The works in the Perpendicular style are few, and are confined to alterations in the domestic apartments, and in the entrance passage to the keep and the kitchen.
Then came the Tudor period, in which the castle had to be converted into a palace for the Presidents of the Marches. The base of the keep became a prison, the well-stair was probably inserted, the rooms fitted with Tudor windows and fireplaces, and the gatehouse was built. Much was done in fitting up the hall and domestic apartments, though in a slight and flimsy manner, so that most of this work has disappeared, and stables were built in the outer ward. The extinction of the Council of Wales, and the civil wars, put a stop to any outlay upon the place, and for some time it seems to have been freely pillaged, until it became a complete ruin, without floors, or roofs, or any kind of fittings in lead, iron, or timber. Of late years it has been so far cared for as to be protected against all injuries save those of time and weather, while at the same time it is freely open to all visitors. What is wanted for antiquarian purposes is that the mural passages should be cleared out, and a plan made of each floor.
HISTORY.
Ludlow is apparently a purely Norman fortress. Its earthworks, such as they are, or were, have nothing in common, either in position or character, with the hill forts of British origin, so common in that district; neither do they at all resemble the later and English works attributed to Æthelflæd and her countrymen in the ninth or tenth centuries, and of which Wigmore, Richard’s castle, and Shrewsbury are adjacent types. In plan, indeed, Ludlow is not unlike those works by which headlands and promontories on the seashore were frequently defended, it is supposed, by the Scandinavian sea kings, and of which the entrenchment at Flamborough Head is the finest example on record; but these are seldom, if ever, found far inland, nor is there anything in the two concentric segments of ditches which constitute, or did formerly constitute, the earthworks of Ludlow, inconsistent with the notion that they are Norman works.
There is no mention of Ludlow in Domesday; but that record gives three places in the district bearing the name of Lude, of which one, belonging then to Osberne Fitz Richard, is demonstrated by Mr. Eyton to be the later Ludlow. The termination necessary for its distinction was derived from a large “low” or tumulus, probably sepulchral, and which stood until 1190 on what afterwards became the burial-ground of the parish church. “Lude” or “lud” is thought by the same author to mean a ford, as, by a common pleonasm, in the adjacent “Ludford.” The two other Ludes were distinguished by the names of their lords, and known as Lude-Muchgros and Lude-Sancy.
Mr. Eyton has further shown, almost to demonstration, that Fitz Richard’s tenant in Lude was the much more considerable Roger de Lacy, and that when he decided here to build a castle, he obtained the lordship from Fitz Richard, and founded the castle within ten years after the survey, or about 1086–1096. Roger was a good type of a Marcher lord. In 1088 he was in rebellion against William Rufus, on behalf of Courthose, and again in 1095, when he took part in the Mowbray rising, was exiled, and so died.
Rufus allowed his estates to pass to his next brother, Hugh, who, however, died childless between 1108–1121, when the estates fell to the Crown by escheat. Henry I. granted Ludlow to Pagan Fitz John, who also held Ewias Lacy, and who was slain by the Welsh in 1136, leaving no male issue. Stephen seems to have seized his lands, and to have placed as castellan in Ludlow a certain Sir Joyce or Gotso de Dinan, evidently a Breton knight. Shortly afterwards, Joyce was in rebellion, for in April 1139, Stephen, accompanied by Prince Henry of Scotland, laid siege to the castle, and constructed against it two “counter-forts.” It was at this siege that Stephen rescued Prince Henry, by his personal strength, from the grasp of a grappling-iron, thrown over him as they walked rather too near to the walls. It would seem that the castle was not taken.
Joyce’s most dangerous foe was his neighbour, Hugh de Mortimer of Wigmore, of whom he obtained possession by means of an ambush, and detained him prisoner in the castle; a tower of which has been supposed by its name to commemorate this event. Joyce died, also without male issue, about 1166, after which event Henry II. gave or restored Ludlow to Hugh de Lacy, a descendant, though not in the male line, from the former family; Emma, the sister of Roger and Hugh de Lacy, having been the mother of a certain Gilbert, who took his mother’s name, and died 1135, leaving Hugh de Lacy, the new grantee of Ludlow. This Hugh, who was a very powerful lord in Ireland, held both Ludlow and Ewias, and was custos of Dublin. Henry II. feared his power, and in 1181 seized upon Ludlow. Hugh was assassinated in Ireland in 1185, and left Walter, his son and heir, to whom Henry, in 1189, restored his father’s lands; but seems to have retained the castle and tower of Ludlow, which thence came to King John, to whom, in 1206, Walter de Lacy paid 400 marks, to be reinstated at Ludlow.
John, however, again seized the castle in 1207, and gave it in charge to William de Braose, and for a time to Philip de Albini, and then to Thomas de Erdington. Nor did the king restore it till 1214, when Ingelram de Cygoigne was directed to render it up, which he did, though unwillingly. Walter, like his father, was chiefly occupied in Ireland. In 1224 he gave up Ludlow to William de Gammages; no doubt to hold as a pledge for his own good conduct. He died in 1241, leaving Walter, his grandson, as his heir, who died under age. Walter left two sisters, of whom Matilda married, first, Peter de Geneva, one of the Provençal favourites of Henry III., and who had the custody of Ludlow. Peter died childless, but in 1234 he made over to William de Lacy the constableship of the castle in fee. Lacy was to keep it in repair, and to maintain there a chaplain, porter, and two sentinels, and the expenses were to be allowed. In time of war, the lord was to garrison the place, and live in the inner, the tenant living in the outer, ward. Peter de Geneva died in 1249. His widow then married Geoffrey de Genville, a Poitevin, who was living in 1283, and who held the castle and half the manor, the other half belonging to Margery de Lacy, sister and co-heiress with Matilda, and who had married John de Verdon. During that period, and immediately after the battle of Lewes, when Simon de Montfort visited Wales in 1264, he took Ludlow Castle, which, however, he could have held but for a short time.
Although Peter de Genville, son of Geoffrey and Matilda, died before both his father and mother, yet he had the castle at his death in 1292. His daughter and heiress, Johanna de Genville, married Roger de Mortimer, Earl of March, who, in 1316, was joint lord of Ludlow with Theobald de Verdon, grandson of John de Verdon and Margaret de Lacy.