and parliament. The new lord, George Brydges, 6th Baron Chandos supported the royalist cause, and it was while he was supporting Prince Rupert in the siege of Cirencester in January 1643 that Sir Edward Massey, with some five hundred soldiers and two cannons attacked the castle. The small garrison soon fell and the castle was plundered; soon to be abandoned after the news that the royalist army had taken Cirencester and was turning its attention to the castle. Later that year, after Royalist army failed in the Siege of Gloucester, King Charles set up camp at Sudeley, using it as his base of operations in Gloucestershire; and then set about trying to force Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex into an open pitch battle. The castle was to switch hands several times during the war, most famously holding out against cannon bombardment by Sir William Waller, until it was betrayed by one of its officers who let the attackers in. In 1649, after the end of the civil war, parliament ordered the slighting of the castle, to ensure that it could never again be used as a military post. The process took some five months to complete, largely dismantling the inner courtyard and royal apartment rooms, but strangely leaving much of the outer courtyard intact. In 1650, George Brydges, 6th Baron Chandos received some financial compensation for the loss of the castle. Buried in debt, the lord was unable to rebuild Sudeley, and he died in 1655 after years of being imprisoned in the Tower of London. On his death, the semi derelict castle was inherited by his widow, Lady Jane Savage, separating from the title Baron Chandos for the first time in over a century. She did not have the means to restore it and the castle was a neglected ruin for almost 200 years. Victorian Renaissance For almost two centuries, the castle was largely left in ruins, but seemingly never becoming full abandoned. Sudeley was owned by the Pitt Family, descendants of Lady Jane Savage's second marriage, who were elevated to a peerage in 1776 as Baron Rivers. During the 18th century, they rented Sudeley out to tenants, most notably the Lucas family, members of the local gentry. Joseph Lucas entertained King George III on his visit to the castle in 1788, with Mrs Cox the housekeeper saving the king's life, catching him after he fell down the