This channel is part of the History Hit Network. A busy, modern international capital with a rich, 2000-year history. At the heart of the city and its history is the Tower of London, one of the world’s most famous tourist attractions. But within these stone walls lies another world, a dark past full of diabolical treachery and deadly ambition. A place of imprisonment, torture, and agonizing death. These stones echo with the weeping of prisoners, the cries of the condemned, and the tales they have to tell.
By Norman conquerors, the Tower of London was the source of power over England. Across a thousand years, the fortress has been the home of kings and queens, a vault for their treasure, and a prison for their foes. The battle over the Tower and the control it symbolized claimed many victims. The greedy, the treacherous, and the innocent paid a heavy price in the struggle for power. The losers ended up in prison; for most, the only way out was execution. But there was something worse than death: the excruciating pain of torture.
In the Tower, torture was an art form taken to its highest level. Carefully written rules of torture were used: first, tell the victim the threat; then, show the implements. Slowly strip the victim, give them a taste of physical discomfort, then take them to the tools of the torturer; then finally, inflict unimaginable pain. The tools of the torture trade were sophisticated. In using the dreaded rack, a victim’s arms and legs were securely strapped to the device. As the ropes pulled tight, the muscles and joints were stretched and pulled to their breaking point.
Torture was an everyday occurrence in the 16th century, a bloody era when religious wars shook England. Among the most accomplished practitioners in the art of torture was Bishop Edmund Bonner. Although he was a man of God, Bonner enjoyed inflicting pain, and Bonner was an equal opportunity torturer. During the reign of Protestant Henry VIII, Bonner tormented Catholics. When Henry’s Catholic daughter, Mary Tudor, came to power, Bonner switched sides and tortured Protestants. Because his victims felt he was doing Satan’s work, he earned the nickname, “The Devil’s Dancing Bear.”
But Bonner was really doing the bidding of Queen Mary Tudor. When Mary succeeded her father, Henry VIII, she was a woman with an axe to grind. Henry VIII divorced Mary’s mother, declaring Mary illegitimate, and outlawed the Catholic Church. Queen Mary now had the power to get back at her father and take revenge. She reinstated Catholicism as the only religion of England. Subjects who didn’t renounce their Protestant faith soon had reason to call her “Bloody Mary.”
If Protestants refused to become Catholics, they would be tortured. If they still refused, they would be burnt at the stake as heretics. It was a medieval inquisition, and Bishop Bonner, “The Devil’s Dancing Bear,” was Bloody Mary’s enforcer. Hiding behind religious vestments, the burly former lawyer fulfilled his dark purpose. When Mary appointed him Bishop of London in 1553, Bonner set up headquarters in the Tower of London and eagerly executed his work as heretic hunter. The Devil’s Dancing Bear carried out the wishes of his royal mistress with a horrifying attention to detail.
Queen Mary made sure Bonner had a steady supply of suspects for questioning. He held suspects in custody until they repented or were condemned. Bonner drew up a list of over a hundred questions about religious beliefs. If the accused didn’t answer correctly, they faced the terrors of the torture chain. Despite his relentless cruelty, Bonner insisted he only wanted to show people the error of their ways.
“I know that she has no fault inside herself, but has been led astray,” Bonner stated.
Sometimes a small dose of torture was enough to persuade his prisoners. Just holding a victim’s hand over a lighted candle until the flesh blistered off frequently resulted in a quick submission. Other times, more elaborate methods were required. There were red-hot irons and thumbscrews, bilbos to crush the ankles, and the brakes to snap off teeth. But the most popular instrument of torture was always the rack.
Bonner’s evil knew no bounds. He personally supervised every detail of every case from the first examination to the horrible execution. Eventually, nearly everyone broke under Bonner’s relentless torment. If they were shown to be enemies of the Catholic Church, they were condemned to burn at the stake. In his first two years in office, Bonner sentenced 89 men and women to be burned alive for their religious beliefs. By the beginning of 1555, there were probably no more than 200 active Protestants remaining in London.
To satisfy the bloodthirsty Queen, she scolded Bonner, sending him a letter complaining he was not working fast enough to root out heretics. Eager to please his employer, Bonner redoubled his efforts. He sent out spies and finally discovered a group of Protestants who were meeting in secret. Their deacon was almost immediately arrested. One of the parishioners, Cuthbert Simpson by name, consoled the gathering, but he was himself then arrested on charges of attending church services in English rather than Latin, a charge punishable by death.
