Tower of London: Crown jewels and royal history

DW (English)

A prison, dungeon, palace, and treasury — the Tower of London has worn many hats. Here’s what you need to know about this British landmark.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, I'm Yeoman Warder Ryan Barnett. I'm one of 35 Yeoman Warders who work here

00:05at the Tower of London. So welcome to this gruesome and historic place. I'm going to tell you

00:10a few facts about the Tower of London today. The Tower of London holds 1,000 years of history

00:18as well as the crown jewels. Here you'll find St Edward's crown which was used at the coronation

00:24of King Charles III in 2023. You can look at the royal treasures but for security reasons

00:31photos are prohibited. That's why we're not allowed to film inside.

00:38Inside we've got two of the largest diamonds in the world incorporated within our crown jewels

00:43and royal regalia. There's over 100 items, over 23,000 precious stones. So the crown jewels,

00:49they are priceless. We can't put a monetary value on them. It's the symbolisation, the historical

00:54and the cultural element of the crown jewels. It also shows the power and responsibilities

00:59our monarchs have. The Tower also has a gruesome history. Six people were beheaded here. Did

01:07you know that one of them was a queen? Henry VIII had his wife Queen Anne Boleyn beheaded here.

01:18Not only were death sentences carried out in the Tower, the structure was often used as a

01:24prison or dungeon. But not all prisoners received the same treatment. English statesman and explorer

01:31Sir Walter Raleigh spent 13 years in the so-called Bloody Tower before he was finally executed.

01:38Some prisoners had extra luxuries, perks, they were allowed visitors, they were allowed guests.

01:45Sir Walter Raleigh had a garden outside. He grew his own plants and spices and herbs and he created a lot

01:51medicines while he was here. Did you know that the Tower was already a kind of zoo in the Middle Ages?

01:58It held animals from all over the world. Lions, monkeys and even a polar bear. Such exotic gifts were popular

02:06among monarchs at the time. They also attracted visitors to the Tower early on.

02:10This elephant was given as a gift by the King of France in the 13th century. Now we'd never seen an elephant

02:17before in this country. And it was given to one of our young pages, one of our page boys to look after.

02:23Now this young page had never seen an elephant before, didn't know what it would eat or drink.

02:28He knew his master loved drinking wine and eating bread. So that is what he fed our elephant.

02:35He had a diet of wine and bread. Now fortunately the elephant died from a very bad diet.

02:41Probably died very happy, but he died all the same.

02:48Even today the Tower is more than a museum. All 35 yeoman warders who are also nicknamed beef eaters live in the Tower along with their families.

02:58But can they really come and go as they please outside of their working hours?

03:02So that is quite tricky. So we have the ceremony of the keys every night at 10pm when the gates get locked.

03:11There is a secret entrance we can get in or out of. We're not prisoners. We can come and go as we please.

03:17But we need to make sure that people know that we're going out and we're returning later.

03:22The yeoman warders aren't the only inhabitants of this London Tower. There's also ravens.

03:29These birds are fed treats including dead mice and blood soaked cookies to keep them happy.

03:35The story of their presence here is full of superstitions.

03:41There's this old superstition or legend with the ravens that if the ravens were ever to leave the Tower of London,

03:48and the white tower, this building behind me, would crumble into dust and the monarchy shall fall.

03:54So to ensure that doesn't happen, King Charles II made a law, a decree back in 1675,

04:00that we must keep six ravens here at all times.

04:04So would you like to visit the Tower of London?

04:08This historic building certainly has many more stories to tell.

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