THE Severn, below Shrewsbury, which on the map seems to mark a natural division between England and the southern part of the Principality of Wales, neither is, nor ever has been, really the dividing line. It is not, in those parts even, a county boundary, Gloucester, Worcester, and Salop being astride upon the stream, with large portions of their area upon its western bank. To go back to the sixth century, when the West Saxons, starting from the coast of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, pressed hard upon the Britons, many indications still show how firm was the resistance, so long as the ground was favourable; but, when once fairly driven over the crest of the Cotteswold, the Britons evidently retired more rapidly across the open country, nor is it until the commencement of the high ground is reached, that we find works which abundantly show how fierce was the struggle, how close and persistent the attack. The high ground which forms the western edge of the Marches is studded thickly with camps, the position and figure of which show them to be British, while the adjacent frontiers of Gloucester, Hereford and Shropshire, are covered with moated mounds, placed both within and without the Dyke of Offa, and which show both the extent of the English conquests and the manner in which they were maintained before and during the eighth and ninth centuries.

The Normans trod very closely in the footsteps of the English, and although their fortresses were of a stronger and more permanent character, they occupy, for the most part, ancient sites. The three counties, from the bordering Chepstow, the home of Strongbow, to Clun, the cradle of the house of Stewart, were bristled thick with fortresses; some, like Chepstow, Goderick, Kilpeck, Ewias, Hereford, Ludlow, Wigmore, Richard’s Castle, Cleobury, Brampton, Bishop’s Castle, and Clun, either places of great strength, or held by powerful barons; others, as St. Briavels, Wilton, Penyard, Weobly, Croft, Clifford, Whitney, Eardisley, Huntington, Lingen, Hopton, de Botwood, Stoke-Say, or Wattlesborough, either fortified houses or castles of smaller area and inferior strength. Upon the line of the Severn, in the rear of all these, there were but eight of any importance, Bristol, Berkeley, Gloucester, Hanley, Worcester, Hartlebury, Bridgenorth and Shrewsbury, and of these Berkeley was in many respects the most remarkable, and has endured the longest.

The other castles are either ruins or have altogether been swept away. Of Bristol there remains only a portion of a crypt. Gloucester, Hanley, and Worcester are gone. Of Bridgenorth a part of the keep is all that is seen; and of Shrewsbury a fragment of a Norman gatehouse, the much-altered walls of the hall, and, older than all, the mound that gave character to the whole. Berkeley, on the other hand, has been inhabited from its foundation to the present day. With one temporary alienation to the Crown, it has always been in one family, and it is as little altered as is consistent with modern usages and modes of life.

The castle, church, and borough town of Berkeley, contained within the hundred to which they give name, are placed upon the southern extremity of a tract of ground which rises about 50 feet above the meadows to the south and west, and the drainage whence is carried on by the channel of the Little Avon, which falls into the Pill or Creek of Berkeley, and so reaches the Severn, here expanding into an estuary, the southern shore of which is about two miles distant from the castle. The castle stands upon the southern extremity of the high ground. A few yards to its north is the parish church with its detached tower, and again a little to the north is the town, which has grown up under the protection of its lordly neighbour. A deep and wholly artificial ditch intervenes between the churchyard and the castle, crossing the high ground, and cutting off and isolating the latter, of which it protects the northern and western faces. These, to the south and east, are made secure by the natural declivity, scarped and rendered steeper by art. The meadows out of which the castle hill rises, being but little above the adjacent Severn, were formerly an extensive and almost impassable morass, adding much to the strength of the place. Under the skill and labour of centuries, they have become grass-lands of great beauty and fertility, and form a charming foreground to the castle. Beyond, are elms and oaks often of great magnitude, disposed in frequent hedgerows, and in the distance to the west are the Welsh mountains, and to the east the nearer scarp of the Cotteswold, here and there covered with thriving plantations.

Town and castle stand geologically upon the Old Red Sandstone, which, a very few yards to the east, is succeeded by the Ludlow rocks, which are again covered up by the marls of the Lias and New Red, and towards the Cotteswold by the Lower Oolite.

