The Tower of London...

There it is 'The Tower'! I want to write 'off with their heads' and other things like that, but it's not funny - that's all that seemed to happen at this place and, in my opinion, often to people who didn't deserve it.

Here is a view of The Tower from South Bank of the Thames...

You can see if you zoom in where on the bottom of the picture it says 'Entry to Traitor's Gate'...



Here is the outside entry to Traitor's Gate. What's odd is apparently it was originally built to safely bring royalty into the Tower for refuge...











These are called 'the Queen's Stairs' - this is where/how later royalty entered the Tower. This is supposedly where Elisabeth I entered the Tower complex, after she was ordered there by her father, Henry 8th. With whom I am deeply unimpressed with at the moment....













The 'modern mobs' trying to get in ;) You have to pay a pretty farthing, that's for sure....

Here is the main entrance used today - more or less this is the area where King John, of Robin Hood fame, built a zoo! Hmm....I wonder if he ever saw the Disney version of 'Robin Hood'....

Here is the inside of Traitor's Gate.....

Most people were killed outside the Tower complex on what was called Tower Hill. Here, in this little green area, there used to stand a scaffold where Anne Boleyn, Katherine (another wife of Henry 8), Lady Jane Grey and others were killed.

After visiting Hampton Court, Henry 8th's palace, I read more about him and his wives, etc. He was just an absolute jerk! Nothing more to be said...he did what he wanted because he wanted to do it! And killed people who disagreed or got in his way!! I am really 'perturbed' at him right now..... but as I was reading about another victim of Henry's, Sir Thomas More, it hit me, AGAIN, that I shouldn't judge. The Tudor's came to power following the War of the Roses....maybe that was what was driving a lot of Henry's actions? Then here I felt sorry for Sir Thomas More and really admired him for taking a stand against Henry and dying for it - but then when More was Lord Chancellor of England he had 6 Lutherans burned at the stake as heretics, etc. I guess we're all messed up....and that's why we shouldn't judge....I don't know....

This is the building where the Crown Jewels are held. They put you on a moving escalator-walk that moves you along. I don't know...that's the other thing that hit me after hearing/reading at the Tower....all of this death, blood, etc. and for what? Few things last...I wrote my sister, we'd better make sure that things are truly worth our time/energy/etc.





These guns were all captured by Wellington at Waterloo. Why whenever I read biographies when I was little I always wanted Napoleon to win? Or Mary, Queen of Scots, to be pardoned by Elisabeth I? ;)

I just liked this photo....Tower Bridge from 'the Tower'....

Here at the Tower's ravens - apparently if the ravens go the monarcy will end, Britain's over - things like that....

And the ravens are -

Gwylum (M/18 yrs)
Thor (M/15)
Hugin (F/11)
Munin (F/11)
Branwen (F/3 yrs)
Bran (M/3)
Gundulf (M/1)
Baldrick (M/1).

Here is the 'White Tower' of 'the Tower' ;) that was built by William the Conqueror in 1078.

The top floors were royal apartments with a banquet hall underneath, and then a prison in the 'basement'....

The "Princes in the Tower", Edward V of England (November 4, 1470 – 1483?) and his brother, Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York (17 August 1473 – 1483?), were the two young sons of Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville who were declared illegitimate by the Act of Parliament. Their uncle, Richard III of England, placed them both in the Tower of London (then a royal residence as well as a prison) in 1483, and they were never seen again. Their fate remains unknown, although many presume them to have been killed there.
In 1674, the skeletons of two children were discovered under the staircase leading to the chapel, (THIS IS THAT STAIRCASE!!) during the course of renovations to the White Tower. These were believed to have been the remains of the two princes, but there has been recent evidence against that theory. On the orders of Charles II the remains were reburied in Westminster Abbey.

Again, who knows, but...what people are willing to do for power, money and other things that don't last....

This is called 'the Line of Kings'. They were carvings of the Kings of England over the years, but now it's just their horses....the first proof that they were here is in the 1660's, but some of the carvings were in the possession of my dearest Henry 8th....

And there are the remaining faces/heads. And of course, again, in the middle, Henry 8th.... I AM NOT!!

This is supposedly armor made for Richard, one of the princes, who was killed, but....again, who knows?!

One good thing happened that day - a wedding! The Tower actually includes a number of apartments where the Beefeaters live with their families. Here she is, the bridge awaits to enter the chapel where Lady Jane Grey and so many others are buried....

A loverly view of Tower Bridge...

Goodbye Tower of London! I hope the tourists can bring you some happiness after all you've gone through for the last thousand years or so....