Jane's adventures
This blog is about my travels. At home in New Zealand, in other parts of Oceania, North, Central and South America and in Europe.
The next day I took the tube to visit the Tower of London. I have to say, I wasn't that fond of it! It has such a dark history of unjust imprisonments, terrible tortures and brutal executions. It was a grey and drizzly day and the crows (they are traditionally kept there) were squawking. All sorts of prisoners were kept at the Tower of London, Queen Elizabeth the first once spent 2 months there. Anne Boleyn was executed there, accused of a series of bizarre charges which included witchcraft and a long list of invented affairs. During power struggles for religion, some of the prisoners of the Tower were imprisoned just for owning the wrong sort of religious books. Even a polar bear was chained up in the Tower for a while, a gift to King Henry the third of England from a Nordic King in 1251. The polar bear did have a long leash though and could swim around in the Thames for fish. The oldest part of the Tower is the central Norman Tower which was built in 1080. The top part of the part of the building was where the Royal family lived, and the basement is where prisoners would be dragged off to. I'm pretty sure guests were generally careful to say the right thing at dinner! I also visited the little room where the 'princes in the tower', the two young heirs to the throne were kept by their power crazed uncle until 1483 when they were 'disappeared'. I also saw a room where prisoners were kept, some for minor religious offences, one was a 'sorcerer' who engraved the walls of his prison cell with an astrological chart. Another prisoner (imprisoned for possessing banned books) wrote on the wall: "Fear Fortune's Flattery, Frail of Felicity, Despair not in Danger, God is Defender". After being reminded of all these miscarriages of justice was glad to head home and that we live in (somewhat) better times these days!
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I am a traveller from New Zealand. My blog is to inform friends and family about my adventures. I hope you enjoy it! Archives
August 2020
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