Sudeley Castle is a
Grade I listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
castle in the parish of
Sudeley, in the
Cotswolds
The Cotswolds ( ) is a region of central South West England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper River Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and the Vale of Evesham. The area is defined by the bedroc ...
, near to the medieval
market town
A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...
of
Winchcombe
Winchcombe () is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Tewkesbury in the county of Gloucestershire, England, situated northeast of Cheltenham. The population was recorded as 4,538 in the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census and ...
,
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...
, England. The castle has 10 notable gardens covering some within a estate nestled within the Cotswold hills.
Building of the castle began in 1443 for
Ralph Boteler; the
Lord High Treasurer of England, on the site of a previous 12th-century fortified manor house. It was later seized by the crown and became the property of King
Edward IV
Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England ...
and King
Richard III
Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch the House of York. His defeat and death at the Battle of Boswor ...
, who built its famous banqueting hall.
King
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...
and his then wife
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the Wives of Henry VIII, second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and execution, by beheading ...
visited the castle in 1535;
and it later became the home and final resting place of his sixth wife,
Catherine Parr
Catherine Parr ( – 5 September 1548) was Queen of England and Ireland as the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 12 July 1543 until Henry's death on 28 January 1547. Catherine was the final queen consort o ...
who remarried after the king's death. Parr is buried in the castle's church, making Sudeley the only privately owned castle in the world to have a Queen of England buried in its grounds.
Sudeley soon became the home of the
Chandos family,
and the castle was visited on three occasions by Queen
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...
, who held a three-day party there to celebrate the defeat of the
Spanish Armada
The Spanish Armada (often known as Invincible Armada, or the Enterprise of England, ) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by Alonso de Guzmán, Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aristocrat without previous naval ...
.
During the
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. An estimated 15% to 20% of adult males in England and Wales served in the military at some point b ...
, the castle was used as a military base, by King
Charles I and
Prince Rupert, and it was later besieged and
slighted by parliament, remaining largely in ruins for the following few centuries until its purchase in 1837 by the Dent family, who restored the castle and turned it into a family home.
History
11th century
Although the origins of Sudeley are lost to time, its name, a corruption of its
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...
name ''Sudeleagh'', meaning 'south lying pasture or clearing in forest'
gives an idea of what it was like. Sudeley most likely owes its early rise as a royal estate to its close proximity to
Winchcombe
Winchcombe () is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Tewkesbury in the county of Gloucestershire, England, situated northeast of Cheltenham. The population was recorded as 4,538 in the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census and ...
, which, during the reign of King
Offa
Offa ( 29 July 796 AD) was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death in 796. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of ...
, was the capital of the
Kingdom of Mercia.
Under royal patronage, Winchcombe prospered, becoming a walled town with its own monastery, where a king and a saint are now buried.
By the turn of the 11th century, Sudeley had grown into a manor house set in a royal
deer park, given as an extravagant gift from King
Æthelred the Unready
Æthelred II (,Different spellings of this king's name most commonly found in modern texts are "Ethelred" and "Æthelred" (or "Aethelred"), the latter being closer to the original Old English form . Compare the modern dialect word . ; ; 966 � ...
to his daughter
Goda on her wedding day.
Despite
William the Conqueror
William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...
's policy of depriving Saxon nobles of their estates after the
Norman Conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...
of 1066, the family managed to retain Sudeley, and Goda's descendants would hold Sudeley for another four centuries.
12th century
During
The Anarchy
The Anarchy was a civil war in England and Duchy of Normandy, Normandy between 1138 and 1153, which resulted in a widespread breakdown in law and order. The conflict was a war of succession precipitated by the accidental death of William Adel ...
, John de Sudeley supported the
Empress Matilda
Empress Matilda (10 September 1167), also known as Empress Maud, was one of the claimants to the English throne during the civil war known as the Anarchy. The daughter and heir of Henry I, king of England and ruler of Normandy, she went to ...
in her fight against her cousin,
Stephen of Blois.
It is believed that the first castle at Sudeley was built during this time, otherwise known as an
adulterine castle. Nothing is known as to what this castle looked like; it may well have simply been the fortification of the existing manor house, or an altogether new structure.
However, after the sacking of Worcester in 1139 by the forces of the Empress Matilda, under her brother
Robert of Gloucester,
Waleran de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Worcester retaliated, attacking and capturing both Sudeley and
Tewkesbury
Tewkesbury ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the north of Gloucestershire, England. The town grew following the construction of Tewkesbury Abbey in the twelfth century and played a significant role in the Wars of the Roses. It stands at ...
