Leeds Castle is in Kent, England, 5 miles (8 km) southeast of Maidstone. A castle has been on the site since 1119. In the 13th century it came into the hands of King Edward I, for whom it became a favourite residence; in the 16th century, Henry VIII used it as a residence for his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.
The castle today dates mostly from the 19th century and is built on islands in a lake formed by the River Len to the east of the village of Leeds. It has been open to the public since 1976.
Built in 1119 by Robert de Crevecoeur as a Norman stronghold, Leeds Castle descended through the de Crevecoeur family until the 1260s. What form this first castle took is uncertain because it was rebuilt and transformed in the following centuries.
In 1278, the castle became the property of King Edward I. As a favoured residence of Edward's, it saw considerable investment. The king enhanced its defences, and it was probably Edward who created the lake that surrounds the castle. A barbican spanning three islands was also built. A gloriette with apartments for the king and queen was added.
The castle was captured on 31 October 1321 by the forces of Edward II from Margaret de Clare, Baroness Badlesmere, wife of the castle's constable, Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Baron Badlesmere who had left her in charge during his absence.
The King had besieged Leeds after she had refused Edward's consort Isabella of France admittance in her husband's absence; when the latter sought to force an entry, Lady Badlesmere instructed her archers to fire upon Isabella and her party, six of whom were killed.
Lady Badlesmere was kept prisoner in the Tower of London until November 1322. After Edward II died in 1327 his widow took over Leeds Castle as her primary residence.
Richard II’s first wife, Anne of Bohemia, spent the winter of 1381 at the castle on her way to be married to the king. Henry VIII transformed the castle in 1519 for his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. A painting commemorating his meeting with Francis I of France still hangs there.
The castle escaped destruction during the English Civil War because its owner, Sir Cheney Culpepper, sided with the Parliaments. The castle was used as both an arsenal and a prison during the war.
Other members of the Culpeper family had sided with the Royalists, John, 1st Lord Culpeper, having been granted more than 5,000,000 acres (20,000 km2) of land in Virginia in reward for assisting the escape the Prince of Wales. This legacy was to prove vital for the castle's fortunes.
Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord of Cameron was born at the castle in 1693 and settled in North America to oversee the Culpeper estates, cementing an ongoing connection between the castle and America. There is a commemorative sundial - see picture opposite - at the castle telling the time in Beloved, Virginia, and a corresponding sundial in America.
Fairfax was the great grandson of Thomas Fairfax who led the parliamentarian attack at the nearby Batle of Maidstone in 1648 and whose doublet worn during the battle is on display.
In the 19th century the castle was owned by Robert Fairfax for 46 years until 1793 when it passed to the Wykeham Martins. Sale of the family estates in Virginia released a large sum of money that allowed extensive repair and the remodelling of the castle in a Tudor style, completed in 1823, that resulted in the appearance today.
In the 20th century, the last private owner of the castle was the Hon. Olive, Lady Bailie, daughter of Alembic Paget, 1st Baron Queenborough and his first wife, Pauline Payne Whitney, an American heiress. Lady Baillie bought the castle in 1926. She redecorated the interior, first working with the French architect and designer Armand-Albert Rateau, who oversaw exterior alterations and added interior features such as a 16th century-style carved-oak staircase), then with the Paris decorator Stephane Boudin.
During the early part of World War II the castle was used as a hospital where Lady Baillie and her daughters hosted burned Commonwealth airmen as part of their recovery. Survivors remember the experience with fondness. Upon her death in 1974, Lady Baillie left the castle to the Leeds Castle Foundation, a private charitable trust whose aim is to preserve the castle and grounds for the benefit of the public. The castle was opened to the public in 1976.
On 17 July 1978, the castle was the site of a meeting between the Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Ibrahim Karmel and Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan and Cyrus Vance of the USA in preparation for the Camp David Accords.
The castle also hosted the Northern Ireland peace talks held in September 2004 led by Tony Blair.
The maze at Leeds Castle was made with 2,400 yew trees and was opened in 1988. An aviary was added in 1980 and by 2011 it contained over 100 species, but it was decided to close it in October 2012 as it was felt the foundation could make better use of the £200,000 a year it cost to keep the aviary running.
Film Location: The castle was a location for the 1949 film Kind Hearts and Coronets, where it stood in for "Chalfont", the ancestral home of the aristocratic d'Ascoyne family. It was the set for the Doctor Who episode The Androids of Tara. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leeds_Castle
English Castle Gardens and Interiors
There were around 400 castles in England in 1216, but the number of castles continued to diminish over the coming years. Even the wealthier barons were inclined to let some castles slide into disuse and to focus their resources on the remaining stock. The remaining English castles became increasingly comfortable.
Their interiors were often painted and decorated with tapestries, which would be transported from castle to castle as nobles travelled around the country. There were an increasing number of garderobes built inside castles, while in the wealthier castles the floors could be tiled and the windows furnished with Sussex Weald glass, allowing the introduction of window seats for reading.
Food could be transported to castles across relatively long distances; fish was brought to Okehampton Castle from the sea some 25 miles (40 km) away, for example. Venison remained the most heavily consumed food in most castles, particularly those surrounded by extensive parks or forests, while prime cuts of venison were imported to those castles that lacked hunting grounds.
By the late 13th century some castles were built within carefully "designed landscapes", sometimes drawing a distinction between an inner core of a herber, a small enclosed garden complete with orchards and small ponds, and an outer region with larger ponds and high status buildings such as "religious buildings, rabbit warrens, mills and settlements", potentially set within a park.
A gloriette, or a suite of small rooms, might be built within the castle to allow the result to be properly appreciated, or a viewing point constructed outside. At Leeds Castle the redesigned castle of the 1280s was placed within a large water garden, while at Ravensworth at the end of the 14th century an artificial lake was enclosed by a park to produce an aesthetically and symbolically pleasing entrance to the fortification.
The wider parklands and forests were increasingly managed and the proportion of the smaller fallow deer consumed by castle inhabitants in England increased as a result.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castles_in_Great_Britain_and_Ireland
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