stanhope (1962) is still the best and fullest account of the plot.

Chapter Seventeen: The Tower at War

Of the many biographies of Roger Casement, the best are
Roger Casement
(1974, 2002) by Brian Inglis and
Casement: The Flawed Hero
(1984) by Roger Sawyer.

The fullest and most convincing study of the Tower’s other notorious short-stay wartime resident is
Rudolf Hess
(1994) by Peter Padfield.

The strange story of Norman Baillie-Stewart ‘as told to’ John Murdoch is related in
The Officer in the Tower
(1967).

Finally, details of the brief residence of possibly the last of the Tower’s many infamous prisoners, the Kray twins, is told in
The Profession of Violence
by John Pearson (1972, 1984).

Motte-and-Bailey castles were constructed to hold down the Normans’ newly-conquered kingdom. This panel from the Bayeux tapestry shows a Norman overseer supervising Saxon slave labourers at Hastings – the scene of their 1066 triumph. The Tower was built by similar men and methods.

Decline and fall: Prince Gruffydd, elder son of Llywelyn Fawr (the Great) Prince of Wales, after three years held hostage in the White Tower, attempted to escape on St David’s day – March 1, 1244. His home-made rope of sheets broke, plunging the prince to his death.

Chronicler Matthew Paris drew England’s first ever elephant on its arrival at Henry III’s Tower Menagerie. Sadly, the great beast soon died.

Burning bright: ‘The Tyger’ by William Blake from
Songs of Innocence and Experience
. Blake crossed the Thames from his Lambeth home to draw the ‘fierce and savage ’ creature from life at the Tower Menagerie.

James I patronised the Menagerie for all the wrong reasons. Cruel and cowardly, he often visited the Tower to watch the animals there tear each other to pieces.

King of beasts: Samuel Maunder’s
Extraordinary and Fatal Combat
depicts what happened when a lion and two tigers were accidentally allowed into the same Tower enclosure on December 6, 1830. The animals fought for half an hour before being separated. The lion came off worse in the unequal contest, dying from its injuries.

Newly minted: striking coins at the Royal Mint.
A print by Thomas Rowlandson, probably marking the Mint's departure from the Tower in 1811.

King Mob: in June 1381 the Peasants’ Revolt saw rebellious rural labourers take control of London, forcing the young Richard II and his court to seek shelter in the Tower. As his Ministers were murdered, the young king bravely ventured out to negotiate with his subjects, but after their leader Wat Tyler was killed, the revolt collapsed.