Simpson was taken to the Tower to be tortured, but the Protestant deacon would prove to be a challenge for the sadistic Devil’s Dancing Bear. Simpson’s diary describes what happened next:
“The following Thursday, I was commanded to give the names of those who came to the English service. I answered that I would declare nothing. In consequence of my refusal, I was set up on the rack.”
As the ropes pulled tight, the muscles and joints of Simpson’s arms and legs were stretched and pulled to the breaking point. When Simpson fainted, he was revived. After three hours of torture, Simpson was unable to walk; he had to be carried back to his cell. The following week, Simpson was brought from his cell to face Bonner again. He refused to name those who’d worshiped with him. Bonner responded with characteristic cruelty. Simpson’s four fingers were bound together; an arrow was put between them. A sharp arrow was driven through his fingers, and Simpson had to endure excruciating pain.
Relentlessly determined to break the religious man, Bonner forced Simpson into the rack twice more. Twice more he refused to divulge the names of his congregation. By now, even the brutal Bonner admitted a grudging admiration for the strength of Simpson’s convictions.
Bonner later wrote, “I affirm that if he were not a heretic, he is a man of the greatest patience that ever came before me. Thrice was he wrecked and yet never have I seen him broken.”
Bonner admired Deacon Simpson’s bravery, but mere strength of character alone wasn’t enough to save Simpson from a grisly fate.
“So the sinner has one more chance,” the soldiers said.
“Please, lower. We can’t now, Lord,” Simpson replied. “Be too late to save the money so thy Almighty Soul. We can’t now. Never. And God have mercy on me.”
Bonner had Simpson tied to the stake and burnt alive on March the 28th, 1558. The brave Cuthbert Simpson joined the long line of martyrs to the cause of religious tolerance. But the Devil’s Dancing Bear was nearing the end of his cruel career. Having burned, hanged, and tortured hundreds of innocent victims, Bishop Bonner, the Devil’s Dancing Bear, was soon to face his own moment of truth. When his benefactor Queen Mary died, her younger sister Elizabeth the First became Queen. Religious persecutions stopped. Elizabeth saw Bonner as a sadist and ordered him to resign as Bishop. When he arrogantly refused, Bonner was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Tower.
Now, the once-famed torturer of the Tower was a prisoner himself in the same dark cell where his victims had waited for their appointment with pain and death. For nine years, Bonner could contemplate the 450 people he tortured and killed in the name of God. A day of reckoning came. Surrounded by squalor and filth, the Devil’s Dancing Bear died in 1569. In death, he joined his victims at a court far more just than his own.
The Devil’s Dancing Bear was only one of a long line of torturers, executioners, and murderers who stalked the halls in the Tower of London for the best part of a thousand years. The walls of the Tower have been stained with the blood of those who tried and failed to grab control of England. Of the 20 kings who first ruled from the Tower of London, six were murdered by their rivals for the crown, and two more died in battle. This was no surprise, for the Tower’s dark legacy began at its construction. Even as it was being built, its foundations were soaked in sweat, tears, and blood.
The Tower was a visible symbol of an era of slaughter. Victorious Normans launched a reign of terror to solidify their invasion of England. The fortress was a concrete sign of repression. When the Norman King, William the Conqueror, won the Battle of Hastings in 1066, he took control of London in the south of England. But keeping control was entirely another matter. William launched a series of vicious campaigns to crush rebellion and insurrection throughout the vanquished country. William built fortresses to oppress and dominate the population, and for his capital, William wanted the strongest castle of all: a building that would symbolize his power and terrorize his subjects.
Needing an architect, William chose a man of God to build a forbidding fortress. Brother Gandalf was a monk and an architect considered without equal, and dedicated to churches and cathedrals. But the ambitious Gandalf dreamed of bigger and better religious buildings. William offered to make Gandalf a bishop with the chance to design a new cathedral. But to get it, Gandalf first had to design and build a fearsome fortress in the heart of London. Gandalf’s ambition drove him to accept the offer. The man of God made a deal with a fearsome Norman conqueror.
A fortress condensed into a single great tower. The castle would dominate London and guard the River Thames. A perfectionist, he insisted on the best materials. Protected on two sides by the old Roman wall and the river, the remaining two sides were enclosed by a water-filled moat. The great tower would be virtually unassailable. Three years, the has withstood centuries of turmoil and war, protected the kingdom, and was the center of one of the greatest empires in history. Despite Monk Gandalf’s design to keep enemies from getting into the fortress, the Tower couldn’t keep its first prisoner from attempting to break out.
