Seen from the hills outside the town, Ludlow Castle is one of the most romantic castles in England and one of the first generation of stone fortresses built after the Norman Conquest.
It passed into royal ownership through Richard Duke of York who inherited it in 1425. When in 1461 the Duke’s son won the battle of Mortimer’s Cross, and became Edward IV, the castle became an important royal possession.
In those days Ludlow was a very long way away from Westminster; it was a walled town with seven gates and a population of around 2,000 that had grown rich on wool. It was dominated by the massive castle, started in the eleventh century, which became the headquarters of the Council of the Marches in Wales, effectively the seat of Welsh government. Despite serial modernisations the royal lodgings were very old fashioned: the royal rooms were at the upper end of the hall in a three-storey tower. There were two two-room lodgings one above the other both served by small closets and garderobes. The first-floor outer chamber had a gallery that linked it to the royal pew in the unusual circular castle chapel. The interior of the royal lodgings had oak panelling and tapestries, and the remains of the fine fireplaces can still be seen embedded in the walls.
At a very young age royal children were granted their own households and assigned their own lodgings in the major houses and given independent houses of their own. Edward IV established a precedent that the royal children should hold court at Ludlow and Henry VII sent his eldest son Prince Arthur to Ludlow Castle aged only six. It was at Ludlow Castle where, after his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, he died in 1502.
In 1525 the nine-year-old Mary was to be sent to Ludlow where she was to be installed as head of the council in the Marches of Wales. Her household comprised almost 350 people. She was recalled in 1527. Various improvements were undertaken for the administration of the Council in Elizabeth’s reign, but the castle never became a fully-fledged royal residence again. The Council was abolished in 1689 and decline set in. It was leased in 1771 by the 1st earl of Powis and it became a Powis freehold in 1811.
The site is still privately owned and maintained by the Earl of Powis and is regularly open to the public.