It was opened as an occasional public spectacle in the reign of Elizabeth I. In 1264 they were moved to the Bulwark, which was duly renamed the Lion Tower, near the main western entrance. Its year of origin is often stated as 1235, when Henry III received a wedding gift of three leopards (so recorded, although they may have been lions) from Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor. The Tower remained a royal residence until the time of Oliver Cromwell who demolished the old palatial buidings.ДЄ Royal Menagerie was established at the Tower in the 13th century, possibly as early as 1204 during the reign of King John, and probably stocked with animals from an earlier menagerie started in 1125 by Henry I at his palace in Woodstock, near Oxford.

He filled in the pre-existing moat and built a new moat around the new outer wall. The fortification was completed by between 12 by Edward I who built the outer curtain wall, completely enclosing the inner wall and thus creating a concentric double defence. Henry III transformed the Tower into a major royal residence and had palatial buidings constructed within the Inner Bailey. This king greatly strengthened the curtain wall, breaking down the city wall to the east, to extend the circuit, despite the remonstances of the citizens of London and even supernatural warnings-if the contemporary monastic chronicler Matthew Paris is to be believed. The moat was not very successful until Henry III, in the 13th century, employed a Dutch moat building technique. In the 12th century King Richard the Lionheart enclosed the White Tower with a curtain wall and had a moat dug around it filled with water from the Thames. This supposed Roman origin is, however a myth, as is the story that the mortar used in its construction was tempered by the blood of beasts. Some writers, such as Shakespeare, in his play Richard III, have ascribed an earlier origin to the Tower of London and have stated that it was built by Julius Caesar.

William ordered the Tower to be built of stone which he had specially imported from France and appointed Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester as the architect. This was as much to protect the Normans from the people of the City of London as to protect London from outside invaders. The Tower of London was founded in 1078 when William the Conqueror ordered the White Tower to be built inside the SE angle of the City walls, adjacent to the Thames. The 15th century Tower in a manuscript of poems by Charles, Duke of OrlГ©ans (1391-1465) commemorating his imprisonment there (British Library)

The tower of london