In the year 1100, the Bishop of Durham was imprisoned in the newly finished Tower of London. The bishop, a tax collector in addition to his religious duties, was a corrupt public official hated by Londoners. To appease the taxpayers, the King jailed the bishop on charges of extortion and bribery. A rich man, the bishop served easy time. Even though he was closely guarded by Norman knights, the bishop was allowed to keep sacks of gold for expenses and have his servants bring in food and wine. Fond of food and drink, the heavyset bishop hosted lavish dinners in the Tower’s banquet hall and turned into drunken revels.
But the bishop tired of his gilded cage and plotted a cunning escape with the help of his servant. The bishop announced a special feast and ordered that casks of wine be delivered. Brought in under the nose of the jail guards, one of the wine casks had a length of rope hidden inside. The bishop invited the Tower guards to the banquet. He made sure the guards had as much wine as they wanted, but the bishop remained strangely sober. He waited until the guards nodded off in drunken stupors. Grabbing his sacks of gold and retrieving the rope from the wine cask, the bishop made his way to the Tower wall.
Securing the rope, the bishop climbed over and started sliding down. The fat bishop had the added weight of his gold, and it looked as if the rope might break. But the rope held, and he continued his slide down towards freedom. Reaching to the end of the rope, the bishop discovered it wasn’t long enough. He was left dangling above a dark abyss below. The helpless bishop was too fat and loaded down to make it back up the rope. The only choice was to let go. He held onto his sacks of gold and fell the rest of the way. He crashed to the ground without injury. Gathering up his coins, the bishop hustled to a boat and made it safely to the sanctuary of the French coast. The bishop became the first prisoner to escape from the fortress.
The lucky few who escaped from the grasp of the Tower were rare exceptions. Once inside the stone walls, most victims were trapped. Even an innocent teenage girl meant tragedy in the Tower. A girl was plucked from an ordinary life, and within weeks, found herself the Queen of England. But she was caught in a web of intrigue that turned into a nightmare. Jane Gray was just 15 years old when she was snatched from an idyllic childhood. As a daughter of the aristocracy, she landed in a nightmare where everyone, even her parents, abandoned her. Trapped in a paranoid web of intrigue, Jane’s nightmare was real.
Jane’s journey included a nine-day reign as the Queen of England. Jane’s cousin was 15-year-old King Edward. When he took to the throne in 1547, he was weak and sickly. Four years later, the child king was near death. Because of the king’s youth and illness, a group of nobles known as the Royal Council ran the kingdom, and the council was run by the ambitious Duke of Northumberland. Northumberland’s power was threatened because if the king died, the throne would revert to the king’s eldest sister, Mary. Northumberland had to come up with a scheme so he could continue to rule.
Northumberland hatched a risky plot. He would arrange a marriage between his own teenage son, Guilford, and the king’s cousin, Jane Gray. Then, Northumberland would persuade the dying king to name Jane as his heir. When Jane became Queen, Northumberland’s son would be crowned king. Northumberland would then rule the country. Jane and Guilford knew nothing of their parents’ scheme. The two teenagers, who barely knew each other, were told they were to become husband and wife. Jane’s greedy, social-climbing parents jumped at the chance and eagerly agreed to the plot.
The marriage was arranged. Ordered by her parents, Jane was trapped. She had to marry Guilford. On the morning of her wedding, guests remarked that she looked like a toy doll, even younger than her years. But the omens for Jane’s marriage were not good; thunder and rain marred the hastily forced wedding. Despite the speed of the engagement and marriage, the bewildered Jane was determined to make the best of it. After the wedding ceremony, the couple suddenly found themselves alone, locked together in a world not of their making. Jane was determined to do her duty and fulfill her role as a wife to Guilford.
At night, the couple slept the sleep of the innocent, blissfully unaware of the nightmare that lay ahead. For the first few weeks of their forced marriage, the teenagers got to know each other. Jane tried hard to love the handsome young stranger who was now suddenly sharing her bed. But less than six weeks after the wedding, Jane received startling news. A lady-in-waiting came to her bedchamber with the news that her cousin, the boy king Edward, was severely ill. She was to go at once to her father-in-law Northumberland’s estate.
