‘The White Tower or Keep ... is the very heart and centre of the Tower buildings, and all the lesser towers and connecting walls, making the Inner and Outer Wards, and the broad moat encircling all, are but the means of protection and inviolable security of this ancient keep. Within its rock-like walls a threatened king could live in security. Here were provided the elementary necessaries of life – a storehouse for food, a well to supply fresh water, a great replace (in the thickness of the wall), and a place of devotion, all within the walls of this one tower ...
The large rooms entered from the chapel are the former State apartments, now given over to the housing of a collection of weapons and armour which is described on the show-cases, and therefore need not be detailed here. In these rooms Baliol in the reign of Edward I, and King David of Scotland in that of Edward III, were kept prisoners, but not in the strictest sense. Other notable captives here were King John of France (after the battle of Poitiers), Prince (afterwards King) James of Scotland, and Charles, Duke of Orleans – all of whom have been spoken of in the previous chapter. Several models of the Tower buildings, made at various periods, will be found in these rooms.’
(Arthur Poyser (described by), The Tower of London, London: A & C Black, 1908, pages 110 & 112)
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