While we may not be a history podcast, today we embark on a journey to a place where history, intrigue, and the supernatural converge – the infamous Tower of London. This ancient fortress, nearly a millennium old, holds within its walls a treasure trove of stories, mysteries, and restless spirits. In this episode, we'll provide a brief overview of the Tower's rich history, delving into the origins of some of the most notorious ghosts that are said to haunt its hallowed halls.
Sources:
Executions at the Tower of London from Capital Punishment in the UK
Tower of London 3D from Tiki Toki
Tower of London Timeline of Historical Events from Britain Express
The Tower of London's Haunted History from Weird History
The Haunting History of the Tower of London from BuzzFeed Unsolved
The 13 Ghosts of the Tower of London from London Walks
13 Ghosts of the Tower of London from Authentic Vacations
See ya next Wednesday!
Intro/Outro Music: A Creepy Music from Music Unlimited
Instagram: @wickedwithinpodcast
Website: wickedwithinpodcast.com
While we may not be a history podcast, today we embark on a journey to a place where history, intrigue, and the supernatural converge – the infamous Tower of London. This ancient fortress, nearly a millennium old, holds within its walls a treasure trove of stories, mysteries, and restless spirits. In this episode, we'll provide a brief overview of the Tower's rich history, delving into the origins of some of the most notorious ghosts that are said to haunt its hallowed halls.
Sources:
Executions at the Tower of London from Capital Punishment in the UK
Tower of London 3D from Tiki Toki
Tower of London Timeline of Historical Events from Britain Express
The Tower of London's Haunted History from Weird History
The Haunting History of the Tower of London from BuzzFeed Unsolved
The 13 Ghosts of the Tower of London from London Walks
13 Ghosts of the Tower of London from Authentic Vacations
See ya next Wednesday!
Intro/Outro Music: A Creepy Music from Music Unlimited
Instagram: @wickedwithinpodcast
Website: wickedwithinpodcast.com
I'm Kate and I'm Tali, and welcome to Wicked Within. This week we have a paranormal episode and, unlike some of our other situations where we kind of cover a few different things, like in a specific area or in a specific genre, this particular structure is big enough that we will be spending pretty much the entire episode just talking about this one place.
Speaker 1:So, yes, and without further ado, we are going to dive in. Well, we may not be a history podcast. Today we are going to embark on a journey to a place where history, intrigue and the supernatural converge the infamous Tower of London, which I have been to.
Speaker 2:Ooh.
Speaker 1:Yes, this ancient fortress, nearly a millennium old, holds within its walls a treasure trove of stories, mysteries and restless spirits.
Speaker 2:I for sure thought you were going with stories and told, but you forgot.
Speaker 1:I would have been good too. That would have been good too. In this episode I'm going to provide a brief overview of the Tower's rich history, delving into the origins of some of the most notorious ghosts that are said to haunt its halls. So since, as I mentioned in the intro, the Tower of London is nearly a thousand years old, there could honestly be an entire podcast just about this one building and the intrigue and the drama that happened during that thousand year history. But we are not a history podcast, believe it or not.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to kind of give a general overview of the Tower of London and cover some brief history, giving particular focus to the origins of some of the most notorious ghosts seen in the Tower. I'm also going to normally I talk about the history and then I get into the hauntings. There are a thousand years of history. We're not going to do that in this episode. We're just going to go straight into history and then the hauntings associated with that history. So just wanted to preface this episode with that information. In October of 1066, I didn't know it started in October, but it did.
Speaker 2:That was very convenient.
Speaker 1:I know Well, and there's going to be something else too. So that's toward the end of the episode, though. Under the direction of William the Conqueror, norman invaders seized control of London, destroying everything and everyone who stood in their way. The Normans were originally Vikings or Norsemen from Denmark, norway and Iceland, who settled in what is now Northern France and established the Duchy of Normandy, which I did not know. That is what it's called. It's like a Like a duke for a duke. It's the Duke of Normandy. So the Normans colonized southern Italy, sicily, england, wales, scotland and Ireland.
Speaker 2:Man, they were everywhere.
Speaker 1:They were justthey were doing it all. They were like let's just cover all of our bases, that's the Conqueror. That'syou're not wrong. In 1066, william ordered the construction of a fortress. This fortress would need to be designed not only to protect the invading Normans from their Saxons subjects, since people generally are not a fan of being invaded, but also as a demonstration of power and dominance over the surrounding areas.