.
Although little is known of what happened to Sudeley during this attack, it seems likely that its fortifications were pulled down by the vengeful Earl of Worcester, as soon after
Roger, Earl of Hereford built a replacement motte and bailey castle in Winchcombe.
A few decades after the Anarchy, the Sudeley family were to step once more onto the world stage with John's younger son,
William de Tracy, participating in the murder of
Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket (), also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket (21 December 1119 or 1120 – 29 December 1170), served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and then as Archbishop of Canterbury fr ...
, Archbishop of Canterbury.
William was subsequently excommunicated by
Pope Alexander III
Pope Alexander III (c. 1100/1105 – 30 August 1181), born Roland (), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 September 1159 until his death in 1181.
A native of Siena, Alexander became pope after a Papal election, ...
. He went on pilgrimage to Rome in 1171 and gained an audience with the pope, who exiled him and his fellow conspirators to Jerusalem.
Construction of the current castle
By the start of the 15th century, the Sudeley name was believed to have gone extinct and the Boteler family had inherited the castle through the marriage of Joan, the sister of the last de Sudeley.
Ralph Boteler is believed to have started the construction of the castle in 1443, around the same time he became
Lord High Treasurer of England. He rose to prominence during the
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a conflict between the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England and Kingdom of France, France and a civil war in France during the Late Middle Ages. It emerged from feudal disputes over the Duchy ...
; serving in France under
John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford
John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford (20 June 1389 – 14 September 1435) was a medieval English prince, general, and statesman who commanded England's armies in France during a critical phase of the Hundred Years' War. Bedford was the third son ...
in 1419, and was later appointed to the Regency Council of King
Henry VI in 1423.
Sudeley was not Ralph's first great project, having extensively renovated the
Manor on the More, the house he used when attending court, and was later described by a French Ambassador,
Jean du Bellay, as more magnificent than
Hampton Court
Hampton Court Palace is a Listed building, Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. Opened to the public, the palace is managed by Historic Royal ...
. Unfortunately, Ralph failed to gain royal permission to
crenellate the castle, and had to seek Henry VI's pardon.
Ralph built Sudeley Castle on a double courtyard plan; with the outer courtyard being used by servants and
men-at-arms
A man-at-arms was a soldier of the High Medieval to Renaissance periods who was typically well-versed in the use of arms and served as a fully-armoured heavy cavalryman. A man-at-arms could be a knight, or other nobleman, a member of a kni ...
, and the inner court and its buildings reserved for the use of Ralph and his family.
In 1449, Ralph's son, Thomas Boteler, married
Lady Eleanor Talbot, famed as ''England's Secret Queen'' for her relationship with King
Edward IV
Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England ...
after the death of her husband. It was this relationship that King
Richard III
Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch the House of York. His defeat and death at the Battle of Boswor ...
used to illegitimise his brother's children and heirs, clearing the way for himself to take the crown.
Richard III

Ralph, now out of favour as a supporter of the
Lancastrian cause, was in 1469 compelled to sell Sudeley and six other manors to the crown. Edward IV bestowed Sudeley upon his brother,
Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who used it as a military base before the
Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471.
In 1478, Richard swapped Sudeley for
Richmond Castle
Richmond Castle in Richmond, North Yorkshire, Richmond, North Yorkshire, England, stands in a commanding position above the River Swale, close to the centre of the town of Richmond. It was originally called Riche Mount, 'the strong hill'. The ca ...
, before re-inheriting it when he acceded to the throne in 1483, when he seems to have visited both Sudeley and
Kenilworth Castle on a
Royal Progress.
Richard is credited with having built the large banqueting hall at Sudeley.
This "
Great Hall
A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, castle or a large manor house or hall house in the Middle Ages. It continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the great cha ...
" was built in the latest fashions of its time, with a ground floor hall being used for meeting guests and feasting, and the upper great hall being kept specially for the king and his special guest's use, with his own bedchambers being connected to this room. When approached from the outside, the edges of the hall's
oriel window
An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, bracket (architecture), brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window generally projects from an ...
s are decorated with what is presumed to be the
White Rose of York.
The banqueting hall now lies in partial ruins, and has been redesigned as a garden, with roses and ivy climbing the walls. In 2018, conservators were working to stabilise the ruin.
