history continued ...
THE TOWER OF LONDON 1066-1272
The castle which became the Tower of London was founded
during the first months of the Conquest by William I ('The
Conqueror': 1066-87), on whose orders its great stone keep,
the White Tower, was also begun. Although reinforced by
William II ('Rufus': 1097-1100), the castle seems not to
have been enlarged until the reign of Richard I (the Lionheart:
1189-99), for whom the defenses were extended westward with
the creation of a new moat and rampart. Although built in
anticipation of attack by the king's treacherous brother,
Prince John (later King 1199-1216), when it came, in 1191,
either they or the garrison proved inadequate and the castle
fell. No doubt encouraged by these events, King John's son
Henry III (1216-72) initiated the next major expansion of
the castle with the creation of the existing inner curtain
wall, reinforced by massive D-shaped towers and defended
a wide water-filled moat.
THE BUILDING OF THE LION TOWER
Already a seasoned warrior by the time of his accession,
Edward I was well aware of the political, strategic and
symbolic importance of the Tower of London. The new king
lost little time in completing his foarther Henry's work
and embarking on a vast programme of expansion and reinforcement.
Between 1275 and 1285 the earlier moat was filled in and
a new bailey and rampart created around all four sides of
the castle - on the southern side by building out into the
River Thames. In doing so he made the Tower of London one
of the strongest castles in the land, incorporating two
new advances in military architecture - a double or concentric
system of ramparts and the sophisticated defenses of the
western entrance.
The Lion Tower, reached from Tower Hill via a causeway
across the moat which surrounded it, formed the first major
feature of the route into the castle and the first serious
obstacle to an attacker. It took the form not of a true
tower, but of a vast semi-circular enclosure, surrounded
by a battlemented curtain wall. This arrangement provided
the widest possible field of fire over Tower Hill and to
the west, and would give archers an opportunity to scatter
all but the most determined assault at the first attempt.
Built largely of Caen stone from Normandy (France), it is
the earliest known masonry example of this type of building
in England.
Beyond the enclosure, linked to it by a drawbridge, was
the twin-towered Middle Tower gatehouse (the Middle Tower),
behind which is a long causeway across the main moat to
the Byward Tower gatehouse and the castle proper. Over the
following centuries, largely due to its curious use, the
medieval Lion Tower gradually disappeared under an accretion
of later buildings and its moat was gradually filled in.
In 1853 the buildings were finally demolished and, a little
later, the building which is now the West Gate Shop was
put up on part of its site. Today, however, part of the
medieval stonework has been re-exposed and its outline marked
out in the paving.
THE MENAGERIE
The keeping of the menagerie at the Tower of London began
at least as early as the reign of King John, as a payment
to the Constable of the Tower for the support of the keeper
and his charges is recored in 1210. The first identifiable
animals, however, arrived under Henry III as diplomatic
gifts, in the fashion of the time, from foreign sovereigns.
In 1235 the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III presented three
leopards, no doubt a play on Henry's Coat of Arms - three
leopards passant on a red ground. Sixteen years later a
'white bear' - presumably a polar bear - was sent along
with its keeper by the King of Norway: in 1255 the King
received from Louis IX of France the most exotic beast of
all, an African elephant, for which a special house was
swiftly improvised. The Menagerie continued to flourish,
amusing a succession of sovereigns and, in later centuries,
becoming an increasingly popular attraction for ordinary
visitors, until the tranferral of many animals to the newly-formed
London Zoo in 1831. The menagerie was finally closed in
1835.
