The Tower of London, a structure of twenty large towers and two bastions, began as a Roman villa one thousand years before William the Conqueror landed in England. Contrary to English belief in Shakespeare's time, the tower was not erected by Julius Caesar, nor was it a tower at all. The Roman villa was built around a bastion, whose foundation would later form the base for William's Wardrobe Tower. Under the reign of King Alfred, the Roman fortifications were repaired and the garrisons maintained until the Norman invasion of 1066. William the Conqueror chose to erect his tower on top of existing English history, therefore fortifying the Norman conquest through the tower's awe-inspiring exterior. The main structure of the Tower during William's reign was the White Tower designed by Norman artificer Gundulf, and the Wardrobe Tower was a minor fortification built on the Roman remains. The exact date of the completion of William's original towers is unknown, and disputes surround even the general timeframe of its building. Some historians claim the Tower's foundations were first laid ten weeks after William landed on 14 October 1066, whereas others claim the Tower's beginnings to be twelve years after the Norman invasion (Minney 2). In Medieval times, the Tower expanded and gained various uses under the rule of certain kings. Richard the Lionheart added to the existing structure by surrounding it with walls, towers, and a moat, and by including the royal palace. In 1236, Henry III, known as the Aesthete, rebuilt the Great Hall (included in the palace), and built many new towers thus significantly enlarging the Tower's structure. Henry III's best known contributions are the artwork and decoration that adorn the chapels. It was Henry III who made the historically multi-purpose structure aesthetically pleasing. Henry III's structural additions to the Tower would be used for a prison, a torture chamber, an armory, an observatory, the royal mint, a zoo, and a public record office. In 1278, the Tower imprisoned many Jewish people when they were expelled from England. They were systematically rounded up and locked away until there was sufficient means to ship them back to the continent. During the rule of Edward III (whose "sacred blood" would separate into the houses of Lancaster and York), the Hundred Years War created an increased need for armour and weapons. The Tower of London was used as an arsenal and an armory between 1337-38, the years of external war, securing its military use for the civil war which would plague the 1400s. -- Althea Fletcher, 2000