Kenilworth Castle; from Medieval Fortifications to Tudor Palace and John of Gaunt to an Elizabethan love story.

Kenilworth Castle appears to morph from medieval fortifications to Tudor Palace and its story features John of Gaunt son of King Edward III of medieval times to an Elizabethan love story involving Robert Dudley, (aka the Earl of Leicester) and Queen Elizabeth I. The castle was involved in the longest siege in English history and when you explore it, you can see why the defenders survived. It features a huge square keep, the ruins of a medieval palace , Queen Elizabeth’s apartments and a reconstructed ornate garden created out of love for her. A wonderful day can be enjoyed wandering around these amazing buildings.

Below; As you walk from the car park to the entrance you are walking on a dam created by King John to enhance security. To the left, there was once a mere or large lake which would have been a great defensive feature because it would have taken numerous vulnerable boats to transport an army across to the first set of curtain walls. The presence of the mere and marshy land meant that the often used method of tunnelling under the walls or towers was impossible. Over time, the dam would have been used as a tiltyard where knights would charge at each other to entertain the castle owners and their friends.

Below; a modern day re enactment of jousting in a temporary tiltyard.

Below; the remains of the gatehouse which once would have been a formidable barrier to entry and towering over it is Leicester’s building.

Below; two large round towers with a portcullis would prevent entry without permission.

Below; looking out from the gatehouse to the curtain wall. To the of the curtain wall would have been the mere.

Below; on entering to the right is more of the curtain wall and the stable block which today is the tea room.

Below; inside the stable block is this magnificent ceiling.

Below; opposite the stable block is the “inner court”. The building on the right is the “Great Tower”. This is the initial castle building, began by Geoffrey de Clinton in the 12th century and completed by King John.

In the middle is a building built in the 14th century by John of Gaunt, brother to King Edward III and father of King Henry IV. At one stage Gaunt was the richest man in the country and consequently, creating this part of the castle turned it into a palace as well as a fortress. It includes the “Great Hall” which would have hosted large feasts for numerous guest of high status including royalty. The castle stayed in the possession of the royal family until Queen Elizabeth I gave it to Robert Dudley aka Earl of Leicester.

Dudley, was desperate to impress Elizabeth with an aim to marry her. On the left is a building built by Dudley in the period 1570-5 to entertain the Queen on four occasions. On her last visit in July 1575, he added an amazing garden to seek her hand but unfortunately it was not enough for Elizabeth to agree to marry him.

Below a closeup of the “Great Tower”, a typical Norman keep with square towers and semi-circular topped windows. The walls were extremely thick, apparently up to 4 metres in places. Before John Of Gaunt built his palatial building in the second half of the 14th century, the Great Tower was the main accommodation for the castle with a “great hall” for feasting and entertaining on the floor above.

Below; The original keep consisted of two storeys but King John added a third for extra room space and security. In this extra storey, a new innovation were “fish tail arrow loops”. These were created for cross bows to fire at the people below.

Below; the rear of the “Great Tower”. In front of the tower are two large kitchens built by John of Gaunt, measuring 20 metres by 10 metres. Cooks would be able to feed several hundred people and experts state that it was twice the size of most kitchens built by English nobles. John of Gaunt set out to show he was far above all other nobles in every way possible. The kitchens formed a separate building as a fire precaution. Several fires would be roaring here and therefore, the fire risk engulfing the whole castle was reduced being separated from the other buildings.

Below; the interior of the “Great Tower”.

Below; two major kitchens built when John of Gaunt owned the castle. The line down the middle is the dividing wall between the two kitchens and the line to its right is a drainage channel. In the left of the photo, is end of John of Gaunt’s great hall.

Below; ovens. The hole to the left of centre is probably a bread oven and to its right a hearth to roast meat over a fire.

Below; John of Gaunt’s palatial addition to the castle. The great hall is on the first floor with cellars for wine and beer, at ground level. It was built at the end of the 14th century and like the kitchens, was designed to show his regal status.

