SUDELEY'S GARDENS - There were several areas where the gardens around the castle were really amazing, so we took this short video. In the next blog, we'll explore the gardens more.
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| You enter the castle by the back door! |
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| The back of Sudeley castle |
KATHERINE'S BURIAL PLACE -
Queen Katherine was buried in the Chapel of St Mary at Sudeley, but her baby disappeared in history (and never lived at Sudeley), and Thomas Seymour never attended the funeral. In fact, We learned that Thomas Seymour was not a nice guy. On March 20, 1549, Thomas Seymour was executed after being indicted on 33 counts of ‘Treason and other Misdemeanours against’ King and Crown.
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| St. Mary's Chapel |
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| Another side of the castle - in the back |
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| Katherine Parr's tomb in St. Mary's Chapel |
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| The inscription that says Katherine Parr is here |
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| Gateway into another garden area |
WEIRD AND TRAGIC HISTORY:
CHARLES I and our ghost - In 1649, Charles’s nephew, Prince Rupert of the Rhine (the ghost who we encountered at Thornbury Castle), encamped with 4,000 men near Sudeley, from where he attacked and captured Cirencester, forcing the Roundheads to abandon Sudeley, but not before they had desecrated the Chapel of St Mary (where Katherine was buried), turning the tower into stabling and the chancel into a slaughter-house.
ABANDONED! - From 1655 to 1782 the castle was abandoned, and local builders stole stones from it. It was in 1782 that
a couple of local people wandering around stumbled upon Katherine
Parr’s tomb in the ruined Chapel and her coffin opened for the first
time.
RECOVERED - In 1837 Sudeley was purchased by wealthy glove-makers, brothers John and William Dent, who began to restore it. Their nephew, John Coucher Dent, inherited the Castle in 1855. A small part of the castle and most of the grounds were later opened to the public.
NEXT: SUDELEY'S NICE GARDENS
