shillings, at that time a considerable sum, was allowed for his daily sustenance. He employed it, as is said, in feasting his keepers; and having received a rope in a flagon, took advantage of their drunken state to let himself down from the window of the south gallery, on the night of 4th February, 1101, taking his pastoral staff with him. The rope proved too short for the descent of 65 ft., and he was injured by a fall, but he escaped in safety to Normandy, and, as is well known, lived to recover his see of Durham, where he completed the Cathedral, added a moat to the Palatine Castle, founded Norham on the Tweed, built Framwellgate bridge, and endowed the hospital of Kepyer. Palgrave cites no authority for the escape of Flambard from the gallery; but these windows are the only ones not seen from the interior chamber, and of which the central column afforded a convenient place to which to make fast the rope. The Tower was probably from the first a state prison, for in 1106 the Earl of Mortaigne, taken with Henry Duke of Normandy by Henry I., was, says Edmer, shut up there. remaining Pipe Roll of the 21 Henry I. records "177. Os. 6d. In operatione Turris Lond."

The

In the time of Stephen the Tower was regarded as impregnable. Geoffrey, grandson of Geoffrey de Magnaville, the companion of the Conqueror, and the third hereditary constable, was created Earl of Essex by the king, who in 1140 kept his solitary Whitsun in the Tower. "Eodem anno, 1140, in Pentecoste resedit Rex Londiniæ in Turri, tantum modo Episcopo Sagiensi presente: cæteri vel fastidierunt, vel timue

runt venire." [R. de Hoveden]. The new earl proved false, and shifted his allegiance to the empress, who, by charter in 1141, confirmed him in his earldom and the constableship.

When the power of Maud declined, the citizens, to whom Geoffrey was as odious as his fortress, laid siege to it. Their efforts were so unsuccessful that on one occasion the earl made a raid as far as Fulham, and captured the bishop.

In 1143 the earl trusted himself in the royal presence at St. Albans, depending on the king's word. The temptation to obtain the Tower was too great,— "magis ex necessitate quam honestate," he was detained, and the Tower was his ransom. Stephen held it until 1153, close upon the conclusion of his reign, when, by the Treaty of Winchester, he gave it up to Richard de Lacy the Justiciary, who was to hold it until Stephen's death, when it was to pass to Henry, which accordingly was done in 1154. It is clear, therefore, that at that time the fortifications of the Tower were both complete and strong; and this, in the absence of a wet ditch, which it will be shown did not then exist, could scarcely be the case with walls of inferior strength to those now seen.

Henry II. is said to have placed Becket in command of the Tower, the government of which had ceased to be hereditary. But there is no proof of this, or that Becket repaired it; though at a later period, indeed, one of his demands, as archbishop, was the custody of Rochester Castle and the Tower. By this reign "London's lasting shame" had attained its gloomy

"Arx

reputation, and Fitz-Stephen describes the Palatina" as as "great and strong, with encircling walls rising from a deep foundation, and built with mortar tempered with the blood of beasts."

The Pipe Rolls of this reign contain frequent entries of large sums issued for the repair of the king's houses in the Tower, his chapel, and his gaol. In 2 Hen. II. 6s. 1d. was paid for carrying the king's breastplates to the Tower; but the regular series of accounts does not begin until the 13 Hen. II., and ends with the 34th. The entries for Westminster and the Tower are also much mixed up together, though sometimes distinct. Thus in 13 Hen. II. the king's houses in the two places and the queen's chamber cost 641., and, in 19 Hen. II., 60l. was paid for the repairs of the Tower and of the houses in it. In the preceding year the king's houses in the bailey of the Tower cost 217. In 20 Hen II., Alnod the engineer had 67. 13s. 4d. for works at the Tower, and afterwards 100s. Similar payments continually occur, sometimes for lead for the repairs of the chapel, sometimes for carriage of timber and planks, sometimes for the kitchen, the gateways of the gaol, the repairs of the houses, and sometimes for the Tower itself.

The necessity for each expenditure is often certified to by the view of two officers, Edward Blund and William Magnus; the works were executed by the engineer Alnod; and the brief, authorising payment, was signed either by the king himself, or by Richard de Lucy or Ranulph de Glanville, no doubt as justiciars. The sums paid varied from 1s. 4d. to 647.,

and the total for the thirteen years of which the rolls remain, is 2157. 15s. and 50 marks.

When in February, 1190, Coeur de Lion departed from Normandy to the East, he placed the Tower in charge of William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely and Chancellor, sharing the power of chief justiciary with Pudsey, Bishop of Durham, to which the Pope added the office of legate. These combined honours seem to have turned Longchamp's head. Always of intense activity of character, he spurned all colleagues in his power. His first act on reaching England seems to have been to provide for his personal security by girdling the Tower with a wall and deep ditch, which he proposed to fill from the Thames. In this, however, he failed, after spending a large sum of money.*

The wall was probably that of the outer ward, which would be necessary to retain the banks of the ditch, and the commencement of that which still remains. The failure could scarcely be in the admission of the Thames, which required only a certain depth of excavation, but was rather in the retaining it full at low tide, so as to make it really a wet ditch. This important object was attained in a later reign, by a new and ingenious arrangement. In his excavations Longchamp encroached upon land belonging to Trinity Church, East Smithfield, and took a mill from St. Katherine's Hospital. These trespasses were

A.D. 1190. "Sub his diebus Ws Eliensis Eps, Angliæ Justiciarius et Apostolicae sedis legatus, fecit Turrim Londinensem fossato profundissimo circumcingi, sperans se posse Tamisiæ fluenta in urbem ducere. Sed post multos de fisco sumptus se laborare inutilita comprobavit.”—M. Paris Ed., 1646, p. 161.

much complained of, and seem to have been the same on account of which a compensating rent-charge was afterwards paid by Edward I. There is still a small burial-ground on the east glacis of the Tower, which is said to be a part of the land then taken. There was also an earlier trespass on Church lands by the constables, for Geoffrey, Earl of Essex, took by force from Trinity Priory, in East Smithfield, land near the Tower to make a vineyard, which was not restored to that church until towards 1137.

Longchamp, whose patent directed the lieges to obey him, even as the king himself, commenced by imprisoning Bishop Pudsey, his rival justiciar. His unpopularity was fostered by Prince John, who headed a party against him, and took occasion of his ill treatment of the Archbishop of York to summon Longchamp to appear before a council at Loddon, by Reading. Longchamp refused compliance, but retired before John's superior force to London, where he entered the Tower with all his train, pressed by the citizens, who took part against him and blockaded the fortress by land and water. John, with many barons and bishops, reached London on the 8th of October, 1191, and held a council in the Chapter-House, in St. Paul's churchyard, on the 9th, summoning the people by the sound of the bell. Here the Archbishop of Rouen and William Mareschal produced Richard's declaration from Messina, limiting the independent powers of the justiciar, whom the meeting then deposed by acclamation. Four earls and as many bishops conveyed this sentence to Longchamp, who fell senseless upon the floor. On the following