At the time of the royalist surrender of Portsmouth at the end of the Siege of Portsmouth during the English Civil War 1200 barrels of gunpowder were stored in the tower;[2] the royalists were able to use the threat of detonating the store as a bargaining chip during the negotiations leading up to the surrender.

This led to gunpowder barrels routinely being rolled the length of the cobbled roads of The Point, between the tower and the wharf, inevitably leading to a certain amount of spillage.

All these locations were alongside built-up areas, and concerns about the hazards of an explosion led to calls for Portsmouth's gunpowder stores to be relocated.

The original was presented to the city by the King to commemorate his safe arrival from his trip to France and Spain in 1623.

There is the following inscription below the Royal coat of arms: "After his travels through all France into Spain and having passed very many dangers both by sea and land he arrived here the 5th day of October 1623".