Speaker 2:That also seems like a man thing to do.
Speaker 1:Indeed it does. He decided that this fortress would be built at the top of a hill on the northern shore of the River Tanks. The original structure, though well fortified, was probably made of timber. So in 1078, when William I passed away, his son, william II, ordered construction of a new tower, which would eventually become known as the White Tower. This tower is made from limestone and is held together with mortar made in part from crushed rum and fricks, which originally gave it kind of a red color which was, I'm sure, quite ominous at the time. Yeah, yeah yeah, because limestone is white.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a very light stone.
Speaker 2:So, red and white tones, just blood and skeletons is the vibe I'm getting from this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I'm not gonna disagree with that, because it is a spooky episode, or like that's the intent at least. Also, you'll notice William I and William II. That's gonna be a theme here, because if there is anything that I can say about British monarchs, it's that they were uncreative when it came to names. Yeah, so there are gonna be a lot of Williams, henrys, edwards, richards, oh, definitely Forsyth Edward. In 1100, the Tower of London held its first prisoner, Randolph Flambard. No.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Imagine a descendant with that last name. Still yeah.
Speaker 1:It's. There's a lot happening there, Anyway. So Randolph Flambard, the Bishop of Durham, had been appointed the Royal Clerk by William II. Those two men seem to have similar interests, not of which were good as you can imagine, and William II either didn't realize or didn't care about Randolph's tendency to embezzle money from the monarchy.
Speaker 2:So you know, as I feel like it's more. I didn't realize a conqueror would absolutely want to know where their money went.
Speaker 1:This is. This is his son, though, so he's like.
Speaker 2:He inherited it and he was like money's no object.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, and most inheritors. Yeah, and he's gonna tax the people more Like it's Robin Hood. But when William II died in a hunting accident, his brother Henry, I had Randolph arrested but he was only there for about six months before he made his escape and fled to Normandy Escape. Oh yeah, he, just he did the old fashioned Spoon in the dirt. Oh no, that is. That is another old fashioned note.
Speaker 1:I think that this one was tying sheets together some some such, he eventually worked his way back into Henry's good graces and spent the rest of his life living in luxury in England, as you do. You know, randolph did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this guy did. He escaped from prison, yeah, came back schmoozed with the new king, yeah, and they were just okay with it.
Speaker 1:They were fine with it. He was like this is fine.
Speaker 1:Eventually, you know, after I never really do get away with anything, I guess so. So originally, again, the Tower of London was just a fortress, but the royal family moved into the tower in 1104, and in 1241, the tower was whitewashed, which is when it earned its name, the White Tower, which I mentioned earlier, and that's when you stopped being able to see the red. So now it just looks like a nice old fashioned building surrounded by new modern construction. It's a it's very surreal, actually.
Speaker 1:In 1154, henry II became king. Henry's rule was marked by turbulence and backstabbing, and one person seemed to hold onto their hard feelings more than others Thomas Beckett was a man of God, though he had a close relationship with Henry, at least in the beginning. However, their relationship took a turn for the worse when Beckett sided with the church over the king when it came to the issue of who would have jurisdiction over the priests and church officials. There was a long, drawn out feud that lasted several years and saw Beckett fleeing to France, but he eventually returned to Canterbury and then was promptly killed by four knights who were, I guess, sent to kill him. I think that they were just sent to make him you know be like yes, you as king have jurisdiction over the priests.
Speaker 1:But he was like no, thank you. And then they were like, okay, murder. So this is, this is the version of history as I tell it, which is not probably super accurate.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure, I'm not synced.
Speaker 1:I like it.
Speaker 2:I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:I'm just yeah, I'm just trying to get to a point. I guess. Years later, when Henry III, the grandson of Henry II, ordered construction of an additional curtain wall around the Tower of London, workers said that they saw Thomas Beckett's ghost destroying the wall with a massive cross. That seems productive. I, yeah, yeah, it's an interesting choice, for sure. So it happened for weeks. They would build the wall, only for it to be destroyed every single night by this ghostly man holding a cross and just tearing the wall apart. The descriptions given by the workers seemed to match the physical appearance of Thomas Beckett, who, you know, we already know didn't have such a great history. So Henry III ordered the construction of a chapel in Beckett's honor, and his and his spirit hasn't been seen since.
