The Tower of London Pt. 1

[00:00:00] Hi there, and welcome to Out There: A Cryptid Podcast I'm Josh, and today we're stepping inside one of the most infamous places in history to uncover the dark story behind its walls and the events that shaped its terrifying reputation. We are talking about the Tower of London. Let's dive in.

[00:00:55] Before we get into today's episode, I want to explain how we are handling this one because the Tower of London is not the kind of story you can really squeeze into a single episode. This place has nearly a thousand years of history behind it, and a lot of that history is heavy, complicated, and honestly a little unsettling on its own. So instead of rushing through it, we are breaking this into two parts. In this first episode, we are focusing on the

[00:01:25] history – what the tower was built for, how it was used, and all of the moments that gave it the reputation it still carries today. Then, in the second part, we are coming back to the same place, but for something very different. The sightings, the encounters, and the stories that have followed the Tower for centuries about what people claim is still inside those walls.

[00:01:50] We'll get into the Tower of London right after this. On the banks of the River Thames in London, there is one structure that has stood for nearly a thousand years. Not just as a building, but as a warning. A fortress. A prison. A royal execution site. And whether you believe in ghosts

[00:02:14] or not, there is something about the Tower of London that makes people feel like they are being watched. Not in a dramatic or obvious way, but in a quiet and persistent sense that something is still there. But before we talk about what people claim to see inside, we need to understand what this place was

[00:02:37] actually built to be. The Tower of London sits just outside the heart of the city, where the river bends, and the old streets begin to tighten into history. At first glance, it looks like a medieval castle, the kind you might expect from stories of knights and kings. But that is not entirely what it was built to be.

[00:02:59] In 1066, after William the Conqueror invaded England and claimed the throne, he ordered the construction of a massive stone fortress on this exact site. The goal was not just protection from outside threats. It was control over the city itself. He had taken the crown by force, and London was the most important

[00:03:23] place to secure. This structure was meant to establish authority immediately, and make it clear that power had changed hands. It was not hidden away in the countryside, or placed on the edge of the kingdom. It was built beside the capital, visible to the people it was meant to govern. From the very beginning, its presence was political. It was meant to be seen, remembered, and understood.

[00:03:53] The first and most important part of the structure, what is now known as the White Tower, was constructed in the late 11th century, and expanded over time into a complex of walls, gates, and inner fortifications. It was not built all at once, but layered across centuries, with each generation adding more security, more confinement, and more control. But originally,

[00:04:21] it was not a prison, in the way we think of it today. It functioned as a fortified royal residence, a place where kings could stay, store wealth, and maintain a physical presence in the city. It was designed to dominate, but also to operate as part of the monarchy itself. Over time, that did begin to change. As England's political system grew more unstable through the medieval and Tudor periods, the tower

[00:04:51] slowly took on a different role. It became a place to hold political enemies of the crown. Not because it was built for that purpose, but because it was the most secure and controlled location in the kingdom. And that shift is where the reputation starts to get darker. These were not common criminals. Some of the

[00:05:14] most powerful and influential figures in English history passed through these gates. Nobles, advisors, rivals to the throne, and people who had simply fallen out of favor. Once inside, their future was uncertain, and often decided behind closed doors. Alongside this, the tower continued to function as an armory and

[00:05:40] military stronghold. And later as the treasury for the crown jewels, making it one of the most heavily guarded sites in England. But underneath all of those roles, something else was taking shape. Because this was also a place where people were interrogated, held without clear outcomes, and in many

[00:06:02] cases executed, within sight of the same walls that were meant to represent order and rule. Some executions took place inside the grounds, most notably on Tower Green, a private execution site reserved for those of high status. Others were carried out just outside its walls, on Tower Hill, where the public could witness

[00:06:29] the consequences of political failure. But the distinction mattered less than the outcome. Inside or outside the walls, the result was the same. And over the centuries, the Tower of London stopped being just a fortress. It became a place where control turned into confinement, and confinement sometimes turned into death. A place where

[00:06:55] power, fear, and uncertainty all exist in the same space. What makes the Tower of London different from most historic castles is not just its age or its architecture, but what actually happened inside its walls. People were brought here deliberately as prisoners of the crown, often through political acquisition or

[00:07:17] royal decree. And they were held under guard, isolated and kept within stone walls that were designed to make escape nearly impossible. Conditions did vary depending on status though, but uncertainty was constant. Some prisoners were kept for short periods before execution or even release. Others were held for years without ever knowing what their

[00:07:45] final outcome would be. So, by the time you move into the late 11,000s and early 12,000s, that shift is no longer subtle. The Tower of London is not just a symbol of royal authority or a defensive stronghold anymore. It is becoming something more controlled than that. A place where political power and punishment start to overlap in a very real way.