Like Warwick, Windsor, Arundel, and some other ancient piles, noticed by Shakespeare,—

between its town, and its park, now, indeed, disparked, but which extended far and wide to the south-east, and is traversed by an extended avenue. As was the case at Warwick, there is a deer-park entirely detached from the castle.

The main approach to the castle lies through the town, on leaving which, a road, passing the church, leads up to the entrance, and crosses the ditch by a permanent bridge, by which the draw-bridge was superseded by Henry Lord Berkeley in 1587, and beyond and partly standing in which is the outer Gate-house. This is a rectangular building of no great merit, pierced by a portal having a low drop arch on each face. The passage is plainly vaulted in calcareous tufa, and in the crown of the vault are three square holes or meurtriÈres. There is no upper story, nor, at present, are there any flanking towers or curtain. There is a basement below the road-way level, entered from the ditch, but, probably, at one time filled with earth. This gate-house may be of Decorated date. It has no portcullis. From the ditch, the side walls of the bridge look original, and may have been, as at Goderich, the lateral walls between which was the pit of the draw-bridge.

Entering the outer gate, the visitor finds himself upon a triangular platform, of which the outer gate-house is the apex, and the inner gate-house and part of the keep the base; on the left a modern wall, which replaces the curtain, crests the scarp of the ditch, and forms the north side of the platform 66 yards long. On the right a low parapet, 54 yards long, forms the south side, and caps a revetment wall of about 10 feet in height, at the foot of which the ancient scarp has been laid out in good taste in a terrace garden. This triangular platform is scarcely an outer ward: it is rather a barbican covering the main entrance and the keep. Its area is 7,750 square yards. There is no trace of a second ditch in advance of this side of the keep and the inner gate, but it is very probable that there was one, though, if so, it must have been filled up when the courts were added to the keep, as otherwise it would have completely occupied them.

The keep covers about 35 yards, or above half of the base of the barbican, and lies to the left or north of the gate-house. Part of it has been removed and a large breach formed, showing that the interior is full 22 feet above the ground level outside. The inner Gate-house is in the same position as at Alnwick. It is in truth not a regular gate-house, and has no flanking towers or machicoulis, but the entrance passage pierces a lofty pile of buildings which connect the domestic apartments with the keep, and complete the circle of the main court. The portal is about 11 feet broad and 30 feet deep, and its roof is flat and of timber. It has two drop arches. On the right is a lodge door, and the inner archway has a half round portcullis groove. Above are two stories through which are doors, no doubt modern, into the keep. Probably the Norman entrance was here, a mere opening in the wall. Much of the structure seems Decorated with later alterations. South of, and flanking the gate, between it and the south-east angle of the place, is a small Tudor building.

The gateway opens into the Great Court of the castle, a roughly rectangular space, having the circular keep encroaching considerably upon its north-west angle, and the remainder of the space set round with domestic buildings built against and completely concealing the lofty curtain.

This court, which is, in fact, the castle, measures outside upon its south face 60 yards, and its east face 72 yards, these two being set nearly at right angles. The north and west faces are about 60 yards and 76 yards, but the north-west angle is occupied by the keep, which covers about 40 yards of the north, and 42 yards of the west face, forming a part of the enceinte. The buildings project about 30 feet, so that the inner and open part of the court is much reduced in area. The curtain, originally thick, has been strengthened outside, probably in the Decorated period, by nearly thirty broad and thick and very clumsy buttresses, some of which probably conceal the early Norman pilaster, for most of the wall is certainly of that date. Some of these buttresses are pierced by loops, showing an immense thickness of wall.

On entering the court, on the left is the high plain wall of the keep, with its forebuilding and exterior staircase ascending to the entrance. On the right are domestic buildings, drawing-rooms, bed-rooms, &c., extending to the south-east corner. The face wall, though much altered, and pierced with Tudor windows, seems in substance Norman with large Decorated alterations. The pointed Norman arches may be traced in the wall. These buildings have a basement and two upper stories. It is uncertain whether they stand upon a vault.