After the death of Richard at the
Battle of Bosworth
The Battle of Bosworth or Bosworth Field ( ) was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the houses of Lancaster and York that extended across England in the latter half of the 15th century. Fought on 22 ...
in 1485, Sudeley, as property of the crown, transferred to King
Henry VII, who in turn presented it to his uncle
Jasper Tudor
Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford (c. November 143121 December 1495) was the uncle of King Henry VII of England and a leading architect of his nephew's successful accession to the throne in 1485. He was a member of the Tudor family of Penmynydd.
...
.
Catherine Parr

During his reign, King
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...
only stayed at Sudeley once, on his 1535 Royal Progress with
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the Wives of Henry VIII, second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and execution, by beheading ...
. In the months leading up to Henry's visit to Sudeley, he started to enact the
Dissolution of the Monasteries, executing Bishop
John Fisher
John Fisher (c. 19 October 1469 – 22 June 1535) was an English Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Rochester from 1504 to 1535 and as chancellor of the University of Cambridge. He is honoured as a martyr and saint by the Catholic Chu ...
and
Sir Thomas More
Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, theologian, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry V ...
. Moreover, it was while he was at Sudeley that
Pope Paul III
Pope Paul III (; ; born Alessandro Farnese; 29 February 1468 – 10 November 1549) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 October 1534 to his death, in November 1549.
He came to the papal throne in an era follo ...
and
Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I started discussing his
excommunication
Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular those of being in Koinonia, communion with other members o ...
and removal.
The death of Henry and the accession of King
Edward VI
Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. The only surviving son of Henry VIII by his thi ...
led way for the rise of
Edward
Edward is an English male name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortunate; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”.
History
The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-S ...
and
Thomas Seymour. Henry's will had an "unfulfilled gifts" clause that allowed for his executors to award themselves new lands and titles, which led to Edward being declared
Lord Protector of the Realm, and making his brother ''Baron Seymour of Sudeley''.
A few months after this, Thomas secretly married Henry's widow and final wife,
Catherine Parr
Catherine Parr ( – 5 September 1548) was Queen of England and Ireland as the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 12 July 1543 until Henry's death on 28 January 1547. Catherine was the final queen consort o ...
, without the permission of the king, causing a minor scandal.
In 1548, Catherine, now pregnant, moved with her husband to Sudeley Castle, taking a considerable retinue: 120
Yeomen of the Guard
The King's Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard is a Sovereign's Bodyguard, bodyguard of the British monarch. The List of oldest military units and formations in continuous operation, oldest British military corps still in existence, it was ...
and
Gentlemen of the Household, plus her ladies-in-waiting.
Prior to her arrival, Seymour had spent "vast amounts of money on the Castle, to fit it for a Queen". The castle was specially prepared for this move, and descriptions still exist of what Catherine's bedchamber looked like. During Parr's tenure, one of her attendants was
Lady Jane Grey
Lady Jane Grey (1536/1537 – 12 February 1554), also known as Lady Jane Dudley after her marriage, and nicknamed as the "Nine Days Queen", was an English noblewoman who was proclaimed Queen of England and Ireland on 10 July 1553 and reigned ...
, Thomas Seymour's ward, who would be queen for nine days in 1553.
Catherine died at Sudeley on 5 September 1548 from what was described as "childbed fever", five days after giving birth to her daughter
Mary Seymour. At the funeral, Lady Jane Grey was the chief mourner, and ecclesiastical reformer
Myles Coverdale
Myles Coverdale, first name also spelt Miles ( – 20 January 1569), was an English ecclesiastical reformer chiefly known as a Bible translator, preacher, hymnist and, briefly, Bishop of Exeter (1551–1553). In 1535, Coverdale produced the fi ...
preached his first
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
sermon.
Catherine was buried two days later at St. Mary's Church, within the grounds of Sudeley, in what was the first Protestant funeral in English. Over the next two centuries, her original tomb was "mutilated and defaced" and the location of her burial place was lost. In 1782, a coffin was discovered, with a lead plate that read "Here lyeth Quene Kateryne wife to Kyng Henry the VIII and Last the wife of Thomas Lord of Sudeley... dyed 5 September...". In 1792, vandals dug up the coffin. In 1817, the remains were placed in a stone vault near the remains of the 6th Lord Chandos.
After the chapel restoration was completed in 1863, Parr's remains were placed in a new neo-Gothic canopied tomb designed by
George Gilbert Scott
Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), largely known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he ...
and created by sculptor
John Birnie Philip.
