Ludlow Castle - Plantagenet, Tudor and Elizabethan Background

Plantagenet, Tudor and Elizabethan Background

Later, in the 15th century under the ownership of Richard, Duke of York, the castle was a major base in the Wars of the Roses and was taken by the Lancastrians in 1459 but back in York hands in 1461. Ludlow afterwards became a royal palace. In 1472 Edward IV sent his son the Prince of Wales and his brother (later the ‘Princes in the Tower’ of Shakespeare fame), to live at the castle, which was also the seat of Government for Wales and the Border Counties.

In 1501 Prince Arthur, (son of Henry VII and brother to Henry VIII) with his bride Catherine of Aragon, lived here for a short time before his early death of an infection from which his wife recovered. Mary Tudor, daughter of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII, heir to the throne of England as the couple's only issue, spent three winters at Ludlow between 1525 and 1528, along with her entourage of servants, advisors, and guardians.

Bishop Rowland Lee inspected the castle armoury at Christmastime, 1534. He found arrows with no bows, a gun with no powder or stones, and breastplates but no chain-mail or helmets. The great gun had been brought to Ludlow by Lord Ferrers. Lee repaired some roofs which he said had not been touched for 100 years with lead.

Elizabeth I appointed Sir Henry Sidney as President of the Council of the Marches to Ludlow Castle. Sir Henry extended the castle by building family apartments between the Great Hall and Mortimer's Tower and used the former royal apartments as a guest wing. The ruins of the Sidney apartments directly face the round Norman chapel. Sir Henry Sidney's daughters included poet Mary Sidney. They were tutored at Ludlow Castle in classics, Calvinism, Hebrew, music, archery, hunting and needlework while their elder brother, poet Philip Sidney boarded with George Leigh MP in Shrewsbury while attending Shrewsbury School. Their sister Ambrosia Sidney died at Ludlow Castle and the family subsequently erected her tomb and memorial in St Laurence Church, Ludlow. Following Ambrosia's death, Elizabeth I wrote to Sir Henry and his wife, Mary Dudley summoning Mary Sidney their last remaining daughter to Court to escape the infected 'air' in Ludlow Castle. In 1577, her uncle Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, arranged Mary's marriage to Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. The 2nd Earl of Pembroke succeeded Sir Henry Sidney nine years later as President of the Council of the Marches, in 1586.