Brilliant Bloody Battles

I had such a fun and interesting experience at the tower of London. I learned so much information surrounding British history with many artifacts and places to explore. We went through The Crown Jewels, The Chapel Royal of St. Peters and Vincula, The Bloody Tower, Torture rooms, The White Tower, and had a British inspired lunch at the café.   

We started our day together walking through The Crown Jewels getting an up close and personal look at several different crowns, scepters, swords, dresses, and diamonds, all with historical information that I was very interested to learn and experience.

We then walked through different parts of the tower and got to learn about the types of beasts they used to keep there for entertainment and gifts to the monarchy. These animals included baboons, lions, tigers, polar bears, and many others that surprised me how many animals from different places they all kept at the tower together. We learned how the people in charge did not know how to properly care for the exotic animals and had many casualties.

We explored The White Tower after this which displayed horse sculptures and knight armor from past kings and the stories tied to each exhibit. We also explored The Chapel Royal of St. Peters and Vincula shortly after this and got to experience the history that happened within the walls including executions of many people whose bones are still buried under the grounds to this day.

The Bloody Tower was next on the places we wanted to explore and my favorite out of all the places we went to through our tour. We learned about how two young princes were captured, held in the tour and presumably murder by their uncle for him to become king, in other words, the origin for William Shakespeare’s Hamlet! I thought that was the most interesting piece of British history that I found during my visit to the tower of London.

We closed off the tour after a visit to The Torture Room where we got to see the different torture devices that were used to crush or stretch people during this period. I had such a great time learning everything and would most definitely experience this tour again.

EX-WIVES AND THE OG LION KING

WE ARE IN LONDON!

After a daunting airplane experience that left us all jet lagged and relying on caffeine to survive, we landed in London and got some much needed sleep.

Starting off this trip with the Tower of London was such a fun beginning! Walking through the halls and the tiny doorways thinking about not only the architecture of the walls and ceilings but also about how it’s been preserved is incredible. I thought it was really interesting how they would keep lions not just in the tower, but they’d let them walk around, and people would come and tour the tower with the lions walking around. And it wasn’t just lions, but also porcupines and snakes and alligators, aka my nightmare. Surely, it only went perfectly and no one was every harmed at all.

While I didn’t get any pictures of any of the Crown Jewels, I thought that they were amazing.

It was also super interesting looking through the White Tower with the carved horses and King Henry VIII’s armor. I loved seeing the different variations in his gauntlets depending on what weapons and tools he would be using and the armor of his horse. Transitioning from King Henry VIII, my absolute favorite part of the tour was seeing The Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula, where the three queens Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, and Jane Grey are buried. Both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard were married to King Henry VIII and were both executed for charges against adultery. Their bodies are buried in tombs in the crypt beneath the chapel, and as much as I wished I could have gone in to explore more, I was not allowed. Again, the architecture was beautiful and the sanctity of the chapel was still present, even after all of these years. 

I also loved going up the Bloody Tower, where it is rumored that King Richard III held and killed his nephews, the would-be King Edward V and Richard, his brother. While the skeletons of two children were found buried beneath the castle, there is no concrete proof that they were killed by King Richard III, but I think he did.

Walking through London has hands down been the greatest part of the trip, walking through the streets and finding small shops, it’s absolutely brilliant! (But I said it in a British accent on accident and got looked at funny.)

The Tower of London. BUH BUH BUHHHH

Our first historical stop was the Tower of London, which is literally right where we are staying! We started off by going to see the Crown Jewels. The history here is very deep and quite impressive (and expensive). We got to see all of the crowns that the royalty has worn throughout the years. All were very extravagant. 

There was one exhibit that I found quite interesting. It was about the beasts of the tower. It was created in the 1200s. That was a long time ago. There were lions, elephants, polar bears, and monkeys. It was a very sad exhibit. It talked about how because these animals were so foreign, they weren’t correctly cared for. And the animals would also periodically harm humans, because humans didn’t know the boundaries of these animals. 

There were several famous people held in the Tower of London Prison. One of which was Lady Jane Grey. She was known as the Nine Days Queen. She was only 17 years old when she became queen and then executed. She was executed  because she was seen as a threat to Queen Mary I’s Catholic regime. I knew about her before coming on the trip because of a painting that depicts her execution. 

Here are some pictures from the trip, including Lady Jane Grey’s painting:

Picture one is the building where they keep the Crown Jewels. Second is me with the tower Ravens. They clip their wings so they can’t fly away. It is an old tradition. It is said that if the ravens ever leave, the walls of London will fall. The third picture is an old toilet in the White Tower where the armory was. There was also a small chapel in the White Tower, which can be seen in the fourth picture. The fifth picture is a piece of armory for the face. I found it funny because it shows the mustache of the man who wore it. I guess he really wanted to protect his mustache. It is quite impressive. The sixth image is a dragon made out of armor and swords and other things. It is tradition to create trophies or structures out of weapons to showcase their military strength. This one is named Keeper the dragon. And the lastly, the painting of Jane Grey’s execution. It’s a painting that I have always admired for how haunting, sad, and beautiful it is. The story has always stuck with me.

Till my next blog, toodle doo!

-Trevi 🙂