Today, her tomb with its life-sized effigy lying under a canopy of ornately carved marble, is considered a place of pilgrimage.
After Catherine's death, her husband Thomas retained Sudeley; he held it until he was executed for treason six months later. Catherine's brother
William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton, then inherited the castle, he in turn held Sudeley until 1553, when he was also accused of treason, and Sudeley was seized by the crown.
Late 16th century

On 8 April 1554,
John Brydges was elevated to
Baron Chandos of Sudeley by Queen
Mary I
Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain as the wife of King Philip II from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She made vigorous a ...
. He had previously been
Lieutenant of the Tower of London, befriending Lady Jane Grey. He was the one who led Jane to her execution while she was in his care.
His elevation almost certainly came from his assistance in the suppression of the
Wyatt rebellion.
His son
Edmund Brydges heavily remodelled the castle in the 1560s and 1570s, almost completely rebuilding the outer courtyard, the part of the castle that the current family occupy, into what we see now.
Elizabeth I stayed at Sudeley on three occasions during her reign, first visiting her old friend, the recently widowed
Dorothy Bray, Baroness Chandos at Sudeley in 1574. Staying again during the Royal Progress of 1575, that saw
Robert Dudley throw a lavish party at
Kenilworth Castle in a final attempt to convince her to marry him.
Elizabeth's most famous stay at Sudeley was in 1592, when
Giles Brydges, 3rd Baron Chandos threw a three-day party for her. Giles extensively landscaped the grounds surrounding the castle in preparation for the visit, and held banquets, plays, dances and gave extravagant gifts during her stay, even presenting his daughter,
Elizabeth Brydges to the queen in the guise of
Daphne
Daphne (; ; , , ), a figure in Greek mythology, is a naiad, a variety of female nymph associated with fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of freshwater.
There are several versions of the myth in which she appears, but t ...
. The visit reputedly almost bankrupted the Brydges family.
The yearly excavations by archaeologists
DigVentures began in 2018 and set out to discover more about this party, uncovering extensive Tudor Gardens to the east of the Victorian reconstructed gardens currently on the site. Through these investigations, evidence of multiple phases of landscaping have been revealed, the earliest of which dated to the middle of the 16th century. This is significant as previously these gardens had been attributed to
Giles Brydges, 3rd Baron Chandos and the landscaping efforts in advance of Elizabeth's visit.
LiDAR
Lidar (, also LIDAR, an acronym of "light detection and ranging" or "laser imaging, detection, and ranging") is a method for determining ranging, ranges by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected li ...
shows extensive areas surrounding the castle grounds which still may contain the evidence of these works, but it is worth noting that there appears to have been another phase of work, likely associated with the works done by Thomas Seymour in advance of the arrival of Catherine Parr.
English Civil War

Under the Chandos family, Sudeley continued to prosper and thrive, with
Grey Brydges, 5th Baron Chandos gaining the title "King of the Cotswolds" for his magnificent style of living and his generosity. Records show that he had been buying in expensive tapestries from abroad through
William Trumbull, envoy to the
Archdukes of Austria
From 976 until 1246, the Margraviate of Austria and its successor, the Duchy of Austria, was ruled by the House of Babenberg. At that time, those states were part of the Holy Roman Empire. From 1246 until 1918, the duchy and its successor, the Ar ...
, to decorate Sudeley. Grey was an influential courtier and an avid traveller, extensively travelling Europe and taking part in the
War of the Jülich Succession
The War of the Jülich Succession, also known as the Jülich War or the Jülich-Cleves Succession Crises (German language, German: ''Jülich-Klevischer Erbfolgestreit''), was a war of succession in the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg. The fi ...
. He married
Lady Ann Stanley, descendant of Henry VIII's younger sister
Princess Mary Tudor, and possible heir to the throne of England. He died in 1621.
Sudeley's final royal occupant was to be
Charles I during the
English Civil War
The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...
, a war that was fought between the king and parliament.
The new lord,
George Brydges, 6th Baron Chandos supported the royalist cause, and it was while he was supporting
Prince Rupert in the siege of
Cirencester
Cirencester ( , ; see #Pronunciation, below for more variations) is a market town and civil parish in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire, England. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames. It is the List of ...
in January 1643 that
Sir Edward Massey, with some five hundred soldiers and two cannons attacked the castle. The small garrison soon fell and the castle was plundered; soon to be abandoned after the news that the royalist army had taken Cirencester and was turning its attention to the castle.
