In 1510 Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, obtained a licence from Henry VIII to castellate
his family's manor house in Thornbury having decided to make it his principal seat. His father, the 2nd Duke,
had been executed for plotting against Richard III, and the 3rd Duke met a similar fate, executed in 1521 for
treason against Henry VIII. The unfinished house was appropriated by the King who stayed here for ten days
in 1535 with his second wife Anne Boleyn. The house remained a royal estate for 33 years until the death of
Mary I in 1554, after which it was returned to Edward Stafford's son, Henry, but the Staffords could not afford
to complete the building and instead chose to neglect it. In 1727 William Stafford-Howard sold the by now
much
dilapidated 
house to his cousin Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk, but the Howards took little interest in it
until 1850 when Anthony Salvin partially restored the building for Henry Howard. Salvin also built Dunster
Castle in Somerset for
George Luttrell. Thornbury Castle is now owned by Von Essen Hotels.