/year

Tower of London

castle in central London, United Kingdom

76 dated entries naming Tower of London, drawn from 57 separate years between 1078 CE and 1928 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

JSONWikipedia articleWikidata Q62378

11th century

  • 1078Approximate date – The White Tower of the Tower of London is begun, under the direction of Gundulf (or Gundulph), bishop of Rochester.source

12th century

  • 1101February 3 – Ranulf Flambard, bishop of Durham, escapes from the Tower of London and flees to Normandy. There he joins Robert Curthose, duke of Normandy, who has just returned from the Crusades.source

13th century

  • 1215May 17 – The gates to London are opened by supporters of the rebellious Barons. The houses of Jews are targeted for ransacking and burning. The rebels, under Robert Fitzwalter, call for the English nobles still on the side of King John to join them, and repair the walls. The Tower of London, held by John's supporters, is too well defended to fall into the hands of the rebels.source
  • 1220Spring – King Henry III makes large alterations to the Tower of London including new curtain walls, an improved water-filled ditch, and a water gate, so that he can enter the castle directly from the Thames.source
  • 1261June 12 – King Henry III of England obtains a papal bull to absolve himself from his oath to maintain the Provisions of Oxford. He hires an army of 300 French knights as a bodyguard and takes up position in the Tower of London. He dismisses the baronial officials (led by Simon de Montfort) who wish the royal power to be modified by the principle of representation. This sets the stage for the Second Barons' War.source
  • 1278November 17 – King Edward I ("Longshanks") raises the penalty for coin clipping from banishment to execution. All Jews are subjected to arrest and search of their homes on suspicion of coin clipping. Some 680 Jews are imprisoned in the Tower of London, with more than 300 subsequently executed. At this time, the Jewish population is believed to have been some 3,000.source
  • 1279The Royal Mint is moved into the Tower of London. Mints outside London are reduced, with only a few local and episcopal mints continuing to operate.source

14th century

  • 1321October 31 – Forces of Edward II of England capture Leeds Castle in Kent after Margaret de Clare, wife of Bartholomew Badlesmere, refuses Queen Isabella admittance in her husband's absence. When the Queen seeks to force an entry, Lady Badlesmere instructs her archers to shoot at Isabella and her party, six of whom are killed. After Edward occupies the castle, Lady Badlesmere becomes the first woman ever to be imprisoned in the Tower of London. She will be freed on November 3, 1322.source
  • 1322November 3 – Margaret de Clare, widow of the Contrariant Baron Baldesmere, is freed from incarceration after having spent more than a year as the first woman ever to be imprisoned in the Tower of London (having defied the queen). Margaret retires to a religious life at the convent of the Minorite Sisters (later known as the Poor Clares).source
  • 1326September 24 – Invasion of England: Isabella of France and her supporters (including Roger Mortimer) land at the River Orwell in Suffolk. Their aim is to remove King Edward II from his throne and place Prince Edward there as the new ruler. Meanwhile, residing at the Tower of London, Edward tries to raise support in the capital, but instead, there is anarchy in London and mobs killing Edward's officials (including his treasurer, Walter de Stapledon).source
  • 1388February 20 – London's Lord Mayor Bembre is hanged in public at Tyburn after having been imprisoned in the Tower of London.source
  • 1399September 1 – Richard II, though still nominally the King of England, is imprisoned by Henry Bolingbroke at the Tower of London.source

