Hauntings

Joan Boteler b. 1395 d. 1489 (my 18th great grandmother) married to Sir Hamon, Treasurer of Normandy, Belnap b. 1394 d. 1429 and lived in Sudeley Castle where a melancholy figure who is said to haunt the castle. This figure is described as a tall woman wearing a green Tudor styled dress. The Lady in Green who looks out of a window and walks through the Queen's garden is thought to be the ghost of Catherine Parr. Catherine Parr, was the sixth wife of Henry VIII. After Henry died in 1547, she married Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley. Later that year, Catherine became pregnant at age 35 and gave birth to a daughter named Mary. A week later, to everyone's dismay, Catherine became ill with puerperal fever and died. Catherine was buried on the grounds of Sudeley in the Chapel of St. Mary. Her daughter, Mary, was abandoned by her father and was taken in by Catherine's close friend, Catherine Willoughby. After 1550, as there is no record of Mary Seymour, most historians believe she died. During the civil war a century later, the Chapel where Catherine was buried was ransacked and her casket disappeared. In 1782, a local farmer came upon her casket. He opened it up to find her perfectly preserved. After taking a few locks of hair he closed the coffin and buried it again. Catherine's tomb would then be disturbed again in 1792 by two drunk men who roughed up the coffin and buried it upside down. It would not be until 1817, when her remains were moved to the tomb of Lord Chandos in St. Mary's Chapel that Catherine would be properly buried and honored with a marvelous marble tomb. As to Catherine's ghost, some think that she is still at Sudeley searching for her daughter whom she never had the pleasure of knowing. Many members of the household staff have reported seeing this apparition and have now come to accept it as the ghost of Queen Catherine.