Friday, November 7, 2014

A headless ghost in York

Powerful Catholic nobleman Thomas Percy was determined to overthrow the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I. He failed miserably, having to leave England and take refuge in Scotland.

Percy was betrayed and returned to England not as a victor, but as a traitor. On August 22, 1572, he was beheaded. As was fairly common practice in those days, his head was then speared on a spike on Micklegate Bar. Eventually, someone removed the rotting (or already rotted) head and buried in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Goodramgate.

Percy, however, still seeks his head, and often rises from the grave at night and fumbles among the tombstones in an attempt to find it.