The chapel occupies the south-east angle. The hall is next to it along the east side, and the butteries, kitchen, and offices fill up the north-east angle and the north side as far as the keep. In the south wall, near the gate-house, but at the exterior ground level, is a small pointed doorway, probably a postern, and connected with it a small chamber, about 6 feet below the level of the court, of doubtful age, but with an old doorway. It has a flat roof, and wooden floor of the room above: being filled with the bins of a modern cellar, it cannot be examined.

The Chapel, dedicated to the Virgin, rests on the vault of the great cellar, and measures 29 feet by 18 feet. It is entered by a modern door in the north wall, west of which are traces of what seems to have been the original entrance. It has a rather flat apsidal east end of three faces; the vestry, a mural chamber, opening in that to the south-east. The south side is the outer wall, 14 feet thick; it is pierced by a mural passage, a sort of aisle, at the floor-level, which opens into the chapel by four foliated arches, each corresponding to a window or loop in the curtain. There is a small Decorated piscina. Against the west wall is a sort of pew of two stages, the upper being an enclosed gallery for the family, opening from the principal rooms.

The roof is open, at a very low pitch, with timber ribs rising from corbels. These, with cross ribs, divide the roof into large panels of a very curious character. The walls of the chapel are Norman, but the roof and fittings are mostly Decorated. Maurice, Lord Berkeley, 38 Edward III., obtained from Pope Urban II. a bull bestowing certain spiritual privileges upon all who worshipped here or in the chapel in the keep.

The Cellar below the chapel is part of the original castle. Its level is a little below the floor of the hall. It is in plan an equilateral triangle about 40 feet in the side. Its roof is vaulted and groined in three hexagonal bays, springing from three shafts of late Norman character. Nine triangular vaultings, abutting on the walls, complete this very curious roof. Opening from this is another vault, also a cellar, at a lower level by about 5 feet. It is much smaller, and has a ribbed and vaulted roof. Unfortunately it is used as a cellar, and obscured by modern fittings. It has a small Tudor window.

From the chapel and drawing-room a broad wooden seventeenth century staircase descends into the hall at its south or dais end, in which is a large and handsome fireplace, probably of the same date.

The Hall is 32 feet broad by 61 feet long, and has an open pointed roof. It is built at the ground level against the east curtain, which is, or was, pierced by four windows, three in the hall and one within the buttery screen. The latter is late Norman, with slender flanking shafts. The other three are full centred, with a keel bead at the angle, and an interior drip. They seem Decorated, and no doubt replace Norman loops. In the west or court wall are four large and lofty flat-topped and somewhat peculiar windows of two lights each, broken into four by a heavy transom. The upper lights are trefoil, the lower shoulder-headed. Between each pair, outside, is a triangular buttress. The entrance from the court is in the west side, at the north end, by a handsome and spacious porch, vaulted and groined. The exterior doorway is an arch composed of four quite plain straight sides, parts of an octagon, similar in outline to those above the Berkeley tombs at Bristol, known locally as the Berkeley arch. This is repeated with the addition of some ornament in the inner doorway, which opens into a narrow strip of the hall cut off by the screen. On the left, in the end wall of the hall, are three fine Berkeley arches opening into the butteries, of which the central was formerly a door. Above this passage, high up, is a small music gallery, probably of Tudor date, or even later. The roof of the hall is poor, but said to be of the fourteenth century. No doubt this represents the original Norman hall, rebuilt, as regards the court wall, in the Decorated period.

In the hall are placed, not inappropriately, the earlier charters of the family, protected with glass. Perhaps, however, looking at their extreme value as connected with the castle, it would be safer to restore them to the muniment room, and replace them for public exhibition by photographs.

To the north, beyond the lower end of the hall, are the butteries, kitchen, and pantries, the latter against the curtain. The Kitchen is an irregular hexagon, averaging 13 feet 6 inches in the side. In the three longer sides are recesses for a fireplace, and hoods over cooking-places. The original doors were in the buttery on one side and the scullery on the other, and there were two windows towards the court. The roof is of open work, very plain, heavy and poor, and very high up. It is said to have been brought from Wootton Manor House, and placed here by Henry VII. The scullery, &c. occupy the north-east angle of the court, and, like the adjacent chambers, is of irregular form, governed by the general outline of the castle. The larders, dairy, &c. are against the north curtain, and from the bakehouse a modern vaulted passage leads to the ancient well, which is in the court. The oven is in the north-west corner, and two bold drop-arched stone ribs traverse the chamber, and stiffen its vaulted roof. All these rooms form the ground floor, and carry an upper story. Their front towards the court seems to have been modernised, but in substance they are Decorated, with considerable remains of older Norman walling.

