The Tower of London:
No one knows when the ravens first showed up at the Tower of London but
legend says that if they ever leave, the monarchy will fall. To this day,
not only can you still see the ravens but plenty of ghosts.
The Tower of London has the distinction of being one of the most haunted
places in all of Britain. Building the tower begun in 1078 by none other
than William the Conqueror. It is the oldest structure of its type anywhere
in Europe.
The tower was built to be a fortress, royal palace and a prison but also
included a zoo, observatory, mint, armory, treasury, public records office
and torture chamber.
The fortress is comprised of numerous towers, such as White Tower, Salt
Tower, Tower Green and the Bloody Tower, a moat that today is filled with
grass, chapels, elegant rooms and the infamous Traitors Gate (where prisoners
entered and saw the heads of their predecessors staring blankly down at
them.) Today it is the home of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom
and many former occupants of the prison in the form of their spirits.
Probably the most famous and visible ghost is that of Anne Boleyn. She
was the second wife of King Henry the VIII who, in her ill attempt to
give birth to a male heir, was charged with adultery and treason and imprisoned.
She was beheaded in 1536. One notable sighting of Queen Anne was made
in 1864. While on guard duty, a sentry was surprised to see a headless
figure, dressed in white. The figure came out of the darkness suddenly
and the sentry tried to halt its advance. Raising his bayonet, he charged
at the woman. His weapon went right through the figure and the sentry
fainted out of sheer terror. The sentry was found by his superior officer
and court-martialed for dereliction of duty. He was spared disciplinary
action due to the fact that two other people witnessed the entire episode.
Anne Boleyn is sometimes seen carrying her head throughout the tower and
is buried under the chapel's alter. People recognize her from the dress
she was wearing on the day of her execution and from her portraits.
The very first documented sighting of a ghost at the tower was that of
Thomas A. Becket. When construction began on an inner curtain wall in
the 13th century, the spirit of Thomas showed itself. Thomas obviously
did not like the construction of the wall and smashed it to pieces striking
it with his cross. To appease the ghost of Thomas, a chapel was built
and named after Archbishop Becket and there were no further sightings
or interruptions during the construction of the wall.
One of my personal favorite ghost stories from the tower of London would
have to be of the residual haunting of Lady Salisbury, Margaret Pole.
Margaret was over 70 years old when she was imprisoned. Cardinal Pole
vilified Henry VIII's claim to the throne and since the cardinal was safe
in France, Henry decided to imprison the cardinal's mother, Margaret.
Lady Salisbury was sentenced to death in 1541 but she would not go peacefully.
When she walked onto the scaffold, she stared at her executioner and refused
to put her head on the block. The executioner took a swing at her
and in the end had to chase Margaret around the scaffold hacking her to
death. It is said that the ghosts of Margaret and her executioner replay
this tragic moment in time on the anniversary of the event every May 27th
ever since.
There have been hundreds of ghost sightings in the tower of London. Lady Jane Grey is seen replaying her last moments, Sir Walter Raleigh has been witnessed form time to time but no story evokes such tragedy as that of the two little princes, Richard and Edward. The boys mysteriously disappeared just when their uncle, Richard III came to the throne. It is believe Richard sent the boys to the tower in 1483. Two skeletons were found under a staircase in the tower in 1674 and were thought to be the remains of the two little boys. They were exhumed and given a royal burial but their crying ghosts have been seen grasping each other in sorrow and terror. Witnesses are said to be moved to tears and those who have tried to console the princes find the boys backing away, fading into the walls behind them.