15th century

  • 1460July 4 – The cannons of the Tower of London, still in Lancastrian hands, are fired on the city of London, which is mostly in Yorkist. The Tower is surrendered on July 19.source
  • 1465July 24 – Henry of Lancaster, the former King Henry VI of England, is imprisoned in the Tower of London by order of King Edward IV. His queen consort Margaret of Anjou and Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, have fled to France.source
  • 1470October 3 – The Earl of Warwick releases King Henry VI of England from imprisonment in the Tower of London, and restores him to the throne.source
  • 1471May 12 – The siege of London is attempted by hundreds of supporters of England's House of Lancaster, who are attempting to free the former King Henry VI from imprisonment in the Tower of London. Led by Thomas Neville, the Lancastrians set cannons up on the south bank of the Thames and attempt to bombard London, but are unable to break the defense put up by Londoners led by Edward Woodville, Lord Scales, and the attack fails after three days.source
  • 1471May 21 – King Edward IV celebrates his victories with a triumphal parade on his return to London. The captured Queen Margaret is paraded through the streets. On the same day Henry VI of England is murdered in the Tower of London, eliminating all Lancastrian opposition to the House of York.source
  • 1478February 18 – George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason against his older brother King Edward IV of England, is privately executed in the Tower of London.source
  • 1483May 19 – King Edward V moves into the Tower of London, the traditional residence of monarchs prior to a coronation. King Edward's coronation had recently been rescheduled for June 25.source
  • 1483June 13 – William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings, is executed, in the first recorded execution at the Tower of London.source
  • 1483June 16 – Richard, Duke of York, the younger brother of King Edward V, arrives at the Tower of London.source
  • 1483September 3 – The Princes in the Tower, uncrowned 12-year-old Edward V, recently deposed as King of England, is murdered in the Tower of London along with his 10-year-old brother, Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, on the orders of their uncle, King Richard III.source
  • 1499November 23 – Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the throne of England, is hanged for reportedly attempting to escape from the Tower of London.source
  • 1499November 28 – Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick, last male member of the House of York, is executed for reportedly attempting to escape from the Tower of London.source

16th century

  • 150624 April – After being extradited to England as part of Henry's agreement with Philip, Edmund de la Pole is imprisoned in the Tower of London as a rival claimant to the throne.source
  • 1534April 13 – Sir Thomas More, having been brought before a royal commission to swear his allegiance to the Act of Succession, testifies that he accepts Parliament's right to declare Anne Boleyn the legitimate Queen of England, but denies that the marriage is spiritually valid of the king's second marriage". Holding fast to the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal supremacy, More refuses to take the oath of supremacy toward King Henry VIII. More is confined in the Tower of London. He will be executed on July 6, 1535.source
  • 1534June – Thomas FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Kildare (Silken Thomas) revolts. He had heard rumours that his father had been executed in the Tower of London and, as a result, publicly renounces his allegiance to King Henry VIII.source
  • 1535October – Silken Thomas is sent as a prisoner to the Tower of London.source
  • 1537February 3 – the rebel Thomas FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Kildare ("Silken Thomas"), imprisoned in the Tower of London, is hanged, drawn and quartered, with his five uncles, at Tyburn.source
  • 1546December 12 – Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk and the Lord High Treasurer of England since 1522 is arrested along with his eldest son, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey and both are imprisoned in the Tower of London. The Earl of Surrey is executed for treason on January 19; the Duke of Norfolk is sentenced to death, but before the sentence can be carried out, King Henry VIII passes away and Norfolk remains in the Tower until being pardoned in 1553.source
  • 1554March 18 – Princess Elizabeth is imprisoned in the Tower of London on charges of working with the organizers of Wyatt's rebellion for the overthrow of Queen Mary of England.source
  • 1576February 8 – Peter Wentworth, a Puritan M.P. of the Parliament of England, is arrested in the middle of giving an address criticizing "rumours and messages" given to suppress freedom of speech. When he says that "the devil was the first author of them, from whom proceedeth nothing but wickedness", he is interrupted and taken to the Tower of London for imprisonment.source
  • 1584January 16 – Roman Catholic priest George Haydock, imprisoned in the Tower of London since 1582, states during an interrogation that he claimed that Queen Elizabeth, leader of the Church of England, was a heretic. Convicted of treason, he is executed on February 12.source
  • 1587February 27 – Sir Anthony Cope, a member of the English Parliament, is imprisoned in the Tower of London after presenting a Puritan revision of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer to the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir John Puckering. He is released on March 23.source
  • 15923 November – Sir John Perrot, former Lord Deputy of Ireland, dies in the Tower of London awaiting sentence for a conviction for high treason.source

