Picnic At The Tower with Guoman Hotels
Have you heard the story about the Princes in the Tower?
The sons of King Edward IV, 12-year-old Edward V and his younger brother Richard, were sent to the Tower by their uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. By July 1483 they were declared illegitimate and the Duke was crowned King Richard III. The Princes were never seen again.
Sounds mysterious, right? It is generally believed that their uncle murdered them and by declaring they were illegitimate, he cleared his way to the throne. Got to love English history.
EDIT // Michelle has kindly pointed out that “there were more suspects than Richard III and almost everything said about him was said by Tudor historians to glorify and secure the throne for Henry VII and his descendants, and thus Shakespeare got his idea from those historians like Moore. […] Richard III might not even have had the princes in the tower killed, surprisingly.” You should probably read War of The Roses by Alison Weir for more information of the time period. Thanks, Michelle!
You’re probably wondering why I’m blathering on about princes and murders, but just to clarify I’m not crazy. I was invited by Joe Blogs Network and Guoman Hotels for a ‘Picnic at the Tower’. This, of course, made me think of the Princes in the Tower story.
Thankfully, no murderous uncles were out to get me and instead I enjoyed a delicious picnic on the lawn with a rather breathtaking view of the Tower Bridge.
Their beautiful Tower Hotel is perfectly situated between the River Thames and St. Katherine’s Dock. It offers you amazing views of Tower Bridge and is probably the best place you’d want to be as a tourist exploring London.
We were treated to Pimms, wine and other cocktails when we arrived. I think I definitely drank too much Pimms, but I was reminded by Emma that you can never drink too much Pimms – so there we go. Our picnic was a delicious range of finger sandwiches (thank you to the hotel for catering to my seafood allergy!) and a yummy selection of desserts.
There was also massive Jenga blocks and a Connect 4 set to play with, but I didn’t get a chance on them. Maybe next time! It was lovely to catch up with bloggers I’ve met before and meet new ones. You can check out full details of the evening on Guoman’s blog, right here.
Thanks for the invite, guys!
22 Comments
Pauline
Wow, I’ve never heard of that story before – insightful! It’s shocking how people were back then in order to get to the throne and have control of a lot of power.
Haha, thankfully you didn’t have an evil uncle chasing you around though! Sounds like you had a fabulous day, thanks for sharing the pictures! Super jealous of the view and everything looks so yummy. <3
Chynna
I remember learning about it in History and thinking, “Yoooo, these peeps are crazy!”
You should come visit London, soon!
ariane
love the photos. haha thanks for the interesting story 🙂
dearchubby.wix.com/marp
Chynna
Haha, no problem 😀
Nancy
The architecture is amazing. AMAZING, the details are well planned out and still standing strong today! The story sounds crazy/scary on the other hand. History is interesting with how people overthrow others for power.
The food looks delicious!! It’s awesome that you went to the blog meetup! I need to go find myself one of these some day just to see how it is XD. Hope you enjoyed the outing!~
Chynna
The architecture in London of some of the buildings is so beautiful. It amazes me how long some of them have been around for. English history be cray cray, lol.
You definitely should! 🙂
Michelle
Actually, there was more suspects than Richard III and almost everything said about him was said by Tudor historians to glorify and secure the throne for Henry VII and his descendants, and thus Shakespeare got his idea from those historians like Moore. I recommend reading War of The Roses by Alison Weir, who is a fantastic historian and very good with that period or anything by David Starkey, an authority with The Tudors. You can’t understand Richard III without understanding the Tudors or even down to the reign of Henry VI. The War of The Roses is very interesting, the war between York and Lancaster. Richard III might not even have had the princes in the tower killed, surprisingly. The thing is we’ll never know who killed them for the suspects are deep and so are the motives. That’s why kingdoms and empires are not even worth it to me. People tend to try to kill you for power all the time, you know? Power isn’t worth living in fear or even fighting so much.
Yeah, I’m a history nerd, you can tell just from that 😛 Looks like you had fun!
Chynna
Oh wow, that’s actually really interesting. Honestly, I did learn about it in History but I don’t think they ever mentioned any of this. Then again, my school was sh*t so there’s that. It’s fascinating to know about all the mysteries that have happened in the past! Trust me, I definitely understand. Here, in the UK, the monarchy is still a massive thing but I’m here like, “What is their actual purpose, anymore?”
Thanks, I did 😀
Amy
I’ve never heard that story before – I probably didn’t pay enough attention in history. Sounds like a great day anyway. She’s right, there is no such thing as too much Pimms!
Glad there were no murderous uncles around 🙂
Xxx
Chynna
Haha, I paid never much attention in history either. I only listened when it was like mysteries and the gory stuff. Love a good beheading ?
Merrybeth
I’ve actually never heard that story before but jeez, talk about doing whatever it takes to get the thrown! Lol.
That’s awesome you got to have a little get together with a few other bloggers in the Tower. It looks real pretty! I’m proud of you for all your hard work you’ve been doing with this site 🙂 Better than anything I can come up with hahaha.
Chynna
Omg, Merrybeth! You’re back <3
I know, tell me about it! If you read more about English history you’ll see how fucked up it is. Aw, thanks hunny! <3
Kya
It sounds like it was a really lovely time. The food looks so delicious.
One of the things I love about England is the amount of history and age that everything has. I have never had the chance to visit, but I really want too!
Chynna
Thank you, it was!
You definitely visit when you get a chance 😀
Maroon Caludin
Wow, sounds like a fun time! Hope you enjoyed it!
Chynna
I did, thank you! 😀 <3
Rezina
I’ve never heard of the story before! History is really fascinating. It’s amazing how much humans can learn just from something that happened years and years ago.
Sounds like you had an amazing time!
Chynna
History is waaaay fascinating. It’s funny though, because some people still haven’t learnt from the past.
I commented on your blog, but it might have gone into spam!
Cat
I haven’t heard of that story before! How interesting!
A picnic near the Tower Bridge sounds awesome. The last time I was in London, I made sure I stopped by to take photos of it 🙂 The food you got looks tasty, especially the box of desserts. Sounds like a fun event!
Chynna
It’s definitely one of the beauties of London. It’s amazing how long it’s been standing – I love the architecture!
Georgie
I wish there were more blogger meetups where I live. I don’t think there are any… and I think it would be a good way to meet people. At the same time I don’t particularly enjoy meeting new people, but I would love to meet people who I have actually interacted with online already.
The deserts look delicious!
That piece of history reminds me of a lot of old stories about people going missing. I can’t remember who it was exactly but there was some royal family with two sons and they both got kidnapped. The older one returned safe after being dropped off halfway, but the younger one disappeared. The parents received notes to send money to have their boy back, which they did, but no one returned their boy. The two kidnappers later came to town, the older brother confirming that they were the kidnappers, and one was shot dead. The other one was shot and as he was dying he said that yes, they kidnapped the boy, but only the other guy knew of his whereabouts. Too bad he was already dead and the boy was never found. :/ It was kind of a weird story, but there are others in history that are just as strange.
Chynna
Maybe you can host your blogger meetup! It was really yummy 🙂
Woah, that story sounds crazy. I love hearing stories like these because even though it’s a tragedy, it’s hella interesting to read about. Kind of wish I could investigate it properly too. I clearly think I’m Sherlock…