Speaker 2:Oh, he was like oh, you made this thing for me. I guess I'll stop destroying things. Yeah, I mean same, but with food. Oh, you fed me, I'll stop. I'll stop raging.
Speaker 1:I'll stop being crazy as long as I get fed. Oh, okay, so in 1210. They added a royal menagerie, and over the centuries, the tower also served as home to a number of wild and exotic animals, until the London Zoo opened in 1828. That is what 600 years it's, yeah, yeah about actually over. People today still claim to hear the sounds of monkeys, lions and horses throughout the castle, and in the 18th century, a guard said that he had been attacked by a phantom bear.
Speaker 2:Like a coca-caymer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, except this one was a ghost bear.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is. I think it's arguably worse. Like bear spray won't work. That's true, that's true, just go straight through them. Don't think bear spray existed back then. No, I think so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and actually he died two days later. So yeah, arguably definitely worse. Ravens have kept watch over the tower for centuries and it is believed that if the ravens leave, the kingdom will fall. There are currently five permanent Raven residents at the tower and their names are Jubilee Harris, Poppy, georgie Edgar and Branwyn Branwyn is my favorite.
Speaker 2:I do love that. I love ridiculous names for animals, and ravens are just yes, very extra.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so so those are the current Raven residents of the Tower of London. They are fed, are.
Speaker 2:Ravens as big as crows they're bigger. They're bigger because crows always, always take me by surprise when I see how big they are, because I forget. I'm like, oh, they're like small birds. No, they're not, and ravens are bigger than them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're huge. Yeah, over the years, the Tower of London continued to expand and from 1272 to 1285, another major edition was added. A curtain wall was built around the existing curtain wall, so there are two giant, uh protective walls.
Speaker 2:Is that curtain wall? Is that like a design?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a it's a design that was meant to protect like an inner fortress. So they added a wall around another wall and they also added another moat.
Speaker 2:So there's a wall, moat, mm-hmm, another wall and then another moat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it was. I think it was like outer most thing was the moat and then they had a wall and then they were like okay, so then we're gonna add another moat in between the two walls and then there's another wall. Yeah, Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you can never have enough moats or enough walls.
Speaker 2:I can imagine like back then, the king who signed off on this is like you know what, if we get invaded, they're gonna have to go through the moat with presumably alligators, because that's my thing I think of when people have moats. Probably not true, but also what I think.
Speaker 1:Moats were just filled with human sewage, which is worse than alligators, not waters, not water.
Speaker 2:And alligators Like cartoons, like me to believe. No, no, this is quite a realization.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it was a.
Speaker 2:So then they'd go through human sewage, I think, like if they're.
Speaker 1:They're really determined.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, knock down a wall and they're like, oh look, another layer of human sewage. What a shock. That's probably exactly how the king sold it. Yeah, so why we should spend more money into it.
Speaker 1:I mean, yeah, probably, ew. When all was said and done, the Tower of London comprised over 20 towers, two curtain walls, two moats, the Traders Gate barracks and much more, so it's a very large fortress.
Speaker 1:Yeah that is vast. It is. It is indeed. In 1381 the tower was breached for the first and only time in history, when an angry mob sent it on the castle. In the midst of the peasants revolt, simon of Sudbury, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor, was taken from the tower and beheaded on Tower Hill. It took eight blows to separate his head from his neck, and when it was separated it was then placed on a spike and displayed for all to see, as one does.
Speaker 2:It's because they're poor and they couldn't afford to sharpen their axes.
Speaker 1:I mean, and then and this is a really good they're like and see, Because the next time we revolt you want this to happen to you. You end up like nearly headless neck. Is this what you want? Yeah, I mean, I think that is arguably the most persuasive argument I've ever heard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you could have had a quick and painless death, but no but no.
Speaker 1:Can't even afford to sharpen my own axe. This is what you get. Yeah, is it too soon? I don't think so. Yeah, no, it's. Yeah, it's been a long time. Yeah, in April of 1483, edward IV died unexpectedly from pneumonia or typhoid, it's suspected. Edward had two sons, edward V and Richard.
Speaker 2:Yes, new Richard.
Speaker 1:Yes, new Richard, new Edward. Again, this is what I'm saying. When King Edward died, his oldest son, edward, became the King de Jure. But Edward was only 12 years old at the time and even then they were like, probably too young to be running a country, so he was obviously unable to carry the full weight of his responsibilities. So in the meantime, edward IV's brother, richard, duke of Gloucester, became protector of the realm.
