Tower of London

Author: Christopher Hibbert
Publisher: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1971
Condition: Hardcover with dust jacket, wear and tear to jacket, interior clean
An exciting history of the imposing and dark Tower of London, full of exciting and tragic episodes and real life stories. It tells much of the history of England itself from the White Tower constructed on the orders of William the Conqueror in 1078. It has imprisoned such figures as Scottish and French kings, Richard II of England, the young princes and heirs to the throne imprisoned by Richard III, sir Thomas More, Bishop John Fisher, Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, Lady Jane Grey, Elizabeth I before she was queen by her jealous and paranoid sister Bloody Mary I, Guy Fawkes and Sir Walter Raleigh. This book tells their stories. The last prisoner there was the Nazi Deputy Fuhrer, Rudolf Hess in 1940.
It tells of the history behind these events. The tower of London has been a prison, a royal residence, held the royal treasures (which are displayed in this book which is filled with photographs and illustrations) and as site of executions, rebellions, disasters, bombings and alleged ghostly hauntings.
This book is divided into seven chapters as well as a section on the literature surrounding the Tower of London, with excerpts from Shakespeare, Maxwell Anderson, Sir Walter Scott, and Alfred Lord Tennyson. It is followed by a guide to the tower and a chronology, Exciting, compelling and informative.