Henry III. began his reign in 1216, and the attention of his prudent guardian, the “rector regis et regni,” seems at once to have been turned to the Tower. In 1217 the sheriff of Essex and Herts is to pay to Nicholas Rowland £10 for repairs of the king’s houses in the Tower; to which is added, in the next year, £8. 9s. 11d. and £19. 9s. 11d., also to the same Nicholas. About the same time (2 Henry III.) 6s. 1d. is paid for the transporting the king’s breastplates (loricas) to the Tower; 3 Henry III., £9. 13s. 1d. is paid for repairs of the king’s hall, and the broken wall of the chamber; and the houses within the ballium of the Tower are to be repaired upon the view and testimony of certain lawful men; and (5 Henry III.), at a cost of 17s., four tables “ad mensam,” for the use of the king, are to be placed in the Tower. The year before this (4 Henry III.), the Pleas of the Crown, in the City of London, were heard before the justices in the Tower.
In 1221, Peter, Bishop of Winchester, was to have £11. 10s. for the repairs of the king’s house, executed when the Tower was in his hands; and Richard de Munfitchet was to supply Stephen de Segrave, the constable, with timber of the best quality, from Havering, for planks for the completion of the “jarellum” [jarolium, barrier] about the Tower.
The king was there in person in these years, for his expenses for five days there, in 1219, were £19. 1s. 7¼d.; and next year 100 marcs were paid towards his expenses there during Lent, and 200 marcs repaid to Pandulph the legate, then Bishop of Norfolk, advanced on the same account. In that year, also, the king had at the Tower a supply of 10 lampreys, part of a debt due from the city of Gloucester to his lamprey-loving father.
1221 was a busy year at the Tower. Many military implements and stores, and seven cartloads of prisoners, were brought in by Alex. de Sabrichtsworth, from Biham, the surrendered castle of Wm. de Fortibus, at a cost of 5s. 10d. Henry was there 28th February and 5th March. The next year also included several accounts connected with the siege of Biham. The works were also continued. Stephen de Segrave had 30 marcs for the repairs of the ballium wall; and Peter de St. Edward, with Andrew Buckerell, the chamberlain, 70 marcs of the amerciament levied on the London vintners, for works at the Tower. 8th December, 1221, Nicholas Mazon, who made the well, had five marcs. Timber and materials were sent in by the sheriffs of Essex and Bucks.
In 1222, 8s. 1d. was paid for the repairs of the wardrobe in the king’s chamber at the Tower, and for making a chimney in the same, and 10s. for a robe for Robert le Champenies, clerk of the works. Chimneys in those days were not always flues within the wall, but shafts of wood, or other temporary material, placed against it.
7 Henry III., 1222–3. The Close Roll credits Richard Benger and Thomas Lamberde with £10. 12s. 1d., which they paid by the king’s precept to Peter of Poictou and his companions, keepers of the works of the “New Turrelle,” or turret, of the Tower of London, for the work of the said turret. Mr. Hugo applies this entry to the Bell Tower; it may, with equal or more probability, be applied to the superstructure of the Wakefield Tower.
Pandulph the legate appears to have been custos in 1223, and in that capacity entertained at the Tower John de Brienne, titular King of Jerusalem, and the Grand Master of the Hospital, then in England to promote a crusade. In this year the king acknowledged the receipt of “unum austurcum” (a goshawk) at the Tower. John de Monmouth and the vendors of “cableicium,” or underwood, in Dean Forest, out of the king’s gift thereof to the Priory of Llantony, are to find 40 chevrons for the repairs of the Tower; and the sheriffs of London are to restore the “palum coram postico,” or “gallows before the postern” of the Tower, and the gallows outside of the Tower. 26th May, 1224, the king’s crown was lodged in the Tower by the treasurer.
The Pipe Roll of 9 Henry III., 1224–5, contains various entries relating to the Tower:—34s. 1d. was paid for “pro husciis de cute et de feltrio [housings of hide and of felt or compressed wool, or gambeson], ad balistas Regis, etc., cooperiendas,” for housing the king’s balistæ which are in the Tower; and for iron and steel (ascero) delivered to the constable for the works there, 2 marcs. Also for charcoal (carbo), for the king’s smiths’ work there, 8s. 6d.; and to Thomas de Blunvill, 50 marcs for the king’s works; and for charcoal for making the king’s “quarells” (cross-bow bolts), &c., by “Thomas Faber” (the smith), in the Tower, 8s. 7d.; and for mending the king’s houses in the Tower, 29s. 7¼d.
In the tenth year, besides the sum of 42s. and 3s. 11d., for charcoal for works, Thos. de Blunvill received the value of £12. 3s. in six caretatis, or cartloads, of lead, “ad novam turrellam turris Lond: cooperiendam,” and four loads, value £8. 0s. 19d., for the same purpose; so that the lead on the roof of the new turret cost at least £20. 4s. 7d. At this time Blunvill had £40 per annum as custos.
In the two next years, 1226–8, 96s. 11d. was paid for charcoal, Thomas Faber being the master-workman; and Henry Fitz-Alchi had 100 marcs for the Tower works. For the three following years the rolls are silent. In 1232, Hubert de Burgh had a fee of £50 per annum as constable; and in 16 Henry III., 113s. 10d. was paid for iron, steel, and charcoal, purchased and delivered to Roger le Smith, in the Tower, for making quarells and other work.