The burden of power is a heavy burden. And earthly deeds, as well as numerous sins committed in the name or on the contrary, do not let many monarchs go even after death. And even if the death of the king was violent …
BOYS IN WHITE
Of course, the "record holder" for the number of ghost-kings (and not only kings) is good old England. Although, is she kind? So, in 1483, two crown princes disappeared in the Tower: the Duke of York, 9 years old, and 12-year-old Prince Edward V. These two boys were the main "obstacle" to the throne for their uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, who, after disappearing without a trace of princes became King Richard III.
Of course, people always knew how to add two plus two, and rumors that the duke had ordered the killing of the boys immediately spread throughout England. The newly-minted king in every possible way denied involvement in the disappearance of the legitimate heirs and their possible death. However, the truth floated out in the literal sense of the word: in the fortress where the crown princes disappeared, many began to see the ghosts of two boys who silently floated through the air, holding hands.
And these unfortunate ghosts swam in the fortress for almost two hundred years, until in 1674, during the renovation of the Tower, in one of the secret rooms they found two small skeletons.
By order of King Charles II, they were buried in Westminster Abbey, and since then the innocently murdered princes have ceased to worry the living.
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HEINRICH AND THE "FAMILY"
However, not all regal ghosts are so calm and quiet. For example, the ghost of King Henry VIII, who had 8 wives, most of whom ended badly, always appears before a thunderstorm and itself rumbles like thunderclaps. By the way, he belongs to the rarest type of ghosts, from which instead of the grave cold heat emanates.
Those who encountered this ghost experienced horror and wild depression. Here is how one eyewitness describes his meeting with a formidable phantom: “Loud footsteps were heard in the far gallery … One got the impression that a heavy giant was walking. The giant's footsteps are getting closer, his heavy breathing is heard. Suddenly lightning flashed, its light illuminated the figure of the king. On his head was a crown, he was clad in armor. His gaze burned with anger … As Heinrich approached, we felt that heat emanated from him, as from a stove …"
The unfortunate wives of this king also found a "second life" as ghosts. The ghost of Anne Boleyn, who was executed on charges of adultery, looks most gruesome. The ghost of the queen often walks through the park at Hampton Court Palace, but it can also appear in unexpected places in the castle itself, carrying a severed head under its arm.
On May 19, the day of her execution, the ghost of Anna appears in the Tower in the form of a woman in white, who, holding a severed head in her hands, wanders around the prison. There is evidence that in 1874 one of the Tower guards tried to pierce a terrible spirit with a bayonet, but the blade only pierced the air.
On the same day, the ghost of the queen is seen in Bleakling Hall. True, the spectacle is not for the faint of heart: the decapitated queen rushes in a carriage drawn by four decapitated horses, and keeps her head on her knees.
By the way, it was noticed that in the years when the day of Anne Boleyn's execution coincides with the full moon, her images in portraits fade, and inside the castle muffled groans and female screams are heard. Most likely, the execution on May 19, 1536 fell on a full moon.
Again, in the Hampton, you can also encounter the ghost of Henry VIII's fourth wife, Catherine Howard, who also laid her head on the scaffold. The ghostly queen always runs towards the chapel, at the door of which she turns around and screams terribly. As the chronicles describe, upon learning of the charge, Catherine rushed to the chapel to beg for mercy.
Perhaps in the Hampton with the first two ghosts the ghost of another wife of Henry - Jane Seymour, who died of childbirth, intersects. They say the king loved her. Although what kind of love can we talk about when during childbirth it turned out that doctors can save only one: either a mother or a child, and Henry shouted: "Save the child, I will find as many wives as I want!"? Usually the spirit of Jane Seymour appears on the anniversary of the birth of her son, the heir to the throne of Edward XI, and then Queen Jane can be seen hovering in long white robes, holding a burning candle in her hands.
GHOST ENVIRONMENT
In general, Hampton Court Palace is a concentration of ghosts. One of the premises of the palace was even called the Gallery of Ghosts - so often they meet here. Moreover, since 1800, a special book has even been kept in the castle, where all cases of ghost sightings are noted. There is also a record of Queen Victoria. But the "grandmother" herself, fortunately, does not bother the living.
