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00:02At the heart of England's capital city soars a megacastle with a dark and mysterious past,
00:09the Tower of London. These remains are related to one of the most enduring gruesome mysteries
00:15of the Tower. Today investigators race to reveal who builds this mighty fortress
00:22and discover why it transforms from a defensive engineering marvel
00:26to an infamous prison steeped in legend. This culture of fear is imbued within the very walls
00:33of the building. Throughout the centuries the Tower of London is a place of execution and torture,
00:40a royal palace, an armory and home to the kings and queens crown jewels. It's not just the enormous
00:49diamonds, the huge amount of gold, it's the power that they represent. To solve the mysteries of this
00:56iconic castle, we digitally deconstruct its engineering secrets. We reveal how for almost a
01:04thousand years this fortress remains impenetrable for those trying to get in. And uncover beheaded
01:12skeletons hidden for centuries to unearth the secrets of the bloody torture tower.
01:27The Tower of London, an extraordinary and mysterious stone castle built in the heart of England's capital
01:35city. This engineering marvel stands tall on the banks of the river Thames. Today skyscrapers surround this medieval fortress.
01:48But for almost a thousand years the tower is an enduring icon.
01:54We've got the modern city of London surrounding us with a variety of very tall buildings.
01:59But when this was built this would have been the only tall building on the skyline.
02:06The Tower of London is a fortified citadel. At its heart is a colossal solid stone keep,
02:14the stronghold of the castle. Nearby, a high security barracks houses the crown jewels, worth an estimated
02:24$5 billion. Around it, 16 defensive towers and two rings of 25-foot thick walls form the castle's impenetrable perimeter.
02:38The tower is one of the most secure megastructures in the world.
02:44Who builds this mighty fortress and why?
02:51The Tower of London contains over 30 different buildings within the castle walls, with hundreds
02:59of rooms and halls throughout. Jane Seidel is on a mission to unlock the origins of this vast castle.
03:08She searches for clues to its creation in the oldest and largest of these buildings,
03:13the keep at the center, known as the White Tower.
03:18The White Tower is absolutely massive. When compared to the buildings that would have been around it,
03:24it's on an altogether different order of magnitude.
03:29The walls of the keep are built using two types of English stones.
03:36But a third stone, the bright white limestone that gives the tower its distinctive look, is not native.
03:44Jane believes that this third type of stone is key to working out the origin of the tower.
03:51The exciting thing about the third type of stone is that not only does it come from abroad,
03:56it comes from France. More specifically, it comes from Normandy. And so this gives us a great clue as to
04:01the builders of the White Tower. Importing huge amounts of white limestone from Normandy and France is
04:07extremely expensive. Jane believes only one person is rich and powerful enough to pay for such a costly construction.
04:17This is expensive material. It's been imported from abroad. It's a massive building project.
04:22That leaves us with William the Conqueror as the originator of this material.
04:27The French army invades England in 1066 and kills the Saxon king Harold at the Battle of Hastings.
04:40Their leader, William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, becomes the new king of England.
04:49He ships in tens of thousands of blocks of white limestone from Normandy and starts
04:55to construct a mighty castle in England's capital.
05:01Why does he build it? William arrives with around 7,000 men. England is a country of around 2 million
05:11people.
05:13After gaining the crown, William must act decisively to prevent an uprising.
05:19Jane believes this is why he builds the tower.
05:23He needed to dominate the English, and though he had quite a small army, he was fast, he was efficient,
05:30and so he created a fortress extremely quickly.
05:3415-foot-thick stone walls and a front door raised 20 feet off the ground keep attackers out.
05:42The basement is a 7,000-square-foot storeroom that can hold food supplies for around 2 months.
05:49And the floor above provides living space for high-ranking soldiers.
05:55On the second floor is the Chapel of St. John the Evangelist.
05:59It is built into the fabric of the castle, so that God may protect those inside,
06:05while its curved outer walls deflect enemy missiles.
06:10But can William hold his grip on England with this mighty fortress alone?
06:19Richard Nevelle heads 26 miles southeast of the Tower of London to hunt for clues.
