'LITTLE EASE' THE TOWER OF LONDON
Little Ease' was the most infamous prison cell, located beneath the White Tower, at The Tower of London.
The dark windowless cell was 3 ft 11"~ meaning that while an adult human could be placed inside, any occupant was prevented from standing, sitting or lying down.
It was impossible for them to find any ease, any physical position of rest or comfort.
The inhabitant was forced to crouch in solitary confinement for days or even a week, before being released for interrogation and torture.
The story of Little Ease begins with a prison break from the Tower of London.
In 1534, a man and woman hurried past a row of cottages on the outer grounds of the Tower.....
They had almost reached the gateway to Tower Hill and beyond that, the city of London - when a group of yeomen warders on night watch appeared in their path, and stopped them.
The man was a fellow yeoman warder John Bawd, and the woman was Alice Tankerville, a condemned thief, and prisoner.
Yeoman Warder John Bawd admitted he had planned the escape of Alice Tankerville “for the love and affection he bore her.”
For his assistance in trying to help Alice escape, John Bawd was destined to enter the Tower record books.
He is the first known occupant of the infamous cell used during the reigns of the Tudors, and early Stuarts.
Alice Tankerville was hanged in chains, at low water mark upon the Thames.
John Bawd after his stay in the Little Ease cell, was to be racked and hanged.
⛓ The most famous prisoner of them all to be held in Little Ease, was Guy Fawkes.
Charged with plotting to blow up the king and Parliament, Fawkes was subjected to both manacles and rack, to obtain his confession and the names of his fellow conspirators.
After he had told his questioners everything they asked, Fawkes was still shackled hand and foot in Little Ease, and left there for a number of days.
After that final burst of savagery, Little Ease was no more.
A House of Commons committee reported the same year as Fawkes’ execution, that the room was “disused.”
In 1640, during the reign of Charles I, torture was abolished forever.
There would be no more forcing prisoners to crouch for days in dark airless rooms, no more rack or hanging from chains.
And so, this closed one of the darkest chapters in England’s history.
