Henry VIII made some attempt to modernize the defences of the Tower of London. He added the great bastions called Brass Mount and Legge's Mount at the angles of the outer defences, and reconstructed much of the outer wall.
The domestic portions of the building were likewise altered and reconstructed, such as the timber-framed structures at the back of the Byward Tower and the Traitors' Gate, and much of the house called the Lieutenant's Lodging on the south side of Tower Green.
To his reign must also be assigned the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula, where many of his victims were buried; a chapel of St. Peter is mentioned in 1210, and it was rebuilt under Edward III, so that Henry's work was only a reconstruction.
The later part of the sixteenth and the early part of the seventeenth century have left their mark on the Tower only in the form of the vast number of prisoners' inscriptions, beginning in the reign of Henry VIII.