At Northumberland’s palace, the young couple were met by a disturbing scene. As Jane wrote in her diary, “Everyone began making complimentary speeches and bending their knee, which made me blush. My distress increased when my parents paid homage to me.”
Finally, Jane’s father-in-law, Northumberland, told her the king was dead. For the first time, the shocked Jane was told she was to become Queen of England. Weeping piteously for the death of the king, she cried out, “The crown is not my right and pleaseth me not.”
Telling her it was for the good of England, Jane’s scheming parents convinced her to assume the throne. Later, she wrote, “I should not have accepted it.”
It showed. The next day, Jane was taken to the Tower, where she was proclaimed Queen. The crown was brought to her, but Jane insisted she had not asked to see it. It was explained that the crown was going to be adjusted to fit her head. Then, Jane discovered a king’s crown was being fitted for her husband, Guilford. Suddenly, the entire ugly plot became clear. She was not to be the real heir to the throne; her scheming father-in-law, Northumberland, was using her to have his son, Guilford, become king. They were pawns in a struggle for power. Jane was furious. She told the councilors they had betrayed her.
“I will never, never allow Guilford to become king,” she stated.
Meanwhile, outside the Tower, Princess Mary was raising an army to take the throne by force. A civil war over the crown erupted. Jane was to remain in the Tower until Mary was captured. Although she didn’t know it at the time, the 15-year-old would never set foot outside the fortress walls again. As Jane passed her days and nights quietly inside the Tower, across England, the entire country began to take sides for Mary or Jane. The stakes were high, and the price of failure was death.
Jane was now in the eye of the storm. At the time, powerful noblemen were able to raise their own militias. Northumberland gathered soldiers and set off to defeat Mary and her supporters. If he failed, he would pay with his life. As the desperate Northumberland battled back in London, his scheme was unraveling. Support for Mary was growing. The council began to doubt their decision-making. Jane—Queen Jane—had become a liability. In a desperate attempt to save themselves, the council switched their support to Mary Tudor as the rightful monarch. They declared Northumberland a traitor and Jane a usurper.
Jane’s time as Queen was up. Jane’s father told her that his daughter must give up the crown which, only 10 days earlier, she had tried so hard to refuse. On hearing the news, Jane said to her father, “Much more willingly.”
Her father didn’t answer. Northumberland was defeated by Mary’s army and taken prisoner. Jane’s parents fled the Tower, leaving their daughter behind. Jane was arrested for treason. She was left in the Tower as a prisoner, along with her teenage husband, Guilford. A triumphant Mary Tudor took the throne as Queen of England and began plotting her revenge on everyone who had kept her from power. Jane’s father-in-law, Northumberland, paid for his treatment with his head. But even “Bloody Mary” did not believe that Jane Gray was a traitor; the teenager had simply been a pawn in a massive game of power politics.
Jane knew that she had to stand trial for treason and be found guilty. But Jane had been given the Queen’s word that she and her husband, Guilford, would be pardoned and eventually would be set free. Jane’s thoughts were with her husband.
“If it be your will, Lord, let me be pardoned,” she prayed. “That above all, let my husband be spared.”
Everything might have gone according to plan if Jane’s father had not foolishly raised an army to return his daughter to the throne. Jane’s father had his army seize the south bank of the River Thames. He demanded the Tower, his daughter, and the new Queen Mary be surrendered to him. When Queen Mary refused, Jane’s father bombarded the Tower with his own daughter in it. He was endangering his daughter’s life as well as that of the Queen. The innocent teenager had to die to end the plots against the new Queen. Mary signed death warrants for Jane and Guilford.
Jane’s fate was sealed. She had a chance to see her doomed beloved husband, Guilford. Unable to face the pain, she refused to meet him. “To meet him would weaken our resolve to meet our deaths,” she said, “where our happiness will be eternal.”
From her cell, the teenager watched her young husband led to the scaffold. She remained at the window until his headless body was carried back. For the first time, she broke down and wept, muttering Guilford’s name over and over. Now, it was Jane’s turn to face the executioner. A pawn in the struggle for the throne, the innocent teenage girl had to take the long walk that would end at her decapitation. She walked bravely from her cell to the scaffold on Tower Green. As she mounted the steps, Jane remained brave and calm, but her priests and ladies-in-waiting broke down and wept. When Jane knelt down and tied a handkerchief around her eyes, she reached at the block, but it was beyond her reach. For the first time, she panicked.
“Oh,” she cried. “Thank God.”
