Beauchamp Tower Graffiti: John Dudley

The Beauchamp Tower is littered with graffiti in the form of ornate carvings created by those previously imprisoned within its walls. Prisoners of the tower utilized the confines as a site of reading meditation, prayer, and most of all, writing. According to Ruth Ahnert, “in its most basic form [the graffiti] provides the prisoner with a defense against obscurity (the ultimate suppression). More involved examples might provide a record of the prisoner’s piety through reading, meditation, and prayer” (Writing in the Tower) In addition, the graffiti can showcase a prisoner’s association with certain individuals both within and outside of the prison.

 

A prisoner who brings this idea to light is John Dudley. Dudley, son of the 1^st Duke of Northumberland, assumed the role as Earl of Warwick and campaigned against Mary Tudor by helping to set Lady Jane Grey on the Throne of England. He did so alongside his father and four brothers. However, the six men became imprisoned in the tower following this succession crisis involving Lady Jane Grey. According to Richard McCoy, “their father, the duke of Northumberland, had contrived to marry his youngest son, Guilford, to the Lady Jane Grey before persuading the dying king to alter the succession in his daughter-in-law’s favour” (Communications)

However, Dudley left his mark on the tower by carving an ornate coat of arms, the name “John Dudle,” four lines of verse, and a floral border surrounding the work. The inscription reads:

  Yow that these beasts do wel behold and se

                        may deme with ease wherefore here made they be

                        with borders eke wherein a[re to be found]

                        4 brothers names who list to serche the ground.

According to Ahnert, “The incomplete inscription is a little riddle that points to the significance of the image. The “beasts” refer to the animals of the Dudley family crest (a lion and a bear holding a staff)”. She also points out that his four brothers names “can be found in the symbolic flowers and leaves of the border: roses for Ambrose, gillyflowers for Guildford, oak leaves for Robert (robur is the Latin for oak) and honeysuckle for Henry” (Writing in theTower).

Dudley was only imprisoned in the tower from 1553 until 1554 at the age of 26. While he was condemned to death, he was luckily reprieved. However, in an unfortunate turn of fate he died shortly after being released. According to Richard McCoy, Dudley “fell ill in the Tower and was released a few days before his death in in the fall of 1554” (Communications).

Dudley’s example is especially interesting because of the riddle and hidden meanings behind his creative carvings. His graffiti lends us to believe that family was important to him and he wanted to honor them by permanently marking their existence in the Tower of London. While Dudley’s mark of history in the tower is unique, there have been well over three hundred recorded graffiti entries. However, “many do not bear dates, but by counting those that do and those made my identifiable figures, we can tell that at least seventy-four date from the sixteenth century” (Writing in theTower) during the Renaissance.