In 1233, the Tower became the enforced residence of Isabel, the king’s sister, until her marriage with the Emperor Frederick, in 1235; and 28th April, 1236, Henry adopted the unusual course of adjourning a council of his magnates to the Tower. The assembly, as was to be expected, was but thinly attended, and in consequence was further adjourned to Westminster.
On 2nd March, 1238, 22 Henry III., the Liberate Roll contains an entry, which is repeated as follows in the corresponding Pipe Roll:—“Et in cameris Regis in turri Lond: reparandis et chimenee Camere Regine perficiendis et uno spiro de bordis bono et decenti faciendo inter cameram et capellam nove turrelle eiusdem turris prope aulam Regis versus tamisiam xvili. iijs. viijd. per breve, etc.” “And for repairing the king’s chamber in the Tower of London, and completing the chimney in the queen’s chamber, and for making a good and fitting spur [partition] of boards between the chamber and chapel of the new turret of the same Tower, near the King’s Hall, towards the Thames, £16. 3s. 8d., by brief, &c.” This is one of the few notices of repairs the precise place of which can be identified. The new turret is undoubtedly the first floor of the Wakefield Tower, known to have been near the King’s Hall and towards the Thames, and of which the chapel, or oratory, still remains.
In the same 1238, 23rd November, the Liberate Roll shows the king to have ordered the constable to cause the walls of the queen’s chamber, “which is within our chamber at the Tower, to be whitewashed and pointed,” and within the pointings to be painted with flowers; “and to cause the drain of the privy chamber to be made in the fashion of a hollow column, as our beloved servant John of Ely shall more fully declare to thee.”
In the 24 Henry III. is a charge of £30. 16s. 4d. for purchasing and conveying to the Tower “una navata,” or shipload, of marble, and four shiploads of Purbeck marble, for the works of the Tower. It is only in the cills of the two windows of the sacrarium of St. Thomas’s Tower that Purbeck stone has been discovered in position; but much of this material remains upon the rampart walks and in other places in the fortress, whither, no doubt, much of it was imported in this reign, and especially at this time, for the works then in progress, which in 1239 were considerable. A good deal of Kentish rag was used, and both Ryegate and Caen stone for ashlar. Often the material for building was brought a great distance. Henry II. and Edward III. used Egremont stone for Windsor. Matt. Paris describes the treasury as well filled, which unusual condition, and looming troubles of the realm, probably disposed Henry to add to the security of his stronghold. The new works were unpopular in the city, the citizens fearing, and not without reason, that they would be employed in some way to their detriment. On this subject they addressed a remonstrance to the king, who assured them that the works were not intended to be employed to their injury. “I only,” said he, “imitate my brother, reputed a wiser man than I, in rebuilding my castles.”
It seems that a fine gateway and a wall were completed, but fell suddenly on St. George’s night (23rd April), 1240, and were immediately rebuilt by the king. A year later, in 1241, the same structures, or as much of them as had been rebuilt, again fell down, and this time the citizens found a supernatural reason for the event. On the night of the second fall, says Matt. Paris, a certain grave and reverend priest saw a robed archbishop, cross in hand, who gazed sternly upon the walls with which the king was then girdling the tower, and striking them sharply, asked, “Why build ye these?” on which the newly-built work fell as though shattered by an earthquake. The priest, too alarmed to accost the prelate, addressed himself to the shade of an attendant clerk, “Who, then, is the archbishop?” “St. Thomas the Martyr,” was the answer, “by birth a citizen, who resents these works, undertaken in scorn and to the prejudice of the citizens, and destroys them beyond the power of restoration.” On which the priest remarked, “What outlay and labour of the hands he has destroyed!” “Had it been,” said the clerk, “simply that the starving and needy artificers thence promised themselves food, it had been tolerable; but seeing that the works were undertaken, not for the defence of the realm, but to the hurt of the citizens, even had not St. Thomas destroyed them, they had been swept away utterly by St. Edmund, his successor.”
That night the priest told his tale, and next morning the walls about the tower, built at a charge of about 12,000 marcs, were seen upon the ground, to the surprise, but by no means to the grief, of the citizens, to whom they had been as a thorn in the eye. Notwithstanding the prediction of St. Thomas, the works were at once resumed, and this time with complete success.
No doubt the wall and gateway were St. Thomas’s Water-gate and the adjacent curtain along the south face of the fortress, and upon the bank of the river, where the wet ground and the treacherous character of the London clay, exposed more or less in the old city ditch and that of Longchamp, would render the archbishop’s task an easy one. The story may be taken to show that in 1239–40 Henry was engaged in extensive works about the Tower, including the outer ward wall and tower, the quay, and the present ditch; and the present works show that they were of sufficient importance to be replaced, at whatever cost, when destroyed by an accident. Probably the architect learned experience by the event; for it is remarkable that no serious mark of settlement from defective foundation has been observed either in the work of the outer ward or in any other part of the fortress, and this is more singular because part of the masonry must have traversed the line of the old city ditch. This stability is probably due to the great breadth of the foundations, and to the fact that the fortress contains no underground chambers, the towers below the ground level, and sometimes far above it, being solid.
The resumption of the works on the wall and west gateway did not lead to the neglect of the royal residence within. 24th February, 1240, 24 Henry III., the king, according to the Liberate Roll, thus addressed the custos of the works:—“We command you to cause the chamber of the queen, in the aforesaid tower, to be wainscotted without delay, and to be thoroughly whitened internally, and newly painted with roses; and to cause to be made a wall [partition] in the fashion of wainscot between the chamber and the wardrobe of the same, and let it be entirely covered externally with tile; and also cause one great chamber in the same tower to be entirely whitewashed and newly painted, and all the windows of the same chamber to be made anew with new wood and bolts and hinges, and to be painted with our arms, and barred with iron where needful. Moreover, repair and mend all the glass windows in the chapel of St. John the Baptist within the said tower, where necessary; and repair all the windows in the great chamber towards the Thames with new wood, with new bolts and hinges, and bar them well with iron; and in the corner of the same chamber make a great round turret towards the Thames, so that the drain of the last chamber may descend into the Thames; and make a new cowl on the top of the kitchen of the great tower.”
The Liberate Roll of the same year, January, 1240, orders “a mantel” to be painted in the Tower, with a personification of Winter with a sad visage and miserable contortions of the body.
And on the 10th December following (25 Henry III.) the keeper is further ordered, “To repair the granary within the same tower, &c., and to cause all the leaden gutters of the great tower, through which rain-water should fall from the summit of the same tower, to be carried down to the ground; so that the wall of the said tower, which has been newly whitewashed, may be in no wise injured by the dropping of rain-water, nor be easily weakened. And make on the same tower on the south side, at the top, deep alures of good and strong timber, entirely and well covered with lead, through which people may look even unto the foot of the said tower, and ascend, and better defend it, if need should be. And also whitewash the whole chapel of St. John the Evangelist in the same tower, and make in the same chapel three glass windows, one, to wit, on the north part, with a certain small figure of Mary holding her child; the other, on the south side, with the [subject of the] Trinity; and the third on the same south side, with St. John the Apostle and Evangelist; and paint the cross and beam beyond the altars of the same chapel, and with good colours. And cause to be made and painted two fair images, where they may be best and most decently made in the same chapel, one of St. Edward holding a ring and giving it to St. John the Evangelist. And whitewash all the old wall around our aforesaid tower.”