From these orders, we learn that the chapel in the White Tower was whitewashed, glazed, had three painted windows, and a painted beam and rood behind the altar, besides painted figures, no doubt in fresco, on the wall, of St. Edward and St. John the Evangelist. The great chamber towards the Thames, being enumerated in conjunction with the chapel, might be supposed to be the state-room in the White Tower; but “the great round turret towards the Thames, with the contained drain,” could not apply to the White Tower, nor indeed to any of the existing towers on the Thames front. It may have been the Lanthorn Tower.
The White Tower is spoken of as newly whitewashed. This was no doubt intended to make good any irregularities in the masonry, for 28 Henry III., the tower at Corfe was ordered to be pargetted with mortar where necessary, and the whole exterior to be whitewashed. It is not quite clear what were the alures, so minutely specified, on the top of the south front of the White Tower; probably a bretasche or hoarding, since no other work would enable the defenders to see the foot of the wall. It might have been supposed that at so great a height no extra defence from missiles would have been necessary, and supposing the inner ward to be taken, it would be from the higher ground on the north, rather than on the south side, that the effect of archery or warlike engines would be the greatest.
In this same 25 Henry III. Peter Bacun and Richard de Fresingfeld and their fellows, keepers of the Tower works, had £36; also £24. 40d. was paid for twenty breastplates and twenty halbergeons, purchased for the defence of the Tower, and delivered to the constable. So important were the works at this time that an order was made that “before closing the Exchequer the barons were to audit the accounts of the custos of the works of the king’s Tower of London.” In 26 Henry III. the chaplain ministering in the Tower chapel had 50s. per annum.
Among the regulations in use about this time were several relating to the legal position of the Tower, recorded in the Liber Albus. Thus, when the Exchequer was closed, the mayor was to be presented at the Tower, and the Pleas of the City with the crown were sometimes held there; and when this was the case the city barons were to place their own “janitors” outside the Tower gate, and the king’s janitor was to be on the inside. They further had an “ostiarius” outside the door of the hall where the pleas were held, to introduce the barons, and the king had an “ostiarius inside.” The hall was no doubt the building afterwards superseded by the office of Ordnance, and the entrance to which is thought to have been by the modernised doorway close east of the Wakefield Tower.
The next entry discovered is upon the Liberate Roll, 29 Henry III., 3rd December, 1244, by which the constable of the Tower is ordered to deliver to Edward Fitz-Otho as much lead as shall be necessary to execute certain specified works at Westminster. It was in this year that Griffith-ap-Llewelyn, in attempting to escape by a rope from his prison in the Tower, fell and broke his neck. Griffith was corpulent, and the White Tower whence he let himself down was lofty. His rope was composed of bed linen and the like, and broke. 30th April, the king publicly declares this unfortunate accident, and attributes the neglect to the attendants, whose duty it was to take charge of the prisoner.
31 Henry III., 1246–7, the constable had sixty marcs for constructing “quandam turrellam,” a certain turret; and next year forty marcs more were paid for making a certain turret, a privy chamber, and other works. 33 Henry III., fourteen cartloads of lead were purchased for £32. 9s. 10d., and delivered to Peter Blund, the constable.
In 34 Henry III. the Pipe Roll shows Edward of Westminster and the constable to have had sixty marcs for Tower works, and the keepers thirty marcs for repairing and covering the king’s houses and for lead for the works. Next year, 1250–1, ten marcs went for repairing and covering walls and turrets, and £4. 8s. 6d. for two loads of lead for the same operation upon the king’s houses.
37 Henry III., Adam de Lamburn, master of the Tower works, had £10, and the keepers, also for works, £30, and Adam again £12, and next year the keepers for works fifty marcs more. 39 Henry III., 1254–5, £22. 20d. was paid for a house for the king’s elephant, 40 feet long by 20 feet wide. This was a present from the King of France, and is said by Matt. Paris to have been the first elephant seen north of the Alps. There was also paid for repairs of houses and turrets, £59. 6s. 2d. Next year, £52. 11s. 3d. was paid for works begun by the sheriff of the year preceding, and for Tower shortcomings £37. 2s. 9d.; and 41 Henry III., £90. 14s. 9d. for stones for completing the already commenced Tower quay, and for the Great Wardrobe and other deficiencies.
42 Henry III., 1257–8, two sums of 101s. 8d. and £4. 12s. 6d. were paid for lead gutters and other repairs; and 43 Henry III., £36. 3s. 8d. for repairs of the king’s houses, and for making a new stable and repairing an old one, and gutters, and a “claustura,” or partition, for the same tower, £17. 15s. 7d.
This was the year, 1258, in which, under the Provisions of Oxford, the barons seized the Tower and placed in it Hugh le Bigod as custos. There was in this year a brief,—“In emendacionem planchicii[8] turris Lond: et turrella ejusdem turris versus aquam cooperienda, etc.” Henry soon afterwards, by the permission of the pope, broke faith with his subjects, and regained the Tower, where he was resident in February, 1261, and ordered 40s. to Theodore de Castell for iron for the King’s Tower works, taken from him.