The Royal Hauntings of the Tower of London

The Ghost of Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn, born into the English nobility and later made a queen, is perhaps one of the most famous individuals associated with the Tower of London's haunted past. She was the second wife of King Henry VIII, whose quest to remarry and sire a male heir led to the creation of the Protestant Church of England.

Anne Boleyn, however, would not provide the desired male inheritor. Instead, she gave birth to Elizabeth, who would later become one of England's most influential monarchs. Following a series of miscarriages, and with Henry's compassion dwindling, a plot was hatched to rid the realm of Queen Anne, and she was arrested on a myriad of fabricated charges. Anne was held in the Royal Palace at the Tower of London, amounting to comfortable quarters but nonetheless a prison.

In May 1536, she met her untimely end at the scaffold on Tower Green, a spot reserved for the execution of nobility. The Queen was beheaded by a French swordsman, considered a cleaner and thus more humane method of execution than the typical English axe.

Her ghost is said to be one of the most frequently sighted apparitions in the Tower of London. Many accounts describe her spectral figure wandering near the Queen's House and the White Tower. In one divisive year, 1864, a Tower guard allegedly saw an apparition he described as a "white female figure" near the Lieutenant's Lodge. When he challenged the figure and received no response, he charged with his bayonet, only for it to pass through the spectre. The poor man was found unconscious an hour later and consequently court-martialled for sleeping on duty.

In another reported sighting, a Captain of the Guard saw a light flickering in the Royal Chapel one night. Upon investigation, he found a procession of lords and ladies dressed in ancient costumes, with Anne Boleyn at their head, walking down the aisle. The procession moved toward the altar and then disappeared, leaving the Captain alone in the chapel.

The tragic tale of Anne Boleyn blends seamlessly with the rich tapestry of England's vivid history. The very thought of her spirit still lingering within those ancient walls gives a sense of the palpable past that defines the Tower of London.