The old chapel was burnt in 1512, and
the present building erected only in time to receive the bodies of the
first victims of the tyranny of Henry VIII. It was considered a Royal
Chapel before 1550; the interior is not shown to the public. Here it is,
in the memorable words of Stow, writing in the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
that there lie before the high altar, "two dukes between two queens, to
wit, the Duke of Somerset and the Duke of Northumberland, between Queen
Anne and Queen Katharine, all four beheaded." Here also are buried Lady
Jane (Grey) and Lord Guildford Dudley, the Duke of Monmouth, and the
Scotch lords, Kilmarnock, Balmerino, and Lovat, beheaded for their share
in the rebellion of 1745. The last burial in the chapel was that of Sir
John Fox Burgoyne, Constable of the Tower, in 1871.
The space in front of the chapel is called Tower Green, and was used as
a burial ground; in the middle is a small square plot, paved with
granite, showing the site on which stood at rare intervals the scaffold
on which private executions took place. It has been specially paved by
the orders of Her late Majesty. The following persons are known to have
been executed on this spot:--
1. Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, 19th May, 1536.
2. Margaret Countess of Salisbury, the last of the old Angevin or
Plantagenet family, 27th May, 1541.
3. Queen Katharine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII, 13th February,
1542.
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