Places: Wakefield Tower, Tower of London

On the evening of May 21, 1471, deposed King Henry VI knelt in prayer in the chapel of the Wakefield Tower at the Tower of London.  His situation couldn't have been more bleak and dangerous.  He'd lost his place as King of England for the second time, and his only son and heir, Edward, Prince of Wales, had been killed in battle at Tewkesbury.  Without an heir, with few supporters and not in firm control of his mind, Henry was easy prey for anyone who might want him out of the way.  As he prayed in the chapel, several armed men burst in behind him and bludgeoned him to death with swords.  Though rumor puts Richard of Gloucester, the future Richard III in the room, likely his role in Henry's murder would have been transmitting secret orders from Edward IV to have the former king executed.  As cruel as it sounds now, it had to be done.  Henry's supporters had already risen once and sent Edward IV into exile.  It could happen again, bringing yet another bloody chapter to the War of the Roses.  Did Henry suspect that he, like Edward II and Richard II, might be killed in captivity?  We will never know.

The Tower of London is not a single tower, but a complex of several towers built over the successive reigns of Norman and Plantagenet kings.  The motte or keep is the White Tower, built by William the Conqueror soon after his arrival in England and augmented by Henry II.  Later, Richard I, Henry III and Edward I expanded and enlarged the Tower precincts to include two defensive walls and a moat or ditch.  The inner wall consists of several towers, each with its own distinctive name.  One of these is the Wakefield Tower, which served as Henry VI's prison in 1471.  Though the phrase, Bloody Tower came to symbolize the entire complex, it was originally a name given in Tudor times to the tower next to Wakefield, which housed Henry's two young cousins, the Princes in the Tower.  The chapel where Henry spent his last fateful night still exists and, on each anniversary of his death, flowers are placed on the spot in commemoration of the event.