06:27Perched on the banks of the River Medway in Kent lies Rochester Castle.
06:33This is another fortress established by William.
06:37It's strikingly similar to the tower.
06:40The castle was founded by William the Conqueror in the mid-11th century,
06:45as part of his process of conquering England.
06:49Richard believes Rochester Castle and the Tower of London have a surprising connection.
06:56He analyzes the architectural blueprints of the two castles for clues.
07:01Here we have the white tower. We can see that it's based on this
07:05rectangular shape with pillars of buttresses.
07:09And if we look at the plan for Rochester, we can see something similar.
07:15Both castles are built from the same template.
07:19They are constructed on high ground.
07:22And like the Tower of London,
07:25Rochester Castle boasts imposing lookout towers with turrets and arrow slits.
07:31But above all else, Rochester Castle's location on the banks of the River Medway
07:37proves a key connection to the Tower of London.
07:40The castle was built right next to a river, which gives really good access.
07:45We allow them to bring in the building stone and potentially soldiers as well.
07:50And you can see that at the Tower of London. It's built right on the riverfront.
07:54Richard thinks William establishes castles at both locations as part of a wider strategy.
08:02He builds eight strongholds surrounding London.
08:07Their proximity to each other means that William's army can use them like stepping stones
08:12in the event of an uprising.
08:15The Tower of London lies at the center of this castle network.
08:20Each of these was about a day in terms of travel from the city, so they could reinforce very quickly.
08:27And they guarded major transport routes towards the capital.
08:31So all of which is about controlling who can reach London and keeping people out.
08:37Each stronghold William builds is around a day's march from the capital.
08:42So he can move troops quickly and snuff out any uprisings.
08:48But could the Tower have another purpose besides defending his army from any would-be attackers?
08:56Jane believes the height of the castle holds a clue.
09:00She measures the elevation from the ground to the upper battlements.
09:05The Tower is approximately 90 feet to the top of the crenellations with some additional height with the towers on
09:12the corners.
09:14It would have been hugely impressive.
09:18It's one of the tallest fortresses in Europe at the time it's built.
09:24From the top of the tower, the purpose becomes clear.
09:29The White Tower would have been absolutely awe-inspiring when it was first built.
09:34It would have been to people that lived in London then, as the shard is to us now.
09:41Jane thinks that this visibility is key to William's plan for controlling his new subjects.
09:47William wanted to make his presence felt, he wanted to subjugate the Londoners and the English.
09:54And what better way to do it than to build an enormous fortress in a new architectural style
09:59that loomed over everyone's houses everywhere they lived and also their seats of power.
10:07William builds this mega-fortress as a symbol of supremacy over the people of England.
10:14The tower soars above the buildings around it.
10:18The freshly cut stone stands in stark contrast to the timber houses of medieval London.
10:25William's castle network shows strategic planning in his subjugation of England.
10:31But the majority of his other castles that circle London are dilapidated and destroyed.
10:37Has the tower always been the impenetrable fortress we find today?
10:43And can clues within the tower reveal its gruesome hidden past?
10:58The Tower of London.
11:00The iconic fortress stands tall as the defensive cornerstone of London for almost a thousand years.
11:07How does it survive so long?
11:12Jane Seidel believes a strange discovery in the tower's moat may solve this mystery.
11:19This is the moat of the Tower of London and at the moment it's a dry ditch, a green, empty
11:25space.
11:26A series of exploratory excavations were undertaken and masonry and timber structures were uncovered, which came as quite a surprise.
11:38Hidden beneath the ground, archaeologists discover 11 large oak timber beams, some up to 30 feet long.
11:46The beams surround a giant carved stonework structure.
11:51Jane believes these are the foundations of an old gatehouse.
11:56Why is it buried in the moat?
12:00Tree ring analysis of the beams reveals the gatehouse dates from 1240, 200 years after William the Conqueror builds the
12:09tower.
12:11This means the gatehouse and moat are not part of the original building.
12:17All the evidence collected from the excavations in the tower, from the structures, from the evidence of the moat, shows
12:24that there was a significant program of expansion at this date.
