Excerpt
THE STATE PRISON IN THE TOWER.
A paragraph has lately gone the round of the newspapers, in which, after mentioning the alterations recently made in the Beauchamp Tower and the opening of its "written walls" to public inspection, it is stated that this Tower was formerly the place of confinement for state prisoners, and that "Sir William Wallace and Queen Anne Boleyn" were amongst its inmates.
Now, I believe there is no historical authority for saying that "the Scottish hero" was ever confined in the Tower of London; and it seems certain that the unfortunate queen was a prisoner in the royal apartments, which were in a different part of the fortress. But so many illustrious persons are known to have been confined in the Beauchamp Tower, and its walls preserve so many curious inscriptions—the undoubted autographs of many of its unfortunate tenants—that it must always possess great interest.
Speaking from memory, I cannot say whether the building known as the Beauchamp (or Wakefield) Tower was even in existence in the time of Edward I.; but my impression is, that its architecture is not of so early a time. It is, I believe, supposed to derive its name from the confinement in it of Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, in 1397. Of course it was not the only place of durance of state prisoners, but it was the prison of most of the victims of Tudor cruelty who were confined in the Tower of London; and the walls of the principal chamber which is on the first storey, and was, until lately, used as a mess-room for the officers, are covered in some parts with those curious inscriptions by prisoners which were first described in a paper read before the Society of Antiquaries in 1796, by the Rev. J. Brand, and published in the thirteenth volume of The Archæologia.
Mr. P. Cunningham, in his excellent Handbook, says:
"William Wallace was lodged as a prisoner on his first arrival in London in the house of William de Leyre, a citizen, in the parish of All Hallows Staining, at the end of Fenchurch Street."
Mr. Cunningham, in his notice of the Tower, mentions Wallace first among the eminent persons who have been confined there. The popular accounts of the Tower do the like. It was about the Feast of the Assumption (Aug. 15) that Wallace was taken and conducted to London; and it seems clear that he was forthwith imprisoned in the citizen's house:
"He was lodged," says Stow, "in the house of William Delect, a citizen of London, in Fenchurch Street. On the morrow, being the eve of St. Bartholomew (23rd Aug.), he was brought on horseback to Westminster ... the mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen of London accompanying him; and in the Great Hall at Westminster ... being impeached," &c.
The authorities cited are, Adam Merimuth and Thomas de La More. His arraignment and condemnation on the Vigil of St. Bartholomew are also mentioned by Matthew Westminster, p. 451. Neither these historians, or Stow or Holinshed, afford any farther information. The latter chronicler says that Wallace was "condemned, and thereupon hanged" (Chron., fol., 1586, vol....