"Of all the cities in the world, London seems to be the most densely populated with its dead and the loudest responds to the steps of generations past." writes Peter Ackroyd in Biography of London. This can be considered a figurative expression, but the legends of the famous London ghosts are known far beyond the borders of Foggy Albion.
Tower Scary
The Tower had a chance to visit both the royal residence and the prison. Over the past thousand years, as the paranormal researcher Vadim Chernobrov reports in the book "Encyclopedia of Mysterious Phenomena", "a huge number of murders, executions, torture and poisoning have been committed here." Some of the victims, as evidenced by numerous eyewitnesses, continue to roam the castle today as ghosts.
The main local "celebrity" is the wife of King Henry VIII Anne Boleyn. As you know, this monarch had six wives in total, and he killed several of them, as he suspected of adultery or high treason. Among them was the second wife, Anne Boleyn, who, in addition to treason, was accused of incest and an attempt to cast witchcraft on the king. Anna was executed on May 19, 1536.
Once, in the corridors of the Tower, a sentry saw in front of him a woman in a white robe leaving the room. He ordered the stranger to stop, but instead she continued to move straight towards him. In a panic, the soldier tried to pierce the ghost with a bayonet, but the bayonet went through the blurry figure. The unfortunate man fainted and was subsequently brought before a military tribunal as having fallen asleep on duty. However, several other people stated that they saw a "white lady" in the Tower. An investigation was carried out with the participation of historians, during which it was decided that the phantom belonged to Anne Boleyn. She left the very room where she was kept before the execution.
Anne Boleyn is the only officially recognized Tower ghost. Sometimes she is seen in the courtyard - riding in a ghostly funeral carriage. And on the eve of the anniversary of her death, the executed queen solemnly walks along the corridors in a dark silk dress and without a head. She holds her head under her arm.
In the tower, which is called Bloody, sometimes two boys in white nightgowns appear - these are the ghosts of the sons of King Edward IV, killed on the orders of their uncle Richard of Gloucester, later King Richard III. Princes usually stand hand in hand and then disappear into a stone wall.
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There are other ghosts in the Tower. For example, Queen Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII and the same Anne Boleyn. It is as if Elizabeth can be met in the library, where the phantom moves along the shelves and disappears into the wall. According to rumors, sometimes at the same time grumble is heard: "Failed my case!". As eyewitnesses have noted, this usually happens after the British authorities make some kind of political blunder.
Most of the ghosts are allegedly found in Queens House ("the Queen's house"). This white, ebony building is located next to the Bloody Tower, where the Commandant of the Tower lives. Queens House was once a prison for both Anne Boleyn and the fifth wife of Henry VIII Catherine Howard, and other prisoners of the Tower - 16-year-old Lady Jane Gray, who held out on the English throne for only nine days, and Mary Stuart's mother-in-law, Margaret Lennox. The future Queen Elizabeth also spent several weeks here.
For some reason, a certain "lady in gray" appears in Queens House mainly for women. And sometimes a man in a 15th-century suit walks along the upper floors. His steps are clearly audible on the stairs.
Group ghosts are not uncommon in the Tower. Once a night watchman noticed a light in the windows of St. Peter's Chapel in Verigy. He put a ladder against the wall and looked out the window, seeing the following picture: men and women in old clothes walked in silence in a circle. The sentry thought he recognized among them the executed Queen Anne Boleyn, Thomas More, the Duchess of Salisbury and Lady Jane Gray, walking arm in arm with her husband, Lord Dudley. As an eyewitness told, the hanged participants of the Jacobin revolt of 1745 brought up the rear of the procession. Their faces were bluish-pale, their eyes burned like coals, and on the neck of each one could see a bloody streak. Walking around the room several times, the procession disappeared, and the lights immediately went out.