12:29In 1238, William's White Tower stands alone on the riverbank, but a new king, Henry III, orders a 30-foot
12:38-tall wall to surround it, with eight towers that house garrisons of archers to defend the castle.
12:46Next, his son, Edward I, builds a second curtain wall, and digs out a 160-foot-wide channel, all the
12:57way around the outer wall.
12:59He floods it with water to create a moat, to keep the enemy from the gates.
13:06Why do King Henry and King Edward spend so lavishly on new defenses?
13:15Alfred Hawkins believes they invest so much because the threat of war looms over them.
13:22Henry III and Edward I are fighting constant wars against the Welsh and the Scots, and the threat of French
13:28invasion is ever-present.
13:30So this fortress really is the grip on London, and it's somewhere to fall back to if it's ever needed.
13:37The kings fear the danger posed by new siege weaponry.
13:43Henry III and Edward I's defenses are really a reaction to the changes in medieval warfare that you can see
13:50during that period.
13:51The 13th century sees the rise of powerful counterweight trebuchet.
13:57These medieval catapults can throw a large rock around a thousand feet.
14:03Troops can attack a fortress and keep out of range of defenders' arrows.
14:09The development of trebuchets completely revolutionized siege warfare.
14:13So while the tower was a formidable fortress in terms of what had come before, it was largely seen as
14:20out of date by the 1200s.
14:24Edward is a warring king and fights in bloody sieges firsthand.
14:29He knows how new weaponry can topple even the toughest fortresses.
14:36Attackers can also scale castle walls with enormous siege towers, so they can fight the defenders hand to hand.
14:48Tunneling beneath a fortress and burning the support beams can cause the walls above to collapse.
14:58Or the enemy can simply surround a castle for months and starve out the people inside.
15:09Edward designs his new defenses at the Tower of London to protect against these dangers.
15:16Alfred believes that the second outer wall plays a key role.
15:21The innermost wall built by Henry III created a certain level of defense, but it wasn't deemed
15:26enough by his son, Edward I, who then built these huge fortifications around his father's work.
15:33These outer walls are at a lower height, which enables the defenders to have two vantage points
15:38from which to repel an attack.
15:41The second defensive wall is an extra barrier for attackers trying to storm the inner castle compound.
15:49It also puts the inner walls out of a trebuchet's range.
15:54While the 160-foot moat would flood any attacker's attempts to tunnel underneath.
16:01The defensive fortifications are key to the tower's 900-year success.
16:06This is still one of the most impenetrable castles in Europe, defended by massive walls and great towers.
16:13In its near-thousand-year history, the tower is rarely threatened.
16:18Would-be attackers are scared away by its intimidating defenses.
16:26But could new evidence reveal that after hundreds of years of keeping people out,
16:31the tower begins to trap people in?
16:45The Tower of London.
16:46Its impregnable walls keep enemies out for centuries.
16:51But does a gruesome discovery reveal these walls are used to imprison those inside?
16:59In 1674, workers make a macabre discovery.
17:05From 10 feet below the castle foundations, they pull up a plain wooden box.
17:11And inside, they find two skeletons.
17:17There are no inscriptions or clues to their identities.
17:23Who are they?
17:26And why are they buried here, in the shadow of the White Tower?
17:33This remains one of the most enduring mysteries of the tower.
17:37Alfred Hawkins is on a mission to find out.
17:40He believes the dimensions of the skeletons inside the box offer a clue to their identity.
17:46Within that box were the remains of two children.
17:50And the reason they knew that they were children was mostly due to the size of these skeletal remains.
17:57While we know that many children lived at the tower with their families,
18:01these are the only two children who have such intrigue and mystery surrounding their deaths.
18:07Alfred believes the discovery of the skeletons is a vital clue to one of the biggest unsolved murder cases in
18:15English history.
18:16The famous story of the princes in the tower.
18:23When King Edward IV dies in 1483, his eldest son, Prince Edward, is heir to the throne.
18:31But he is just 12 years old.
18:35The young prince and his brother are taken to the Tower of London.
18:39To be under the protection of their uncle, Richard.
18:46But three months later, Richard himself is crowned king.