Speaker 1:The Duke said that he was taking them into custody to protect them, but he basically imprisoned them in the Tower of London. So they had like nice apartments and stuff like that, but they weren't allowed to leave. People just saw them, like playing together, you know, and like going about life as usual, but they never left the Tower, really, okay, so like a Rapunzel situation. Yeah, we're talking about. Yeah, yep, yep, yep. The boys continued to go about life as normally as possible, but always held within the confines of the Tower and always under the watch of at least two guards. Meanwhile, their uncle began to tell the other nobles that the boys were illegitimate because their father had originally signed a contract to marry somebody else besides their mother. Richard argued that their marriage was invalid because his brother had broken the original contract and on June 26, 1483, an assembly of Lords and Commons voted that Edward the Force marriage was invalid and his sons were illegitimate, and Richard was proclaimed King Richard the Third.
Speaker 2:I guess that's the least bloody way you could take power.
Speaker 1:so it is, but it's gonna get worse. So, okay, yeah, so, despite this victory, the two boys remained imprisoned until suddenly, in August of the same year, both boys mysteriously disappeared. You already won, richard, this is I. Yeah, we're gonna get into it a little bit more later, but yes, I knew that you were gonna say that and I think everybody's like yeah, you did it though, buddy, yeah.
Speaker 1:Anyway, their faiths remained a mystery, though many people believed that Richard arranged the murder of his nephews. Sir Thomas Moore even went so far as to theorize about the manner of their deaths, suggesting that two hired hitmen snuck into their room during the dead of night and held pillows to their faces until the boys suffocated to death. On the other hand, some people have suggested that Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham, or Richard's successor, king Henry VII, were truly to blame for the boys' disappearance. It's likely that we'll never know for sure. It is also worth mentioning that two small skeletons were discovered buried deep beneath a stone staircase during a renovation of the White Tower in 1674. People even then almost immediately made the connection to these two small skeletons and the missing princes from the 15th century.
Speaker 1:The victims remains were brought to the Abbey and eventually placed in a white marble sarcophagus. The bones were removed for examination in 1933 and were determined to belong to young children somewhere between the ages of 10 to 14 years old, so at that point they were like, definitely the princes. However, modern day requests for DNA assessment of the bones have been denied. Why, I don't know. Maybe they're just like we want to keep the mystery alive, or something like that, or they're afraid of compromising what is there. I'm not entirely sure why. Okay, but they're like no, thank you, we don't need it.
Speaker 1:It seems worth it. Just, I kind of agree. I think it would be nice, because what are you gonna do with those old bones now? Yeah, right, yeah, nobody's coming for them. I don't know what to tell you. So, going back to your earlier question, so during this period of time, this whole saga is known as the War of Roses, all of this issue with the who's going to become king and who has the rightful claim, and blah, blah, blah blah. And just to give it a modern point of reference, the Game of Thrones series was inspired by the War of the Roses, so that's kind of what we're dealing with here, like red weddings and everything like that. Yeah, it was definitely a contentious period of history, even by historical standards. So I think that the idea of just eliminating any possible threat was really the only goal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I did think after I made my comment I was like, yeah, if you let the boys live and they really didn't agree with what he thought about the contracts either they try to murder him or murder his offspring and like, okay, sure, but still like you already won, yep, it's so gosh, men in power, that's people in power. Yeah, yeah, neutral here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yes, as we will see actually, because women also do be crazy sometimes. Yeah, yeah, anyway, today, people still claim to see boys in old fashioned clothes playing in the battlements. Some people claim to hear childish giggling even when no one is around, but most reports claim that two little boys can be seen holding hands and wearing white night shirts wandering through the castle as though they are lost.
Speaker 2:That makes me sad it's. I heard the holding hands part and I was already sad, but the lost part made me even sadder. Yeah.
Speaker 1:If it makes you feel any better. I mean like all of the murders suck, but this is the worst part. And now you know, I don't know. Actually it all is pretty terrible. It's pretty terrible. We're about to talk about Henry VIII again. Oh, yeah, yeah, so things are going to get a little weird. In 1509, henry VIII began his reign as king. Yeah, yeah, we're all already tired. Many of the most famous ghosts in all of England can be traced back to Henry's penchant to execute people when they inconvenienced him. In episode 18 of this podcast, we discussed hauntings in Surrey, england, including Hampton Court Palace, where many of Henry's wives are still allegedly haunting the halls. If you want a full summary on Henry's numerous marriages, I would recommend checking out that episode.
