It seems inevitable that if you spent your life living in castles and stately homes teeming with history (not to mention the odd beheaded Queen), you might bump into a ghost every once in a while, – and apparently King Charles III had his fair share of experiences with spirits before becoming King!
Chatting on HELLO!’s A Right Royal Podcast, paranormal historian Richard Felix explained: “Prince Charles was apparently terrified at Sandringham when he was again in the library at Sandringham, he and a footman were in there and followed around the library by a ghost!”
So, what about Buckingham Palace? According to the historian, the palace is haunted by a monk, and the King wasn’t keen on meeting the spooky resident. “Apparently, he’s not too happy about Buckingham Palace.”
Richard explained. “Again, it’s haunted by the ghost of a monk… basically, Buckingham Palace was actually built on a site that belonged to the monks of Westminster Abbey. This monk, we don’t know what happened to him, but he’s seen with a cowl, in other words, his hood, wandering through the halls of Buckingham Palace.”
Although Charles hasn’t spoken publicly about whether he believes in ghosts or not, his wife, Queen Camilla, once revealed that she refused to go into Dumfries House while Charles was renovating it.
Speaking in a documentary, she explained: “I remember the first time I walked up the steps, got into the hall and I thought, ‘I can’t go any further.’ I literally froze. If my hair could stand on end, it would have done. I remember leaving and thinking I don’t want to come back here again and I didn’t for a few years.”
She later finished when the refurbishments were finished, adding: “Whatever was there had disappeared. The whole thing seemed to be smiling again.”
Richard revealed that he believes Dumfries House to be haunted by the Marquess of Bute – and that the ghost might not have been happy that Charles was renovating. He said: “I speak to [a number of people who] ring me and say, ‘We bought this house and everything was fine until we started doing some work on the house’. A prime example of that is Dumfries House. They had the most fantastic collection of Chippendale in that house and the King bought it when he was Prince Charles, he had it renovated, and apparently, Queen Camilla would not go in the place.
“She went in there once and then said, ‘Oh, I can’t go in here, there’s something here.’ She would not go in, she said there was a spirit or entity in the house that wasn’t happy! And again, King Charles was having it renovated so it’s the same old story.”
