Alice Tankerville – The only woman to escape the Tower of London
John Wolfe was a petty thief, thug, and pirate.
He became a prisoner in the Tower of London in the early summer 1533, for the theft of a shipment of 366 gold crowns.
The crowns, with a collective value over £900,000 in today’s terms, were destined for King Henry VIII’s royal treasury.
Luckily for John Wolfe, he had a frequent visitor to his Tower cell.
His lady friend Alice Tankerville.
Alice Tankerville was a native Londoner, who was also a pirate, murderer, thief – and soon to be the only woman recorded to have ever escaped the Tower of London……
Alice brought John Wolfe clothes, food, and other comforts while he was imprisoned in the Tower.
After befriending the guards, John Bawde and William Denys, Alice was even able to bring Wolfe wine and other lavish items.
Due to a lack of evidence the case against Wolfe was dropped six months after his arrest, and he was released.
Wolfe immediately fled to Ireland after he was released, luckily for him, as new evidence was found in which not only pointed directly at Wolfe, but also implicated Alice Tankerville as his accomplice.
A year later, John Wolfe returned to London.
In an act of piracy on the River Thames, Wolfe and Alice Tankerville, murdered and robbed Jerome de George and Charles Benche – two foreign wealthy merchants from Italy.
The pair were caught, and locked away in the Tower of London.
Alice Tankerville was enclosed inside Coldharbour Tower.
She was shackled to the walls by her hands and feet by iron manacles.
Only a slither of light entered the cell, from the tiny barred window of the heavy oak door.
In order for anyone to get to Alice’s cell they would need to first pass through Middle Tower, Byward Tower, and the Bloody Tower.
It’s unclear why Alice Tankerville was so feared that she needed to be locked away so securely in the tower, or why her treatment was so unusually severe, even for the standards of the 16th century.
The court case against her, declared her a pirate, it also stated that “there was no remedy for her but death”.
Alice was able to convince the guard she had previously befriended, John Bawde, to help her escape.
John Bawde, although a loyal and faithful man to King Henry VIII, was madly in love with Mistress Tankerville.
However, this love would cost him his life.
On the night of 23rd March 1534, with two lengths of rope and a copy of the key to her shackles, John Bawde helped Alice Tankerville make her escape out of the tower.
Climbing down the rope to the wharf below, they made their way into a small boat, in which they crossed the moat.
Once across the moat, they waited for the night watchman to pass, before making their way along the road to where John Bawde had tied up a couple of horses – ready for their hasty escape from London.
Unfortunately for John Bawde and Alice Tankerville, just short of reaching their horses and freedom, they were approached by a group of night watch guardsmen with lanterns.
They attempted to avoid suspicion, by huddling together as though in a lovers embrace.
However, it was too late.
Bawde was recognized by his fellow guardsmen.
John Bawde and Alice Tankerville were caught, and their escape plan failed.
Alice Tankerville was dragged screaming back to the Tower, with a subdued and love-struck John.
Alice was thrown into a cell, and as she cried she heard the bolt of the cell door slide across.
There was no hope now of escape, and in the darkness, she cried out to John Bawde.
On 31st March 1534, Alice Tankerville was taken down to the bottom of the tower at low tide.
She was shackled to the wall, alongside her pirate lover John Wolfe.
The guards laughed at them, as they watched Alice and Wolfe twist and turn, trying to climb the slippery wall to avoid the incoming tide.
Higher and higher the murky waters steadily rose, and slowly drowned them both.
As for John Bawde, he was destined to enter the Tower record books too.
He is the first known occupant of the infamous cell used during the reigns of the Tudors and early Stuarts, ‘Little Ease’…..
The guards could hear the agonised screams of poor John Bawde, for “little ease” was a space that was neither big enough to stand up in or lay down in.
The prisoner was forced to stay on their knees in this cramped position, often for days.
The guards tortured John Bawde, cruelly letting him suffer in ways no prisoner had ever suffered.
Finally, they hung him by his arms naked from the walls of the tower, where he died of exposure.
The guards left him there to rot as an example of what happened to anyone who turns traitor to the Tower….