The circumstances of the country forced the king into active measures for the conservation of the fortress. He spent Christmas, 1260, there with his queen, and employed the money at his command in completing the defences. Probably it was about this time that the water-gate was ready, and the tidal ditch converted into a wet moat. Matt. Paris mentions the efforts now made to strengthen the place, and how the king at this time invited the citizens to swear fidelity to him, and to take service in his army then mustering outside the city. He also again named the Tower as the place of meeting for a Parliament to be holden 21st February, 1261, 45 Henry III.
The councillors did not respond to the summons. The king kept Easter in the fortress, whither the bailiffs of Gloucester were directed, 18th March, to send up daily as many lampreys as they could take; and, 17th April, the bailiffs of Waltham were to supply 60s. worth of good fine bread and loaves of four for a penny, and to send them to the royal pantler at the Tower for the usual dole on Easter eve. Similar perquisitions were addressed to the bailiffs of Barking and Dartford, to those of Kingston and Watford, to the extent of 40s., and to the mayor and sheriffs of London to £20. In all, £33 worth of bread was to be distributed. There were also orders for 164 tunics on the part of the king and queen, to be delivered to the royal almoner, and 21 tunics on the part of the royal children; all to be distributed to the poor according to custom. Henry remained at the Tower till about the 20th April.
Prince Edward returned to England in that year, but did not act with his father, whose advisers he distrusted. The king, however, seems to have held the Tower, and kept Christmas of 1261 within its walls. Thence, leaving John Mansell in charge, he went to Dover, and so by Rochester to Winchester for Whitsuntide. There, however, the barons prepared to seize him, and he retired to the Tower, where he remained till October. Christmas of 1262 he again spent at the Tower.
After some time passed beyond sea, and a Christmas at Canterbury, Henry failed to meet his enemies at Worcester, and returned, 47 Henry III., to the Tower, where, with his queen, Prince Edward, and the King of the Romans, he consulted with the mayor and aldermen of London on the subject of de Montfort, and soon afterwards with that nobleman himself. One result was the placing Hugh le Despenser in charge of the Tower. It was in this year that the queen, leaving the Tower by water to join the prince at Windsor, was hooted at and pelted by the populace on the bridge, and forced to put back. In the same year, John Sperling, at a cost of £7, erected a “palicium,” or palisade, between the Tower and the city wall; and two years later he had altogether £25. 10s. 3d. for covering-in the king’s houses, repairing the king’s garderobe, &c.
Henry was again at the Tower in 1265, after the battle of Evesham; and in 1268 the fortress, then commanded by Hugh Fitz-Otho, and containing the papal legate, Ottobon, was besieged by Gilbert, Earl of Gloucester. The Jews, who with their families had been harboured in the Tower, contributed personally to its defence. Gloucester threw up earthworks and attempted a blockade; but in May and June, Henry, approaching by Windsor and Stratford, encamped there for two months, and, throwing in a reinforcement, brought out the legate by the south postern towards the river, and established him with the army at Stratford, forcing Gloucester to sue for peace.[9]
The hall of the Tower and other houses cost £20 in repairs in 1268–9, and in other repairs £12 in the next year; but nothing is recorded concerning the following and two closing years of the long reign of Henry III.
With the death of Henry and the earlier years of his son the history of the Tower, as a specimen of military architecture, may be said to decline, and its history as a state prison, if not to begin, to preponderate. Edward at once continued and completed the works commenced by his father, and probably was thus employed for ten or twelve years. In 1274, 2 Edward, the treasurer was to pay 200 marcs towards the work of the ditch, then nearly made, about the bulwark. This was the loop ditch surrounding the barbican, planned by Henry III., but no doubt then first excavated. Besides this, in 1287, the main ditch seems to have been under enlargement, and its encroachment upon St. Katherine’s land was valued in 1302 at 73s. per annum. The clay taken out was sold by the constable to the tylers working in East Smithfield. In 1289, it yielded 20s., but had averaged £7—about £100 in our day. Bayley tells that 600 Jews were at one time imprisoned here by Edward, 1281–2, as clippers of the coin. On 8th October, 1303, the king, then at Kinloss, ordered the Abbot of Westminster and his 80 monks to be imprisoned in the Tower, on a charge of stealing £100,000 of the royal treasure. The following mandate, of three years’ later date, shows the form in which prisoners were committed. It relates to a Scottish gentleman of rank. “Mons: P: de Graham et vadletz, soient enveez, par bon conduyt, a Londres, et livrez au Conestable de la Tour illueques: et q’il les face garder en fers, en bon et sur lieu, denz meisme la Tour, si sauuement, et si surement, come le Conestable voudra respondre de eux, corps pour corps; et q’il lor face trouver lor sustenance meanement.”
In 1307 occurs a curious sanitary order. “Whereas Margaret, Queen of England, is about to dwell awhile in the Tower, the mayor and sheriffs, to prevent infection of the air, ‘per accensionem rogorum,’ are to prohibit and punish any one ‘burning pyres’ or doing anything by which the air can be corrupted.” Dated, Carlisle, 28th June.
Edward II. was more dependent upon the Tower for personal safety than as a prison. His eldest daughter, hence called “Jane de la Tour,” was here born. In 1312, he put the Tower in a state of defence against his barons; and, in 1324, shut here the two lords, Roger Mortimer of Wigmore and his namesake of Chirk. Their escape is described in the “Opus Chronicorum.” They were shut up “in eminentiori et arctiori loco Turris,” which should mean the White Tower. They drugged the drink of their keepers, and in a stormy night escaped by breaking the wall, and thus reached the annexed palace kitchen, from the top of which, by a rope-ladder, and aided from within the walls, they reached the Thames and thus fled the country.
Two years later, Mortimer of Wigmore returned with the queen, and took arms against Edward, who put the Tower in order, sending thither 100 coats of mail (Pell Rolls, 158), and there, 20th June, he received the city authorities. On the 2nd October he fled, leaving his son, John of Eltham, in the Tower, and Stapleton, Bishop of Exeter, in charge of the city. The citizens, as is well known, rose and beheaded the bishop, and next day, falling in with John de Weston, the constable, they extorted from him the keys, and entered the fortress. They seem, however, only to have freed the prisoners, turned out the officials, and appointed their own men, under the nominal authority of Prince John.