Sudeley Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Nestled in the Cotswold hills south-east of Winchcombe, Sudeley Castle is one of the most history-laden castle complexes in Gloucestershire. Its present form dates back to the mid-15th century, when Ralph Boteler, created Baron Sudeley in 1441, rebuilt the house around spacious courtyards and endowed the estate with a chapel and a great barn. The castle then became a Crown possession: Edward IV obtained it in 1469, and Richard III had state apartments built there, of which the openwork walls of the great presence chamber survive. In 1547 Thomas Seymour received Sudeley; his wife Catherine Parr, widow of Henry VIII, lived there with the young Jane Grey and died there in 1548. She lies in the estate's St Mary's Church, making Sudeley the only private castle in England to hold the burial place of a queen. Slighted in 1649 after the Civil War, the site remained partly ruined until it was bought by the Dent glovers of Worcester in 1837. Their restoration, continued by Emma Dent, shaped the lived-in castle and the renowned gardens that the Dent-Brocklehurst family and Lady Ashcombe open to the public today.