Later that year, after the royalist army failed in the
Siege of Gloucester, Charles I set up camp at Sudeley, using it as his base of operations in Gloucestershire; and then set about trying to force
Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, KB, PC (; 11 January 1591 – 14 September 1646) was an English Parliamentarian and soldier during the first half of the 17th century. With the start of the Civil War in 1642, he became the first Captai ...
into an open pitch battle.
The castle was to switch hands several times during the war, most famously holding out against cannon bombardment by Sir
William Waller, until it was betrayed by one of its officers who let the attackers in.
In 1649, after the end of the civil war, parliament ordered the slighting of the castle, to ensure that it could never again be used as a military post. The process took some five months to complete, largely dismantling the inner courtyard and royal apartment rooms, but strangely leaving much of the outer courtyard intact. In 1650, George Brydges, 6th Baron Chandos received some financial compensation for the loss of the castle.
Buried in debt, the lord was unable to rebuild Sudeley, and he died in 1655 after years of being imprisoned in the
Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic citadel and castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamle ...
. On his death, the semi derelict castle was inherited by his widow, Lady Jane Savage, separating from the title Baron Chandos for the first time in over a century. She did not have the means to restore it and the castle was a neglected ruin for almost 200 years.
Victorian renaissance

For almost two centuries, the castle was largely left in ruins, but seemingly never becoming fully abandoned.
Sudeley was owned by the Pitt family, descendants of Lady Jane Savage's second marriage, who were elevated to a peerage in 1776 as
Baron Rivers.
During the 18th century, they rented Sudeley out to tenants, most notably the Lucas family, members of the local gentry. Joseph Lucas entertained King
George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...
on his visit to the castle in 1788, with Mrs Cox the housekeeper saving the king's life, catching him after he fell down the Octagon Tower.
The Lucas family were also involved in the rediscovery of Catherine Parr's tomb in 1782; her corpse was found to be "entire and uncorrupted".
In 1837, Sudeley Castle was purchased by brothers John and William Dent of
Worcester, wealthy glove manufacturers, whose father had founded
Dents
Dents is a British company that crafts luxury leather gloves, handbags, and small leather goods. Dents is known for its hand cutting, sewing, and stitching techniques, which are still practised today on some limited top-end products, most merc ...
Gloves in 1777. At the time of the purchase, the castle was "ruinous, but partly occupied by tenants".

One of the previous tenants, John Attwood, had turned the castle into a public house "The Castle Arms", and treated it as a quarry, breaking it up and selling off the stone, timber and lead.
A 2020 report described the condition of the castle at the time of the purchase:
the castle comprised the remains of two courtyards linked together to form a figure-of-eight plan. Three sides of the outer court were enclosed by two-storey ranges that had, over time, variously accommodated cottages, farm buildings and even a tavern. All the remainder of the building was ruinous, including a medieval barn to the west of the castle and the chapel.
The Dents' restoration of the castle was quite sensitive, deciding to not entirely rebuild the castle; rather, leaving part of it as picturesque ruins, giving the castle much of its character still seen today. One reliable source states that the restoration was directed by
George Gilbert Scott
Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), largely known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he ...
, "working on the western side of the inner court in the style of the existing Medieval and Elizabethan buildings"; Gilbert Scott subsequently began the restoration of the castle's free-standing St Mary's chapel.
The chapel is a Grade I* listed property, as "Church of St Mary". The summary states "Circa 1460 for Ralph Boteler, late C15 or early C16 north aisle, restored 1859–'63 by Sir G.G. Scott for J.C. Dent". (
Ralph Boteler, 1st Baron Sudeley
Ralph Boteler, 1st Baron Sudeley Order of the Garter, KG (c.1394 – 2 May 1473) was an English baron and aristocrat who rose up through the ranks of the courts of King Henry V of England, Henry V and Henry VI of England, Henry VI to become the L ...
was the owner during the first restoration of the castle and the chapel.) The summary goes on to state that the chapel exterior dates primarily to the 15th and 16th centuries and the "interior nearly all to 1859".
When Sudeley was habitable again, the brothers set about filling the castle with art and antiques, buying up a considerable part of
Horace Walpole
Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (; 24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English Whig politician, writer, historian and antiquarian.
He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twickenham, southwest London ...
