Anne Boleyn's Ghost (12 page)
Read Anne Boleyn's Ghost Online
Authors: Liam Archer
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Sightings of Anne’s Ghost
Anne Boleyn’s Ghost is one of the most prolific ghosts in England. Below are just a handful of the numerous accounts that have taken place over the centuries of sightings of her Ghost. At times she has been witnessed by many; but, as is common with ghost sightings, it is almost always by the lone individual. Some of the accounts here have varying degrees of credibility, while others are much harder to dispute.
At the Tower of London, in the chapel where Anne Boleyn is buried, there are accounts of her Ghost carrying her head under her arm whilst walking down the aisle and descending into her grave. Other areas of the Tower where Anne’s Ghost has been reported by members of the public and the Tower’s staff over the years are the Green, the White Tower, and the room she stayed in before her coronation and execution.
In 1864 a sentry standing outside the ‘Queens House’ reported seeing a misty, white figure of a woman wearing a Tudor dress and a French hood. When he looked at the woman’s face, he saw nothing there. As the apparition started to move towards to him, he demanded to know who she was. The sentry then yelled at the headless woman, who had been steadily approaching him, to stop; and when she failed to comply he charged at her with his bayonet and passed clean through her misty form.
At that exact same moment a burst of electricity moved along his rifle and up his arm, shocking him and knocking him out. He later found himself court martialed for falling asleep on duty. At his trial he described what he had seen.
‘It was a figure of a woman wearing a queer looking bonnet, but there wasn’t no head inside the bonnet.’
When eyewitnesses came to his defense, saying that they had also seen a headless woman that night, and a guard from inside the
Bloody Tower
recalled the whole bizzare enounter, which he saw unfold from a second-story window, the charges were immediately dropped.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, on a quiet night inside the Tower, a captain of the Guard witnessed a strong, fiery light coming from inside the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula.
He tried to enter, but the door was locked.
When he returned with a ladder and peered through a window, so as to see who was inside, he claimed to have seen something very peculiar indeed …
‘Slowely down the aisle moved a statley procession of Knights and Ladies, attired in ancient costumes; and in front walked an elegant female whose face was averted to him, but whose figure greatly resembled the one in reputed portraits of Anne Boleyn. After having repeatedly paced the chapel, the entire procession, together with the light, dissapeared.’ (excerpt from Ghostly Visitors by ‘Spectre Stricken’, London 1882.)
At Blickling Hall in Norfolk, on the day when Anne was executed, every year a carriage being pulled by six headless horses and a headless coachman can be seen approaching the Hall. A woman, who sits inside the carriage dressed in white, holds her head in her lap. Once there, the horses and coach disappear, and the headless woman, who then enters the Hall, wanders there til sunrise.
At Marwell Hall, legend holds that this was the place where Henry stayed with Jane Seymore during Anne’s execution. It is said that a chain of beacons were lit to signal the death of Anne Boleyn
–
with the last beacon being near here and in clear view from the Hall.
Anne’s Ghost has been seen on the yew tree walk.
At Windsor Castle, Anne’s Ghost has been seen standing at a window in Dean’s Cloister. The ghosts of Henry the Eighth and Elizabeth the First have been seen here on separate occasions. The castle is a hub of paranormal phenomena, and countless ghosts of historical figures have been witnessed here. The Ghost of Elizabeth the First is the most frequently seen ghost in the castle, and has been witnessed in the Royal Library on several occasions.
At Anne Boleyn’s lifelong home, Hever Castle, her Ghost can be seen every Christmas Eve crossing the old drawbridge. Her Ghost has also been seen beneath the great oak tree, where Henry may have asked her to marry him.
At Hampton Court, Anne’s Ghost has been seen wearing a blue dress. Could it be the same dress she’s wearing in the photograph, which was taken at Hever Castle? The account of the sighting here was described as a sombre and slow moving apparition.
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