Ralph Flambard, Bishop of Durham, and the faithful and rapacious minister of Rufus,—“pacitator Ranulphus, vir pessimus,”—by his severe exactions greatly promoted the works of the Tower. Singularly enough, he is the first person known to have been imprisoned there. Henry, on his accession, and by the advice of his council, 15th August, 1100, shut up Flambard in the Tower. Palgrave says he was lodged in the uppermost or council-chamber of the White Tower, under the custody of Walter de Magnaville, the hereditary constable. Probably his imprisonment was only intended to satisfy the popular cry, for two shillings, at that time a considerable sum, was allowed for his daily sustenance. He employed it, as is said, in feasting his keepers; and having received a rope in a flagon, took advantage of their drunken state to let himself down from the window of the south gallery, on the night of the 4th February, 1101, taking his pastoral staff with him. The rope proved too short for the descent of 65 feet, and he was injured by a fall, but he escaped in safety to Normandy, and, as is well known, lived to recover his see of Durham, where he completed the cathedral, added a moat to the Palatine castle, founded Norham on the Tweed, built Framwell Gate bridge, and endowed the hospital of Kepyer. The Tower was probably from the first a state prison, for in 1106 the Earl of Mortaigne, taken with Robert Duke of Normandy by Henry I., was, says Eadmer, shut up there. The Pipe Roll of 21 Henry I. records “£17. 0s. 6d., inoperatione Turris Lond.” In the time of Stephen the Tower was regarded as impregnable. Geoffrey, grandson of Geoffrey de Magnaville, the companion of the Conqueror, and the third hereditary constable, was created Earl of Essex by the king, who in 1140 kept Whitsun in the Tower. “Eodem anno, 1140, in Pentecoste resedit Rex Londiniæ in Turri, tantum modo Episcopo Sagiensi presente: cæteri vel fastidierunt, vel timuerunt venire.” [R. de Hoveden.] The new earl proved false, and shifted his allegiance to the empress, who, by charter in 1141, confirmed him in his earldom and the constableship. When the power of Maud declined, the citizens, to whom Geoffrey was as odious as his fortress, laid siege to it. Their efforts were so unsuccessful that on one occasion the earl made a raid as far as Fulham, and captured the bishop.