History and myth at the Tower of London

 The tragic tales of the Princes in the Tower and of Lady Jane Grey became the subject of melodramatic artworks.

But are the stories they present history or myth?

Paul Delaroche's 1831 image 'The Princes in the Tower' is a work of imagination...

The two boys, Edward V and Richard, Duke of York, were the sons of Edward IV. They were taken to the Tower ‘for their protection’ after the death of their father in 1483.  

They never re-emerged. 

Jane Grey was proclaimed queen on the death of her cousin Edward VI in July 1553. 

Her 'reign' lasted only nine days before she was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower by the more powerful backers of Edward’s sister Mary, crowned as Mary I in October.

Jane was executed in February 1554 aged only 17.

Victorian artists and historical novelists turned the ‘Nine Days Queen’ into a tragic heroine.

In his slightly earlier image of the execution of Jane, painted in 1833, the French artist Paul Delaroche has gone even further in his composition to stir our emotions and sympathy. 

He has created a claustrophobic image of a Tower dungeon, with Jane depicted as a white-clad, innocent victim, pathetically reaching out, blindfolded, for her own execution block.

Artists did research history, and some even sketched at the Tower, but they also added details and changed locations for dramatic effect.

Queen Jane was probably not imprisoned in a Tower cell but in the relative comfort of the residence of a Tower official, and she was not executed in a dungeon, but outside on Tower Green.

William Harrison Ainsworth wrote The Tower of London in 1840. The book is long on imaginative scene setting and short on historical accuracy.

 It helped to create the popular image of the Tower as a grim state prison, with dramatic illustrations by George Cruikshank.

The Tower’s identity as a visitor attraction grew in the 19th century in parallel with the popularisation of melodramatic and lurid tales of imprisonment and execution. 

Not all the stories were true, and many were romanticised versions of the past, packed with heroes and villains.

In this painting by Nicholas Condy, the artist captures a Yeoman Warder in full flow, outside the Bloody Tower. 

This building acquired its sinister name in the 16th century, as it was believed to be where the Princes in the Tower had been murdered in 1483.

It remains difficult to divide history from myth at the Tower. We may never know precisely where Lady Jane Grey was imprisoned, or how the Princes in the Tower met their fate.

We do have some tantalising clues left behind.