Hampton Court
Another famous London haunted abode is Hampton Court Palace. It was built in 1515 by Cardinal Wolsey. In disgrace, the cardinal donated the building to King Henry VIII, hoping to regain the favor of the monarch, and Hampton Court became a royal residence. In 1966, Wolsey's ghost first appeared within these walls. Since then he has been seen twice more.
And the most famous local ghost belongs to the already mentioned Catherine Howard. So did Anne Boleyn. she was beheaded at the behest of her husband Henry VIII - she was charged with numerous treason. It happened on February 13, 1542. The queen, sentenced to execution, was imprisoned in one of the tower's rooms. The unfortunate woman managed to escape from there, and she ran down the corridor, begging for help. However, in vain: Catherine was caught and again locked up in a dungeon. The next day her head was cut off. And since then, for several centuries, a ghostly female figure in a gray hair shirt has been running out of that very room and rushing along the corridor. And this corridor is now called the Gallery of Ghosts.
In 1918, the gallery was renovated, and for a while the ghost of Catherine stopped appearing. But one day the artist, making a copy from one of the tapestries, saw a transparent hand with a ring that appeared in front of him. From a pencil sketch, instantly made by an undisturbed master, it was possible to establish that this ring belonged to Catherine Howard.
Another, this time uncrowned, ghostly inhabitant of Hampton Court is Sybill Penny, nurse of Edward VI, who died of smallpox in 1562 and was buried near the palace, in St. Mary's Church. In 1829, the grave of a wet nurse was disturbed, and soon after, women began to mutter in the palace. At the same time, the sound of a spinning wheel was heard. An investigation was carried out, during which they found a room where an old spinning wheel stood. Perhaps Sybil came here to spin at night.
And in February 1907, a policeman, who was walking around the vicinity of the palace at about midnight, suddenly saw a group of people in old-fashioned evening dresses moving along the alley. Before his eyes, the whole company disappeared into thin air.
Waiting for ships
The ghost of King George II "lives" in Kensington Palace. It is said that in October 1760, a seriously ill monarch awaited the return of his warships from a campaign. From time to time he could hardly get out of bed and with difficulty made it to the window. However, all the ships did not come. They arrived at the port only after the death of the king - October 25.
Since then, a ghostly silhouette has appeared in the window of this room from time to time. And some people heard a voice with a sharp German accent ask: “Where are they, why have they been gone for so long ?!”.
Secretary and Duke
Ghosts are also rumored to inhabit Clarence House, which connects to the southwest wing of St. James's Palace.
The building was built in 1825 for William IV. Duke of Clarensky. who was then heir to the throne. Then Clarence House became the residence of the Duchess of Kent, mother of Queen Victoria. Later, the younger sons of Victoria and, finally, Queen Elizabeth II lived here. It is now the official residence of Prince Charles of Wales and his second wife, Camilla Parker Bowles. Summer. when the spouses are on vacation in Scotland, excursions are conducted here.
The most interesting "ghost case" was recorded at Clarence House according to a certain Sonia Marsh, who worked as a secretary in one of the offices in the building in the 1940s. One autumn evening, having lingered at the service, the young woman suddenly felt that there was someone else in the office. Turning, she saw something grayish-smoky in front of her. The creature (if you can call it that) was actively moving around the room, although it had no legs. Sonya jumped up from the table, grabbed her coat and dashed away. Only when she was on the street, she remembered that before that she had heard some strange sounds from the ballroom, as if someone was slamming the door there. At the same time, she knew for sure that there was no one besides her in the building.
When Sonya Marsh described her adventure to colleagues, one of them suggested that she had encountered the old duke's phantom. It turns out that he was met in the palace before, but Sonya, who spent many years in the Soviet Union and returned to England only in 1941, did not know anything about this. So it was unlikely that such a fantasy could have occurred to her: most likely, it actually happened.
… So legends about the ghosts that inhabit London palaces are an integral part of the folklore of the British capital. Or maybe it's not folklore after all, but history ?!
Magazine "Secrets of the XX century" No. 39. Maria Podoletskaya