The Keep is the most interesting part of this very remarkable castle, since it is a shell keep of a known date. It is nearly circular, about 50 yards diameter, and the containing curtain-wall is about 8 feet thick, reducing its inner area to near 45 yards. The floor, of earth, is about 22 feet higher than the exterior ground, and, the wall being 40 feet high inside, is about 62 feet outside, the lower 22 feet being a revetment, and very thick. Upon its circuit are three half-round projecting towers or bastion turrets, 20 feet in diameter, of the height of the curtain, which seems to have been open at the rear, or closed only with timber. One of these projects to the east, and is abutted upon by the northern curtain of the castle court. In its base is a well, under a barrel vault, and above, resting upon this, is the oratory, dedicated to St. John the Baptist. The western or end wall of the oratory, and the outer stair leading to it, are modern.

The oratory is at present used as a muniment room. The ecclesiastical features are much injured and obscured. The eastern end is a half round, and there are remains of the flanking shafts of the Norman east window, and a small piscina. It appears to have been vaulted.

The second half-round tower is 64 feet from the former, and projects to the south into the court, commanding the inner face of its entrance, and the approach to the keep. In it, below the ground level, but not much lower than the level of the court below, is a circular dungeon 25 feet deep, into which Edward II. is said to have been finally thrust.

The third tower is 50 feet from the second, and projects to the south. Here also has recently been discovered a chamber somewhat similar to the dungeon already mentioned, also not vaulted, and of very rough masonry, as though a mere foundation intended to be filled up with earth. These two last towers are blocked in by later masonry, the first within, the latter both within and without, as it projects into the buildings of the gateway. As this tower could never have been intended to be thus concealed, it points to the conclusion that the keep was built before the wall of the inner court.

Besides these three half-round towers is a fourth, rectangular, and a much larger work, to the north, forming a part of the exterior line of defence. This is known as Thorpe’s Tower, and the family of that name are said to have held their adjacent estate of Wanswell by the tenure of its defence. This tower is 64 feet long by 17 feet deep. It forms a part of the curtain, having a very slight interior projection. At each end it expands into a square turret, that to the west 17 feet, that to the east 20 feet. The western turret and the body of the tower are thought to be solid, which is very improbable. They are not unlikely to have been filled in with earth to increase their power of resistance when the castle was battered from the churchyard. The eastern turret contains a square well-staircase of fifty-four steps, which leads to the battlements, and has a mural chamber on its way. The entrance below to this staircase is by an original full-centred arch, partially blocked up. This tower is somewhat higher than the curtain, with which it does not communicate. It is said to have been originally higher by a few feet more. Even at present it is the highest part of the castle, and hence the family banner is displayed. Below and outside this tower, to the north, are some modern offices.

Between Thorpe Tower and the Well Tower is seen in the wall the outline of a recess for a loop, and above it a segmental arch and Norman moulding, now closed up. The whole south side of the keep area is occupied by a block of building, about 80 feet long by from 20 feet to 30 feet deep. No doubt part of this building may be original, but by far the more prominent part is evidently modern, and sadly out of place. It covers the rear of the two southern half-round towers, which are thus not seen from within.

