APPENDIX 6
When John Gamage died in 1584, his daughter Barbara Gamage was still a minor. Consequently, she was put under the guardianship of a cousin, Sir Edward Stradling, and went to live in his house, St Donat’s Castle. It was here that shortly afterwards (and much to the annoyance of Queen Elizabeth) she married her childhood sweetheart, Sir Robert Sidney.
The Stradlings were an old family who had come to Wales at the time of the Norman Conquest. Indeed, the founding patriarch of the family, Sir William le Esterling, was one of Fitzhammon’s ‘Knights of Despoilation’. He was given the Lordship of St Donat’s as his reward. The Stradlings, like most of the other noble families in the area, married ladies from equivalent or sometimes higher levels of the aristocracy. History is silent about the first seven generations from William le Esterling, but then Sir Peter Stradling (from the time of Edward I), married Eleanor, the daughter of Richard ‘Strongbow’ de Clare.*
Their son, another Sir Edward Stradling, was Viscount of Glamorgan in 1367. He was married to Gwenllian, the sister of Sir Lawrence Berkrolles, who was both Lord of East Orchard Manor and of Coity. Following the death of Sir Lawrence, they contested his will, believing that Coity should pass to his sister and thus into the Stradling family. This case went to Chancery, and in the end it was decided that while East Orchard should pass to Gwenllian, Coity should go to Sir Gilbert Gamage, who was directly descended from the Turbevilles.
Beginning what was to become a family tradition, Sir Edward’s son, Sir William Stradling, went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem and enrolled as a Knight of the Holy Sepulchre. This was a good and usually painless way of getting yourself a knighthood without having to rely on the patronage of the local senior nobility and the favour of the monarch. His son, Sir Edward Stradling III, did the same thing and, in c.1423, married Jane, the illegitimate daughter of Bishop (later Cardinal) Henry Beaufort. The Beauforts were descended from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and the third son of Edward III by his mistress (and later second wife) Katherine Swinford. Although born before the Duke’s marriage, the Beauforts were legitimized by Act of Parliament. Bishop Henry Beaufort was a powerful man in court and was Chancellor of England under both Henry IV and V. Meanwhile, Jane’s mother was said to be Alice, daughter of Richard FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel. This was another powerful family from the 1st league. Thus, by virtue of this marriage, Sir Edward Stradling found himself connected to those close to the centre of power.
His son, Sir Henry Stradling, followed the by now routine path of going on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, although he died on the return journey. Prior to this unfortunate event, he was married to Elizabeth Herbert. She was the sister of Sir William Herbert, the Yorkist Earl of Pembroke, who was beheaded in 1469. The most startling event of Sir Henry Stradling’s life occurred in 1455 when he was captured by pirates. This was a fairly frequent incident even in those days, as the coasts of England and Wales were not protected as they are now by coastguards. Pirates could, and did, raid from North Africa as well as France, taking people away either for ransom or as slaves. In Sir Henry’s case, a ransom was paid to his captor, Colyn Dolphin. Later, this notorious pirate was shipwrecked near St Donats. He and his gang were captured and all of them hanged by order of Sir Henry.
Sir Henry’s son, Thomas Stradling, married Jenet, daughter of Thomas Mathew of Radyr. As her brother fought alongside Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth, the Stradlings found themselves well placed with the new Tudor Dynasty.
Thomas Stradling’s grandson, another Sir Thomas Stradling, married Catherine Gamage of Coity. It was through this connection that his son, Sir Edward Stradling, was related to Lady Barbara Gamage, who was herself a great-granddaughter of Sir Thomas Gamage. Sir Edward Stradling was a noted antiquarian and bibliophile. He compiled a family history and also wrote a history of the Norman invasion of Glamorgan. As he was closely linked with them by virtue of interests as well as family, it would be true to say that Sir Edward was a member of the Dee circle and very probably a ‘Rosicrucian’ in the generic sense of the term, meaning an enlightened, Christian mystic.
After the Reformation, the Stradlings continued to be a Roman Catholic family, which cost them a great deal. The line eventually died out in 1728, and St Donats Castle was sold. In 1925, it was bought and restored by the American media mogul Randolph Hearst. He spent a fortune on the castle, refurbishing it with entire rooms taken from other castles and ancient buildings. In the 1930s, he held lavish parties there where he entertained film stars and senior politicians such as Winston Churchill and the young John F Kennedy. After he died, the castle was sold and, in 1962, taken over by Atlantic College, a trust set up to promote internationalism in education. Run on progressive, liberal ideas, Lord Louis Mountbatten of Burma was made its President in 1967. It is still functioning today, and so the castle, although in good order, is not open to the general public.
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* See Chart 26: The Stradlings of St Donats, page 252