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This plaque commemorates the spot
on Tower Green where the scaffold stood for private executions. The area was paved by order of Queen Victoria.
The plaque lists the names of people known to have been executed here:
William, Lord Hastings, by order of Richard,
Duke of Gloucester, in June 1483
Queen Anne Boleyn, 2nd wife of Henry
VIII, May 19, 1536
Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, the
last of the Plantagenet family, May 27, 1541
Queen Katherine Howard, 5th wife of Henry
VIII, Feb. 13, 1542
Jane, Viscountess Rochford, Feb. 13,
1542
Lady Jane Grey, wife of Lord Guilford
Dudley, Feb. 12, 1554
Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, Feb.
25, 1601
In the background is the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula
(St. Peter in Chains). It was named after a well known Catholic Church Festival and not for the reason we all suppose.
In the words of Stow, writing during the reign of Elizabeth I, Here lie before the high altar..."Two dukes
between two queens...The Duke of Somerset and the Duke of Northumberland between Queen Anne and Queen Katherine
all 4 beheaded". Also buried here are:
Lady Jane Grey
Lord Guilford Dudley
The Duke of Monmouth
and the Scottish lords Kilmarnock, Balmerino,
and Lovat. They, along with the Duke were executed for participating in the rebellion of 1745.
The last burial in the Chapel was that
of Charles Wyndham, Keeper of the Regalia, who died in 1872
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