12. Traitors’ Gate, from within.
From an old engraving.
British Museum.
We can trace here the origins of our old Law Courts. From the first it was a recognized rule that the Inner Ballium was sacred to royalty, and the general world coming on business had to content itself with admission to the Outer Ballium. The great Council Chamber was especially the “King’s Curia,” the King’s Bench, where his justices sat to supervise the proceedings of inferior courts, as well as to deal with criminal matters directly affecting the Crown. The Court of Common Pleas, suits between subject and subject, was held in the Hall Tower close to the Outer Ballium, to which there was an entrance into the Royal Palace. And here strict rules were kept, in order to keep the commonalty at a distance. There was a preliminary meeting at the Church of All Hallows Barking, to settle who were to be admitted for the pleadings. This last Court was removed to Westminster Hall by Magna Charta.
The entrance into this wonderful building is by a well-stair at the south-west angle. The keep was restored on the outside by Sir C. Wren, who faced the windows with stone in the Italian style. The inside has been very little altered. The largest of the four turrets was the original Observatory of the great astronomer, Flamsteed.
The Chapel, dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, is a very rare, if not unique, example of such a large and complete apartment in a Norman keep. It is in plan a rectangle 40 feet by 31 feet, terminating eastward in a semicircular apse of its full breadth, making the total length 55 ft. 6 in. It is divided into a nave and aisles, a splendid example of Norman work, simple, complete. It was intended primarily, no doubt, for the devotions of the Conqueror and his descendants; the church of St. Peter below was built for the use of the garrison. Though architecturally plain, it was probably painted and hung with tapestry. Henry III gave some stained glass. The only fireplace in the great keep is on this floor.
The Armoury was begun by Henry VIII. His original locality of the armour was Greenwich, and consequently there is little armour here older than the fifteenth century. It used to be kept in a temporary gallery, removed in 1883, on the south side of the keep; it was then removed to the top floor, and within the last few years the floor below is also required. I make no attempt to classify the armour here; the subject has been fully treated in the Portfolio monographs, Nos. 33 and 38.