The entrance to this keep is peculiar. Usually, as at Tamworth, Lincoln, York, Cardiff, and Arundel, the entrance to a shell-keep was at its ground-level, and that of a rectangular keep, as at Castle Rising and Dover, at its first or second floor. Here, however, both conditions may be said to be fulfilled, for although the entrance is on the ground level as regards the interior of the keep, it is the full height of a first floor above the ground outside, and this height is gained by an exterior stair, guarded by a middle and lower gate, and above the latter by a regular tower. This forebuilding is common to rectangular keeps, but does not occur elsewhere in shell keeps. Here the Forebuilding is 72 feet in length, and is applied to the south-east side of the keep, or that within the court. In breadth it varies from 15 feet to 10 feet. Five steps ascend to its outer gate, a large full-centred archway contained within a plain chamfered moulding. As the doorway has been blocked and reduced in size by a perpendicular work, its jambs are concealed or may have been removed. Within is a vaulted passage, carried through the gate-tower, which is 15 feet square, and has an upper story. From the doorway twenty-four steps ascend to an open platform, having on the right a high and pierced parapet, and on the left the wall of the keep. At the stair-head a ledge on the right serves as a way to the upper floor over the gateway. This is a small chamber lighted by two windows and a lancet loop. The two larger windows and the door are of Tudor date, as may be the whole room; but, if so, it is a rebuilding, for the original tower must have been on the same pattern. In the room is an ancient bed and some hangings of needlework or tapestry, very early, but scarce of the age of Edward II., whose chamber this is reputed to have been.

A little beyond the stair-head, against the walls, right and left, are seen the rebates of the middle gate, and in front, in the wall of the Oratory Tower, is the weather moulding of a roof. Hence it would seem that the staircase, as at Castle Rising, was covered all the way up.

The main entrance to the keep opens upon the platform at the stair-head. It is a handsome, full-arched doorway with closed tympanum and flat head. It was flanked by highly ornate shafts, of which one remains. This portal opens into a vaulted passage through the keep wall, and enters the keep under an original archway, segmented with Norman mouldings. The jambs are worked in a very bold chevron pattern. From the exterior platform a narrow stair is continued to the battlements of the curtain over the bakehouse; but this may be an addition, for usually every part of a Norman keep was complete in itself, and had no direct communication with any other part of the castle. There is another and parallel stair in the wall, but opening outside and leading to the room above the bakehouse. This is not original.

The keep is constructed of exceedingly rude rubble masonry. Upon two parts of its face are nine narrow and shallow pilaster strips: three towards the barbican, and six between the inner gate and the forebuilding. The keep wall has a rude plinth, with no set-off or string. It is evident that this, as at York, and in other shell-keeps, was lined by lodgings, having an upper floor, placed all round against the wall with an open court in the centre. These were probably of timber. In the part of the keep towards the barbican is a breach about 40 feet broad down to the level of the inner floor. It is said that this part of the wall was partially broken down during General Massey’s attack, and was afterwards enlarged to its present condition, as at Kenilworth, rather as a matter of favour, to render the castle untenable without injuring it as a dwelling. Had the keep been blown up as was usual by gunpowder, it would have presented a very different aspect.

If the masonry of Berkeley Castle were to be removed, as at Kilpeck or Ewias Harold, its remains would show a mound of earth, and attached to three sides of it a platform, the whole encircled with a ditch or scarp. It would, in fact, be a moated mound with an appended platform, of a character very common in England, in the Welsh Marches, and in Normandy, and would resemble such works as Tamworth and Towcester, the dates of which are given in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The inference is, therefore, that Berkeley was the seat of an English lord, probably from the ninth century. Had the fortress been an original Norman work, it is scarcely probable that a shell would have been the form of keep selected, or that, having been so selected, its lower 22 feet would have been filled up with earth. Evidently the Norman builder, finding a moated mound of no great height, but of considerable breadth, built his shell round it, as at Pontefract, as a revetment wall, and upon this, when clear of the top of the mound, raised his curtain. At a lower level, along the scarp of the existing ditch, he, or his immediate successor, constructed the walls, which, then as now, contain the whole castle.

All the main walls of the castle are either Norman, or rebuilt upon Norman foundations, or very nearly so. Probably the keep was built first and the court enclosed shortly afterwards. Much was done in the Decorated period. The inner wall of the hall, at least, was rebuilt, and it may have been enlarged. The porch was added, the chapel much altered, and the domestic buildings possibly gutted and recast. Henry VII., when in possession, seems to have made some inconsiderable alterations, and others have been added since.

