The Ghosts of the Tower of London – a quick guide!

With all of the centuries of history behind it you would expect the Tower of London to be haunted, not just haunted but filled to the rafters with the spectres of those that lived their final days within it’s cold stone walls. Some have referred to the Tower as being the most haunted building in the whole of England, but there are many other properties around the country that vie for that title. The Tower however which was built in 1078 by William the Conqueror, does have a dark and sordid history that few places around the world can rival.

Tower of London, UK by Fernando Nunes

The Hour Before Midnight

It is the ghost of Henry VI that haunts the Wakefield Tower. Henry met his death on the 21st May 1471, murdered ‘in the hour before midnight’ as he knelt in prayer. This quite tragic and ineffectual monarch is believed to have met his death at the hands of the sinister Duke of Gloucester, being stabbed repeatedly in what was by all accounts of the time, a frenzied and brutal attack, with his body being describes as being ‘full of deadly holes’. It’s on the hour before midnight, every year, on the anniversary of his death that he reappears, his spectre is said to pace around the inside of the Wakefield Tower until, when midnight finally strikes he fades away.

The White Lady

The cold stones of the narrow and winding corridors of the great tower are the haunt of the White Lady. She has been seen waving to visiting children from a window in the tower, who eagerly waved back at her from an opposite building. Most haunted residences seem to have a white or grey lady but this one is different. With the white lady of the tower you smell her approach, as the air is said to fill with the pungent aroma of cheap perfume, which is especially noticeable around the area of the entrance of St John’s Chapel, the scent is so strong that it has been known to make staff and guards retch.

Tower of London – St. John’s Chapel, UK by Nick Mehlert

The Screaming Countess

Out of all of the men, women and children that met their death here, either through murder or execution, one of the most alarming ghostly visitations is that of the Countess of Salisbury, Margaret Pole. Sentenced to death at the respectful age of seventy two by Henry VIII, as an act of vengeance towards Cardinal Pole, her son, she was sentenced to be executed on May 27th 1541. The Countess refused to kneel at the block, stating that to kneel would be to assume the role of a traitor, which she was not. The executioner unfazed by her refusal wielded his axe at her where she stood; she tried to flee for her life but was literally hacked down as she ran. This incredible scene is not replayed every year but it has been seen, and heard on many occasions by the guards and staff that work in the vicinity of where the scaffold and block once stood.

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Category: Castles and Palaces, Castles and Palaces