The Domesday Survey records Godrich (sic) among the lands situated within the boundary of Archenfield. Godrich was held by Godric Mappesone in 1086, and by Taldus before the Conquest. The entry records a demesne of 2 ploughs, 4 oxmen and 1 female slave, along with 12 villans and 12 borders with 11 ploughs. There was a render of 18 sesters of honey, a smith and a fishery. No castle is mentioned, and the first notice of one occurs in 1101-02, by which time Godric himself was dead. The castle passed to Wiliam fitz Baderon, perhaps Godric’s son-in-law, and thence to William’s son Baderon in the 1120s. Around 1138 King Stephen granted this important strategic site to Gilbert fitz Gilbert de Clare (d.1148), creating him Earl of Pembroke. From Gilbert it passed to his son Richard “Strongbow” de Clare. When Henry II came to the throne in 1154, Richard forfeited his earldom and never achieved the political importance under Henry that he had enjoyed under Stephen. He died in 1176 and the estate passed to the crown. Nevertheless the right of inheritance remained in his line, specifically with his daughter Isabella. In 1189 he married William Marshal, a knight of the royal household, and on their marriage Marshal received the castles of Chepstow and Usk. He was granted the earldom of Pembroke by King John in 1199, and Goodrich Castle in 1204. He remained a loyal (and distinguished) servant of the king and his successor, the young Henry III, serving as regent in the early years of Henry’s minority. He died in 1219 and was succeeded as Earl of Pembroke by each of his five sons in turn (all five dying childless). Goodrich was granted to Walter, the fourth son, who lived in the castle for much of his life (although he did not inherit the title to it until 1241, when the third son, Gilbert, died in a tournament accident). Walter died in 1245, and his brother Anselm, the last of the sons, a few months later. The Marshal estates were then divided between the heirs of William Marshal’s five daughters, with Goodrich going to John de Munchensi, son of William’s daughter Joan (d.1234). When John died childless in 1247 the castle passed to his sister, Joan, who married William de Valence, Henry III’s half-brother. William (d.1296) and Joan de Valence (d.1307) were largely responsible for the castle we see today. On William’s death his widow, Joan continued to live at Goodrich for long spells, and his title and lands passed to his son Aymer (d.1324) at her death. He died childless and his heir was his niece Elizabeth Comyn, a minor. While the castle was in crown custody Elizabeth was kidnapped by the Despensers, who held her until she surrendered the castle to them. On her release she married Richard Talbot, Lord Talbot, who promptly seized Goodrich in her name. The castle remained in the Talbot family, created Earls of Shrewsbury in 1442 in recognition of the then lord John Talbot’s distinguished war service. The Talbots lost Goodrich in 1619, when it was claimed by the Crown in payment of debts incurred by the dowager Countess Mary, widow of the 7th earl of Shrewsbury and daughter of Bess of Hardwick. The family retained effective control of the castle, however, leasing it to tenants. In 1632 the heiress was Elizabeth Talbot, who married Henry Grey, heir to the earldom of Kent, who carried out repairs to the building at his own expense in 1631-32. During the Civil War it was occupied successively by Parliamentarian and Royalist garrisons in the battle for control of the Welsh Marches, and was besieged by Cromwell’s men under Colonel Birch in 1646, leaving it in a ruinous condition. In 1648 it was slighted, and rendered uninhabitable. In 1755 it was sold to Admiral Thomas Griffin, and remained in his family until 1920, when it came into the guardianship of the Office of Works. They cleared vegetation from the site, consolidated the standing fabric and repaired decaying masonry, beginning a process of Government conservation that has continued until the present day. It passed to English Heritage in 1984.