If there is one thing that the Royal Family is not short of, it is unique and surprising stories in their history. Whether it is claims that an heir to the throne was Jack the Ripper, a young boy breaking into the palace to steal Queen Victoria’s underwear or suggestions that two young brothers were murdered by their power-hungry uncle, there are certainly some shocking stories in the royal closet.
And the unbelievable stories only continue to grow when it comes to where the Royal Family have lived over the years. With reports of hobbling ghosts, a monk in chains and screaming Queens, which royal residences are the most haunted?
From the Tower of London and Balmoral Castle to Buckingham Palace, the Daily Express has compiled the ultimate ranking of the spookiest royal homes.
6. Buckingham Palace
Despite being one of the monarchy’s most globally recognised symbols, there have not been masses of ghostly reports from Buckingham Palace.But one notable story details a ghostly monk in ragged robes who is said to roam the terraces of the Palace gardens, pleading to be released from the chains that bind him. Legend has it that he lived in the monastery that once stood on the site and died chained to the wall of a cell after breaking his strict vows.
Another Palace ghost is said to be that of Major John Gwynne, the private secretary to King Edward VII, who was caught up in a scandal that ended his marriage. Facing a court case, he shot himself in one of the Palace’s first-floor offices. More than a century later, staff are said to still avoid the room as it gives off a strange aura. Some have even reported hearing a single gunshot in the middle of the night, thought to be the echo of the Major’s tragic shot.
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5. Hampton Court Palace
Once home to King Henry VIII, Hampton Court is said to be visited by the ghosts of at least two of his wives. Jane Seymour appears on the Silverstick Stairs as a sad white figure carrying a lighted taper, while Catherine Howard’s more vocal ghost has been heard screaming as she runs along the aptly named Haunted Gallery.
The famous Grey Lady is thought to be Sybil Penn, a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth I. Her tomb was disturbed during a rebuilding project at St Mary’s in Hampton village. “Soon afterwards, the 19th-century inhabitants of the palace began to report that they’d heard Sybil and her ghostly spindle,” Lucy Worsley, chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces, previously said.
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4. Kensington Palace
While the family no longer lives there, there is a longstanding rumour that a ghost named Peter the Wild Boy haunts Prince Louis’s old nursery at Kensington Palace. Peter the Wild Boy, who was brought to England by King George I from Hanover due to his fascination with the boy’s lifestyle of living in the woods and his inability to speak. It is believed he suffered from the rare genetic disorder, Pitt-Hopkins syndrome.
After arriving in Britain in 1726, the then-Princess of Wales showed great concern for his wellbeing, but all attempts to teach him speech or writing were unsuccessful. A portrait featuring Peter at George I’s court hangs in Kensington Palace today. It’s believed that Peter lived until the age of 70 and his final resting place is St Mary’s Church in Northchurch near Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire.
Other ghostly reports about appearances of Queen Caroline and Queen Victoria’s aunt, Princess Sophia, have been made, with guards and residents having confessed to witnessing these spectres or hearing odd noises within the palace grounds. It’s even rumoured that King George II still haunts the palace, his spirit lamenting over his lost soldiers from the Seven Years’ War, crying out, “Why won’t they come?”
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3. Sandringham House
Famous society diarist, Kenneth Rose, claimed that a “little service” was held in one of the downstairs bedrooms of Sandringham after members of staff reported paranormal experiences. The service was conducted by a pastor in the presence of the late Queen, the Queen Mother and Lady-in-Waiting, Prue Penn.
The room in question was where the late Queen’s father, King George VI, lived before his death in 1952 and was said to be so haunted that staff made it known they didn’t want to work in there.
He wrote: “Prue Penn [the Queen Mother’s lady-in-waiting] tells me that at Sandringham in the summer, the Queen invited her to attend a little service in one of its rooms conducted by the local parson. The only other person present was the Queen Mother…”
The service isn’t the only report of ghostly activity at Sandringham as it was also said that King Charles became very nervous while viewing some old paintings there in the mid-1980s. Speaking of the King in 2011, a courtier said: “There are old parts of the house where nobody wants to go or be alone… After crying, ‘Oh heck!’, the Prince grabbed the first print and got out as quickly as he could. He was petrified. There have been lots of incidents in the library. There is an old clock in there and the hands move by themselves. There is a smaller part of the library where a servant once had a kip, only to be woken by books flying from the shelves.”
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