Home » History » Historical Myths » The Saddest Spot on Earth

The Saddest Spot on Earth

© Anita Stratos

“In truth there is no sadder spot on earth.” These are the words of Thomas Babington Macaulay, a 19th century English historian, speaking about Britain’s famous Tower of London. While today hundreds of thousands of people flock to the Tower of London annually to view Britain’s famed crown jewels, this was no tourist attraction during medieval times. The Tower of London was a place of imprisonment, torture, murders, and beheadings – to be taken to the Tower against one’s will was a frightening prospect indeed.

It was a common myth that the Tower of London was built by Romans; in fact, Shakespeare perpetuated that myth in Richard II, when he called it “Julius Caesar’s ill-erected tower”. In reality, the first tower was ordered to be built by William the Conqueror, immediately after his coronation in Westminster Abbey in 1066. This was the White Tower (so called because it was whitewashed by Henry III), completed in the late 11th century. It is the central structure of what is actually a group of buildings that were not meant for beauty, but rather to look formidable and impress upon citizens the power of their Norman conquerors.

Throughout the centuries the tower’s prisons, dungeons, and execution sites have hosted, in less than enviable fashion, such dignitaries as queens, rightful kings who would never be seated upon the throne (as well as reigning kings who were quickly and quietly whisked away), earls, dukes, barons, bishops, knights, - just about anyone who was overthrown or in the way of someone’s path to the throne of England. From the time of Edward the Confessor in mid-1000 AD, the growing collection of ornate but magnificent crown jewels consisting of many valuable gemstones were the tangible representations of the majesty that would belong to England’s king. So sought after was this power and wealth that those who desired it committed whatever acts of treachery it took to acquire them, thinking nothing of falsely accusing, imprisoning, and murdering members of their own family who stood in their way. The brutality of those centuries was captured by Dean Dudley, author of Pictures of Life in England and America (1850), “Martyrs: Here repose those victims of tyranny and religious persecution…How many have bled on that fatal Hill!”

One of the most heinous crimes, which some dismiss as rumor but most sources state as fact, was committed by Richard III in 1483 against his own young nephews. At that time the rightful heir to England’s throne was twelve and a half year old Edward V, Prince of Wales and his successor was his ten year old brother, Richard, Duke of York. The boys’ father, King Edward IV, had been executed for killing his own brother in order to become king. Sadly, this set a rather grim precedent within the royal family.

The copyright of the article The Saddest Spot on Earth in Historical Myths is owned by . Permission to republish The Saddest Spot on Earth in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.