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History, tragedy, glamour and horror.
It's all in the history
of the Tower of London.
It used to be a castle,
but then became a prison.
Kings and Queens
lived here in honour or horror.
Some of them were even beheaded.
It's a place where precious
jewels are kept safe and where
old traditions and
superstitions are still alive.
I'm Yeoman Warder Ryan Barnett.
I'm one of 35 Yeoman Warders
who work here at the Tower of London.
So welcome to this
gruesome and historic place.
I'm going to tell you a few facts
about the Tower of London today.
The Tower of London holds
1,000 years of history as well as
the Crown Jewels.
Here you'll find St. Edward's Crown,
which was used at the coronation of
King Charles III in 2023.
You can look at the royal
treasures, but for security reasons,
photos are prohibited.
That's why we're not
allowed to film inside.
Inside we've got two of the largest
diamonds in the world, incorporated
within our crown
jewels and more regalia.
There's over a hundred items,
over 23,000 precious stones.
So the crown
jewels are priceless.
We can't put a
monetary value on them.
It's the symbolisation, the
historical and cultural element of
the crown jewels.
It also shows the power and
responsibilities our monarchs have.
The tower also has
a gruesome history.
Six people were beheaded here.
Did you know that one
of them was a queen?
Henry VIII had his wife,
Queen Anne Boleyn, beheaded here.
Anne Boleyn, when she was
found guilty of treason
and she was sentenced to death,
she had a great fear of the axe.
So she wrote a letter to King Henry VIII
pleading that she would be
executed in the French manner.
The French manner back then
was using a two-handed sword.
So Henry VIII called for a
skilled swordman from Calais
to carry out the execution with
a two-handed sword.
Not only were death sentences carried
out in the tower, the structure was
often used as a prison or dungeon.
But not all prisoners
received the same treatment.
English statesman and explorer
Sir Walter Raleigh spent 13 years
in the so-called "Bloody Tower"
before he was finally executed.
Some prisoners had extra luxuries, perks,
were allowed visitors —
they were allowed guests.
Sir Walter Raleigh had a garden outside.
He grew his own plants and spices
and herbs, and he created a lot of
medicines while he was here.
Some prisoners were not
treated as fairly as others.
But Sir Walter Raleigh did have
a lot of luxuries while he was a prisoner here.
Did you know that the tower
was already a kind of zoo in
the Middle Ages?
It held animals
from all over the world.
Lions, monkeys and even a polar bear.
Such exotic gifts were
popular among monarchs at the time.
They also attracted
visitors to the tower early on.
This elephant was given as
a gift by the king of France in
the 13th century.
Now, he'd never seen an elephant
before in his country, and it was
given to one of our young pages to look after.
Now this young page had never
seen an elephant before,
didn't know what it would eat or drink.
He knew his master loved
drinking wine and eating bread.
So that is what he fed our elephant.
He had a diet of wine and bread.
Unfortunately the elephant
died from a very bad diet.
Probably died very happy,
but he died all the same.
Even today, the Tower
is more than a museum.
All 35 Yeoman Warders, who are also
nicknamed "Beefeaters", live in the
Tower along with their families.
But can they really come and
go as they please outside of
their working hours?
So that is quite tricky.
So we have the ceremony of the keys
every night at 10 p.m. when the
gates get locked.
There is a secret entrance
we can get in or out of.
We are not prisoners,
we can come and go as we please,
but we need to make sure that people know
we are going out and will be returning later.
The Yeoman Waters aren't the only
inhabitants of this London tower —
there's also ravens!.
These birds are fed treats, including
dead mice and blood soaked cookies
to keep them happy.
The story of their
presence here is full of superstitions.
There's this old superstition or
legend with the ravens that if the
ravens were ever to leave the Tower of
London, then the White Tower, this
building behind me, will crumble into
dust and the monarchy shall fall.
So to ensure that doesn't happen,
King Charles II made a law,
a decree, back in 1675 that we
must keep six ravens here at all times.
Not that we believe in superstitions and legends.
The law says we must keep six ravens here.
We have seven.
We always have spare, just in case.
So, would you like to
visit the Tower of London?
This historic building
certainly has many more stories to tell.
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