's collection during the
Strawberry Hill House
Strawberry Hill House—often called simply Strawberry Hill—is a Gothic Revival architecture, Gothic Revival villa that was built in Twickenham, London, by Horace Walpole (1717–1797) from 1749 onward. It is a typical example of the "#Strawb ...
Sale of 1842, an auction that lasted 32 days.
One report states that they furnished the home with "a remarkable antiquarian collection of furniture, glass and paintings that further fleshed out its history, including some very discerning purchases from the Strawberry Hill sale in 1842".
By 1855, both brothers had died and the castle was inherited by the Dent brothers' nephew, John Croucher Dent, and his wife,
Emma, of the wealthy silk manufacturer family, the Brocklehursts of
Macclesfield
Macclesfield () is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. It is sited on the River Bollin and the edge of the Cheshire Plain, with Macclesfield Forest to its east; the town lies south of Ma ...
, who set about improving the castle and adding to its collections.
Emma entertained on a vast scale, throwing costume balls and soirees, often hosting more than 2,000 guests a year; she was also a voracious letter writer, a number of which survive in the castle collection, including ones from
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during th ...
.
In 1859, Emma decided to attempt a re-creation of a historic garden. In 1885, she began to "substantially enlarge the house and its services ... she remodelled the western side of the castle through the full length of both courtyards, overbuilding one section of the ruins, and beginning a new tower at its north-east corner". In 1892, she built a "north lodge" on the property.
She also arranged for Winchcombe to get its "first piped water supply in 1887".
After Henry Dent Brocklehurst and his wife Marion inherited the property in 1900, they redecorated. Thirty years later, their son, Jack, arranged to "reconfigure the eastern range of the building" and "the creation of a panelled library furnished with an Elizabethan fireplace".
His wife Mary brought the "Walter Morrison fine picture collection" to the castle; the majority of pieces are still on site.
World War II and later on
By the start of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Sudeley was in straitened circumstances, having suffered from the huge death duties that were levied on it upon the death of Henry Dent-Brocklehurst in 1932, forcing the family to sell off much of the land the castle relied upon for its upkeep.
During the war the castle was used as storage by the Tate Britain, Tate Gallery as they moved their art out of London in an attempt to keep it safe during the Blitz.
List of World War II prisoner-of-war camps in the United Kingdom, Camp 37 was located where the visitors' car park is today, a prisoner of war (POW) camp for captured Italian and German soldiers. The POWs worked on local farms throughout the duration of the war until it was closed down on 20 January 1948.
Willy Reuter, who had been a German PoW at Sudeley Castle recounted:
The American-born Elizabeth first came to Sudeley after her marriage to Mark Dent-Brocklehurst in 1962,
and in the subsequent years set about preparing to open the castle up to the public, which they did to great celebration in May 1970. The castle website timeline states that in 1969 the castle was inherited by Mark and his American-born wife Elizabeth; the couple converted the property into a tourist attraction.
Mark died in 1972, leaving Elizabeth, Lady Ashcombe to manage Sudeley on her own, and the castle had to survive its third round of heavy death duties in under 50 years.
Elizabeth, Lady Ashcombe married Henry Cubitt, 4th Baron Ashcombe and uncle of Queen Camilla in 1979. They decided to keep Sudeley open to the public as a historic attraction and set about a major restoration of the castle. Lord Ashcombe passed away in 2013.
The Sudeley website confirms that in 1979, Elizabeth (Lady Ashcombe, by that time) and her children Henry and Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst "took over management of the visitor attraction".
BBC Four featured an investigation into the castle on 27 June 2007 titled ''Crisis at the Castle''. This detailed the turmoil associated with managing the castle by the three members of the Dent-Brocklehurst family. Closing the castle to the general public on some weekdays meant that visitors were disheartened when embarking on their day trips, and resulted in a dramatic fall in visitor numbers in the three years leading up to the creation of the programme.
News reports in April 2008 stated that the family was selling a painting by J.M.W. Turner at auction because the attraction was "losing £100,000 a year" and required a restoration.
Sudeley held a re-enactment of the funeral of Catherine Parr in September 2012, with guidance from historian Dr David Starkey; the event received positive feedback from re-enactment societies.
Recent history
Sudeley is operated by the family and remains the home of Elizabeth, Lady Ashcombe and "her son, daughter and their families" as of 2021. The family is committed to the continued preservation of the castle, its treasures and the ongoing restoration and regeneration of the gardens of Elizabeth, Lady Ashcombe, her children, Henry and Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst,
and grandchildren. As of September 2019, BBC News referred to Lady Ashcombe as "the castle's owner".
