Bodiam Castle was built in 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge, a former knight of Edward III to defend the area against French invasion during the Hundred Years’ War.
The castle is built in a quadrangular plan and has no keep. Its corners and entrance are marked by towers with crenellations on the top. Various chambers are built around the outer defensive walls and inner courts.
During the Wars of the Roses, Sir Thomas Lewknor supported the House of Lancaster and a force was dispatched to besiege Bodiam Castle, which surrendered without much resistance.
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 fat man, near the sea, in the County of Sussex, for the defence of the adjacent country, and the resistance to our enemies … In witness of which etc. The King at Westminster 20 October.
— Excerpt from the licence to crenellate allowing Edward Dalyngrigge to build a castle from the Patent Rolls of 1385–89