Dudley Castle was built in 1070 by Ansculf de Picquigny, but according to antiquarian William Camden, a wooden castle or fort was built here in circa 700 AD by a Mercian Duke named Dodo or Doddo.

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Ansculf was a French Baron who came over to England with William the Conqueror in 1066. He was granted permission to build the first castle here in 1070. The Domesday Book records Ansculf's son William possessing the castle. The only remains of this original castle is the motte that the present-day Keep stands on. In the early 1100s the Castle went into possession of the Paganel family, who built the first stone castle on this site. The Castle was strong enough to hold off a siege in 1136 against King Stephen's forces, but a short time after, Gervase Paganel was involved in a failed rebellion against King Henry II, and the stone castle was slighted (demolished) as a result.

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The next dynasty at Dudley Castle would be the Somery family, when Gervase's nephew Ralph de Somery I succeeded him in 1194. In 1262, Roger de Somery II began construction of the second stone castle, but by the time of his death 10 years later, the castle was far from completion. Construction continued into the 14th Century, and the Keep and Gatehouse we see today dates back to this period. The Somery male line ended in 1321 when John Somery died. It is thought the Castle was finished by this date. The Castle went into possession of John's sister Margaret and her husband John de Sutton, and their family members subsequently took on the surname of Dudley. Margaret and John possessed the Castle for a good few years, but was soon seized from them by Hugh Despenser the Younger, a favourite of King Edward II. Hugh Despenser only hand the Castle for about a year, until Edward II fell from power and Margaret and John returned here in 1327. A Chapel and Chamber was added to the Castle during the ownership of their son Sir John de Sutton II. After his death, the land passed on to his wife Isabel, who was the daughter of John de Charlton, 1st Baron Charlton of Powys, until her death in 1397.

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During the Tudor period in 1532, another John Sutton is documented as inheriting the Castle and land, but was ousted in 1537 by one of his relatives John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland. John Dudley was the great-grandson of John Sutton, 1st Baron Dudley, and rose to prominence during the reign of King Henry VIII. Around 1540, he ordered a new range of buildings within the Castle walls, architected by William Sharington who was influenced by the Italian Renaissance. Therefore these new buildings were referred to as the Sharington Range.

 

In 1553, the boy King Edward VI died, and in his Will he nominated Lady Jane Grey (sometimes called Lady Dudley) as his successor to the throne. Jane was the great-granddaughter of Henry VII, and married in May of the same year to Lord Guildford Dudley, the younger son of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland. John supported Jane as Queen of England, but when she was arrested and later executed at the Tower of London in February 1554 along with her husband, John Dudley was also executed for treason on 22nd August 1553. The Castle returned to the Sutton family during the reign of Queen Mary I, under the ownership of Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley. On 11th August 1575, Queen Elizabeth I visited Dudley Castle, and a decade later it was greatly considered as a possible place of imprisonment for Mary Queen of Scots. However, the Sutton family weren't to live here for much longer, as Edward's son Edward Sutton III was the last of the male line to possess the Castle after falling into financial difficulties, and marrying off his granddaughter and heiress Frances Sutton to Humble Ward, the son of a wealthy Goldsmith.

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Amidst the English Civil War, Dudley Castle was a Royalist stronghold and was garrisoned by Colonel Thomas Leveson. The Castle was besieged by Parliamentary forces in 1644, and eventually surrendered on 13th May 1646. The Castle was then partly slighted once more, to prevent the fortifications being used again, and it's the ruins of the Keep and nearby areas that we see today. Some of the habitable buildings remained and were occasionally used by the Earls of Dudley.

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A stable block was constructed on the site some time before the year 1700, and would be the final building to be constructed in the Castle. In 1750, terror arose when a huge fire broke out at the Castle, destroying most of the habitable buildings. In the 19th Century the site became known as a 'Romantic Ruin', and the Earls of Dudley spent plenty of years tidying and clearing the site up of debris. Battlements were reconstructed on one of the remaining towers of the Keep, and two cannons captured during the Crimean Wars were installed. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the site was used for gatherings and pageants, and in 1937, the Dudley Zoo was established, with the Castle grounds incorporated into the Zoo. On 24th June 1994, Queen Elizabeth II visited Dudley Castle.

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On 31st October 2002, the first ever Most Haunted Live took place at Dudley Castle, featuring the likes of Yvette Fielding, Derek Acorah and Richard Felix, with about 500 avid fans seated on the central grounds.

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