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Here is a close up of one of the towers at the tower of London, which has a violent history, two princes were maybe murdered here, The Tower of London was used as a prison for those of high rank and for religious dissidents. The first prisoner was Ranulf Flambard in 1100 who, as Bishop of Durham, was found guilty of extortion. Ironically he had himself been responsible for various improvements to the design of the Tower after the first architect Gundulf moved back to Rochester. He escaped from the White Tower by climbing down a rope, which had been smuggled into his cell in a wine casket. Other prisoners include: Gruffydd ap Llywelyn (c. 1200 – March 1, 1244) a Welsh prince, the eldest, but illegitimate son of Llywelyn the Great ("Llywelyn Fawr"). He fell to his death whilst trying to escape from a cell in the Tower. John Balliol King of Scotland - after being forced to abdicate the crown of Scotland by Edward I he was imprisoned in the Tower 1296-1299. David II King of Scotland John II King of France Charles I de Valois, Duke of Orléans was one of the many French noblemen wounded in the Battle of Agincourt on October 25, 1415. Captured and taken to England as a hostage, he would remain in captivity for the next twenty-five years, at various places including Wallingford Castle. Charles is now remembered as an accomplished poet owing to the more than five hundred extant poems he produced, most written when a prisoner. Henry VI of England was imprisoned in the Tower, where he was murdered on the 21 of May 1471. Popular legend has accused Richard, Duke of Gloucester of his murder. Each year on the anniversary of Henry VI's death, the Provosts of Eton College and King's College, Cambridge, lay roses and lilies on the altar which now stands where he died. Margaret of Anjou, wife of the above Sir William de la Pole. A distant relative of King Henry VIII, he was incarcerated at the Tower for 37 years (1502-1539) for allegedly plotting against Henry VII thus becoming the longest serving prisoner here. Queen Elizabeth I, imprisoned for two months in 1554 for her alleged involvement in Wyatt's Rebellion. John Gerard, S.J. (1564-1637) an English Jesuit priest, operating undercover during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, when Catholics were being persecuted. He was captured and tortured and incarcerated in the Salt Tower before making a daring escape by rope across the moat. Sir Walter Raleigh spent thirteen years (1603-1616) imprisoned at the Tower but was able to live in relative comfort in the Bloody Tower with his wife and two children. For some of the time he even grew tobacco on Tower Green, just outside his apartment. Here he wrote The History of the World. Nicolas Woodcock. He was a sailor that had worked for the Muscovy Company on voyages of exploration and exploitation (walruses and whales) in the early 17th century. He spent sixteen months (1612-13) in the "gatehouse and tower" for leading a ship of San Sebastian on a whaling voyage to Spitsbergen in 1612. Niall Garve O'Donnell Irish nobleman, ironically a one-time ally of the English against his cousin, Red Hugh O'Donnell. Guy Fawkes, famous for his part in the Gunpowder Plot, was brought to the Tower to be interrogated by a council of the King's Ministers. However, he was not executed here. When he confessed he was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered in the Old Palace Yard at Westminster, however he escaped his fate by jumping off the scaffold at the gallows which in turn broke his neck - killing him. Johan Anders Jägerhorn, a Swedish officer from Finland, Lord Edward FitzGeralds friend, participating in the Irish independence movement. Spent two years in the Tower 1799-1801, but was released because of Russian interests. Lord George Gordon, instigator of the Gordon Riots in 1780, spent 6 months in the Tower while awaiting trial on the charge of High Treason. Rudolf Hess, deputy leader of the German Nazi Party, the last state prisoner to be held in the tower, in May 1941. The Kray twins, the last prisoners to be held, for a few days in 1952, for failing to report for national service. Torture Inside the torture chambers of the tower various implements of torture were used such as the Scavenger’s daughter, a kind of compression device, and the Rack, also known as the Duke of Exeter's Daughter.[11][12] Anne Askew is the only woman on record to have been tortured in the tower, after being taken there in 1546 on a charge of heresy. Sir Anthony Kingston, the Constable of the Tower of London, was ordered to torture Anne in an attempt to force her to name other Protestants. Anne was put on the Rack. Kingston was so impressed with the way Anne behaved that he refused to carry on torturing her, and Henry VIII's Lord Chancellor had to take over. Executions The Tower in 1597.Lower-class criminals were usually executed by hanging at one of the public execution sites outside the Tower. High-profile convicts, such as Thomas More, were publicly beheaded on Tower Hill. Seven nobles (five of them ladies) were beheaded privately on Tower Green, inside the complex, and then buried in the "Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula" (Latin for "in chains," making him an appropriate patron saint for prisoners) next to the Green. Some of the nobles who were executed outside the Tower are also buried in that chapel. (External link to Chapel webpage) The names of the seven beheaded on Tower Green for treason are: William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings (1483) Anne Boleyn (1536) Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (1541) Catherine Howard (1542) Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford (1542) Lady Jane Grey (1554) Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1601) ne