On one side, my family is Scottish and despite the amount of travel we all do, none of us had been to see our family roots in decades. My mom decided to rectify this and organized a week long trip to London and Scotland for me, my aunt, cousin, and herself.
At my request, we went to see the Tower of London. It's one of my favourite London spots: I love its gruesome history! We joined a beefeater's tour and he did not disappoint. He definitely reveled in sharing all the bloody and gory details.
We heard about numerous executions, including the tale of James Scott. Legend has it that the executioner botched the job and it took five messy swings of the axe to decapitate poor Scott. As was standard practice at the time, his head was then placed on a pike on Tower Bridge as a warning of the fate awaiting anyone with treasonous leanings who entered London. At this point, someone realized that Scott, though illegitimate, was still in fact royalty and as no portrait of him existed, one was immediately commissioned. His head was sewn back on his body and the artist was given a short time to paint a royal portrait. The beefeater continued to explain that the artist put a large ruffled collar on Scott, though his face had a rather detached look (groan…). The portrait today can be found in the National Portrait Gallery. Or can it? A later trip to the National Portrait Gallery with the sole intent of seeking this portrait revealed the truth: the beefeater's tale was pure myth! There is in fact a portrait of James Scott, Duke of Manmouth and Buccleuch, painted by Jan Van Wyck circa 1675 at the 1673 Seige of Maastricht. Scott is very much alive in this painting and was eventually executed according to the orders of King James II after Scott lead the Manmouth Rebellion of 1685. The portrait that was once believed to be Scott is now thought to have been painted in the 1640s and portrays a very pale, sickly man wearing a fair sized collar on his deathbed. Still, the beefeater told the legend beautifully.
We checked out the rest of the sights at the Tower.
Tower Bridge, presently adorned with Olympic rings and not decapitated heads.
The Crown Jewels.
The first building of the Tower of London, dating back to 1078.
The guards.
The gate where prisoners were brought to the Tower.