Below; the inside of the John of Gaunt’s “Great Hall”. Note the hall is on the first floor and therefore the windows would allow loads of light in to illuminate the feasting and offer beautiful views of the mere a surrounding countryside. There would have been 6 fires to keep the guests warm on cold winter nights and hanging down the walls would have been some large, colourful and expensive tapestries.

Below; In the centre is John of Gaunt at a feast in France. Note the decorated walls, the minstrels playing music and numerous servants.

british library. public domain.

Below; two views of Leicester’s building, the bottom one being from outside of the castle and highlighting the number of large windows which would have provided another fine view over the mere and the surrounding environment.

The top floor contained a long gallery for the queen to stroll around looking at the views and eating during inclement weather. Dudley, even built a room that Elizabeth could use for dancing.

The first floor contained the Queen’s bed-chamber and rooms in which she could meet important guests, especially Robert Dudley.

The ground floor would have contained bed-chambers for all of the Queens “ladies-in waiting” which would have easy access to the Queen above.

Below; the next two photos show a recreation, in 2009, of the garden that Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester created for the visit of Queen Elizabeth I in 1575. It was filled with loads of colourful flowers showing that Dudley was rich and Elizabeth was worth it. The richer a noble was the more flowers he could have. It was meant to be a “privy garden” for her and her companions only, but a man called Robert Langham had a sneaky, unauthorised visit and noted down its features from which English Heritage was able to design what we see today. Along with the colourful flowers and their beautiful scent, there was a fountain in the middle and a 20 feet high aviary at one side.

Not only was this beautiful garden and various rooms created for her but an array of entertainment was staged, such as a firework display and a play.

Below; “Leicester’Gatehouse” built around 1571-2.

Below; its decorated entrance. Note the letters R and L to the left and right of the top of the doorway standing for Robert Leicester.

Below; In 1650 it was turned into a a large house with the following five photos showing some of its furnished rooms.

Below; at the top right of the fireplace are again the letters R and L

Below; a Tudor style bedroom with a beautifully carved “four poster bed”.

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Some important people and events at Kenilworth.

The castle was built by Geoffrey de Clinton in the 1120s. He was an upwardly mobile character and not of noble birth. By 1120 he had been noticed by Henry I who made him his chamberlain and treasurer. In 1121, Henry was so impressed with Geoffrey that he made him Sheriff of Warwickshire with the aim of keeping an eye on the Earl of Warwick. Henry I did not trust the Earl, Roger de Beaumont and so Geoffrey was in place ready to react to anything that Roger might do which was not in the king’s best interest. To increase his status and wealth, Henry I gave him a large piece of land to begin building his own castle, Kenilworth Castle.

Some historians maintain that with great financial help from the king, Geoffrey built the Great Tower in the style of an impregnable large square keep. Similar ones can be seen at Dover, Rochester and the Tower of London. On the other hand, some historians suggest that Geoffreys initial castle was a typical motte and bailey castle with a wooden tower and defences.

Below; King Henry II and his wife, Queen Eleanor.

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During the reign of Henry II (1154-89), his sons rebelled and the King decided that Kenilworth should not fall into enemy hands and so he took it over on the death of Geoffrey Clinton II, the son of the original owner.

Below; King John.

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King John (ruled 1199-1216) inherited the castle and spent a vast amount on improving its defences. He completed the Keep, added a curtain wall around the entire castle and was responsible for building the dam and creating the mere. Before the dam the area of the mere was a marsh and so with the extra water created by the dam, a large lake was formed and was the equivalent of 24 football pitches, according to a survey of 1545. A typical method of attacking a stone castle was to undermine its walls but with the mere surrounding most of the castle mining would be impossible. Likewise, getting across the mere unscathed by boat would be very difficult and would mean a high death count of the invading army.