Speaker 1:but for now we're just going to focus on Henry's relationship to the Tower of London. So according to public records, I counted over 25 executions at the Tower of London during Henry's reign.
Speaker 2:He really made it okay to be like I. Just we don't vibe. Yeah Right with your head. Yeah, he was probably the inspiration for the Queen of Hearts, probably actually, though, because yeah, no, that's exactly what it was.
Speaker 1:He was like it didn't matter, you didn't even have to be married to him, you just had to be like I don't really agree with that. And he was like, oh, wish you hadn't told me that, because I'm gonna have to, I'm gonna have to kill you now, and that was really all that it took. I feel like, yeah, not a great guy Anyway.
Speaker 2:I don't disagree. I really think that there had to have been one point where like there was a discussion. He put his hand to his head and was like well, now you have to die. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't know what it is man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know why you haven't picked up on what's happening around here. Yeah, we don't have time to go into each individual beheading, so we're just going to focus on the most infamous executions from the time. Things started to kick off in a big way when Henry severed ties with the Catholic Church when they wouldn't approve his divorce from his first wife, catherine of Aragon. Sir Thomas Moore, author of Utopia, an eventual chancellor of England, had a pleasant relationship with Henry until this divide. He refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn in 1533, and in 1534 he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Moore was convicted of treason in 1535 and was beheaded on July 6th of the same year.
Speaker 2:It's a very popular method. Really, you can say that his separation from the Catholic Church was his first beheading. That's, that's true, that's true.
Speaker 1:Yep Thomas Moore, was eventually made a saint for his martyrdom, as one is in Catholicism. In a cruel twist of fate, the next infamous victim of Henry's wrath was Anne Boleyn herself. She married Henry in January of 1533, and in May she was escorted down the River Thames to the Tower of London. She prepared for the ceremony at her apartment in the Tower of London and on June 1st she was crowned. She was crowned, and on June 1st she was crowned Queen of England.
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't know, I'm so much.
Speaker 1:Crowned Queen, crowned Queen. I would sound like that, like the. You know it. Yeah, yeah, I would just sound like the priest or whoever it was in the Princess Bride. Yeah, anyway, she was crowned Queen at the Tower of London, I do believe. Yeah, because that's what she was staying before. But just three years later, Anne Boleyn was escorted to the Tower again, but this time she entered through the infamous Trader's Gate, which is not a good sign.
Speaker 2:Wait, when you said Trader's Gate at the beginning I thought like like barter and trading.
Speaker 1:But it's like Trader to the Country Like treason, uh, okay, yeah, like treason. Yeah, treason gate Like water gate. But no, no. In a sham trial she was accused of treason, incest and adultery, alongside her brother and four other men, and was sentenced to death. She requested a skilled swordsman instead of an axman, since axes were often ineffective for the first few blows, as we saw earlier in the episode, and her request was granted. So on May 19th 1536, she watched the executions of her brother and four other alleged co-conspirators before she herself was beheaded on Tower Green. Eleven days later, henry married his third wife, jane Seymour.
Speaker 2:I'm glad her request was granted, though, like she had the intellect, she sounds like a very smart woman to be able to like yes. I think she was very smart convince a man to not only leave his wife but leave his like religion. Start a new one? Oh yeah, Did we start a new one? He did.
Speaker 1:The Church of.
Speaker 2:England, yeah, yeah, so going, he started a new one. She was a very intelligent woman, so I'm glad she at least got that like request granted so she wasn't hacked.
Speaker 1:No, she wasn't. It was a queen queen, a queen cut, a queen cut. I do find the very cruel irony in that she was named Queen in the same place where she was then later beheaded. Oh yeah, in prison to ampeheaded, don't like that.