18:50And the boys are never seen again.
18:55While we really don't know what happened to these princes, the evidence of their slow disappearance,
19:01combined with the discovery of these two collections of skeletal remains,
19:06really lead us to think that these two children were probably murdered in a political game.
19:12These are two very young and very vulnerable children.
19:16And so their removal could make way for somebody else to take power.
19:21If the famous princes are murdered, there's an obvious suspect, their uncle Richard.
19:27Richard stood to gain the power of the English monarchy through the removal of these two young princes.
19:35While this remains a compelling story, at the time of the discovery,
19:40the evidence that links the children's remains to the famous princes is only circumstantial.
19:46The skeletons are laid to rest in Westminster Abbey.
19:51And with them, their mystery remains buried too.
19:55Despite later attempts to identify the skeletal remains, there has been no definitive proof that
20:02these are the bones of the two young princes.
20:04And so while we can speculate and guess at what happened during their disappearance,
20:11we really will never know.
20:13The true fate of the famous princes remains unknown.
20:18But could their incarceration herald the start of the Tower of London becoming the most infamous prison in England?
20:28Alfred believes sinister clues may lie in the Tower of London's West Wing,
20:33in a building called Beecham Tower.
20:36Behind me is the Beecham Tower, which was constructed by Edward I into the defensive fortification we know it as
20:42today.
20:42However, inside there is a lot of evidence to say that the use of this building actually changed quite dramatically.
20:51Inside the Beecham Tower, mysterious graffiti covers the inner walls.
20:56Who makes these inscriptions?
20:59And what do they reveal about the purpose of this imposing fortress?
21:04Alfred inspects the graffiti to decode its hidden meaning.
21:08You can see that it's been very delicately carved into the walls with a lot of care over what is
21:15probably a great period of time. And if we look a little bit closer, you can make out the words
21:20Arendelle. And through this, we know that this graffiti is attributed to Philip Howard,
21:26the Earl of Arendelle, who was imprisoned in the Tower by Elizabeth I in around 1589.
21:33Elizabeth, a Protestant Queen, sees the Catholic Philip Howard as a threat to national security
21:40and imprisons him in the Tower.
21:44Other graffiti hints at similar incarcerations.
21:49But of all the different carvings within the Beecham Tower, one stands out.
21:55We can see that they very delicately carved the word Jane and the Grey family crest into this wall.
22:01It is attributed to a supporter of Lady Jane Grey. And although we don't know who made this carving,
22:08it is one of the most tragic stories at the Tower.
22:11Lady Jane Grey, aged just 15, is declared Queen by plotters in 1553.
22:19But she is imprisoned in the Tower by the eventual Queen, Mary I, her rival to the throne of England.
22:27She is evidence of the Tower's new role, as a bloody state prison.
22:34We can see from this evidence that the purpose of the Tower changed from trying to keep people out,
22:39to actually trying to keep people in.
22:43In its near thousand year history, the Tower of London is home to potentially thousands of prisoners.
22:52Can a new discovery reveal that these inmates face the ultimate gruesome fate?
23:08England's kings spend lavishly to update the Tower of London's defenses,
23:14and turn it into an inescapable prison.
23:19But a discovery in the Tower's Chapel of St. Peter at Vincula could reveal another more sinister role.
23:27Underneath the floor of this chapel, there is evidence of a very dark past.
23:33In 1877, builders renovating the chapel make a shocking find.
23:40Beneath the altar, they unearth the skeletons of at least 15 people.
23:48They are men and women, buried simply.
23:53And many are missing their skulls.
24:00But one is the complete skeleton of a young woman,
24:05buried with her severed head.
24:08Who is the beheaded woman?
24:11And what can her grisly fate reveal about the Tower?
24:17This chapel that is home to some of the most wonderful events at the Tower,
24:22but also some of our darkest moments in the history.
24:26Alfred Hawkins believes the date of the chapel's construction may hold a clue to this dark chapter.
24:33St. Peter at Vincula is constructed in the Tower of London by Henry VIII in 1520.
24:39In 1877, Henry VIII of the Tudor dynasty is one of England's most famous rulers.
