Ghosts of the Tower of London

The Tower of London is situated on the north bank of the River Thames, one of the major waterways in England, was founded in 1078 by William the Conqueror (William I of England). He ordered the White Tower built facing southeast to protect Londoners from attack. In the 12th century, King Richard the Lionheart (Richard I of England) enclosed the tower in a wall and dug a moat, and the tower again grew in the 13th century under the rule of Henry III of England. Edward I of England finally completed the wall sometime between 1275 and 1285; the Tower now hoses the famous Crown Jewels.

Despite its marvelous construction, the Tower of London has a bloody past. The original White Tower was converted to a jail and a chamber where many men, especially Protestants and persons accused of treason, were tortured. Most men who were convicted were hanged outside the tower, but high-profile people were executed on Tower Hill. Those of royal blood didn’t escape this brutality and some were privately executed on the Tower Green and buried in the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula. There’s no wonder that with such a past, people believe that the Tower of London is one of the most haunted places in the world. 1

The Unknown Victim

One ghostly show that sometimes appears at the front entrance to the Tower of London is that of two men carrying a pallet on which a beheaded man is being carried back inside the Tower to be buried. Considering the volume of people murdered outside the walls, it is impossible to say who this shade of a man is. 2

The Phantom Bear

By the thirteenth century, the Royal Menagerie opened to the public. This was a section of the Tower that is considered one of England’s first zoos, since it stocked wild animals. In 1835, the zoo was closed when a guard was mauled to death by a lion, but it seems there is at least one animal spirit that still resides in the Tower. One night a guard thought he was about to kill a bear, but the animal disappeared before he could stab it. 2

King Edward V of England

When King Edward IV died in 1483, his son, King Edward V ascended to the throne and his younger brother, Richard of Shrewsbury, was given the title of the First Duke of York. Their guardian was their uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester. He claimed the throne for himself, becoming King Richard III, and declared the boys illegitimate. The boys were confined to the tower and never heard from again. Most believed they were privately beheaded on the Tower Green, but in 1674, two men remodelling the staircase leading to the chapel in the White Tower, discovered a box containing two childrens skeletons. Some of the bones were placed in an urn that Charles II of England ordered interred in Westminster Abbey. An examination of the bones in 1933 turned up an unconclusive result to their age and gender. The ghosts of both boys have been spotted on many occasions around the Tower, wearing white nightgowns and holding hands. 2, 3, 4

King Henry VI of England

Remembered as one of England’s most weak-willed Kings, he was imprisoned in the Tower by his enemy Richard Plantagenet, Third Duke of York. On May 21, 1471, the King was stabbed to death while seated in prayer in the Wakefield Tower. Perhaps because the Duke’s son, King Edward IV of England, ascended to the throne, the King’s ghost was unhappy. Perhaps this is why some people have reported seeing a royally dressed man seated outside the oratory (place of worship). 2, 5

Lord Guilford Dudley

John Dudley was one of the ambitious nobles that took advantage of the young and sickly King Henry VI when he was crowned. He arranged for his son, Guilford Dudley to marry the Lady Jane Grey, grandniece of King Henry VIII of England. By doing so, he hoped to have Guilford crowed king. He even convinced the King, as he lie dying from his stab wounds, to name Jane as his successor. However, the populace refused Jane and said that Henry’s daughter, Mary, was the rightful heiress. So, Guilford and Jane were locked in the Tower and were soon both beheaded. Guilford’s shade has since been spotted sitting by a window in Beauchamp Tower since his execution on February 12, 1554, weeping and awaiting his execution for all eternity. 2, 6

Lady Jane Grey

Lord John Dudley fifteen year-old wife watched as her young husband was marched up Tower Hill and beheaded. Later that day, she too was executed. Her spirit has also been seen, especially around February 12th on the roof of the Salt Tower. 2, 7

Anne Boleyn

She was the second wife of King Henry VIII and the mother of Queen Elizabeth I, but since King Henry VIII was infertile, she was beheaded because she could not provide him a suitable, male heir. She died on the Tower Green on May 19,1536 and has since appeared as a ghost with and without her head all about the Tower, including the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula and the Tower itself; often times, she is seen leading a number of spectral subjects. 2, 8

James Scott, First Duke of Monmouth

The illegitimate son of King Chares II tried to take the throne from King James II in 1685 and was imprisoned in the Tower. On July 15, 1685, the same year the new King ascended to the throne, James was beheaded and since then what is assumed to be his ghost haunts both Bell and Beauchamp Towers. 2, 9

Margaret Pole, Eighth Countess of Salisbury

Even though she was 70 years old, King Henry VIII ordered her beheaded on May 27, 1541 because she was the last living relative of the previous royal family, the Plantagenets. Unusually spry for her age, she refused to lay her head on the chopping block and declared if the executioner wanted her head, he would have to chop it off while she was running. He didn’t get her head, exactly, as he chased her around the Tower Green; she died from being chopped to death. Every year on this day, some say there is a phantom reenactment of this gruesome event. 2, 10

Sir Walter Raleigh

He was one of Queen Elizabeth I best friends, but when King James I ascended to the throne, Walter was charged with treason (more than likely, loyalty to his old friend’s ideas of ruling). On June 4, 1584, he was released to settle the first English colony in the New World. He returned to the Tower and the fate of the first settlement is still unknown, but was released again in 1616 to go to South America. After his men attacked the Spanish outpost of San Thome, the outraged Spanish Ambassador Diego Sarmiento de Acuna ordered vengeance. Walter was imprisoned, brought back to the Tower and beheaded on October 29, 1618. Since he took to walking the battlement adjoining his apartment to the Bloody Tower, the walkway became known as Raleigh’s Walk; this is where his spirit has been spotted. 2, 11

Saint Thomas Becket

He was best friend to King Henry II and a priest. He was named to Archbishop of Canterbury, but refused to side with his old friend and betray the Roman Catholic Church. The King ordered Thomas stabbed to death in his own cathedral on December 29, 1170. It is this Saint’s ghost that is said to have been such a destructive force on the construction attempts of the King’s grandson, King Henry III. 2, 12

Henry Percy, the Ninth Earl of Northumberland

In 1605, he was sentenced to the Tower on charges of treason, being accused of plotting to blow up Parliament with gunpowder, which would have killed King James I of England. 16 years later, he bought his freedom. Even though he did not die in the Tower of London, his ghost is said to walk around the Martin Tower, where he regularly visited while incarcerated. 2, 13