ho really makes the decisions of war and all military matters can be traced back a long way in a continuous line of monarchs who have gradually acceded these Executive Powers to the State. The Monarch remains the Commander-in-Chief and sovereign powers still include the declaration of War or Peace and the direction of all military actions, in reality a power exercised by the Prime Minister. The lineage of this relationship between Sovereign and State leads to some unlikely places that might not ordinarily be considered of obvious military importance. The greatest Palaces in the world, today associated more with high culture, were also the places where vast Empires were built and lost.
The Tower of London was mentioned by William Shakespeare in many of his plays. In Act III, scene I of Richard III, one of the doomed ‘little princes’ asks his wicked uncle who built the castle which was to become his prison…
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Prince Edward: Say, uncle Gloucester, if our brother come, Where
shall we sojourn till our coronation?
Gloucester: Where it seems best unto you royal self.
If I may counsel you, some day or two
Your highness shall repose you at the Tower:
Then where you please,
and shall be thought most fit
For your best health and recreation.
Prince Edward: I do not like the Tower, of any place:- Did Julius Caesar build that place, my lord?
Gloucester: He did, my gracious lord, begin that place; which, since, succeeding ages have re-edified.
The Tower of London represents an end to the rule of British Kings with the rule of
William the Conqueror in 1066. By the end of that year the site of the Tower of London
had been determined on earlier ruins of Roman walls that remain in the compound
to this |
