Hampton
Court Palace in Greater London is a magnificent Tudor building built by
Cardinal Wolsey in the sixteenth century. It has become world famous for not
only being the home of Charles I and II, Elizabeth I and Henry VIII, but also
for its ghosts, which have been seen frequently in the interior of the palace
and in the surrounding grounds.
Jane
Seymour, Henry VIII's third wife, died at the palace twelve days after giving
birth to her son, who later became Edward VI of England. She is often seen
along Clock Court or in the Silver Stick Gallery, wearing a white robe and
carrying a candle.
The
ghost of Lady Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII, is believed to
walk what is now known as the Haunted Gallery. This haunting is thought by
many to be a re-enactment of an actual historical event. Catherine Howard
married an elderly Henry in 1540, despite the fact that she had not even
reached her twentieth birthday. The queen was accused of having affairs with
younger men, which was classed as high treason, and was sentenced to death for
her crime. When the queen heard news of the sentence, she ran through the
corridors of Hampton Court to her husband's chapel where he was attending
mass,
screaming and pleading for her life to be spared. The king chose to ignore her
pleas, and she was beheaded at the Tower of London in February, 1542. Her
ghostly screams are heard by some visitors to the palace, and some have seen a
shadowy figure run through the Haunted Gallery.
There
is a ghost of a 'Gray Lady' at Hampton Court who is thought to be Mrs. Sibell
Penn, nurse to Henry VIII's children. She died of smallpox in 1562, but her
spirit rested in peace until the remains of her body were removed from St.
Mary's Church, Hampton, after the church was storm damaged in 1892. Residents
at Hampton Court began to hear voices and the whirring sound of a spinning
wheel. A wall was removed close to where the noise had been reported,
revealing a sealed chamber containing a spinning wheel. It is thought that the
wheel belonged to Mrs. Penn. The ghost continued to be seen despite this, and
her apparition has been spotted by many separate witnesses.
Also
amongst the strange occurrences at the Court are ghostly cavaliers, pageboys
and children dressed in Tudor costume.
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