Sudeley Castle History & Tour / Forgotten Tomb Of A Queen

Hello and welcome to Castles and Legends. Today we are down in Gloucestershire and nestled away within the Cotswold Hills is the beautiful Sudley Castle. The castle is steeped in history with strong royal connections. It has had many royal visitors and in fact Queen Catherine Parr, that is King Henry VIII's sixth wife, lived, died and was buried here. In fact it is the only private castle in England to have a queen buried within its grounds. Let's go and take a look around. We will begin our story and tour at the beginning at some of the oldest remaining parts of the castle. Although now ruinous they are still absolutely stunning. The exact origins of Sudley are shrouded in mystery, lost in time. We do know that during the reign of King Ethelred the Unready between 978 and 1016 there was a royal deer park and Saxon manor house on the site, although nothing remains of the manor. Ethelred passed Sudley to his daughter Gouda as a wedding gift. Following the Norman invasion of 1066 King William I stripped many Saxon families of their lands and titles, but Gouda's descendant Earl Harold the Sudley managed to hold on to the estate. This was likely due to Harold's clever marriage to one of William's great nieces making them distantly related. At the time of the civil war known as the Anarchy between Empress Matilda and Stephen of Loire over the succession of the English crown between 1135 and 1153 Sudley had been passed down to John the Sudley. John sided with Matilda causing Stephen to retaliate by attacking and capturing the estate. By 1165 the Sudley estate was back in the hands of the Sudley family, but John's younger son William the Tracey caused great controversy when he and three other knights murdered Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. This resulted in the Pope excommunicating the knights. In 1367 the ninth and final Lord of Sudley John died whilst fighting for the Black Prince in Spain. Through John's sister ownership of Sudley passed to the Butler family. It is believed that in 1443 Ralph Butler was responsible for building the first stone castle on the present site. Ralph had risen in status and was made a Knight of the Garter and given the title Baron Sudley from King Henry VI. Ralph used the spoils he had gained whilst fighting the Hundred Years' War in France to construct the castle. In fact it is said that the Portmare Tower is said to be named after a captured French admiral whose ransom covered the costs for the tower's construction. The castle was built on a double courtyard plan surrounded by a moat. The first courtyard served as a functional area for servants and men-at-arms catering to their needs and operations. Meanwhile the second courtyard and its accompanying buildings were exclusively reserved for Ralph and his family's private use. The chapel and tithe barn were also constructed during this period. During the War of the Roses Butler sided with the Lancastrian cause and was forced to sell Sudley Castle in 1369 to Yorkist Edward IV after he was crowned King. King Edward granted Sudley Castle to his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Richard strategically utilised the castle as a military base in preparation for the significant Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. In 1478 Richard exchanged Sudley Castle for Richmond Castle. However fate would bring Sudley back to him when he ascended to the throne in 1483 and re-inherited the castle as part of his royal holdings. During this time the grand banqueting hall with its ornate aureal windows and adjoining state room were built in place of Butler's eastern range of the inner court. Sadly only ruins remain of this hall. We might also remember Richard as the uncle who took his two young nephews to the Tower of London for the eldest to be crowned but soon after their arrival the young princes vanished never to be seen again and Richard was crowned King instead. At the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 Richard was defeated and killed bringing an end to the War of the Roses and the start of a new era with the first Tudor monarch King Henry VII. The magnificent carved bed we see here is rumoured to have been slept in by King Charles I although whether that is true or not it is definitely debatable. King Henry VII granted Sudley Castle to his loyal uncle Jasper Tudor who held it until his death in 1495. As Jasper had no heirs the castle then returned to the crown. During the reign of King Henry VIII he neglected the castle and it began to fall into decline. Henry only visited the castle once in 1535 with his wife Anne Boleyn. However it is believed that it was during this day that he visited Thomas Cromwell at Winchcombe Abbey to plan the dissolution of the monasteries. Following Henry's death in 1547 the crown and castle passed to his son King Edward VI. Young Edward granted Sudley to his ambitious uncle Sir Thomas Seymour whom he later appointed Lord High Admiral of England. 