[00:08:12] People are no longer just being held here for safety or temporary confinement. They are being brought here because they are seen as threats to the crown, and more importantly, because once they are inside, their fate can be decided without interference. This period in English history was marked by instability,

[00:08:34] shifting alliances, and repeated struggles for power between the monarchy and the nobility. And because of that, the Tower of London became a place where those conflicts were dealt with directly. Like I said, the people brought here were not common criminals. They were powerful figures, members of the aristocracy, people with influence, connections, and in some cases, real claims to the throne. Their status

[00:09:04] made them vulnerable, but it also made them dangerous. Some were released after political negotiations, or even shifts in power. Others were not. Because over time, the Tower was no longer being used just to hold people. It was being used to decide what happened to them. The details varied depending on the person and the time period, but this pattern was clear. Once you entered the Tower's walls, you had no idea what was about to happen to you.

[00:09:34] And as this continued, the way people understood the Tower from the outside began to change. It was not just where power was enforced. It was where it ended. Because in a time where loyalty could shift quickly and alliances could collapse just as fast, being brought inside these walls often meant that whatever came next would not happen anywhere else.

[00:09:59] And over time, that idea really did settle in. Not all at once, but gradually, through repeated imprisonment and repeated deaths tied to the same place, until the Tower was no longer seen as just a fortress or a royal stronghold, but as something more permanent, a place where death was no longer rare or accidental, but something built into the system itself.

[00:10:29] By the time you reach the late 1400s, that pattern leads to one of the most disturbing and unresolved stories ever tied to the Tower of London. More on the Tower of London right after this. In 1483, two young boys, Edward V and his younger brother Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, were brought into the Tower.

[00:10:57] Officially, it was in preparation for Edward's coronation. At the time, that was not unusual. The Tower had long been used as a royal residence before a king was crowned. But this time, it was different. Edward was only 12 years old. His brother Richard was even younger. And within weeks of their arrival, the situation around them began to change.

[00:11:21] Their uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, had been appointed Lord Protector, meant to oversee the kingdom until Edward came of age. But instead, the line of succession collapsed. The boys were declared illegitimate, removed from the throne, and confined within a tower. Soon after, their uncle crowned himself Richard III.

[00:11:48] And then, sometime after the summer of 1483, the boys disappeared. There was no announcement, no record of execution, no confirmed burial. They are present in historical record, and then suddenly, they're not. And that absence is what turns this into something more than just history.

[00:12:15] The most widely accepted theory is that the boys were murdered inside the tower, most likely to secure Richard III's claim to the throne. As long as they were alive, they represented a direct threat. A rallying point for anyone who opposed him. But there is no definitive proof. Other theories suggest the act may have been carried out by allies, or that the boys were moved elsewhere.

[00:12:43] But no evidence has ever confirmed that they survived beyond that year. For centuries, there was no physical resolution at all. Then, in 1674, workers inside the White Tower reportedly uncovered a small chest beneath a staircase, containing the skeletal remains of two children. The remains were later placed in Westminster Abbey.

[00:13:13] But even then, there was no conclusive way to confirm their identity. It was an assumption based on circumstance, not certainty. And then, later in 1933, the bones were tested, and it was discovered the persons they belonged to would have been 10 and 12 years old at the time of their deaths.

[00:13:37] And it was estimated they were buried in summer of 1483. Matching almost exactly to the story of the two princes. But even now, there still is no universally accepted answer. No confirmed cause of death, no proven responsibility, and no clear ending to the story, which makes it so unsettling.

[00:14:06] However, there is someone who claims they know exactly what happened. The most famous account of a confession comes from Sir Thomas More, who wrote that Sir James Tyrell admitted to the murders shortly before his execution in 1502. According to More's narrative, Tyrell was commissioned by Richard III to eliminate the princes and recruited two men,

[00:14:35] Miles Frost and John Dinkton, to smother the boys with pillows in their beds. The confession allegedly detailed how the bodies were buried deep beneath a stone staircase in the White Tower, a location that eerily matches where workmen discovered two skeletons, nearly two centuries later. However, many modern historians view this confession with skepticism,

[00:15:03] noting that it was recorded by Tudor-aligned writers who had a political interest in framing Richard III, and that no original legal document of Tyrell's admission has ever been found. This was one of the first huge moments that showed this was no longer just a place where power is enforced, or people are executed. This is a place where people can disappear completely. And from this point on,

[00:15:33] the Tower is not just associated with death or imprisonment, it became associated with something far harder to explain. Not just what happened inside its walls, but what was never really accounted for. And as England moved into the 15,000s, that feeling only grew stronger. Under the Tudor monarchy, especially during the reign of Henry VIII, the Tower of London became something much more deliberate.

