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Historic Royal Palaces blog

Insights and behind the scenes from our palaces

Templars at the Tower

12 August 2021

Why is Friday 13th thought of as an unlucky date? One possibility is the arrest of the famous Knights Templar on a different Friday 13th, over 700 years ago. Postdoctoral researcher Rory MacLellan writes about this fascinating story of the imprisonment of the Templars at the Tower.

Caring for the Tower of London through lockdown

11 May 2021

While the Tower of London was closed to the public during the Covid-19 pandemic, much work was underway to protect the fabric of the building and the future of the palace. Assistant Curator Alfred Hawkins reveals one of the important projects that he has been working on behind the scenes.

Walter Hungerford and the Buggery Act: LGBTQ+ History and Punishment at the Tower of London

19 February 2021

As part of LGBT History Month, Olivia Martin examines a darker side of the Tower's history. On 28 July 1540, the first execution under the Buggery Act, the first civil law to criminalise homosexual behaviour, happened on Tower Hill.

500 years of the Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula

19 September 2020

Assistant Curator of Historic Buildings Alfred Hawkins introduces some of the extraordinary stories surrounding the Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula, the little Tudor church at the heart of the Tower of London.

Excavations at the Tower of London's chapel

21 October 2019

Historic Buildings Curator Alfred Hawkins explains the process of archaeological excavations, and their importance in expanding our current understanding of historic sites like the Tower of London.

Why we need to stop looking for sex: letters and LGBT+ royal history

25 February 2019

'How do you know?' I've been asked this a lot recently when I've been talking about LGBT+ royal history. I'm glad to be asked it, because it gets to the heart of studying LGBT+ identities in the past. In this post, I'd like to talk about the evidence and assumptions, which tell us a lot about sexuality in the past, and today.

Ambrose Rookwood and Sir Everard Digby: Lesser-known gunpowder plotters

30 January 2019

You might not have heard of Ambrose Rookwood and Sir Everard Digby. But their marks on the Tower of London can still be seen today.

A Head in the Bloody Tower

04 December 2018

When I started my job at the Tower of London I fully expected to encounter extraordinary things every day. And true to form I was only onto my second week when a fragment of a wall painting on the upper floor of the Bloody Tower was revealed.

Happy Birthday Henry VIII

28 June 2018

On 28 June 2018, Henry VIII will celebrate his 527th birthday. From wherever he is watching. Our most famous Tudor monarch would no doubt have expected a decent seat in Heaven: most early modern rulers tended to believe they had a divinely sanctioned right to rule as they pleased, and Henry was a king who appointed himself as Supreme Head of the English Church.