Berkeley is a rare example of an estate which has descended in the male line from the reign of Stephen, and in the female line from the Norman Conquest. The first of the latter ancestry is entered as the Lord of Berkeley in Domesday; the first of the former is also there entered, though as proprietor of other estates. Few, if any, of our oldest families can say with truth as much, but further than this the Berkeley tenure has been “per Baroniam,” and from the Conquest they have been barons of the realm, first by tenure, and when, in the reign of Henry III., tenure fell into disuse, then by writ; but by one right or the other they have ever sat in the great council of the nation.

There is no reason to suppose that the Romans had any settlement at Berkeley. Their camps and villas are frequent in the neighbourhood, which was traversed by Roman roads, but of their presence in Berkeley itself there is no other evidence than the fact that the two main streets of the town cross in its centre at a right angle, in the Roman manner.

There is, however, evidence of a religious house at Berkeley in the eighth century. Tilhere, Bishop of Worcester, in 778, seems to have been previously Abbot of Beorclea, as was Etheldune, also his successor at Worcester in 915. Tanner thinks the family at Berclea, mentioned in the Acts of a synod at Cloveshoe in a.d. 824, may refer to a religious house here. There was also a nunnery, for a charter by Adeliza, queen of Henry I., gives to the church of Reading, Berkeley Hern, that is, the church of Berkeley, with its appended prebends, and the prebends “duarum monalium,” which seems to refer to a nunnery. Camden says the nunnery was suppressed by Earl Godwin in the reign of the Confessor, and preserves a scandalous tale thereupon, which derives some support from a curious entry in Domesday, whence it appears that Gytha, the wife of Godwin and mother of Harold, had Ullcestre, near Berkeley, from her husband, he having bought it from Azor that she might live there till she should live at Berkeley. “Nolebat enim de ipso manerio aliquid comedere pro destructione abbatiÆ.”

In Domesday, Berkeley appears as a royal demesne and free borough, which had been held by the Confessor, and belonged to William, but was held of him by Roger, called thence of Berkeley. It was the head of a soke or barony, for attached to it were “Berews,” or members, in twenty-one adjacent parishes. The castle is not mentioned, but in “Ness,” probably Sharpness, was a castellum, or castellet, claimed by the same Roger. His holding in the Liber Niger is set down as 2½ knights’ fees. He gave liberally to Stanley Priory, and died there 1096. William, his nephew, succeeded, and had a son Roger, father of Roger, who all held Berkeley, and are designated by its name. This latter Roger was a partisan of King Stephen, and was turned out of Berkeley by Henry, who gave Berkeley to Robert, son of Hardinge, PrÆpositus of Bristol, who died 1170, 16 Henry II., aged seventy-five, leaving Maurice Fitzhardinge, his son. To stanch the feud between the dispossessed and the new lord, Henry made up a double alliance: Helen, daughter of Fitzhardinge, was married to a son of Roger de Berkeley, and Alice, Roger’s daughter, to Maurice Fitzhardinge of Berkeley. The result was that the old Berkeleys fell back upon their manor of Cuberley, and finally died out, and the Fitzhardinges, with the estate, bore the surname of Berkeley, and have so continued. At that time the Manor or Lordship, sometimes called the Honour of Berkeley, included above thirty parishes, and extended over most of the hundred. It was rated at 160 hides, and paid a chief rent of £70.

Henry, at the time of the gift, was only Duke of Normandy, and weak, and Fitzhardinge was an important man; hence the duke treats as equal with equal, and with the estate makes a promise to build him a castle to his taste. “Et pepigi ei firmare ibi castellum secundum voluntatem ipsius Roberti,” and, on the other hand, Robert promises to be Henry’s liege. Henry visited Berkeley in 1155, when, no doubt, the present castle was begun. Henry’s charter is in excellent preservation, and is kept at Berkeley.

Another charter by Henry, when king, also there preserved, confirms to Robert Fitzhardinge, Berkelai-Herness Manor by the service of one knight, or, if he prefer it, 100 shillings per annum. A third charter is almost a copy of the second, but states the service at five knights, and is silent as to the composition. There is also a charter printed by Dugdale, by which Robert Fitzhardinge grants certain churches to St. Augustine’s at Bristol. These are the earliest title-deeds of the family. St. Augustine’s was founded by this Robert in 1142, and consecrated in 1148. He died 1170.