Speaker 2:That is uncomfortable. Yeah, very full circle moment. No one even knew it. Yep, I mean Henry might have, because he probably was like, oh, this was kind of easy to do the first time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's not the last time either because we're going to talk about another one in a little bit. So, besides the young princes, anne is probably the most famous ghost seen at the Tower of London. 340 years after her death, a castle guard reported seeing the flicker of a candle coming from the chapel in the dead of night he climbed up to a window to peer inside and saw a procession of knights and ladies led by a headless ambulance. Whoa, that's creepy.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, that's very creepy.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is. On another occasion, a castle guard patrolling the grounds noticed a woman slowly walking toward him, but her feet never touched the ground. The guard tried to charge her with his bayonet, but when he went right through the ghostly figure he fainted as one would You're like. That did not go the way that I expected to go. Today, people still claim to see Andalyn's ghost walking down the aisle of the church toward her grave, and others claim to see her walking on Tower Green holding her head in her hands.
Speaker 2:She wouldn't be able to join the headless hunt.
Speaker 1:She sure would. Yeah, that's for sure. This is and this is true. This is the only ghost story I actually remember from when we lived in England.
Speaker 1:Andalyn is the only one, because we went to the Tower of London. I remember standing at Tower Green and reading the sign and stuff like that and being like, oh okay, well, that's spooky. I felt bad for her even then which is really interesting and I don't think I was. I mean, like I was an empathetic enough six-year-old but like not a saint by any stretch of the imagination, and I was still like that sucks man, he sounds like a real dick. That's not what I thought when I was six. But equivalent, yeah.
Speaker 1:In another twist, though this one much more satisfying, thomas Cromwell, one of the chief architects of Anne Boleyn's downfall, found himself on the literal chopping block in July of 1540, after he pushed Henry into his marriage with his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, who Henry hated from the start. That was just the beginning of the end for Cromwell, who was charged with a long list of crimes, though no trial was actually ever held, because why would there be? No, you don't need one. On July 28th 1540, on the very same day of Cromwell's execution, henry married his fifth wife, catherine Howard. After his marriage to Anne of Cleves was annulled, catherine began an affair with Thomas Cole Pepper, one of Henry's attendants. When the affair was discovered, catherine was arrested and Henry made it a treasonous offense for a queen to not disclose her unchaste past. So if she came to her marriage not as a virgin, it was treason which is a little dramatic.
Speaker 2:That feels very dramatic.
Speaker 1:It is.
Speaker 2:This feels like the ultimate worst dude, bro of like what's your body count? Yeah, but like I can like have sex with everyone I want, yeah, and I will Like you cannot.
Speaker 1:Right, right, I'm thinking he was like older. At this point I'm not sure that he was able to successfully complete sexual Congress. Yes, so, yeah. Anyway, cole Pepper and another man named Francis dear dear, were executed for their affairs with Catherine, and their decapitated heads were displayed on London Bridge. Oh no, yeah. On February 10th 1542, catherine was escorted to the Tower of London on the River Thames, passing the rotting heads of her former paramours as she went. Oh no, yeah, that's true. Catherine entered the Tower through Trader's Gate, just like her cousin Anne Boleyn had done just six years earlier.
Speaker 2:They were cousins.
Speaker 1:They were cousins. Yeah, oh man, I know. Three days later, catherine was beheaded on Tower Green and her attendant, jane Boleyn, lady Rocheford, suffered the same fate. Though Catherine was killed and buried at the Tower of London, her ghost is seen most often in the Haunted Gallery at Hampton Court Palace. Again, see episode 18 for details, because we talked about it. She's the one who's seen like crying and screaming and being dragged away down the hallway at Hampton Court Palace. That is Catherine Howard. Yep.
Speaker 1:So in the midst of all this nonsense, margaret Pohl, countess of Salisbury, got on the wrong side of Henry, which wasn't particularly difficult to do. Oh, we had to. Three of her sons had been accused of treasonous activities because of that whole split from the church, and two were executed for their crimes. Margaret was accused as an accomplice and was arrested in 1539. She remained in prison at the Tower of London until May 27, 1541, when she was told that she would be executed within the hour. Oh, surprise, good morning. She was beheaded on Tower of Green, but according to legend, her execution didn't exactly go as planned. What does that mean? When Margaret arrived at the executioner's block, she refused to cooperate. The crowd jeered and the axmen became jittery and instead of making a clean cut through the neck, he plunged the blade into her shoulder.
Speaker 2:Oh, Yep, all bad decisions were made. All bad decisions.
Speaker 1:In pain and shock. She ran around the tower's courtyard screaming. The axmen chased her and eventually cut up to finish the job, but many people claimed to still see her reenacting the events of her death, running around the courtyard and screaming for help.
