A Beheaded Queen’s Ghost
Queen Catherine Howard (circa 1524 – 1542) was the fifth wife of King Henry VIII. Henry wed her when she was a teenage girl and he was a fat middle aged (or by the era’s standards, plain old) man. Long and short of it, although Catherine was happy at first to become queen, fat old Henry wasn’t exactly a physical specimen that sets young girls’ hearts aflutter. So Catherine sought love and romance elsewhere.
It was a bad move. One would think that she would have been especially aware of the risks. After all, her hubby had chopped off the head of his second wife (and Catherine’s cousin) Anne Boleyn just a few years earlier on trumped up charges of infidelity.
Catherine’s infidelity was anything but trumped up. When Henry found out, her fate and that of her lovers was sealed. When she was arrested at the royal residence, Hampton Court Palace, Catherine did not go quietly. She broke free of the guards, and ran through a gallery, screaming and shrieking for the king’s mercy. Henry was nowhere near and didn’t hear her. He would not have been merciful if he had.
Catherine was tried for treason and adultery, convicted, and beheaded in 1542, aged nineteen. Ever since, Hampton Court lore has been full of spooky encounters with the ghost of Catherine Howard, as it runs screaming through what came to be known as the Haunted Gallery.
