Berkeley family Constable (Alnod), a high official under King Edward the Confessor. Berkeley Castle, the "caput" of the barony, and the adjoining town of Berkeley are located in the county of Gloucestershire and are situated about five miles west of Dursley and eighteen miles southwest of Gloucester, and northeast of Bristol. The location has conferred various titles on the family over the centuries, including Baron Berkeley (barony by writ), Earl of Berkeley, and Marquess of Berkeley. Berkeley Castle was originally granted by William the Conqueror to the Norman Roger de Berkeley, feudal baron of Dursley, under the feudal tenure of fee-farm. However,
Laach Castle (Kruft) Laach Castle (Kruft) Laach Castle (), also called the Pfalzgrafen Castle ("Pfalzgrafenburg" or 'Count Palatine's Castle'), is a levelled Salian spur castle by the Laacher See (Lake Laach) opposite the Abbey of Maria Laach. The castle site lies on the territory of Kruft in the county of Mayen-Koblenz in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Laach was a motte and bailey castle which stood at a height } on a rock spur which, at that time, was a peninsula because the level of the lake was 15 metres higher. It stood above the eastern shore of the lake and was temporarily