Speaker 2:Very dramatic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Museum of the Tower of London holds countless significant historical items, including a set of armor made for King Henry VIII. Now I am going to show you a picture of what that armor looks like, because I think that one particular aspect of the armor is going to stand out to you and I want you to tell me what it is. Ok.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, the biggest eye roll.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is a generous penis bulge is how I would describe it Generous, I think is emphasis on generous. I was like I actually wondered. I was like maybe that was normal for the time. I was like maybe it was just part of what they did. But I saw other suits of armor that were displayed in that same museum and they do not have penis bulge cutouts for their giant dicks.
Speaker 2:What an insecure person.
Speaker 1:I cannot. It must be protected. You know what it was made for him later in life too, when he could barely walk because he was such a fatty and he had gout and couldn't make anything happen, so it wasn't even designed to fit him. It was just like this is my penis armor.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I cannot with him. Looking at the armor, it looks like it's for someone who maybe is a little more muscular and not fat.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, no, definitely not Somebody who might actually ride into battle, which he definitely wasn't going to be doing at that point in his life. So employees and visitors have both claimed that the temperature around that armor is much colder than the surrounding area, and guards tasked with the overnight care of the armor have claimed to be attacked by something that grabs them by the neck and attempts to strangle them as they lose consciousness and they have to leave the room to escape the choking sensation before they pass out. Ew yeah.
Speaker 2:So we share this thing of not liking things around our neck. No, I don't like it at all, so being woken up to being choked by anything.
Speaker 1:It's not. Yeah, no, not good, not good. And um, and also I'm just already so done with Henry VIII anyway, that I would just be like listen, you prick. No, no, not today, not any day, ever. No, you small PP man. Anyway, moving on finally. So Lady Jane Gray was only 15 or 16 years old when Edward VI named her as his successor over his half-sister Mary. This decision was mostly based on Jane's loyalty to the Church of England and Mary's loyalty to the Roman Catholic Church, so Edward wanted to continue the Church of England. Jane was married to Lord Guilford Dudley.
Speaker 1:I think is how you say that and named Queen for just nine days before she was overthrown by the older and much more politically savvy Mary Tudor. After she was overthrown, jane and her husband were imprisoned in the Tower of London. It's possible that they would have remained imprisoned for the rest of their lives, but when an attempted rebellion was stopped in its tracks, mary decided that she needed to eliminate the competition. Dudley was publicly executed on Tower Hill and his remains were carted past Jane's apartments before she was escorted out to Tower Green to be beheaded. What a power play.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she was only like 17, 16 or 17 at the time, which is awful. Some people claim to see Guilford Dudley in Beecham Tower sitting in his cell and weeping and despair late into the night. People also claim to see Jane's ghost wandering the battlements of the Tower. In 1957, one guard looked up to find her headless body pacing at the top of the tower.
Speaker 2:How do we know whose headless body is the problem?
Speaker 1:The fashion's changed and stuff like that. In Anne Boleyn's case she's actually seen holding her head, so you could identify her by the head, but I'm guessing just based off of the style of the dress. That's the only thing I can think of. These claims of sightings increase in the days leading up to the anniversary of their deaths which is interesting.
Speaker 1:But Jane isn't the only mysterious lady to haunt the castle today. Some people have claimed to see the apparition of a ghostly, faceless woman. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Dressed in white, which I am, I don't want it.
Speaker 2:No, thank you please.
Speaker 1:Some people will catch a glimpse of a woman dressed in white just out of the corner of their eye, just before they smell an awful overpowering perfume. Some people say that the smell is followed by the feeling of the world closing in around them and in recent years, some people say that the smell is followed by a tap on the shoulder, but when they turn around, all they see is a wisp of white.
Speaker 2:Because it has no face yeah.
