In the Year 1470, the Tower was yielded to Sir Richard Lee, Maior of London, and his Brethren the Aldermen; who forthwith entred the same, delivering King Henry of his Imprisonment, and lodged him in the King's Lodging there. But the next Year he was again sent thither Prisoner, and there murdered.

In the Year 1478, George Duke of Clarence was drowned in a Butt of Malmsey, in the Tower; and within Five Years after, King Edward the Fifth, with his Brother, were murthered there.

In the Year 1485, John Earl of Oxford was made Constable of the Tower, and had the Custody of the Lyons granted him.

In the Year 1501, in the Month of May, was a Royal Turney of Lords and Knights in the Tower of London, before the King.

In the Year 1502, Queen Elizabeth, Wife to Henry the Seventh, died of Childbirth in the Tower.

In the Year 1509, Sir Richard Empson, Knight, and Edmund Dudley, Esq; Serjeant at Law, (of which Dudley was of a good Family, but Empson was reported the Son of a Sievemaker;) were committed to the Tower. These Two were employed by King Henry the Seventh, to raise Money upon Penal Laws, for the filling of his Coffers; which they did very vigorously, in a Commission for Forfeitures; for which, in the First of King Henry the Eighth, they were both condemned and attainted by Parliament; and upon the 18th of August, 1510, they were beheaded, to satisfy the Clamours of the People.]

In the Year 1512, the Chapel in the White Tower was burnt.

Anno 1513, Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, whom Philip Duke of Austria had delivered up into the Hands of K. Henry the VIIth, on Condition that he should not put him to Death: (And he performed his Promise:) But his Son, King Henry the VIIIth, on the 30th of April the said Year, caused him to be beheaded on Tower Hill.

In the Year 1521, (upon some Speeches cast forth) a Difference happened betwixt Cardinal Wolsey and the Duke of Buckingham; whereupon the Cardinal finds Means to take away his Life; He alledging, that the Duke should say to the Lord Abergavenny, (who married his Daughter) That if King Henry died without Issue, he would look to have the Crown himself: So that he being tried by his Peers, was found guilty; and upon the 17th of May, he was led by John Keyme and John Skevington, then Sheriffs of London, to the Scaffold upon Tower Hill, and was there beheaded.]

In the Year 1534, John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and Sir Thomas More, late Lord Chancellor, (both remarkable Men) were committed to the Tower, for denying to swear to the Act of Succession made the last Parliament: Yet both professing a Readiness to swear to the Succession it self, but not to the whole Act; wherein the Marriage with Queen Katharine, the King's first Wife, was declared to be against the Law of God; and wherein also were some Touches against the Pope's Authority. For this Refusal, they were attainted by Parliament. And afterwards, in another Parliament, an Act passed for the King's Supremacy, and for Abolishing of the Pope's Power in this Realm. This Act also they refusing to swear to, in June, Anno 1535, upon the said Attainder, the Bishop was executed on Tower Hill; and the next Month, the Knight in the same Place.] The Bishop was much lamented, as being a Man of great Learning, and of a good Life: And Sir Thomas More was both learned, and very wise; but so given to the Vein of merry Jesting and Scoffing, that he could not refrain it at the Time of his Death. When he was carried to the Tower, his upper Garment being demanded, (meaning his Gown) he gave them his Cap, saying, That was the uppermost Garment he had. When he had been there close Prisoner for some Time, they took from him all his Books; whereupon he shut up all his Windows; and being asked, why? He answered, 'Tis Time to shut up Shop, when the Ware is all gone. Nay, when he was upon the Scaffold, the Executioner kneeled down, and asked him Forgiveness: I forgive thee, says he. And when he was to lay his Head down on the Block, he (having a great grey Beard) said to the Executioner, I pray let me lay my Beard over the Block, least you should cut it; for though you have a Warrant to cut off my Head, you have none to cut by Beard.]

Queen Anne Bullen, King Henry's Second Wife, was in the Month of May, Anno 1536, brought to the Tower, and there arraigned and beheaded in the same Month, on a Scaffold upon the Green within the Tower.

In the same Month of May, upon her Cause, were brought to the Tower, the Lord Rochford her Brother, and Henry Norris, Mark Smeton, William Brierton, and Francis Weston, all of the King's Privy Chamber; and lost their Heads on Tower Hill.

The same Fate did the Lord Darcy undergo on the same Hill, in June, Anno 1538, having been concerned in a Rebellion in the North.

The like Execution was taken, in the Month of January following, upon Henry Courtney, Marquis of Exeter, Henry Pole, Lord Montacute, and Sir Edward Nevyl: and in the same Place. And in March following, Sir Nicholas Carew, Knight of the Garter, and Master of the King's Horse.

The next Year, (viz. 1540,) in the Month of July, the like Punishment was inflicted on the said Hill, upon Thomas Lord Crumwell, Earl of Essex, the King's Great Counsellor in the Dissolution of Monasteries, and Assumption of the Supremacy; together with the Lord Hungerford of Heitisbury.

Margaret Countess of Salisbury, attainted in the Year 1539, (together with Reginald Pole, afterwards Cardinal, and several others,) was in May, Anno 1541, beheaded within the said Tower. An Execution the more remarkable, in that She was the last of the right Line, and Name of Plantagenet.

And so was the Lord Leonard Grey, Brother to the Marquis of Dorset, in June following, on the Hill; sometime executing the Place of Deputy Lieutenant of Ireland, under the Duke of Richmond.

And in like manner, in February following, Two Great Ladies, Queen Katharine Howard, the King's fifth Wife, and the Lady Rochford, lost their Heads on the Green within the Tower.

Also this Year, 1541, in the beginning of March, Sir Arthur Plantagenet, Bastard Son of King Edward the IVth, and the King's Lieutenant of Calais, died in the Tower; not by a fatal Execution, but by a Joy as fatal; at the gracious Message sent him from the King, with a Diamond Ring, brought by Wriothesly the King's Secretary; assuring him how fully satisfied the King now was in his Innocency; and that he was no longer a Prisoner.

Lastly, The last Execution in the Reign of K. Henry the VIIIth, was of Henry Earl of Surrey,