During the civil war of the 12th century the castle changed hands several times between the de Lacys and rival claimants, and was further fortified with a Great Tower and a large outer bailey.

A mansion was constructed in the outer bailey but the remainder of the castle was left largely untouched, attracting an increasing number of visitors and becoming a popular location for artists.

[13] Stephen responded by taking an army into the Welsh Marches, where he attempted to garner local support by marrying one of his knights, Joce de Dinan, to Sybil and granting the future ownership of the castle to them.

[26] Walter's lands were returned to him, subject to the payment of a fine of 400 marks, but in 1207 his disagreements with royal officials in Ireland led to King John seizing the castle and putting it under the control of William again.

[32] Henry informally divided the lands up between them, giving Ludlow to Maud and marrying her to one of his royal favourites, Peter de Geneva, cancelling many of the debts they had inherited from Walter at the same time.

[36] Prince Edward escaped from captivity in 1265 and met up with his supporters at the castle, before commencing his campaign to retake the throne, culminating in de Montfort's defeat at Evesham later that year.

[45] Mortimer's work at Ludlow was probably intended to produce what the historian David Whitehead has termed a "show castle" with chivalric and Arthurian overtones, echoing the now archaic Norman styles of building.

[50] Both Roger and Edmund used a legal device called "the use", effectively giving Ludlow Castle to trustees during their lifetimes in exchange for annual payments; this reduced their tax liabilities and gave them more control over the distribution of the estates on their deaths.

[54] Military captains were appointed to the castle to protect it from the rebel threat, in the first instance John Lovel and then Henry's half-brother, Sir Thomas Beaufort.

[60] Richard also established his sons, including the future Edward IV, and their household at the castle in the 1450s, and was possibly responsible for rebuilding the northern part of the Great Tower during this period.

[63] After the battle, in a bid to break Richard's power over the region, Edmund de la Mare was placed in charge of the castle as constable, with John Talbot, the Earl of Shrewsbury, being given the wider lordship.

[67] Edward died in 1483, but after Henry VII took the throne in 1485 he continued to use Ludlow Castle as a regional base, granting it to his son, Prince Arthur, in 1493, and reestablishing the dormant Council in the Marches at the property.

[71] Mary Tudor, daughter of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII, spent 19 months at Ludlow overseeing the Council of the Marches between 1525 and 1528, along with her entourage of servants, advisors, and guardians.

[91] A Royalist garrison was put in place in the town, under the command of Sir Michael Woodhouse, and the defences were strengthened, with artillery being brought from nearby Bringewood Forge for the castle.

[93] In April 1646 Sir William Brereton and Colonel John Birch led a Parliamentary army from Hereford to take Ludlow; after a short siege, Woodhouse surrendered the castle and town on good terms on 26 May.

[101] Shortly after 1714, the roofs were stripped of their lead and the wooden floors began to collapse; the writer Daniel Defoe visited in 1722, and noted that the castle "is in the very Perfection of Decay".

[103] Nonetheless, some rooms remained usable for many years afterwards, possibly as late as the 1760s and 1770s, when drawings show the entrance block to the inner bailey to still be intact, and visitors remarked on the good condition of the round chapel.

[113] The castle walls and towers were given superficial repairs and tidied up, usually when parts threatened to collapse, and the interior of the inner bailey levelled, costing considerable sums of money.

[119] After some extensive discussions the prisoner-of-war plan was finally dropped, and Lord Clive, by now declared the Earl of Powis, was offered the chance to buy the castle outright for £1,560, which he accepted in 1811.

[121] By the 1840s the house had been leased out, first to George Hodges and his family, and then to William Urwick and to Robert Marston, all important members of the local landowning classes.

[123] Ludlow Castle was held in high esteem by Victorian antiquarians, George Clark referring to it as "the glory of the middle marches of Wales" and as being "probably without rival in Britain" for its woodland setting.

[102] During the 19th century, vegetation continued to grow over the castle's stonework, although after a survey by Arthur Blomfield in 1883, which highlighted the damage being caused by the ivy, attempts were made to control the plants, cleaning them off many of the walls.

[126] W. H. St John Hope and Harold Brakspear began a sequence of archaeological investigations at Ludlow Castle in 1903, publishing their conclusions in 1909 in an account which continues to be held in regard by modern academics.

[140] This based around a partnership in which the Powis Estate would retain ownership of the castle and develop visitor access, in exchange for a £500,000 contribution from English Heritage for a jointly-funded programme of repairs and maintenance, delivered through specialist contractors.

[159] The exterior of the prison was originally decorated with the coats of arms of Henry, the Earl of Pembroke, and Queen Elizabeth I, but these have since been destroyed, as have the barred windows which once protected the property.

[160] Along the south of the bailey are the remains of St Peter's, a former 14th-century chapel, approximately 21 by 52 feet (6.4 by 15.8 m) in size, later converted to a courthouse by the addition of an extension reaching up to the western curtain wall.

[162] The western curtain wall is approximately 6-foot-5-inch (1.96 m) thick, and guarded by the 13th-century Mortimer's Tower, 18 feet (5.5 m) across externally, with a ground floor vaulted chamber inside, 12-foot-9.5-inch (3.899 m) large.

[166] On the south and west sides the wall is protected by a ditch, originally up to 80-foot (24 m) deep, cut out of the rock and navigated by a bridge which still contains part of the ashlar stone of its 16th century predecessor.

[168] The gatehouse to the inner bailey has the coats of arms of Sir Henry Sidney and Queen Elizabeth I displayed over it, dating to 1581, and was originally a three-storeyed building with transomed windows and fireplaces, probably used as the lodgings for the judges.

[178] They were entered by a shared spiral staircase, a design used in various episcopal palaces in the 16th century, and originally provided sets of individual offices and personal rooms for the court officials, later being converted into two distinct apartments.