Amberley Castle, Near Arundel, West Sussex
A Brief Introduction to Amberley Castle
The land where Amberley Castle stands was gifted to Bishop Wilfrid in 683 AD by Caedwalla, King of Wessex, and the castle’s current buildings owe their origins to a timber-framed hunting lodge built in 1103 by Bishop Luffa. The following four hundred years saw this lodge transformed into a fortified manor house complete with crenelations, battlements and a portcullis under the supervision of several resident bishops.
In 1526, Henry VIII visited Amberley to seek advice from Bishop Sherborne regarding the annulment he sought from his Spanish wife, Katherine of Aragon. With the advent of the English Reformation, many church estates and religious houses were dissolved and fell into crown ownership. The estate of Amberley still belonged to the church but was no longer used as a summer palace. Therefore, Bishop Sherborne was the last Bishop to use Amberley as a home.
During the reigns of Edward VI and Mary I, the Castle was leased to a series of tenants, and the leasehold changed many times. Elizabeth I leased the Castle between 1588 and 1603.
During the Civil War, the tenant at Amberley was a Royalist and would not pay his taxes to parliament, so the castle became a royalist stronghold. Oliver Cromwell sent General Waller to destroy the defences in 1643.
After the Civil War, Parliament seized Amberley Castle from the church and sold it by the Office of Sequestration of Estates to Mr John Butler, a cloth merchant from London, who built the Manor House out of the ruins of the Great Hall.
Historic Properties Nearby
Visitor Information
For more details on the accommodation, check out Amberley Castle’s website.
Contact Details: email info@amberleycastle.co.uk or call 01798 831992.
Address: Amberley Castle, Nr Arundel, West Sussex, BN18 9LT.