Everyone on the platform froze in horror. Finally, someone in the crowd mounted the steps and placed the terrified girl’s hands on the block. Calming herself, she laid her head on the block. “Lord, into my hands I commend my spirit.”
Fifteen-year-old Jane Gray had been Queen for only nine days. She was executed on February the 13th, 1558. Though Jane Gray was one of the few in English history who did not want the crown, she died for it anyway. Throughout history, many have fought and died for the right to wear the famous symbol of power. But besides being a symbol, the crown and its jewels are also very precious objects. The actual collection of crowns, scepters, orbs, and ceremonial necklaces are kept in a vault deep inside the Tower, guarded with tight security. Every day, thousands of tourists inspect the crown jewels. Many visitors often ask how much that collection is worth.
The answer is that the crown jewels are worth nothing, for they are priceless. Encrusted with rare gems, the Royal Crown itself is worn only on state occasions and then returned to its permanent home. It is said some of the stones that make up the crown jewels exert a strange and mystical power. The Kohinoor Diamond, seen here set in the crown of Queen Elizabeth at her coronation, is said to carry a strange curse. The famed stone has been fought over for two thousand years. In 1739, the Shah of Persia invaded India searching for the Kohinoor Diamond, then owned by the Mogul Emperor. Despite a brutal ransacking, the diamond couldn’t be found. Eventually, after being tortured, one of the Emperor’s harem revealed that the Emperor hid the diamond in his turban.
The Shah invited the Emperor to a feast and suggested they cement a peace by exchanging turbans. In a room, the Shah unwrapped the Emperor’s turban and out spilled the priceless stone. “Kohinoor,” he exclaimed, which means “mountain of light” in Persian.
The huge diamond came to Britain in 1850 during British rule of India. It was presented to Queen Victoria, who had the stone recut and placed in the new crown. No male member of the royal family has ever worn it because legend states that men who possess it will suffer misfortune, while women who own the diamond will rule the world. Stealing the crown jewels from the Tower of London remains one of the ultimate criminal challenges. No one’s ever done it, but one man came very close. A rogue named Colonel Thomas Blood attempted to steal the jewels and actually came to hold the crown in his hands. But strangely enough, he didn’t have to pay the consequences for his audacious crime.
In early September 1680, a group of men dug up the body of Colonel Thomas Blood in a London graveyard. They wanted to make sure he was really dead. Colonel Thomas Blood had brazenly broken into the Tower of London and actually held the crown in his hands. How he nearly stole the crown jewels and got away with it is one of the greatest riddles in the Tower’s history.
In 1659, King Charles II took back the throne from rebels after 17 years of civil war. To symbolize his power, the newly enthroned King ordered that crown jewels be made. But the collection of jewels would soon be the target of a brazen crime. Living more than jewels to show his power, King Charles purged rebels and their sympathizers. One of the victims of the King’s campaign was Colonel Thomas Blood. As a rebel supporter, Colonel Blood’s money, house, and land were confiscated by the King’s agents. He was left a broken man, bitter, looking for revenge. Out to regain his fortune, Colonel Blood planned attacks on the King’s supporters. The Colonel’s prone to outlandish schemes that always seemed to be jinxed, but in lucky twists of fate, he always managed to survive.
He organized an attack on Dublin Castle, hoping to take the King’s representative prisoner and hold him for ransom. Days before the plot was put into action, the entire affair unraveled. Dozens of conspirators were arrested, tried, and executed. Despite a large reward for his capture, the clever Colonel Blood was able to get away. Colonel Blood escaped to England under an assumed name. With several failed schemes behind him, the hapless Colonel Blood was broke and desperate. Finally, he hatched a plot as bizarre as it was elaborate. Colonel Blood proposed to steal King Charles’s new crown jewels.
Colonel Blood learned that the jewels were kept in the lower dungeon of the Jewel House. They were guarded by a retired military officer named Talbot Edwards. Edwards was the Master of the Jewels and guided visitors who wanted to see the collection. Edwards and his family lived in an apartment above the Royal vaults. Launching his scheme, Colonel Blood disguised himself as a reverend and enlisted a female accomplice who pretended to be his wife. Together, they visited the Tower under the pretext of viewing the crown jewels. Once the pair were at the Tower, the gullible Talbot Edwards welcomed them and led them through the vaults to the precious gems.
