Grantley Berkeley and afterwards transferred to the 82nd Regiment of Foot. Berkeley sat as Member of Parliament for Gloucestershire West from 1832 to 1852 as a Whig. In 1836 he proposed the admission of ladies to the gallery of the House of Commons; this was granted in 1841. After 1852 he devoted himself largely to field sports and writing. Berkeley was the author of a number of books, including "Berkeley Castle", "Sandron Hall, or the Days of Queen Anne" (1840), and "My Life and Recollections", 4 volumes, (1865–66). In 1836, Berkeley assaulted magazine publisher James Fraser over a review he published in
Berkeley Castle from the Minstrels' gallery. His tomb is in St Mary's churchyard which stands besides the castle. Adjoining the Great Hall was the Chapel of St Mary (now the morning room) with its painted wooden vaulted ceilings and a biblical passage, written in Norman French. In the late 16th century Queen Elizabeth I visited the castle and played bowls on the bowling green. During the English Civil War, the castle still held sufficient significance for it to be captured in 1645 by Colonel Thomas Rainsborough, for the Parliamentarian side and after a siege which saw cannon being fired at point blank