Eerie Accounts of Queen Catherine Howard’s Screaming Ghost at Hampton Court Palace

For centuries, tales have circulated that Hampton Court Palace is haunted with the screaming ghost of Catherine Howard, one of Henry VIII’s wives who lost her head – literally. Below are some fascinating facts about those spooky stories.

A Fat Old King’s Teenage Bride

King Henry VIII was notorious for his numerous marriages – and for executing the occasional wife who displeased him. His fifth marriage was to Catherine Howard (circa 1524 – 1542), and it was a spring-autumn match. Henry married Catherine when she was a teenage girl, while by then he was already a fat and middle aged (or by the era’s standards, just plain old) man. Long and short of it, although Catherine was quite pleased at first to become queen, Henry by then was not exactly a physical specimen that would make a young girl’s heart beat faster.

So the young queen sought love and romance elsewhere. It was a bad move. One would think that Catherine would have been especially aware of the risks. After all, her husband had chopped off the head of his second wife (and Catherine’s cousin) Anne Boleyn just a few years earlier on a trumped up charge of infidelity. Catherine’s infidelity was anything but trumped up. When the king found out what she had been up to, her fate and that of her lovers was sealed.

Tales of Catherine Howard’s Screaming Ghost

The ghost of Catherine Howard reportedly runs shrieking through Hampton Court Palace. Pinterest

Catherine was not discreet about her affairs, and if anything, was quite reckless. Many people knew that she was cheating on the king, and when an investigation was finally launched, the evidence uncovered included a love letter written to one of her paramours. 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 did not hear her – not that it mattered.

In light of the brazen manner in which she had cuckolded him and made him look like an old fool and a laughingstock, it is unlikely that the notoriously vindictive Henry would have been merciful, even if he had heard her pleas. Catherine was tried for treason and adultery, convicted, and beheaded in 1542, aged nineteen. In the centuries since, numerous visitors to Hampton Court have reported eerie encounters with the ghost of Catherine Howard, as it ran screaming through what came to be known as the Haunted Gallery.