Divorced, beheaded, died...
Ghost hunters are well served by Henry VIII’s wives,
two of whom are said to haunt Hampton Court in
Surrey. Jane Seymour is quite sedate, but Catherine
Howard, arrested for adultery, is said to have run
screaming through the palace, begging Henry for mercy.
Some say they hear her in the Haunted Gallery, still
wailing. Or head for Blickling Hall in Norfolk, where
Anne Boleyn appears each year on the anniversary of
her death (19 May), carrying her own severed head, in
a coach driven by a headless coachman and drawn by
four headless horses. Apparently.GOING TO CHURCH
Peterborough isn’t our best-known
cathedral, but it once boasted the tombs of
two of our queens. Katharine of Aragon is
still here (pictured), her grave adorned by
pomegranates left by well-wishers, with
reference to the fruit depicted on her coat
of arms. She was much more popular than
her successor, Anne Boleyn (inset);
when Katharine died in 1536, Henry VIII
feared angry scenes in the streets of
London and refused to have her buried in
Westminster Abbey. She had died in what
is now Cambridgeshire, and Peterborough
was the nearest suitable place. Mary,
Queen of Scots kept her company for
25 years from 1587; then her son, James I,
had her upgraded to Westminster.