Maurice, son of Robert, is said to have dug the ditch between the castle and the church. He probably deepened it. He also is reputed to have built the castle exterior to King Henry’s keep, including the two gatehouses. He died in 1189.

Robert, his son, bore the name of Berkeley. He was in arms against John, who held the castle from 1211 till his death in 1216. Lord Robert died 1220. His brother, Lord Thomas, received Henry III. here in 1220. He died 1243. Maurice, his son, here entertained Prince Edward in 1256. He added to the estates, and is said to have strengthened the castle. Thomas, his son, sixth lord, was a great soldier, and served at Bannockburn. He died 1321. Maurice, his son, took part against the Despensers, and was imprisoned by the king till his death, in 1326. Edward seized the castle, which was held by the Despensers. Lord Thomas, his son and successor, received Edward II. here as a captive, 15th April, 1327, and here the king seems to have been murdered by Maltravers and Gournay, 21st September, 1327. A payment was charged to the Exchequer for prayers for his soul in the castle chapel.

Lord Thomas held the castle from 1326 till his death in 1361. He fought at Cressy and Poitiers, and probably made money in the wars, for he is reputed to have made great alterations in the castle, and probably the hall and the Decorated work generally is his doing. He is said to have built Thorpe Tower. He may have raised it, but it is apparently as old as the keep. The Berkeley arch, seen in great perfection in St. Augustine’s Church, now Bristol Cathedral, and here introduced, as was proper, in a plainer form, is attributed to Knowle, Abbot of St. Augustine’s, from 1306 to 1332. The connexion of the Berkeleys with the monks of St. Augustine’s was intimate, and the same architect was likely enough to be employed by both.

Another Thomas, grandson to the former, here received Richard II., in 1386–7. This is the Lord Berkeley mentioned in “Shakespeare’s Richard II.,” when the castle is described as—

Lord Thomas pronounced the deposition of Richard in Parliament in 1399. John of Trevisa, whose translations from the Apocalypse are yet seen on the ribs of the chapel roof at Berkeley, was vicar of this parish during the life of this lord. Lord Thomas left a daughter only, married to Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who strove hard, but in vain, to oust the heir male, James de Berkeley. Lord Warwick appeared before the castle in 1418 with an armed force, and his heirs preferred a suit at law which lasted 150 years, varied with occasional combats, one of which, known as the battle of Nibley Green, led to the settlement of the dispute, Lord Lisle, the claimant, being slain in the field by William Lord Berkeley. William, the next lord, was created Earl of Nottingham by Richard III., and Marquis of Berkeley by Henry VII., in return for which he alienated the estate from his brother and male heir in favour of the latter king and his heirs male, nor did the Berkeleys recover it until the death of Edward VI. and the failure of the royal male line, when the castle was recovered by Henry, who resumed the title of Berkeley, after an alienation of 61 years 4 months and 20 days.

Henry VII. is said to have erected the kitchen, but probably he only put a new roof upon it.

During the Parliamentary struggle, the Lord of Berkeley seems to have been a moderate Royalist, with strong friends among the Parliamentary leaders. In 1642 it was surrendered to Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Forbes, for the Parliament, but was not pillaged, and even the arms contained in it were not removed. Probably this moderation was abused, for, 24th September, 1645, being held by Sir Charles Lucas, it was stormed from the churchyard by Colonels Rainsborough and Morgan, and free plunder allowed to the soldiery. Fortunately, at the moment of victory, a pressing order came for the march of the troops to assist Fairfax, on which the plunder was compounded for at 5s. a head. Such goods as were taken away were inquired after and restored, and the chief mischief seems to have been confined to the muniment room, where the charters and title-deeds were torn and mutilated. In 1646 the out-works were destroyed, and the arms, ammunition, and drawbridge removed to Gloucester. Probably the great breach was then made by the workmen employed upon the earthworks, which would account for the careful manner in which the wall has been cut away.

George, Lord Berkeley, was created in 1679, by Charles II., Viscount Dursley and Earl of Berkeley, titles still extant.