24:46It's likely the decapitated woman is killed during his reign.
24:52Using evidence from the Tudor period and through looking at the bones and observing their slender
24:58and perfect proportions and well-formed jawlines, all of these things culminated in the conclusion
25:04that these were the bones of Queen Anne Boleyn.
25:07Anne Boleyn is Henry's second wife.
25:11They were married as part of great ceremony in 1533, although the relationship soured when
25:17Anne couldn't provide Henry with a male heir.
25:20Just three years after their marriage, Henry sends Anne to the Tower of London.
25:28She was accused of incest, adultery, and high treason, and was eventually imprisoned in the
25:38very same apartments where she stayed before her wedding.
25:42Anne is tried in the Tower of London's Great Hall and convicted of treason.
25:50She is beheaded in the Tower grounds to the east of St. Peter Advincula and buried with her head
25:58under the chapel floor alongside other high-ranking members of society.
26:04Despite being found guilty and despite her many supposed crimes, Anne was still Queen of England.
26:13And so her burial in here is not representative of her status and death. It's representative of
26:19her position in life.
26:22Anne Boleyn is one of a possible 57,000 victims executed by Henry VIII.
26:34Anne's fate is evidence of the Tower's transformation from bulwark and prison to place of royal execution.
26:44In the 1300s, the kings of England build a scaffold on Tower Hill to execute most of their prisoners.
26:55Over four centuries, hundreds of traitors are beheaded or hanged here, in front of huge crowds.
27:06They stick the victims' heads on spikes on London Bridge as a gruesome warning to everyone walking beneath.
27:15You have to imagine that the ordeal of going through something like that,
27:20being paraded in front of these people, which must have been absolutely awful and terrifying for
27:25those people who were executed there.
27:28These gruesome acts of execution shroud the Tower in a cloak of darkness.
27:34Memories of its past prisoners live forever in the castle walls.
27:39But the Tower is not only filled with prisoners.
27:43Hundreds of workers live within its walls.
27:45To run the prison and royal residences.
27:50How do people living in the Tower at the time cope with the fear and death that surrounds them?
27:58James Wright believes strange markings inside the Tower provide a clue.
28:02At the Queen's House at the Tower of London, we found quite strange, quite enigmatic markings on the timbers.
28:10The most common marking is a tear-shaped burn mark found on the door frames and window ledges.
28:17James discovers over 50 of them.
28:21It used to be thought that these marks were simply unattended candles which had accidentally scorched the timbers.
28:29However, some really good experimental archaeology has shown that this simply isn't the case.
28:34Unattended candles leave a much more amorphous blob.
28:40James believes these strange teardrop burn marks are man-made.
28:45He uses a candle to test his theory.
28:48Well, as you can see, we've got this perfect tear-shaped burn mark.
28:52Absolutely exactly like the ones that we were finding in huge numbers at the Tower of London.
28:57It's there scorched. It's taken a few minutes to do.
29:00But it shows that this is a very, very deliberate human behavior.
29:05Who makes these markings and why?
29:08James believes that the location of the marks near doors, windows, and chimneys is evidence they are ritualistic practices to
29:16defend against evil spirits.
29:19There was a belief that these creatures flew around wherever there was a draft.
29:25So wherever the air was, that's how they would get into the buildings.
29:28James believes the markings most likely date to the 16th and 17th centuries.
29:35He thinks they helped the people living in the Tower to cope with the horrors that fill their daily lives.
29:43This is a time where the Tower of London is starting to establish its very grim reputation as a prison,
29:50as a place of torture and execution.
29:52So you can imagine that the people that are living there at the Queen's House are essentially living in a
29:58very much a culture of fear.
30:01The people living at the Tower of London feel the darkness creeping through the building.
30:08And the candle burns are the physical manifestation of that fear.
30:13Though the Tower is used throughout history to lock up prisoners.
30:19Can this impenetrable fortress also keep the crown jewels safe from thieves?
30:34The Tower of London, England's most infamous castle.
30:39For centuries it is a gruesome prison, where inmates are tortured and executed.
