ABSTRACT
Traditionally, England’s monarchs fashioned the Tower as a patriotic symbol of English culture and royal tradition, an opportunity for subjects to take pride in their kingdom. They constructed the Tower as a symbol of the state, associating it with legitimate authority by using it as a royal residence and fortress palace. As a result, the Tower came to be read, in part, as a respected symbol of English kingship, enabling English people to identify the castle with the monarch and take pride in the reflection of that identification upon themselves. Royal organizations and institutions were established there, further identifying the Tower with the monarchy and strengthening the Tower’s role as an extension of sovereign strength. As a site of traditional royal festivities, the Tower became a place to display royal authority and magnificence,1 especially as the starting point for the coronation procession. This recurring event provided an opportunity for each sovereign to showcase the Tower as an icon of national importance in English history; in turn, it associated the monarch with royal authority and right by demonstrating his or her role in the continuity of the monarchy and royal traditions.
