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Built as a March Castle to safeguard the Severn Vale from Welsh marauders, Berkeley Castle dates from 1153, although building and rebuilding has been carried out throughout the centuries.
The Castle has survived almost uniquely together with, the Berkeley Family who built it, the archives of over 20,000 documents, the contents, the surrounding Estate and the town.
Its place in history is significant, because the Berkeleys and their home played an important part in so many power struggles, the most significant of which was the brutal murder of Edward II in 1327, in a room which can still be seen today, next to the adjacent 28’ deep dungeon.
There are still all the trappings of a Norman fortress if you look around you: trip steps designed to trip attackers, arrow slits, murder holes, enormous barred doors, portcullis slots, battlements and towers.
Outside, the battlements drop some 60' to the Great Lawn below and the surrounding Meadow could be flooded for defence. Looking across the Meadow the kennels and stable of the Berkeley Hunt can be seen and the present hounds can trace their lineage back to 1326.
The Family are one of only three in England who can trace their ancestry from father to son back to Saxon times. The Castle is the oldest building in the country to be inhabited by the same family who built it.
The Contents include Francis Drake's cabin chest, Queen Elizabeth I's bedspread, and the banner the 4th Earl of Berkeley took to the Battle of Culloden and the banner taken to the Battle of Flodden (1513). The Berkeleys have fought for their country in every major engagement in the last Millennium.
During the English Civil War, the Castle faced many attacks and finally was captured for Parliament in 1645. A subsequent 35’ breach and slighting of the Castle by Parliamentarian troops rendered the fortress indefensible. It was agreed the Berkeleys could keep the Castle if it was never repaired, and an Act of Parliament still prohibits rebuilding to this day!
There is not much British history that has passed Berkeley Castle by. The Castle has connections
• with Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, written for a Berkeley wedding;
• with the signing of Magna Carta - the Barons of the West met here before meeting King John at Runnymede;
• with the American Thanksgiving - the very first of which was held by Berkeley men
• with Virginia - the first Governor of which was William Berkeley;
• with Yale and the University of California - both benefited from the legacy of Bishop George Berkeley of Cloyne
• with the battles of Agincourt , Crecy , Poitiers , Flodden , Culodden
• with Edward Jenner who developed vaccination
• with the monarchs of England: notably King John, Henry VII, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Charles I, George I.
Having been such a long-living and prolific family there are Berkeley connections all over the world, from London’s Berkeley Square to North America and Australia.
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