The castle exhibitions were redesigned and relaunched in 2018 as "Royal Sudeley 1,000: Trials, Triumphs and Treasures", and is set in the 15th-century service wing, covering three floors. It takes visitors through the 1,000 years of Sudeley's history, highlighting important aspects of the castle's past, and exhibiting the historical artefacts and pieces of artwork in the collection.
The castle opens to the public seasonally and sections are used as a hotel, but it also remains a family home, with Elizabeth, Lady Ashcombe often called the "Châtelain, chatelaine of Sudeley". As of 2019, one of the tours of the castle included a visit to the "family's private apartments available daily from Spring to the end of October.
Sudeley has also been used as a wedding venue for some years. Several celebrity weddings have taken place at the castle, from Elizabeth Hurley's wedding in 2007, to Felicity Jones's wedding to Charles Guard in 2018.
In September 2019, thieves stole items from the castle's royal exhibition, including "rare keepsakes made from gold and precious stones and presented by King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, Edward VII to his last mistress".
Due to restrictions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the castle was closed for some months; certain parts re-opened for a time during 2020. As of early March 2021, the Sudeley Castle & Gardens website was indicating that "exhibitions are closed until 2021. Reopening dates and information will be announced as soon as possible".
Gardens and parkland
Sudeley Castle sits at the heart of a estate that lies nestled among the Cotswold valleys.

The estate itself is made up of a mix of open pasture fields and woodland, and is crisscrossed by a number of public footpaths, most notably, the Cotswold Way, a long-distance footpath. These footpaths have connected Sudeley with other historic towns and monuments, such as Hailes Abbey, Broadway, Worcestershire, Broadway, Belas Knap and Stanway House.
The castle gardens cover some and are available for the public to visit during the castle's open season.The garden is split into ten separate gardens, the centrepiece being the Queens' Garden. The Queens' Garden is the Victorian replanting of an original Elizabethan parterre garden that had been discovered in the same location, the large yew hedges surrounding it date back to 1860.
Celebrated rosarian Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall is responsible for the current rose display in the Queens' Garden, which is now home to over 80 different varieties of rose.
Another garden at Sudeley is The Knot Garden, made up of more than 1,200 box hedges, its intricate design drew inspiration from the pattern of the dress worn by Elizabeth I in ''An Allegory of the Tudor Succession'', a painting that hangs in the castle.
St Mary's Church, in which Catherine Parr is buried, is bordered by the White Garden, which includes peonies, clematis, roses and tulips, where Catherine and her companion, Lady Jane Grey, would have entered the church for daily prayers.
Sudeley is also home to one of the largest public collections of endangered pheasants in the world, and works closely with the World Pheasant Association. The pheasantry which has been operating at the castle for over 30 years is part of a wider breeding program which has been set up in the hope of increasing the numbers of critically endangered birds before hopefully reintroducing them into their natural habitats.
Tourist attractions
Sudeley Castle has been a tourist attraction since the early 18th century, drawing antiquarians, print makers and artists from across Britain. Some of the earliest of these being Samuel and Nathaniel Buck who visited and drew the castle in 1732 for their book ''Buck's Antiquities''. The castle, as a romantic ruin, welcomed George III who visited in 1788 whilst taking the waters at Cheltenham Spa.
Today, Sudeley is one of the few remaining castles left in England that is still a private residence. The Dent-Brocklehurst family remain dedicated to making the castle and gardens as accessible as possible to the general public, opening it seasonally to visitors, albeit, with the private family quarters remaining largely closed.
Art collection
The bedrock of Sudeley's art collection was built upon the
Strawberry Hill House
Strawberry Hill House—often called simply Strawberry Hill—is a Gothic Revival architecture, Gothic Revival villa that was built in Twickenham, London, by Horace Walpole (1717–1797) from 1749 onward. It is a typical example of the "#Strawb ...
Sale of 1842. It was one of the most impressive auctions of its day, lasting some 32 days, selling off the art collection of
Horace Walpole
Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (; 24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English Whig politician, writer, historian and antiquarian.
He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twickenham, southwest London ...
, son of Robert Walpole, who is generally considered the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. The collection was added to throughout the Victorian age, and then again on the inheritance part of the art collection of Victorian businessman James Morrison (businessman), James Morrison of Basildon Park.