17th century

  • 1603November 17 – Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason, in the converted Great Hall of Winchester Castle. He is found guilty, but his life is spared by King James I at this time, and he is returned to imprisonment in the Tower of London.source
  • 1615Mary Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury, is released from the Tower of London, in recognition of her role in helping to discover the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury.source
  • 1616March 19 – Sir Walter Ralegh, English explorer of the New World, is released from prison in the Tower of London, where he has been imprisoned for treason, in order to conduct a second (ill-fated) expedition, in search of El Dorado in South America.source
  • 1617December 30 – Lord Clifton is imprisoned at the Tower of London for threatening Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor. Clifton is prosecuted by the Star Chamber on March 17 and eventually commits suicide in Fleet Prison.source
  • 1618Thomas Blood, soldier who tries to steal the Crown Jewels of England from the Tower of London in 1671 (died 1680)source
  • 164011–12 May – attack on Lambeth Palace by a London mob; Archbishop Laud has fled. A young drummer, Benstead, is convicted of treason for encouraging the crowd, hanged, drawn and quartered, and has his head set above London Bridge; and a glover, John Archer, supposed by the authorities to be a leader, becomes the last person in England to be tortured on the rack (in the Tower of London), but does not reveal any other names.source
  • 164025 November – the Earl of Strafford imprisoned in the Tower of London.source
  • 1646July – John Lilburne is imprisoned for a second time, this time in the Tower of London, for denouncing his former commander as a traitor and Royalist sympathiser; the campaign to free Lilburne gives rise to the populist political movement called the Levellers.source
  • 1651August 28 – The "Onfall of Alyth takes place in the Scottish town of the same name when most of the members of Scotland's governing body, the Committee of States, are betrayed to English invaders. The Earl of Leven, the Earl of Crawford, the Earl Marischal, Lord Nairne and other prominent people are captured and imprisoned in the Tower of London.source
  • 1658January 13 – Edward Sexby, who had plotted against Oliver Cromwell, dies in the Tower of London.source
  • 1660March 3 – General John Lambert, who had attempted to stop the Restoration, is arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London. He escapes on April 9 but is recaptured on April 24. Though spared the death penalty for treason in 1662, he remains incarcerated on the island of Guernsey for the rest of his life until his death at age 64 on March 1, 1684.source
  • 166022 April – General John Lambert, having escaped from imprisonment in the Tower of London and attempted to rekindle the Civil War in favour of the Commonwealth by issuing a proclamation calling on all supporters of the "Good Old Cause" to rally on the battlefield of Edgehill, is recaptured at Daventry by Colonel Richard Ingoldsby.source
  • 1667June 27 – George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, one of the five members of the Cabal ministry in England (Lords Chudleigh, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley and Lauderdale), turns himself in after a warrant for his arrest is issued on February 25 on charges of treason (including the casting of the horoscope of King Charles II). He is held in the Tower of London for four years before being released on July 17, 1671.source
  • 166727 June – George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, one of the five members of the Cabal ministry (Lords Chudleigh, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley and Lauderdale), turns himself in after a warrant for his arrest is issued on 25 February on charges of treason (including the casting of the King's horoscope). He is held in the Tower of London for four years before being released on 17 July 1671.source
  • 1668December – William Penn imprisoned for nearly 8 months in the Tower of London for writing a pamphlet attacking Trinitarian doctrine.source
  • 1669Undated – Count Cosimo, grand duke of Tuscany, visits the Tower of London and gives the Yeomen Warders the nickname "Beefeaters".source
  • 1671May 9 – Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom from the Tower of London. He is immediately caught, because he is too drunk to run with the loot. He is later condemned to death, and then mysteriously pardoned and exiled by King Charles II.source
  • 16719 May – "Colonel" Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London but is caught before he can get away with the loot. He is later condemned to death and then pardoned and exiled by King Charles II.source
  • 1677February 15 – Four members of the English House of Lords embarrass King Charles II at the opening of the latest session of the "Cavalier Parliament" by proclaiming that the session is not legitimate because it had not met in more than a year. The Duke of Buckingham, backed by Lord Shaftesbury, Lord Salisbury and Baron Wharton, makes an unsuccessful motion to end the session. When the four Lords refuse to apologize, they are arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London.source
  • 167716 February – politicians the Earl of Shaftesbury, Duke of Buckingham, Lord Wharton and the Earl of Salisbury are arrested and sent to the Tower of London for challenging the legitimacy of the new session of Parliament.source
  • 167825 October – five Catholic peers accused of involvement in the "Popish Plot" are arrested at the instance of the House of Commons and committed to the Tower of London. On 1 November, impeachment proceedings begin.source
  • 1678November 11 (November 1 O.S.) – England's House of Commons votes to begin impeachment proceedings against five Roman Catholic members of the House of Lords, Viscount Stafford, the Marquess of Powis, Baron Arundell, Baron Petre and Baron Belasyse accused by Protestant members as participating in a "Popish Plot". Viscount Stafford is convicted and executed, while the other four are imprisoned in the Tower of London for more than five years.source
  • 16812 July – Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury charged with treason, and imprisoned in the Tower of London, but subsequently acquitted.source
  • 1688May 4 – King James II of England orders his Declaration of Indulgence, suspending penal laws against Catholics, to be read from every Anglican pulpit in England. The Church of England and its staunchest supporters, the peers and gentry, are outraged; on June 8 the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Sancroft, is imprisoned in the Tower of London for refusing to proclaim it.source
  • 16888 June ("Black Friday") – the Seven Bishops are imprisoned in the Tower of London prior to trial for seditious libel.source
  • 1696March 18 – Robert Charnock, who had been arrested for the Jacobite plot to kill King William is hanged at the Tower of London.source

