The Tower of London as a prison

The Tower of London wasn’t built as a prison, but hundreds of people were incarcerated here. This story is one of traitors and executions, but also luxury, banquets and daring escapes.

Famous prisoners of the Tower include Scottish kings and French dukes, young princes and princesses, lords, ladies and archbishops alongside thieves, religious conspirators and even a few politicians.

Many prisoners did not end their lives here, but were released after paying a ransom or when they no longer posed a threat to security.

Like the story of the Tower of London itself, its role as a prison is a varied one.

Sent to the Tower

The first and last prisoners at the Tower of London

The first prisoner of the Tower, Ranulf Flambard, Bishop of Durham was also the Tower's first escapee. In 1101, he climbed through one of the White Tower's windows using a rope smuggled to him in a gallon of wine.

Over 800 years later, on 15 August 1941, Josef Jakobs was the last person to be executed by firing squad at the Tower, having been found guilty of spying for Germany during the Second World War.

How were prisoners treated at the Tower of London?

Prisoners at the Tower of London had varying experiences, from the luxurious to the lethal. Wealthy, influential inmates could be held in relative comfort, deprived only of their liberty.

Some captive kings, such as Scottish king John Balliol, brought in a host of servants. Others were allowed out on hunting or shopping trips! But those suspected or found guilty of treason, which including counterfeiting coins as well as plotting against the monarch, suffered far more.

By the Tudor period, the Tower had secured a reputation as the foremost state prison in the country and the Tower itself sought to reinforce its image as an unbreakable prison.

Famous prisoners of the Tower of London

Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard

Anne Boleyn was the second wife of Henry VIII. She arrived as a prisoner at the Tower of London in May 1536, accused of adultery and incest. She asked, ‘Shall I go into a dungeon?’ ‘No madam’, came the reply, ‘you shall go into the lodging you lay in at your coronation’.

Only three years before, Anne had enjoyed apartments lavishly refurbished by her then-adoring husband and King.

Anne was found guilty and sentenced to death. As a small mercy, Henry granted her a skilled French swordsman, rather than an axeman. Anne was executed with a single blow, and buried in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula at the Tower.

Later in Henry's reign, his fifth queen Catherine Howard was also imprisoned at the Tower. As she passed under London Bridge, the young woman would have likely seen the rotting heads of her supposed lovers, Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham who had been executed shortly before.

Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford (widow of Anne Boleyn’s brother George), was interrogated and eventually confessed to having facilitated Catherine's meetings with Thomas Culpeper. Jane was executed and buried alongside both Anne and Catherine in the Tower's chapel.

Among the others beheaded on the orders of the monarch during the bloody century of Tudor rule were Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, and Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex.

Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth I)

The young Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth I) was the daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII. She was imprisoned by her half-sister Mary I, who feared that Elizabeth was plotting against her.

Elizabeth arrived at the Tower on 17 March 1554. Legend has it that she entered through Traitors’ Gate, but it is known she walked over a drawbridge, where some of the more sympathetic guards knelt before her.

Elizabeth was held in the Tower at the same time as Robert Dudley, who would later become her favourite.

Held in her mother's former apartments, Elizabeth was comfortable, but under severe psychological strain. Eventually, lack of evidence meant Elizabeth was released into house arrest on 19 May, the anniversary of her mother Anne Boleyn's execution.

In January 1559, she returned under happier circumstances to prepare for her coronation procession.

Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plotters

Guy Fawkes was brought to the Tower to be interrogated in November 1605 after guards found him hiding in the cellars beneath Parliament, surrounded by barrels of gunpowder. Fawkes was part of a group of conspirators who intended to assassinate James I during the State Opening of Parliament. He was imprisoned and tortured in the Queen’s House at the Tower of London.

Fawkes and the other plotters suffered a grisly traitor’s death: they were hanged, drawn and quartered, with their body parts then displayed throughout London as a warning to others.

The Princes in the Tower

In 1483, 12-year-old Edward V and his younger brother Richard - known as the Princes in the Tower were sent to the Tower ‘for safety’ by their uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. They vanished, apparently without trace and the Duke claimed the throne as Richard III.

In 1674 two small skeletons were discovered by workmen at the Tower. Assumed to be those of the missing Princes, Charles II had them reburied in Westminster. Then in 1933, a re-examination proved they were of two boys aged about 10 and 12 – the same ages as the Princes when they disappeared. Was Richard III, often thought to be the most likely culprit, really responsible? The debate goes on.

Lady Jane Grey

Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen in July 1553. She was an innocent pawn in a failed military coup by her father-in-law, the Duke of Northumberland. Instead, rightful heir Mary I was crowned, while would-be queen Jane and her young husband Lord Guildford were condemned as traitors and sent to the Tower.

Jane and her husband were initially granted a reprieve, but further rebellion made Jane’s existence more of a threat. Mary could not afford to let her live. On 12 February 1554 Guildford was publicly executed on Tower Hill. Jane, as one of the privileged few, was beheaded within the Tower walls. She was 17 years old.

Sir Walter Raleigh

Sir Walter Raleigh was one of the most famous courtiers of Elizabeth I's reign. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London three times, after displeasing both the Queen and her successor, James I.

Raleigh was imprisoned in the Bloody Tower (then known as the Garden Tower) and enjoyed relative luxury, including his own garden and visits from his family. But imprisonment still took its toll, and he attempted suicide here.

Raleigh was eventually executed on the orders of James I after being charged with treason.

George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence

The Duke's death in the 1470s was perhaps one of the most bizarre at the Tower – if legend is to be believed. Official records state that he was put to death privately at the Tower for high treason against his brother Edward IV. But other contemporary sources allege he was drowned head-first in a barrel of his favourite Malmsey wine.

Were people tortured at the Tower of London?

Of all the roles that the Tower has played, torture has attracted the most myth and legend. A potent mixture of fiction and fact has created a fearsome reputation.

Torture was used at the Tower of London, but for a relatively short period during the 16th and 17th centuries. It was used especially during the Tudor period, a time of great political turmoil.

Only a small number of cases of physical torture at the Tower were recorded. Although prisoners in the Tower could be kept in solitary confinement and deprived of food or sleep, physical torture was used as a deliberate programme of interrogation. It was predominantly used to elicit information rather than as a punishment.

Sometimes, even just the threat of the agony to come was enough to break a prisoner’s resolve.

The rack

This was the principal instrument of torture at the Tower. It was a device upon which victims were laid and then pulled slowly by ropes attached to hands and feet. Repeated racking increased the agony.

Anne Askew

The only woman reputedly tortured at the Tower during the 16th century was Anne Askew. The 25-year-old Anne was accused of being a Protestant heretic. When she refused to name others who shared her faith, she was racked repeatedly. She was carried, as she was unable to walk after torture, to be burnt at the stake.

A fearsome reputation

Eventually, the Tower became used principally as a secure store for documents, armaments and jewels, instead of prisoners. However, it still remained best known as a dark place of execution and torture.

This is largely because of the Tower’s growing popularity as a tourist attraction in the 19th century. Victorian crowds, entranced by the gothic tales and exaggerated accounts of torture and suffering, flocked to the fortress to enjoy the chill of the 'dungeons'. But this popular image is only part of the story of the Tower of London.