However, even without it, there are many "willing". For example, the now living Princess Margaret periodically met with the ghosts of King Charles I and Queen Elizabeth I. The latter, by the way, prefers the library. In one of the windows of the castle, the pale face of George II is often seen looking at the weather vane. This king died of a heart attack while awaiting important documents from Germany.
Crazy during his lifetime, George III after death began to drive the living crazy. His noisy ghost, who settled in Windsor, loves to watch the members of the royal family and frighten him with his appearance. After one such "meeting" Princess Diana even had a mental breakdown.
Naked Ghost
But in the English town of Coventry, the ghost of a naked horsewoman is sometimes announced, who rides a snow-white horse in the middle of the night. During her lifetime, she was the well-known Lady Godiva, the wife of the Duke Leofric, the ruler of the small kingdom of Mercia, which was located on the site of modern Leicestershire. As you know, she rode naked on a horse through the streets of the city so that her husband agreed to lower taxes for the townspeople. The ghost of a lady is a rather rare "guest". Usually he appears before serious disasters - wars, epidemics, catastrophes, as if warning. For example, the ghost of Godiva was seen in September and October 1940 before the terrible bombing raids that almost completely destroyed the city.
FREE BUT EXPRESS
Russian palaces are also full of the ghosts of deceased tsars. Thus, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Nicholas II, often mentioned in her letters that the royal palaces in St. Petersburg were visited by the ghosts of Russian rulers.
Among the most striking are the spirit of Ivan the Terrible. His ghost also appears on the eve of great upheavals. The phantom appears in the reflections of a flame with glowing eyes. The ghost of Ivan the Terrible was seen throughout 1894, when Nicholas II ascended the throne. In particular, he himself wrote that Grozny appeared to him and to Empress Alexandra on the eve of his coronation in the Kremlin, in the Assumption Cathedral.
It is also said that the blurry outlines of the figure of the impostor False Dmitry often shine against the background of the Kremlin walls.
In 1819, the first message about the ghost of the Mikhailovsky Castle in St. Petersburg appeared. During the reconstruction, the artisans began to swear that they saw a short man in a cocked hat and jackboots, who seeps through the walls, walks along the corridors and threatens with a working fist. These descriptions exactly matched the appearance of Emperor Paul I.
By the way, now rumors are circulating in St. Petersburg that the monument erected in the courtyard of the Mikhailovsky (Engineer) Castle to Paul I is "not good": during the day the sitting bronze emperor drills unpleasantly and quite meaningfully with the eyes of visitors, and at night he rises from the pedestal and walks around the castle.
ANGEL OF DEATH WITHOUT A FACE
Empresses Catherine II and Anna Ioannovna saw their own ghosts before their death. However, not everyone knows that these were not ghosts at all in the generally accepted sense of the word, but … the Angel of Death.
By the way, this is one of the earliest ghosts of St. Petersburg, which in 1721 was even mentioned in his report to Louis XV by the Marquis de Torcy, the French ambassador to Russia. In particular, the Marquis described an unpleasant scene that happened during a ball arranged by Peter I in honor of proclaiming himself Emperor of All Russia.
One of his jokers, Princess Rzhevskaya, ugly and drunk, suddenly screamed terribly in the midst of the general fun, her face changed. And then she rasped ominously: “I feel the Angel of Death is flying over the Neva's ties. He is female, which constantly changes, like Proteus. And before whom he appears, he immediately learns the whole truth about himself. " They say that one of the young ladies who witnessed the "performance" suddenly burst into tears and ran out of the hall. This lady was … Anna Ioannovna.
Hampton Court Palace is a hub of ghosts
Perhaps it was with the Angel of Death that the poet Alexei Apukhtin, who served as an official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose building was built exactly on the site of the former palace of Anna Ioannovna, was also "lucky" to meet. He wrote in a letter to a friend: “… Can you imagine my state when, at the opposite end of the corridor, I saw a terrible lady, dressed in the fashion of the last century, approaching me! At first I thought it was someone's joke, but, looking into her face, I almost lost my mind: the features were elusive. They changed rapidly before our eyes. Having reached the middle of the corridor, the vision disappeared "…