18th century

  • 171217 January – Robert Walpole imprisoned in the Tower of London following charges of corruption.source
  • 171516 July – Imprisonment of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, in the Tower of London for his part in the negotiations over the Treaty of Utrecht.source
  • 1716August 4 – George Seton, 5th Earl of Winton, under sentence of death for his part in the Jacobite rising of 1715, escapes from the Tower of London and flees into exile on the continent.source
  • 17164 August – George Seton, 5th Earl of Winton, under sentence of death for his part in the Jacobite rising of 1715, escapes from the Tower of London and flees into exile on the continent.source
  • 17219 March – John Aislabie imprisoned in the Tower of London, found guilty of corruption for his part in the collapse of the South Sea Company as Chancellor of the Exchequer.source
  • 1722August 24 – Francis Atterbury, Anglican Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster, is arrested in his deanery and confined in the Tower of London for treason, accused of leading the Jacobite "Atterbury Plot" in support of the pretender James Francis Edward Stuart with the aim of overthrowing the House of Hanover and King George I of Great Britain and restoring the House of Stuart by installing Prince James as "King James III".source
  • 172224 August – Francis Atterbury, Anglican Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster, is arrested in his deanery and confined in the Tower of London for treason, accused of leading the Jacobite "Atterbury Plot" in support of the pretender James Francis Edward Stuart.source
  • 1746May 27 – The three Scottish leaders of the Jacobite uprising— the Earl of Kilmarnock, Lord Balmerino, and Lord Lovat— are imprisoned for treason in the Tower of London, where they are held by the British government until their execution. Boyd and Balmerino are beheaded in August, while Fraser is not put to death until April 1747.source
  • 1746August 18 – Two of the four rebellious Scottish lords, Earl of Kilmarnock and Lord Balmerinoch, are beheaded in the Tower of London (Lord Lovat is executed in 1747).source
  • 174618 August – two of the four rebellious Scottish lords, the Earl of Kilmarnock and Lord Balmerinoch, are beheaded in the Tower (Lord Lovat executed 1747).source

19th century

  • 1841October 30 – A fire at the Tower of London destroys its Grand Armoury and causes a quarter of a million pounds' worth of damage.source
  • 184130 October – A fire at the Tower of London destroys its Grand Armoury and causes a quarter of a million pounds worth of damage.source
  • 1885January 24 – Irish rebels damage Westminster Hall and the Tower of London with dynamite.source
  • 188524 January – Irish terrorists damage Westminster Hall and the Tower of London with dynamite.source

20th century

  • 19286–7 January – River Thames floods in London; 14 drown. On 7 January, the moat at the Tower of London (drained in 1843 and planted with grass) is completely refilled by the river.source

Named in the same entries