Fascinating Facts About The Tower Of London

Rituals, traditions, and ceremonies are all part and parcel of life's rich tapestry. Yet there are not many ceremonies that have been enacted nearly every night for seven centuries, such as the Ceremony of the Keys. According to Historic Royal Palaces, the gates of the Tower of London have been ritually locked and unlocked since a cold night in December 1340, when Edward III was angered to find that his entrance into the Tower went unchallenged. The constable who was on duty was imprisoned for his tardiness, and the king insisted from then on the Tower gates would be locked in the evening and opened at the break of dawn.

The chief Yeoman Warder has to carry the keys and lock the inner and outer gates of the Tower. The warder wearing his traditional red garb and Tudor bonnet is flanked in his duty by a military escort, and since 1826 the ceremony always takes place from seven minutes to 10 p.m. It ends with the warder exclaiming, "God preserve King Charles" or whoever is the ruling monarch at the time. The guard on duty cries "Amen" as the clock strikes 10, and "The Last Post" is played. 

Paranoid and anxious about her security, the unpopular Queen Mary had the Ceremony of the Keys written down in text for posterity. Apart from the duke of Wellington changing the time of the ceremony from sunset to 10 p.m. when he was Tower constable, the ceremony has remained unchanged, even when a German bomb struck the Tower in 1940.

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