[00:16:03] It was no longer used only in moments of crisis. It became part of how power was maintained. This is where things start to escalate even more. What makes this period different was not just how often the Tower was used, but how intentionally it was used. It was no longer reacting to threats. It was removing them before they could take shape. And as the pattern repeated, the Tower changed with it.

[00:16:32] It stopped being just a fortress, or even just a prison. And it became a place where decisions were carried out quickly, quietly, and with very little chance of reversal. And then, in the middle of all of this, one event happens that defines the Tower more than almost anything else. In the early 1500s, a woman who once stood at the center of power

[00:17:00] was brought through the gates, not as a queen anymore, but as a prisoner. Anne Boleyn had already changed the course of English history. Her rise led directly to the break from the Catholic Church and reshaped the structure of the monarchy itself. She was not an outsider. She was crowned, powerful, and central to the future of the throne. And then, within a matter of years,

[00:17:30] everything changed. She was arrested and taken to the Tower, accused of treason, adultery, and conspiracy against the king. The charges were questioned, even at that time, but ultimately, it didn't matter. Once she was inside, the outcome was already moving in one direction. What makes this moment so striking is the contrast.

[00:17:58] Anne Boleyn had entered the Tower before as a queen preparing for her coronation. The same walls, the same gates, the same path. But this time, she was not being celebrated. She was being contained. She was held for just over two weeks. Tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death in rapid succession.

[00:18:25] On May 19th, 1536, she was brought to Tower Green, the small enclosed space within the Tower, reserved for private executions of high-ranking individuals. Unlike the public executions on Tower Hill, this was controlled, witnessed by only a select group. Henry VIII ordered a skilled swordsman from France to carry out the execution, rather than using the traditional English method.

[00:18:56] It was meant to be faster, more precise, and within seconds, it was over. However, according to legend, it is said that as the French swordsman lifted Anne's severed head to show the crowd, witnesses claimed to see her dark eyes continue to scan the horizon, and her lips moved rhythmically, as if she were still whispering the final words of her prayer.

[00:19:25] This haunting spectacle sparked a centuries-long debate over whether her consciousness remained intact for those few fleeting seconds trapped within her head after the blow was struck, while skeptics argue that it was merely the twitching of dying nerves. But, the legend of the praying head remains one of the most enduring and unsettling images of her final moment. But, what makes this moment

[00:19:55] so significant is not just the execution itself, it's what it represents. The tower is no longer just a place where enemies of the crowns are sent. It is a place where even those at the very top, even a queen, can be brought down and killed within the same walls that once represented their own power. It reinforced something that had been building for centuries. Inside the tower,

[00:20:25] status did not guarantee safety, and power did not guarantee survival. And, after this, that pattern does not stop. It continues. Just a few years later, another queen would follow the same path. Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII, was brought into the tower in 1542 after being accused of adultery and treason

[00:20:54] against the king. Her case moved quickly. An act of a tander was passed through parliament that formally condemned her, stripping away any real chance of defense or reversal. It did not need to be a public trial in the way that people think of today. The decision was already locked in through the legal system itself. And once that happened, she was taken to Tower Green, inside the same walls

[00:21:23] where Anne Boleyn had been executed just a few years earlier. Another queen, another execution, all in the same place. And it reinforced the same truth in an even more uncomfortable way. Inside the tower, power did not protect you, and even the highest position in the kingdom could be undone with the same stone walls that once marked authority itself. Of course, this pattern

[00:21:53] did not end with Henry VIII because the tower had already become something more than just a place of punishment. It had become part of how power was transferred, corrected, and then removed when it no longer served the crown. And just a few years later, during another period of instability over the English throne, the same system would be used again. In the 1550s, during another period of instability over the English throne, a young girl

[00:22:23] was brought into the Tower of London. Lady Jane Grey was only a teenager, and for a brief moment, she was declared queen. Her reign lasted just nine days before it collapsed under political pressure. Almost as quickly as she was placed on the throne, she was removed from it, and, like so many before her, she was taken to the Tower. What makes her story stand out is not just how short her reign

