Sudeley History Timeline

1000-1400

King Ethelred (The Unready) gave the Saxon manor house and estate at Sudeleagh to his daughter Goda, sister of King Edward the Confessor, on her marriage to Walter de Maunt. Their son Ralf de Mederatinus became Earl of Hereford.

1066

Norman Conquest, Ralf’s son Harold was allowed to retain Sudeley but deprived of his earldom by William the Conqueror.

1085

Domesday Book entry for Sudeley: held by Harold de Sudeley : taxed at 12 Hides; there were 31 plow villages, whereof 4 were in demean, 6 water mills and a wood 3 leagues long by 4 leagues wide (4½ miles by 3 miles).

Harold was succeeded by his son John de Sudeley, who married Grace, daughter of William Tracy, an illegitimate son of Henry I.

1139

During the reign of King Stephen the Sudeley manor house was fortified. John revolted against the King and joined Matilda in her attempt to gain the English crown.
Stephen seized Sudeley and made it a royal garrison – first destruction of the Castle which was then sited in the Hopyard Field.

1165

Ralph de Sudeley succeeded to Sudeley Castle and gave Toddington to his brother William, who assumed his mother’s name of Tracy and was the ancestor of the present Tracy family.

1170

William de Tracy was one of the four knights who murdered Thomas a Becket in Canterbury Cathedral.

1367

John 9th Lord de Sudeley was killed in Spain while fighting for the Black Prince having earlier been Lord Chamberlain to Edward II. Sudeley inherited through his sister by the Boteler family.