Hampton Court Palace, on the banks of the Thames, is considered 1 of the most haunted buildings in the United Kingdom. Most of the well-known phantom visitors are contemporaries of Henry VIII, like Cardinal Thomas Wolsey who gave the palace to Henry, two of Henry’s beheaded wives, and perhaps the Tudor King himself returned to the palace in December 2003.
A couple of days soon after he had disposed of his second wife Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII married Jane Seymour. Anne was beheaded for alleged treason, incest, adultery and witchcraft. She has been observed, most of the time headless, in the Tower of London and in the castles where she when lived. You’ll come across her story here: The Traveling Headless Witch Anne Boleyn. At Hampton Court, she is seen as a lady dressed in blue or black.
Jane Seymour, the third wife of Henry VIII, died in 1537 soon after giving birth to the child who became Edward VI. Her life was deliberately sacrificed by the performance of a Caesarean operation in order to make certain the safety of the precious male heir. Jane had an uneasy conscience concerning the circumstances in which she supplanted Anne Boleyn, and soon after her death her worried spirit remained earthbound, looking for contact with the ghost of Anne. Jane Seymour haunts the Silver Stick Gallery in Hampton Court each and every year on the birthday of the baby whose birth had meant her death. On moonlit evenings, dressed in white and carrying a candle, she ascends in a melancholic way the staircase leading to the Gallery, exactly where she glides wreathed in a silvery light.
Maybe the most famous Tudor ghost is that of Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII. For only 1 year, this appealing girl was Henry’s “rose with out a thorn”. He forgot all about her youth of fun and games with a assortment of young men, from spinet teachers to page boys. Henry wept over her reputation that was the talk of the Court and sent her to the block, together with her lovers, past and present. She was arrested at Hampton Court, but she broke away from the guards and ran along a corridor now known as the Haunted Gallery, to the chapel exactly where Henry – “the professional widower” – was praying for her soul. Catherine tried to make a last plea for her life, but the guards dragged her back, shrieking and lamenting, into a barge and then down the Thames to the Tower, where she was beheaded on 13 February, 1542.
You can nonetheless hear her chilling shrieks there, in Hampton Court, and her ghost has been seen on a lot of occasions, racing along the gallery, chased by spectral soldiers. As a consequence of a accurate invasion by these otherwordly spirits, the Haunted Gallery was closed up and for centuries was employed as a lumber room for wornout furniture and motheaten tapestries. In April 1918, the Workplace of Works, had the Haunted Gallery cleared out, renovated and opened to the public – but Catherine’s ghost seems to prefer the Hampton Court gardens these days, exactly where she is noticed on sunny afternoons, reliving the memories of more pleasant occasions. And then there was this man, who heard someone knocking on a door and who saw a woman’s hand wearing the elaborate ring Catherine wore in a royal portrait…
Dame Sybill Penn, also identified as the Grey Lady of Hampton Court, was the foster-mother of Edward VI. When the young king died, she mourned him as her own son. Afterwards she was granted a residence at Hampton Court, where she died in 1562 of smallpox and was buried in an imposing tomb in the old church of Hampton-on-Thames. Till 1829 she rested there in peace, but when the old church was demolished, her tomb was disturbed… and so was her soul. The ghost of Mrs Penn returned to her old rooms at Hampton Court, where angry mutterings were heard, and the sound of a spinning wheel echoing by way of the southwest wing. Workers traced the sound back to a brick wall and uncovered a secret room with a 16th century spinning wheel and a selection of curiosities… Hampton Court records showed that this room when had been occupied by Mrs Penn who had usually used the spinning wheel. Because then, individuals sleeping in the Palace have been awoken many times by the icy hands of Mrs. Penn placed upon their faces, and a luminous figure in grey bending more than them…
The Surveillance Tape Ghost
In December 2003, Hampton Court was in the news again, this time with a ghost caught by a security camera. The astonishing piece of CCTV showed a tall figure wearing a lengthy dark coat, shutting a double fire door situated in a part of the palace that is forbidden for the public and exactly where the costumed guides don’t go. The figure had a face that was, according to a security guard “extremely spooky, due to the fact it did not appear human”. There had been a security alarm sounding, but the guards had identified the fire doors closed and there had been no-1 about…
The camera footage of the ghost closing the door baffled researchers of the paranormal. Perhaps it was absolutely nothing much more than a publicity stunt to attract more visitors? A spokesperson for the tourist attraction declared it wasn’t a joke: “We genuinely do not know who or what it is.”
Could it genuinely be the Ghost of a Professional Widower, an arch-vilain who does not sleep that peacefully? Judge for yourself and do it here:
http://www.socyberty.com/Paranormal/Renowned-Phantom-Visitors-of-Hampton-Court.538681
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