1546,) it was seized by the king, who dying the same year, his
successor, Edward VI., granted it to his sister, the Princess,
afterwards Queen Mary. King James I. granted it to Thomas Howard,
first Baron Howard de Walden, youngest son of Thomas, fourth Duke of
Norfolk, created Earl of Suffolk 21st of July, 1603; but his lordship
making Audley Inn his seat, the castle fell into decay, and his son,
Theophilus, second Earl of Suffolk, sold it in 1635, with the domains,
to Sir Robert Hitcham, knight, senior sergeant to James I.; who by his
will, dated 10th of August, 1636, bequeathed it to the master and
scholars of Pembroke College, in trust for certain charitable uses;
the advowson of the living, the castle and the manor, he bequeathed to
the college for its own use; since which time the castle has remained
in a dismantled state.

Loder, in his _History of Framlingham_, thus describes the former
state of the structure: "This castle, containing an acre, a rood, and
eleven perches of land, within the walls now standing, but anciently a
much larger quantity before the walls enclosing the same were
demolished, was in former ages very fair and beautiful, standing
within a park (long since disparked) on the north side of the town;
fortified with a double ditch, high banks, rampires, and stone walls
44 feet high and 8 feet thick; in these walls were thirteen towers, 14
feet higher than the walls, built four-square--whereof two were
watch-towers, one looking towards the east and the other towards the
west: and the rooms within the castle were very commodious and
necessary, capable to receive and contain abundance of people.

"In the first court was a deep well, of excellent workmanship,
compassed with carved pillars, which supported its leaden roof, and
though out of repair, was in being in the year of our Lord 1651. A