14 July Two Castles, One Church, and One Cathedral

Today was a long day! The English weather finally showed up, and although the early part of the day was hit or miss, when we decided to get an early dinner, the floodgates opened, and it was wet and miserable.

The first two stops were right next to each other. Bramber Castle ruins, and Bramber St. Nicholas Church and churchyard. Around 1073, William de Braose, the 1st Lord of Bramber, who was originally from Falaise France, started building the castle and the church right next to it. Bramber was a poor area of England, but William the Conqueror wanted to start putting castles up to prevent any local Saxon uprisings, and this part of the land fell to the de Braose family. Everything was cool into they fell afoul with King John. William de Braose III, the 4th Lord of Bramber, had been on great terms with King John’s older brother, Richard the Lionheart, but became aware of King John being behind the murder of a future claimant to the throne. Once King John found out, he had de Braose’s oldest son and wife locked up and starved to death in Corfe Castle. King John then went on a manhunt to Ireland to find and kill William De Braose III, which he did.  When the other Lord’s and Nobles saw to what lengths King John would go to abuse his power, they all gathered together and forced him to sign the Magna Carta. Eventually, one of William III’s younger sons would have his titles and land reinstated, but soon after, he died without male heirs, and the de Mowbray family took control of Bramber Castle. The de Mowbrays chose not to live in at, and by the 16th Century, the castle had fallen into ruin. Much of the stone with which it was built was sold, or used to make bridges in the local area, and very little remains of the castle today.




Bramber St. Nicholas Church is nearly as old as the castle ruins, and is still being used today by the locals. It is almost 1000 years old.






Next, we went to the town of Chichester to visit its Cathedral. This was another old and beautiful structure, similar to Canterbury Cathedral. I did have a question answered by visiting there though. I wondered what had happened to most of the burials at Lewes Cathedral when they tore it down. One was moved to Chichester, that of Joan de Vere. I believe that she is related to me, because I have some de Vere’s in my lineage, but will need to do further research to prove that I am one of her ancestors.



















Finally, we headed to the most magnificent castle yet, Arundel Castle. It is still owned by the Duke of Norfolk, and is maintained by a private charity trust, so all money spent there goes directly to keeping the castle looking magnificent. The tour guide told us that it was started before the Tower of London, however, there are a few parts of the Tower that are old Roman walls, so it’s your guess as to who is correct. This castle started being built in 1070, and eventually passed through a couple of families before being entrusted to the FitzAlan family (my ancestor, John FitzAlan inherited the castle in 1243). The FitzAlan’s held it until no male heir was around to continue that name, and when the last FitzAlan died in 1580, the castle was inherited by his grandson, Philip Howard, 13th Earl of Arundel and 4th Duke of Norfolk. The Howards continue to live there today.










Get ready for a large photo dump from Arundel Castle. There were a lot of pictures taken.




















The next pictures were taken from the FitzAlan Chapel within the castle.






The rest of the pictures were taken from the different Halls and Rooms within the castle.






















The last pictures were taken of the Duke of Norfolk for both Queen Elizabeth II's interment and the coronation of King Charles III. The last one was a personal picture with the Queen.










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