Of quadrangular plan, Bodiam Castle has no keep, having its various chambers built around the outer defensive walls and inner courts.

Its structure, details and situation in an artificial watery landscape indicate that display was an important aspect of the castle's design as well as defence.

By the start of the English Civil War in 1641, Bodiam Castle was in the possession of John Tufton, 2nd Earl of Thanet.

Edward Dalyngrigge was a younger son and thus deprived of his father's estates through the practice of primogeniture, hence he had to make his own fortunes.

[4] Edward III of England (reigned 1327–1377) pressed his claim for the French throne and secured the territories of Aquitaine and Calais.

Dalyngrigge was one of many Englishmen who travelled to France to seek their fortune as members of Free Companies – groups of mercenaries who fought for the highest bidder.

After fighting under Richard Fitzalan, 3rd Earl of Arundel, Dalyngrigge joined the company of Sir Robert Knolles, a notorious commander who was reputed to have made 100,000 gold crowns as a mercenary from pillage and plunder.

[5] It was as a member of the Free Companies that Dalyngrigge raised the money to build Bodiam Castle; he returned to England in 1377.

With the renewed hostilities, Parliament voted that money should be spent on defending and fortifying England's south coast, and defences were erected in Kent in anticipation of a French invasion.

[9][10] In 1385, a fleet of 1,200 ships – variously cogs, barges, and galleys – gathered across the English Channel at Sluys, Flanders; the population of southern England was in a state of panic.

[8] Know that of our special grace we have granted and given licence on behalf of ourselves and our heirs, so far as in us lies, to our beloved and faithful Edward Dalyngrigge Knight, that he may strengthen with a wall of stone and lime, and crenellate and may construct and make into a Castle his manor house of Bodiam, near the sea, in the County of Sussex, for the defence of the adjacent country, and the resistance to our enemies ...

The King at Westminster 20 October.Dalyngrigge's licence from Richard II permitted him to refortify his existing manor house, but instead he chose a fresh site to build a castle on.

Archaeologist David Thackray has deduced from this that Bodiam Castle was built quickly, probably because of the threat from the French.

Since they had no children, at Alice's death (which occurred in 1442) it was to pass to John's cousin Richard Dallingrigge, son of Edward's brother Walter.

On Henry VII's accession to the English throne the attainder was revoked, and Bodiam Castle was returned to Lewknor.

[21][22] To help pay his fine, Tufton sold Bodiam Castle for £6,000 (£1,300,000 today)[21] in March 1644 to Nathaniel Powell, a Parliamentarian.

[24] Ruins and medieval buildings such as Bodiam Castle served as an inspiration for the revival in Gothic architecture and the renovation of old structures.

[25] Sir Godfrey Webster, 5th Baronet began looking for buyers for the castle in 1815, and in 1829 he finally managed to sell it and 24 acres (10 ha) of the surrounding land to John 'Mad Jack' Fuller for £3,000 (£330,000 today).

He commissioned the first detailed survey of Bodiam Castle in 1864, and undertook repairs to the tower at the southwest corner of the site, which had almost entirely collapsed.

Because there was then a fashion for ruins covered in ivy, the vegetation was not removed despite its detrimental effect on the masonry, and the trees which had taken root in the courtyard were left.

[27] Lord Curzon decided that "so rare a treasure [as Bodiam Castle] should neither be lost to our country nor desecrated by irreverent hands".

[32] It was later the filming location for the Doctor Who serial The King's Demons, broadcast in 1983,[33] and was used again in the revived series for the 2014 episode Robot of Sherwood.

[37] The castle is a Scheduled Monument,[38] which means it is a "nationally important" historic building and archaeological site which has been given protection against unauthorised change.

[41] Today the castle is open to the public,[42] and according to figures released by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, nearly 175,598 people visited in 2017.

A landscape survey by the Royal Commission for Historic Monuments concluded that if this were the case, then Bodiam Castle was unusually sited, as it is far from the medieval coastline.

[45] Archaeologists Oliver Creighton and Robert Higham have described Bodiam as one of the best examples of landscaping to emphasise a castle.

[50] The castle's 28 toilets drained directly into the moat, which in the words of archaeologist Matthew Johnson would have been effectively an "open sewer".

Drawings from the late 18th century show the ground floor of the barbican still standing and includes detail such as vaulting inside the passageway.

[50] The gatehouse in the castle's north wall is three storeys high; now reached by a static bridge, it was originally connected to the barbican by a drawbridge.

[63] Arranged along the west curtain wall was an extra hall and a kitchen; it is not certain what these were used for, although it is probable that these were intended to provide for the household's retainers.