1547 was also the year that Seymour secretly married King Henry VIII's widow Queen Catherine Parr. However their relationship is said to have begun long before Henry's death. Seymour set about refurbishing the castle to ensure that it was fit for a queen and in 1548 the newlyweds moved into Sudley. Catherine was accompanied by an extensive retinue which included Lady Jane Grey who one day herself would be queen briefly and her ladies-in-waiting, 120 yeomen of the guard and gentlemen of the household. By this time Catherine had unexpectedly become pregnant with her first child at the age of 35. On the 30th of August 1548 Mary Seymour was born but Catherine tragically died just a few days later of peripheral fever. Catherine was buried in the chapel of Saint Mary at Sudley with Lady Jane Grey as her chief mourner. Thomas Seymour did not attend the funeral he had already left for London apparently on the lookout for his next bride. The following year Thomas Seymour was arrested and put on trial for 33 counts against king and crown. He was executed on March the 20th 1549. Sudley passed to Catherine's brother William Parr, Marquess of Northampton but he was stripped of his titles and properties after being involved in John Dudley's failed plot to make Lady Jane Grey queen. Sudley was once again seized by the Perhaps for me anyway the saddest part of all is that it remains a mystery what became of baby Mary Seymour. There is no mention of her after the age of around two and if she did survive she never inherited any of her family's titles or wealth. In 1554 Queen Mary elevated John Bridges to Baron Jandos of Sudley. Prior to this it served as a lieutenant of the Tower of London and during that time it had custody not only of Lady Jane Grey and Thomas Wyatt but also for a brief period the Queen's half-sister Princess Elizabeth Tudor later Queen Elizabeth the First. The second Lord Jandos Edmund carried out extensive renovations at the castle during the 1560s and 70s almost completely rebuilding the outer courtyard. Queen Elizabeth the First is known to have visited Sudley Castle on three different occasions. Her most notable and final visit was in 1592 during her summer progress to celebrate the anniversary of the defeat of the Armada. The third Baron Jandos went all out to welcome Elizabeth organising a magnificent three-day celebration in hope of gaining rewards at court. In anticipation of her arrival Giles took great care to landscape the castle's grounds creating a breathtaking setting. Throughout her stay the Queen was treated to opulent banquets, captivating plays, enchanting dances and received lavish gifts. The visit is said to have almost bankrupted the family and Elizabeth presented no rewards for the hospitality. Sudley Castle continued to thrive under the Jandos family. When the English Civil War began in 1642 George Bridges the sixth Baron Jandos declared his support for the King rather than Parliament. George marched to join King Charles I at Shrewsbury with 1,000 men and 500 pounds of gold plate. In 1643 Parliamentarian Colonel Massey along with 500 soldiers and two cannons attacked Sudley Castle. With George away fighting Sudley quickly fell and was plundered. The tide quickly changed again. Two days later King Charles's nephew Rupert along with 4,000 men successfully captured nearby Sarincester. Once the news of this reached Massey he promptly abandoned Sudley. Later that same year King Charles himself set up camp at Sudley using it as his operations base for Gloucestershire. The castle was attacked and captured several further times during the war. Most notable is when in 1644 Parliamentarian Sir William Roller ordered a ferocious cannon bombardment of Sudley. The castle's garrison withstood the bombardment but they were betrayed by one of their own officers who granted access to the Parliamentarians. Following the Parliamentarians victory in the Civil War Parliament ordered Sudley Castle to be destroyed so that it could never again be used for military purposes. Lord Chandos received 1,000 pound compensation for his castle's destruction but never returned again to see it well not alive. On the 13th of May 1653 George took part in a duel in which he killed Colonel Henry Compton the son of Sir Henry Compton. This duel is one of the earliest recorded instances of its kind. After a prolonged period of imprisonment in the Tower of London George was tried and found guilty of manslaughter but he died of smallpox that same year and was laid to rest at Sudley Castle. We can clearly still see the evidence for damage from the Civil War. In the tower behind me right up there next to the window we can see a big hole in the wall that is from a cannon and for one unfortunate soul who was standing on the other side that cannonball knocked his head off. In 1782 Catherine Parr's tomb was rediscovered in Sudley's ruined chapel and opened. Those who opened the coffin expected to find bones and were shocked to find her remains complete due to embalming. The coffin was opened and preserved on numerous further occasions until she was finally laid in her final resting place in the stone vault of the Chandos family. In 1788 Sudley Castle was leased to the local gentry Lucas family and King George III visited. The stay very nearly ended in tragedy when George tripped and fell down the staircase of the Octagon Tower. Luckily the housekeeper Mrs Cox caught George and broke his ball. After 200 years of neglect Sudley's fate appeared set for ruin. Well until the brothers John and William Dent wealthy glove manufacturers purchased the castle and set about on an extensive but sensitive restoration. The brothers chose to leave some of the earliest areas as picturesque ruins. In 1856 the brother's nephew John Croucher Dent inherited Sudley. John married Emma Brocklehurst of a wealthy silk manufacturer family. The couple continued renovations of the castle and recreated the historic gardens. Emma also funded a project at nearby Winchcombe so that the town had piped water supplies. The castle has continued to be passed down the Dent family line and is now open seasonally for the public to visit and enjoy. We have had such a fantastic time today at Sudley Castle. So much to do here, see here and so much history but unfortunately it is time I have to go home. But thank you so much for joining us today please do like the video and subscribe if you've not already and I hope to see you on our next castle adventure. Bye for now!