Tower of London

Early Friday morning we set out as a group for the Tower of London. The first thing we did when we got there was go see the Crown Jewels. Oh wow. Not only are they BEAUTIFUL, but they also have such history. Many of the pieces on display are hundreds of years old and have been used in multiple coronations, etc., throughout history. The largest cut white diamond with perfect clarity was on display. It’s called the First Star of Africa, and it’s set at the end of a scepter. It weighs 530.2 carats… Try to wrap your brain around that for a minute…

Jewels weren’t the only cool part of the trip… We took a tour led be a Yeoman Border through the Tower. Here are some things that I learned while I was there: The Tower of London, actually called Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, is composed of twenty towers, not just one. It was originally built as a fort for defensive reasons, but was later a residence of the Royal Family. Many people think of it as a prison, which it was at times, but that was never the first and foremost purpose. Only six people were ever executed within the tower walls, all of them of high birth—two of them queens, because most executions were carried out on a public scaffold outside the Tower. Regardless of its original intended purpose, it is undeniable that the Tower has a very bloody history. It is the site of many murders, and when the floor of the chapel in the Tower was excavated in recent history they discovered the remains of over 1000 people buried there in the unmarked graves of traitors. (These remains have all been reinterred and given proper Christian burial rights since. The identified royalty have been placed in graves with due recognition.)

In the White Tower, the tower in the middle of the compound, there was a display of the armor of Henry VIII, a man well acquainted with the darker uses of the tower (i.e. chopping of his wives’ heads…) With every assembled suit of armor there was a sign explaining the particular uses of that suit and his approximate size and age at the time of use. Poor guy. How sad would it be to have your (substantial) weight gain chronicled for strangers on plaques placed throughout your home 500 years after your death? I guess that’s karma for you.