Speaker 1:So our last infamous ghost is a familiar figure to anybody who is familiar with British history or the movie V for Vendetta. Have you seen V for Vendetta? Yes, yeah, it's a good one. The Gunpowder plot happened in 1605 and it is a little too long to go into a lot of detail, but basically it's still a continuation of the constant battle between Catholicism and Protestantism. Guy Fox was a convert to Catholicism and when James VI ordered all Catholic priests to leave the country, guy Fox and a number of other conspirators devised a plot to destroy Protestantism once and for all in one fell swoop. Interesting, they would place 36 barrels of gunpowder in the cellars beneath the palace of Westminster and when those barrels ignited, they would kill the king, the queen, protestant church leaders and both houses, a parliament. Though the conspirators were able to move those 36 barrels of gunpowder into the cellars beneath the palace, the plot ultimately failed. Guy Fox was discovered next to the barrels with a bunch of matches in his pocket, and he was arrested and tortured. For information, he gave up the names of a few of his co-conspirators before he was convicted of high treason and sentenced to death.
Speaker 1:Guy Fox and eight other men were hanged, drawn and quartered. These were the first prisoners to suffer this fate since the execution of William Wallace 300 years earlier. Okay, so this would look like victims being dragged onto, like a wooden panel behind a horse, to the place where they would be executed. So they were hanged and then their gendals were removed, they were disemboweled which is the drawn part and beheaded Yep, yep, yep, and their bodies were finally quartered, which means that they were. Do you know what that is? Are they like torn apart?
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're like torn apart, Like horses going in four different directions and they straps and yeah, yep, yep, yep. So their bodies were finally quartered, and then the severed pieces were often displayed in public. Ooh, yeah, so that's really pretty. Guy Fox isn't necessarily seen at the Tower of London as far as I can tell, but his screams are still heard, echoing through the corridors. Yeah, which is worse in some ways.
Speaker 2:He had a very Game of Thrones-y plot to kill people as well.
Speaker 1:He really did. He really did. Yeah. The last public execution on Tower Hill took place in 1780. In 1851, the Tower underwent a major renovation, and the Tower continued to serve as a prison throughout the next century, from 1914 to 1916, 11 German spies were imprisoned and executed throughout the course of World War I. Joseph Jacobs was the last person executed at the Tower of London after he was convicted of being a German spy during World War II. The craze to East End gangsters were held in the Tower for four days in 1952, making them the last prisoners to be held there. With almost a thousand years of bloody history, it's not surprising that the Tower of London is said to be the most haunted castle in England, and that is the briefest possible history that I could give on a building that has almost a thousand years of history.
Speaker 2:It was really Henry VIII that brought the ghosts in.
Speaker 1:I do wonder. I should spend more time looking this up, but I wonder how many ghost sightings between Hampstead Court Palace, which is also supposed to be one of the most haunted castles in England, and Tower of London, how many specific ghost stories and sightings can be traced back to Henry VIII? Because I'm guessing it's a lot of them. Yeah, yeah, he is not my favorite person by any stretch of the imagination Absolutely not.
Speaker 2:No no I think he sucks.
Speaker 1:So anyway, that is the Tower of London and the many, many hauntings that are said to happen there, and I have been there before.
Speaker 1:Again, I would say the only ghost story I remember from England from when we were living there, is I do remember Ambulan walking around Tower Green holding her head, because I was like that does tend to stick out in one's mind. And I actually remember visiting the Tower of London, like when I was looking at pictures of it I was like holy crap. I actually remember walking there and I don't remember a whole lot because I was only six when we lived there. So, anyway, very interesting place, 10 out of 10, would visit again. Would I spend the night?
Speaker 2:I would like to.
Speaker 1:I would too. I mean, they don't offer nighttime.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:But if I did, that would be interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which is interesting because I feel like other haunted places, I'm like immediately know, with this one I am super intrigued. Oh, that's funny. Maybe it's because it's, I don't know, I don't know. I think it's because I can be so far removed from it literally an entire country and ocean.
Speaker 1:So that's I actually was going to say. Is it because it's in Britain? And so, yes, it is. Yeah, that's what it is. I would. Yeah, no, but I'm super into it. I would definitely go back to the Tower of London. I don't think I could spend enough time there. That's not true. I could spend enough time there. I'm sure that those ghosts are all like nope, I've spent plenty of time here, I'm ready to move on. Yeah, yeah, yeah, anyway. So that is the. Those are the hauntings of the Tower of London, and next week we're going to be back with another true crime case. I also didn't intend this to be the case, but Guy Fox Day is on November 5th and this should be releasing on November 1st.
Speaker 2:Not my intention, but I'm not mad about it. It works out. Yeah, it did work out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, anyway, until next time. Bye, goodbye. If you liked the show, please leave us a great review and don't forget to subscribe on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram at we Could Within Podcast.