Church of St Peter ad Vincula

The Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula is the parish church of the Tower of London. It is situated within the Tower's Inner Ward, and the current building dates from 1520, although the church was established several centuries earlier. It is a Royal Peculiar. The name refers to Saint Peter's imprisonment under Herod Agrippa in Jerusalem. The Chapel is probably best known as the burial place of some of the most famous prisoners executed at the Tower, including Queen Anne Boleyn, Queen Catherine Howard and the nine-day Queen, Lady Jane Grey and her husband Lord Guilford Dudley, and Sir Thomas More.

At the west end is a short tower, surmounted by a lantern bell-cote, and inside the church is a nave and shorter north aisle, lit by windows with cusped lights but no tracery, a typical Tudor design. The church is a Chapel Royal, and the priest responsible for it is the chaplain of the Tower, a canon and member of the Ecclesiastical Household. The canonry was abolished in 1685 but reinstated in 2012.

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