30:46But today the Tower's thick walls have another purpose altogether.
30:51They safeguard the nation's most precious treasure.
30:55Guard it day and night.
31:01Multiple surveillance cameras cover every corner of the Tower.
31:06And an armed guard of highly trained soldiers keep watch 24-7.
31:13That's because the Tower is home to the crown jewels.
31:17Royal treasures worth an estimated 5 billion dollars.
31:21The St. Edward's crown is over 300 years old.
31:26It is solid gold and encrusted with over 400 priceless gemstones.
31:32The gold orb bears over 600 diamonds and pearls.
31:36And at the head of the scepter is the largest diamond in the world.
31:44The jewel house is nestled inside the inner compound, directly north of the White Tower.
31:52This is the most fortified location in the entire complex.
31:57But Jane Sedell believes the crown jewels are guarded with such high-level security to protect
32:03more than just the jewels themselves.
32:06It's not just the enormous diamonds, the huge amount of gold.
32:11It's the symbols, the potency, the power that they represent.
32:16They represent an unchanging line of monarchy that rules the country and symbolizes stability and authority.
32:27The orb, crown and scepter only leave the tower on the most important national occasions.
32:34Like the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1952.
32:39This has happened for generation after generation after generation, stretching back a thousand years.
32:46The crown is not the same one. The crown has changed a couple of times.
32:50But the ceremony and the way that the jewels are used is unchanged.
32:55The Tower of London has not always been home to the crown jewels.
33:00Records indicate the crown, orb and scepter are kept in the Palace of Westminster,
33:06three miles up the River Thames, until the 17th century.
33:12Why are they moved to the tower?
33:14There were a number of theft attempts on the treasure houses at the Palace of Westminster,
33:20and they needed to be better protected.
33:24But is the Tower of London secure enough to deter
33:28all would-be assailants from stealing the jewels?
33:32This is the most defensible fortress that you could possibly find.
33:35There will always be someone who is crazy enough to try and make an attempt on the crown jewels.
33:40And there was one such attempt by Thomas Blood.
33:45In 1671, the cunning Thomas Blood poses as a priest,
33:51and befriends the jewel keeper over many months.
33:57One evening, Blood asks to see the jewels.
34:01But once inside, he attacks the keeper and gags him.
34:08Blood uses a mallet to flatten the crown,
34:11while his accomplice saws the scepter in half, so they can hide the precious collection.
34:19They flee, but guards catch them before they reach the gate,
34:23and Blood is imprisoned in the tower.
34:28The crown jewels have never been successfully stolen from the grounds of the Tower of London.
34:34It is an unbreakable fortress.
34:37But can new evidence reveal the tower holds even greater riches than the multi-billion dollar jewels?
34:46Archaeologists digging into the tower's outer ward unearth a surprising stash.
34:52Hundreds of medieval coins made from silver.
34:57Jane believes engravings on the coins reveal a clue to why they are here.
35:03Here's an image of one of the coins that's been found in the excavations.
35:07And it's a silver coin. There's an image of a crown on it, and also the name Edward on the
35:13outside.
35:14The name Edward above the crown is evidence that King Edward I mints this coin.
35:22Edward I is the king who builds the second defensive wall and water-filled moat around the tower in 1275,
35:30to protect the castle from siege attack.
35:34Alongside the coins, investigators discover tools commonly used by blacksmiths and metalworkers.
35:41Other artifacts include some of the ugliest pottery vessels you'll ever find.
35:46But to an archaeologist, they're a real dream. And these are crucibles.
35:49They're made of clay, but they have to be very, very robust, because they're used for melting metal.
35:56Jane believes these coins and metalworking tools are linked.
36:01She thinks this is proof that the nation's money is created here, in the Tower of London.
36:07King Edward I uses the tower as the royal mint.
36:12When you find these tiny traces, they look like nothing.
36:15But to people trying to unravel the history of the tower, they give a very tangible clue as to what's
36:21going on.
36:23The evidence reveals the Tower of London houses the royal mint for 500 years.
36:29It fills the western, northern, and eastern walls of the fortress.