Not everything in the castle's collection neatly falls into the art category, with artefacts such as a prayer book and love letter belonging to Catherine Parr, weaponry, and the ''Bohun Book of Hours,'' one of only six of its kind to survive to the modern day.
Not all the art collection is on display to the public, with a selection of it in the exhibitions; the rest is kept in the family's private rooms. The castle does hold specialist art tours that takes small groups of visitors around the private quarters to view the art; however, these need to be booked in advance to ensure availability.
This is a selection of some of the art highlighted at the castle.
* ''An Allegory of the Tudor Succession'' Commissioned by Elizabeth I for her spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham and attributed to Lucas de Heere
* ''Rise of the River Stour at Stourhead'' by J. M. W. Turner. Dated to 1817 and exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1825; the Tate holds the preparatory sketches for this painting
* ''A Portrait of Peter Paul Rubens'' by Anthony van Dyck
* ''Flora'' by Bernardino Luini, painted circa 1515
* ''Miniature of King Henry VIII'' attributed to Lucas Horenbout
* ''Miniature of Queen Catherine Parr'' by Hans Holbein the Younger
Textile collection
Sudeley Castle's textile collection was assembled by Emma Dent in the 19th century, it is considered one of the finest collections in the country, and was for a time, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Due to how delicate some of the pieces are, a select part of it is on display at the castle in the exhibitions, while the rest is kept in protective storage.
This is a selection of some of the textile highlighted at the castle.
* Louis XV Aubusson tapestry, Aubusson bed hangings, believed to have belonged to Marie Antoinette
* The Sudeley Stumpwork Box, dating to about 1660
* A waistcoat believed to have belonged to Charles I
* A 16th-century lace canopy, said to have been made by Anne Boleyn for the christening of Elizabeth I
* A fragment of cloth said to have come from the dress of Catherine Parr after the rediscovery and opening of her tomb in 1782
* Early 17th-century Sheldon tapestries, Sheldon Tapestry, woven in wool, silk and metal thread, with floral designs and biblical scenes. Parallels have been drawn between it and the Filioli Tapestry that was bought by J. P. Morgan in 1911 from Knole House.
In popular culture
Sudeley is regarded by some as the model for Blandings Castle in the novels by P. G. Wodehouse.
The adaptation for BBC television of Wodehouse's ''Heavy Weather (film), Heavy Weather'' (1995) was filmed there. The castle has been used as a location in other films and on television including:
* ''The Pallisers'' (1974)
* Beauty and the Beast (1976 TV film), ''Beauty and the Beast'' (1976)
* Martin Chuzzlewit (TV series), ''Martin Chuzzlewit'' (1994)
* Tess of the D'Urbervilles (2008 TV serial), ''Tess of the D'Urbervilles'' (2008)
* Father Brown (2013 TV series), ''Father Brown'' (2013)
* ''Antiques Road Trip'' (2015)
* ''The Great Chelsea Garden Challenge'' (2015)
* The White Princess (miniseries), ''The White Princess'' (2017)
* ''An American Aristocrat's Guide to Great Estates'' (2020)
* ''The Spanish Princess'' (2020)
Gallery
File:Sudeley Castle Queen's Garden (2551357063).jpg, The Queens' Garden
File:Sudeley Castle 6 (5627974001).jpg, St. Mary's Church, Sudeley Castle
File:Sudeley Castle - Knot Garden - looking westwards-geograph-4678443-by-Rob-Farrow.jpg, Knot Garden
File:Sudeley Castle, Cotswolds, England (7246223678).jpg, Catherine Parr antechamber
File:Gloucestershire-SudeleyCastle-CatherineParr.jpg, Catherine Parr's tomb
File:Pheasant at Sudeley Castle (5100).jpg, Sudeley Pheasantry
File:Sudeley Castle, Cotswolds, England (7245252704).jpg, Tithe Barn
File:Sudeley Castle (5038).jpg, Northern Wing
See also
* Louisa Pitt
* Castles in Great Britain and Ireland
* List of castles in England
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
1443 establishments in England
Buildings and structures completed in 1443
15th-century fortifications
Castles in Gloucestershire
Gardens in Gloucestershire
Houses in Gloucestershire
Grade I listed buildings in Gloucestershire
Historic house museums in Gloucestershire
Textile museums in the United Kingdom
Grade II* listed parks and gardens in Gloucestershire
Burial sites of the Brydges/Brugge family
Cotswolds
Cotswold District
Catherine Parr