When most conceptualize the idea of Victorian-age prison, damp, dimly lit cells ridden with the stench of torture usually come to mind... but lavishly furnished towers, gardens, and balcony walkways? Not so much. However, this was often the reality behind some of the Tower of London's most famous inmates.
Since I had already experienced time with my family at the Tower, I focused my energy today entirely on absorbing as much information as I could in order to contribute during class discussion. While we only had two hours there, I did manage to see some new things as well. The "Tower" is expansive and I wish my peers could have seen as much as I did during my first trip, but I believe they got to see some the most fascinating aspects within. It truly is astounding, even being there a second time, to see how kindly some of the prison conditions were for tower inmates. It depended wholly on status, religious affiliation, and severity of the crime as to how "lavish" your setup was.
Like Sir Walter Raleigh for example (homeboy founded Raleigh, North Carolina before getting imprisoned for 13 years). He had an entire tower to himself! Once called The Garden Tower, Raleigh's "prison" was later renamed The Bloody Tower after the disappearance of two young princes once kept in that same tower. While Raleigh had a longer stay in the Bloody Tower than the two boys, mysterious circumstances still surround the legend of the tower. I'm 100%, completely convinced that the two adolescent bodies found hidden at The White Tower in the late 1600s were the bodies of the little princes. Without a doubt. Because really, if it wasn't them, why would their bodies need to be hidden? The bodies of two "non-important" kid boys would likely not be concealed in the same way as theirs were. Yay for true crime and the fascinations of human existence!
And apparently a lot of other people agree with me, including the immortal Queen Elizabeth II since she has not allowed any DNA testing or autopsy's to be done on the bodies of the young boys out of respect. Their final resting place is now within Westminster Abbey that we saw days before.
During my first visit to The Tower, I did walk around the Beauchamp tower, but I had very little background information regarding the countless carvings and inscriptions inside the tower walls. They were all carved by people imprisoned there and are quite eerie to behold. I found an especially striking one by a man, Thomas Miagh, that read: "By torture straynge my truth was tried, yet of my libertie denied." Astoundingly so, this carving was from 1581.
Through some quick Googling, I was able to learn that his imprisonment was the best documented use of the torture device "The Scavengers Daughter." Let me say this plain: this shit is CRAZY. This horrible contraption, used most commonly under Henry VIII's reign (no surprise there) basically contorted your whole body into a fetal position. It was like a giant set of metal dentures and would be tightened to crush the victim until either their ribs and breastbone cracked (shit!), or blood gushed from their fingertips and face (what the fuck!). Not a good time. And THIS MAN endured that! Very little information was given about what exactly he did to get this sort of treatment but apparently he was charged with contact with rebels in Ireland. Was this treated as treason? Was he tortured just for funzies because he was a traitor or because he had information? Curious.
In order to end on a less torturous note, the group and I had the weekend free where we took the opportunity to explore around London. Specifically, we spent time in locations we won't be visiting as part of the class curriculum, like Kensington and surrounding areas, including Sigmund Freud's house and the wonderfully English, well-known bookshop, Daunt Books. We had a rockin' time.