Once inside the jewel vault, Blood’s plan began to swing into action. Blood faked illness, and when his so-called wife pretended to faint, Blood suggested that she be taken somewhere more comfortable to recover. Playing perfectly into Colonel Blood’s scheme, the kindly Edwards insisted the lady be brought to his personal quarters where she could be tended to by his wife. Several days later, Colonel Blood returned with gifts for Mrs. Edwards as repayment for her kindness, and so began a friendship between the two couples.
The phony Reverend Blood relentlessly pursued a relationship with the Master of the Jewels for all it was worth. The families frequently dined together. On one occasion, Colonel Blood brought along a young man he introduced as his nephew. In fact, the nephew was a partner in crime brought in to case the heist job. Colonel Blood told Edwards that the nephew had a friend visiting London who wanted to see the crown jewels. The Colonel claimed the friend could not wait until the Tower was opened because he had to leave early. In reality, the friend was the third member of the robbery team. Edwards gladly made special arrangements; everyone should be at the Tower just before seven o’clock the next morning.
On the night of May the 8th, 1671, Colonel Blood and his accomplices made their final preparations. They each carried a short dagger. Colonel Blood took several pistols and a wooden mallet. Another man carried a file. Just before dawn, they set off for the Tower. One man guarded the horses while Colonel Blood and the other two put their plan into action. Nervously, Blood and his men made their way across the open courtyard to the Tower itself. Hiding their firearms, Blood led them to the entrance of the Jewel Tower. The unsuspecting Edwards warmly greeted the men and led them to the vault.
The would-be robbers were now within yards of the biggest and most valuable haul in the world. As the massive iron gate swung open, Colonel Blood drew the mallet and bashed Edwards across the head. The Master of the Jewels fell, screaming and struggling. In the scuffle, one of the thieves stabbed Edwards while the others rushed into the vault. Blood smashed the crown, shoving its crumpled remnants into an old leather bag. Everything was going according to plan. Nothing but an easy escape stood between Colonel Blood and unimaginable riches.
But Colonel Blood’s jinx struck again. The thieves ran into Edwards’ son, who unexpectedly stepped into the middle of the heist. With young Edwards and a Tower guard in hot pursuit, the thieves scrambled away and into the winding maze of the Tower. Colonel Blood and his accomplices crossed the open courtyard towards the Tower drawbridge and freedom beyond. Colonel Blood’s outlandish scheme was unraveling as his partners were taken down one by one. Only Colonel Blood remained. Colonel Blood was blocked by yet another warden. In a last-ditch attempt to escape, Colonel Blood drew a pistol. As the gun went off, the warden ducked and wrestled Colonel Blood to the ground.
Another of Colonel Blood’s outlandish schemes had failed again. He was dragged back into the Tower, where he would wait at his cell to face a trial for treason. It looked like Colonel Blood’s luck for avoiding the law had finally run out. By the end of the day, news of Colonel Blood’s astonishing plot and the damage to the crown jewels reached King Charles. But the King had a strange reaction; he was curious rather than outraged about this strange criminal with more bravery than brains. Four days later, the King confronted the man who almost stole the treasure. No one knows what words passed between the King of England and the common thief, but within days of this strange meeting, Colonel Thomas Blood was released from the Tower with a full Royal pardon.
Even more amazingly, Colonel Blood was granted a lordly pension of 500 pounds a year for life. He had wriggled out of trouble once again. Though Colonel Blood may have amused King Charles, no one else trusted him. Rumors had it that he became a spy for the King, or perhaps a duke, the King, or maybe he was just a charming con man. History will never know the answer. When the news of Colonel Blood’s death was announced on August 24th, 1680, it was assumed it was another of the rascal’s harebrained schemes, that he had faked his own death. The London coroner ordered the body to be exhumed. Indeed, he was there. The grave was one tight spot even the audacious Colonel Blood could not escape.
Through the centuries, those who were trapped in the Tower of London fought to get out. Now, instead of fighting to get out, crowds line up to get in. And the warders who once led the condemned to execution now conduct guided tours and entertain visitors with stories of brutal beheadings. The walls of the Tower have withstood a thousand years of deadly plots, fierce power struggles, and attempted invasions. The Tower stands as a fearsome symbol of Royal might and a reminder of the tragic fate that befell those who attempted to challenge the kingdom. Now, only the ravens that live at the Tower are confined within these ancient walls. Legend has it that if the birds depart, the Tower and the kingdom will fall, so their wings are clipped to keep them lifelong prisoners of the Tower of London.
