Беркли қалысының ортағасырлық қамалы

Medieval castle in Gloucestershire, England
the castle of the same name in West Virginia in the United States

Berkeley Castle (/'//b//a:r//k//l//i/ BARKlee; historically sometimes spelled as Berkley Castle or Barkley Castle) is a castle in the town of Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England. The castle's origins date back to the 11th century, being designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building. The Berkeley barony having separated from the earldom in 1882, the 8th and last Earl of Berkeley (1865–1942) bequeathed the ancestral seat to his 13th cousin, Captain Robert Berkeley, of Spetchley Park, Worcestershire (1898–1969), whose grandson, Charles Berkeley (born 1968), High Sheriff of Gloucestershire for 2019/20, inherited the castle and estate from his father, Major John Berkeley (1931–2017). Since 1956, Berkeley Castle has been open to visitors (for a fee) and remains open from April to November (in 2023) on certain days of the week. The property has also been available for rent for private events.

The first castle at Berkeley was a motte and bailey, built around 1067 by William FitzOsbern shortly after the Conquest. Some commentators have claimed that Edward's escape was actually successful, and conjecture someone else was later murdered in his place. Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles (1587 edition), drawing on earlier sources, describes Edward's murder in detail:
they [the murderers] came suddenlie one night into the chamber where he laie in bed fast asléepe, and with heavie featherbeds or a table (as some [sources] write) being cast upon him, they kept him down and withall put into his fundament [i. e., his anus] an horne, and through the same they thrust up into his bodie an hot spit, or (as other [sources] have) through the pipe of a trumpet a plumbers instrument of iron made verie hot, the which passing up into his intrailes, and being rolled to and fro, burnt the same, but so as no appearance of any wound or hurt outwardlie might be once perceived. His crie did moove manie within the castell and towne of Berkley to compassion, plainelie hearing him utter a wailefull noise, as the tormentors were about to murther him, so that diverse [i. e., several] being awakened therewith (as they themselues confessed) praied heartilie to God to receive his soule, when they understood by his crie what the matter ment. Christopher Marlowe's tragedy Edward II (The troublesome raigne and lamentable death of Edward the second, King of England, first published 1594) depicts the murder at Berkeley Castle, using props mentioned in Holinshed, and popular stories of a red hot poker or suffocation continue to circulate. The account given to Parliament at the time was that Edward had met with a fatal accident, but Holinshed and other historical sources record that great effort was made to keep the murder secret. The body was embalmed and remained lying in state at Berkeley for a month, in the Chapel of St John within the castle keep, before Thomas de Berkeley escorted it to Gloucester Abbey for burial. such colleges were unusual in medieval times and Lady Berkeley was one of the first in England to found a small fully endowed school. Adjoining the Great Hall was the Chapel of St Mary (now the Morning Room) with its painted wooden vaulted ceilings and a biblical passage, written in Norman French. A dispute about the ownership of Berkeley Castle between Thomas Talbot, 2nd Viscount Lisle, and William Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley, led to the Battle of Nibley Green. Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn visited Berkeley in August 1535, after staying at Gloucester. In the late 16th century Queen Elizabeth I visited the castle and played bowls on its bowling green. During the First English Civil War, the castle was held by a Royalist garrison and was captured in 1645 by a Parliamentarian force under Colonel Thomas Rainsborough; after a short siege that saw cannon being fired at point blank range from the adjacent church roof of Saint Mary the Virgin, the garrison surrendered. In the early 18th century the 4th Earl of Berkeley planted a pine that was reputed to have been grown from a cutting taken from a tree at the Battle of Culloden. The castle is the third oldest continuously occupied castle in England, after the royal fortresses of the Tower of London and Windsor Castle, and the oldest to be continuously family owned and occupied. It contains an antique four poster bed that has been identified as the piece of furniture remaining longest in continuous use in the Great Britain by the same family. The Berkeley Castle Charitable Trust received a grant from the Cotswolds LEADER Programme in 2022; the funds were used to help renovate the Education Room.

Berkeley Castle was used for many scenes for the 2003 television film of The Other Boleyn Girl. More recently the castle and grounds have been used for the external shots of the Valencian castle in Galavant. In 2019, the castle – both interior and exterior – was used as a filming location for Season 2 of The Spanish Princess. The castle is featured in an episode of the 2017 season of the genealogy documentary television series Who Do You Think You Are?, when American actress Courteney Cox learnt of her ancestry. Cox was informed that she is a 21 generation direct descendant of Thomas de Berkeley, 3rd Baron Berkeley and 22 generation descendant of Lord Berkeley's father in law, Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, also learning of their parts in the murder of King Edward II of England in 1327. The Castle's website lists additional productions which have completed some filming there. Two Royal Navy ships have been named Berkeley Castle after the Earls of Berkeley, as was a Great Western Railway steam locomotive.