36:37Safe under the watchful eye of the king in the tower, it is the perfect place to store the tons
36:43of pure silver needed for coin production.
36:45And manufacture millions of them to ship across the country.
36:50The tower is steeped in century-old traditions.
36:54But how does it still serve as a fortress today?
37:07The Tower of London.
37:09A fortress used by the kings and queens of England for nearly a thousand years.
37:16But how does it remain secure today?
37:20Keeping the tower safe rests on the shoulders of Jim Duncan.
37:25Most people think we come here and do a job.
37:28Well, it is a job, but it's also a way of life.
37:30Jim is a Yeoman Warder.
37:32The Yeoman Warders work alongside the Tower Guard and Tower Wardens to ensure the security of the fortress.
37:40They have held this responsibility for over 500 years.
37:45The Yeoman Warders, as we call ourselves, are the oldest body of formed men anywhere, and I mean anywhere, in
37:53the world.
37:54We even predate the Vatican Guard.
37:58The Yeoman Warders are a group of 37 men and women drawn from the armed forces.
38:04They are nicknamed Beefeaters.
38:07It's rumored that as bodyguard to the king, they were permitted to eat as much beef as they wanted from
38:12the king's table.
38:15Today, they guard the Tower of London day and night.
38:19Jim's role within the Yeoman Warders is the Yeoman Jailer.
38:23It's a position that stretches back over half a millennium.
38:27I can date my history of my particular job back to 1505.
38:32Now, I stand here in front of you today, and I am the 49th Yeoman Jailer at the Tower of
38:38London.
38:38I can also tell you that more men and women have been into space than have actually done my job.
38:44Such a unique, honorable role to have here.
38:49The Yeoman Warders are traditionally based at the Tower of London in order to guard the reigning king or queen
38:56of England.
38:56But the last monarch to reside here is Elizabeth I before her coronation in 1559.
39:04So why do the Yeoman Warders remain?
39:08Though the royal family no longer lives at the Tower, the crown jewels still do.
39:13So the Yeoman Warders must always keep the fortress secure.
39:19Every evening, they lock up the Tower in a tradition called the Ceremony of the Keys.
39:26It is the oldest military ceremony of its kind anywhere in the world.
39:32It takes place every single night at 9.53pm.
39:37It's a place for the crown jewel and the royal regalia.
39:40There is a necessity for security. This place needs to be secure.
39:44So if you've got doors, you need to lock them.
39:49The Yeoman Warders ensure the crown jewels stay secure under lock and key,
39:54as they have done for hundreds of years.
39:57It's part of English history, part of English tradition,
40:00and we want the great public to know what goes on here in the Tower of London.
40:04So we invite visitors in to come and watch that Pacific ceremony.
40:09Continuing traditions like this into the modern era
40:12sees the Tower retain its unique slice of history
40:17and remain a functional fortress.
40:21The Tower welcomes over two million visitors a year from all over the world.
40:28I was in the army for 40 years. During that 40 years, I went around the world,
40:32met a load of interesting people. Now, I stand in Tower Green. The world, well, it comes to me.
40:39Visit this magnificent site, the history traditions of what made this country what it is.
40:45Throughout its long history, the Tower evolves.
40:49Over the centuries, the Tower of London has grown into a mighty fortress.
40:55It houses England's past kings and queens and guards the precious crown jewels.
41:02The Tower's medieval traditions keep them safe to this day.
41:07But the bodies of the famous princes and the beheaded remains of Queen Anne Boleyn
41:14reveal a darker side to the Tower, as a place of imprisonment and royal execution.
41:22Throughout history, this fortress stamps its mark on the nation, as England's deadliest mega-castle.
41:33Throw around the stars.
41:40And it run asleep and ΕΊ 79 minutes until the whole year comes to franchising a place near the bridge.
41:54James perspectives, like the deadou Grandma
41:54If you already know anything, before lethal taking place, please press.
41:58If you are now in the future, just as you're likely to just a increase in your fortress,
41:59on which falls into a Π²ΡΡ bacterial room, of the force of paeuling Section
41:59and drones macamu, come to the groundhog of the discard or sein of the skull,
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