#btw we only have a couple more photosets from the tower left

[shredsandpatches]

Out of the many squillions of pictures I took at the Tower of London, I think I took the most in the Beauchamp Tower. It was often used for housing important prisoners, because it was close to the Lieutenant’s lodgings, and a lot of them carved elaborate graffiti into the walls.

The first few pictures are of Tower Green, perhaps best known as the site where Anne Boleyn was executed. The round dealie you can see in the second row picture (which shows the view from Beauchamp Tower) is a memorial to the people executed there. It was erected in 2006. I didn’t get a good photo of it, I think mostly because it was colder than balls that day, and windier than balls to boot and it’s hard to get really good shots when you’re worried you’re going to be blown off your feet. You can also see, in the Tower Green pics, the church of St. Peter ad Vincula (first row, left), and the Waterloo Barracks, where the crown jewels are kept. (Which we did see, and I will talk about it later -- it was the last thing we went to -- but you’re not allowed to take pictures in there.)

It would take a long time to write about all the different stories behind the pieces of graffiti (plus I didn’t always get pictures of the captions/transcriptions) so I’ll focus on a few of them, but I did take some close-up pictures of the different inscriptions in the third row photo:

I couldn’t fit these into the photoset but they’re in the same general area:

The bell-shaped carving in the middle is a rebus -- note the letter A on the bell. The carver’s name was Thomas Abel. He was Catherine of Aragon’s chaplain and was imprisoned (and eventually executed) for refusing to acknowledge Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn.

The fourth row of the photoset is an elaborate carving made by someone named Thomas Peverell. I don’t actually know much about him; you can see a little bit of information if you click on the picture.

The beautiful carving in the fifth row is believed to have been made by John Dudley, who was imprisoned in the Tower along with his entire family for his support of Lady Jane Grey. It shows the family coat of arms bordered by flowers and plants, which represent four of the brothers, as the inscription at the bottom indicates:

Yow that these beasts do wel behold and se, may deme with ease wherefore here made they be, with borders eke wherin [there may be found] 4 brothers names who list to serche the ground

So the carnations (gillyflowers) represent Guildford Dudley, Lady Jane’s husband; the roses are for Ambrose; the oak (quercus robur) for future royal favorite Robert; and the honeysuckle (lonicera henryi) for Henry. I guess they think John carved it because he doesn’t have a plant.

Here’s a translation of the Tyrrel carving, sixth row right:

We don’t actually know what happened to him (although I assumed he was executed based on what he wrote on the wall, apparently there’s no confirmation of that), which lends a weirdly ominous aspect to his carving.

And of course the “JANE” carving is very well-known. Tradition holds that Jane Grey carved it herself but apparently that’s unlikely as she would have been held in swankier lodgings.

Next time: we wrap up the prisoner graffiti, and there’s a special guest appearance from John Laurens’ dad, for all my Hamilton peeps.