[00:22:52] was, but how little control she had over any of it. She was placed in power by others, used as part of a larger political strategy, and then abandoned when the strategy failed. Inside the Tower, her fate followed a pattern that, by this point, was familiar. She was held, tried, and eventually sentenced to death. And in 1554, she was executed within the same walls that had already seen so

[00:23:22] many lives end before hers. But, by now, something had clearly shifted. Executions tied to the Tower were no longer rare or shocking. They became part of how power was maintained, because removing a threat no longer meant exile or imprisonment alone. More and more, it meant something final. And what made this moment land differently was how young she was. She was not

[00:23:51] a long-standing rival or a powerful figure who spent years challenging the crown. She was a teenager, caught in the middle of a struggle she could not control, placed into power, and then erased from it just as quickly. Her story reinforced something that clearly was building across all of this. Inside the Tower, it does not matter how briefly you held power, or how little choice you had in the events that brought you here.

[00:24:21] Once you were inside the walls, your fate was no longer your own. And as the timeline moves into the 1600s, something begins to change. Not suddenly, but quietly. More on the Tower of London right after this. By this point, the Tower of London was no longer used as frequently for executions, at least not in the same way it had been during

[00:24:51] the Tudor period. The pace slowed, the public spectacle faded, but that did not mean the Tower lost its role in the system of power. Instead, it settled into something more controlled and more permanent. It became primarily a state prison, still reserved for high-profile prisoners, but used less as a place of immediate execution and more as a place of long-term confinement. Political figures, military leaders,

[00:25:20] and individuals accused of treason were still brought here, but their time inside was often extended, uncertain, and much quieter than before. It was no longer always about making an example of someone in a single moment. It became about holding them, removing them from the outside world, and keeping them contained within the walls that already carried centuries of history. And in a way, that shift changed how the tower felt.

[00:25:51] The violence didn't disappear, it just became less visible, less immediate, and more drawn out. By the end of this period, the tower was no longer defined by constant executions, but by what had already happened there. The walls remained the same, the spaces remained the same, but now they carried the weight of everything that came before. This was the point where the tower stopped building its

[00:26:20] reputation through new events, and instead held on to it through memory. And that distinction mattered, because this was where the history began to settle into something that felt less like a series of moments, and more like something that lingered. By the 1800s, the role of the Tower of London began to change again. By this time, in a way that felt quieter on the surface. It was no longer used as a place for

[00:26:50] executions. The era of constant political imprisonment and public punishment had passed, and the Tower of London began to shift into something more symbolic. It became a historical site, a place to be preserved, visited, and studied, rather than actively used as part of the justice system. But even as its official purpose faded, something else began to take its place. The soldiers and guards stationed at the Tower,

[00:27:20] the people responsible for watching over it day and night, began reporting experiences that were difficult to explain. At first, they were small things, a feeling of being watched in empty corridors, sounds in places that should have been silent, brief glimpses of figures that were gone the moment they were noticed, noticed. And what makes this period different is not just what was reported, but how it was recorded.

[00:27:49] These accounts were no longer just passed off quietly or forgotten. They began to appear in written records, in letters, and eventually in published accounts. Over time, patterns started to emerge. Certain areas of the Tower were mentioned repeatedly, certain descriptions of figures appeared again and again, from people who had no connection to one another. And slowly, that perception of the Tower

[00:28:19] began to shift, not because the structure had changed, but because the way people experienced it had. The history that had built this place was no longer just something that belonged to the past. It began to feel like something that might still be present. And this is where history started to blur into folklore, where documented events began to mix with repeated stories, and where

[00:28:48] interpretation started to matter just as much as record. And for the first time, the idea began to take hold that what had happened inside these walls may not have stayed entirely in the past. Because if a place like the Tower of London had held this much history, this much power, this much death, then it raised a different kind of question. Does it ever really become just a building again? And across centuries,

[00:29:18] that question only became harder to ignore, as more guards, now visitors, and staff, continue to report things inside the Tower that they could not fully explain. And these are only some of the stories that have been recorded over the long history of the Tower of London. There are more scattered across centuries, and in different forms, and different voices. But the ones we've covered here are the ones that seem to persist the most, the ones that appear

[00:29:48] to return again and again, as if something inside these walls never fully left. So, next week, we are going to come back to the Tower. But this time, we are not focusing on the past. We are focusing on what people say is still happening there. So, what do you think? Are the ghosts of the Tower of London really out there?

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