Editing Tower of London (section)

== In folklore ==
The Tower of London has been represented in popular culture in many ways. As a result of 16th- and 19th-century writers, the Tower has a reputation as a grim fortress, a place of torture and execution.<ref name="I&P 91"/>

One of the earliest traditions associated with the Tower was that it was built by [[Julius Caesar]]; the story was popular amongst writers and antiquaries. The earliest recorded attribution of the Tower to the Roman ruler dates to the mid-14th&nbsp;century in a poem by [[Thomas Grey (chronicler)|Sir Thomas Gray]].<ref>{{harvnb|Nearing|1948|p=229}}</ref> The origin of the myth is uncertain, although it may be related to the fact that the Tower was built in the corner of London's Roman walls. Another possibility is that someone misread a passage from [[Gervase of Tilbury]] in which he says Caesar built a tower at Odnea in France. Gervase wrote Odnea as Dodres, which is close to the French for London, Londres.<ref>{{harvnb|Nearing|1948|pp=231–232}}</ref> Today, the story survives in [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Richard II (play)|Richard&nbsp;II]]'' and ''[[Richard III (play)|Richard&nbsp;III]]'',<ref>{{harvnb|Nearing|1948|p=228}}</ref> and as late as the 18th&nbsp;century some still regarded the Tower as built by Caesar.<ref>{{harvnb|Nearing|1948|p=233}}</ref>

[[Anne Boleyn]] was beheaded in 1536 for treason against [[Henry VIII]]; her ghost supposedly haunts the [[Church of St Peter ad Vincula]] in the Tower, where she is buried, and has been said to walk around the [[White Tower (Tower of London)|White Tower]] carrying her head under her arm.<ref>{{harvnb|Farson|1978|pp=14–16}}</ref> This haunting is commemorated in the 1934 comic song "[[With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm]]". Other reported ghosts include [[Henry VI of England|Henry VI]], [[Lady Jane Grey]], [[Margaret Pole]], and the [[Princes in the Tower]].<ref name="Hole">{{harvnb|Hole|1951|pp=61–62, 155}}</ref> In January 1816, a sentry on guard outside the Jewel House claimed to have witnessed an apparition of a bear advancing towards him, and reportedly died of fright a few days later.<ref name="Hole" /> In October 1817, a tubular, glowing apparition was claimed to have been seen in the [[Jewel House]] by the [[Keeper of the Crown Jewels]], [[Edmund Lenthal Swifte]]. He said that the apparition hovered over the shoulder of his wife, leading her to exclaim: "Oh, Christ! It has seized me!" Other nameless and formless terrors have been reported, more recently, by night staff at the Tower.<ref>{{harvnb|Roud|2009|pp=60–61}}</ref>