During the reign of Henry III (1216-72), having giving the custody of Kenilworth to his brother-in-law, Simon De Montfort, they fell out, with Simon leading a revolt that overthrew Henry. Henry not only lost the Battle of Lewes in May 1264, he and his son Edward, were captured. A year later, in August 1265, the tables were reversed when Henry defeated Simon at the Battle of Evesham.

Below; a painting of the Battle of Evesham.

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However, although Simon’s son gave the Castle over to the King, Simon’s supporters rallied at Kenilworth believing that they had nothing to lose because, apparently, the King had not treated the rebels captured at Evesham with mercy. When the King’s messenger arrived at Kennilworth to tell them to leave, the rebels cut off his hand and sent him back! Henry was furious at this and on 25th June, his forces began to besiege the castle under Prince Edward. Inside were 1200 defenders who were not prepared to give in without a fight. This siege was to become one of the longest in English history and lasted until December 13th, a total of 172 days. Henry had massive trebuchets built to pound the castle walls with huge boulders but failed to make any impact. He even sent to London to get even bigger machines that could launch boulders weighing 300 lb (140 kg) but to no avail. In 1960, archaeologists excavating inside the curtain wall discovered some of the boulders that had been launched and worked out that they had travelled 350 yards (320 m).

Below; a replica of a trebuchet at Warwick Castle.

Other tactics were thousands of crossbow bolts fired by Edward’s archers who hid behind wooden hurdles as they came within firing range of the castle but to little effect. Lastly, special barges were brought over from Chester to ferry troops across the mere but these too were unsuccessful. All this time, the defenders were getting increasingly hungry and some had died through disease, a common killer in such sieges due to insanitary conditions. With only of a couple of days supplies left, the castle’s starving defenders gave in and ended the siege. They were induced to give up mainly due to their condition but also because of favourable surrender terms whereby, on payment of heavy fines they would be able to hold onto their estaes.

Kenilworth was now granted by Henry III to his youngest son, Edmund, who in 1267 was made Earl of Lancaster. It was to be in the possession of the earls of Lancaster and dukes of Lancaster as well as Lancastrian kings for the next 200 years.

Below, John of Gaunt.

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In 1359, Edward III’s fourth son, John of Gaunt married Blanche, daughter of the Duke of Lancaster and on her father’s death in 1361, John inherited half of the Duke’s land. When, her sister, Maud, died a year later Gaunt became the richest and most powerful nobleman in the country. With his inheritance came Kenilworth Castle which Gaunt now turned into a palace fortress fit for a royal prince. He was so wealthy that he could have 170 knights in his service! One of their children, Henry Bolingbroke became Henry IV after overthrowing King Richard II. After Blanche’s death in 1371 Gaunt married Constanza daughter of the King, Pedro I of Castile and Leon. When Pedro died, Gaunt tried to ascertain his right to ascend the throne after Pedro. During his marriage to Constanza, Gaunt fathered four children by his mistress, Katherine Swynford , who later became known as the Beaufort’s which eventually resulted in the Tudor royal line.

Below; Henry VII, the first Tudor king and, in the next photo, Henry VIII, his son.

National Portrait gallery

national portrait gallery.

In 1563, Queen Elizabeth I granted Kenilworth Castle to her favourite, Robert Ridley, Earl of Leicester. He had known her as a child and he’d been courting her since 1559. He had great plans on marrying her and so he set about improving the castle so that, on her visit, she would become even more enamoured with him when seeing how much he was prepared to do and spend to get her hand. He built “Leicester’s Building” to accommodate her in a way that would suit her status and also created Leicester’s Gatehouse, a new entrance to the castle in order that the Queen could easily attend the church nearby for Anglican services.

Below; Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and below him, Queen Elizabeth I.

national portrait gallery

national portrait gallery

For her final visit in 1575 lasting 19 days, he also created a new garden so that she could enjoy the beautiful flowers without being disturbed. Unfortunately, Elizabeth visited on four occasions but never agreed to marry him. In fact she never agreed to marry anyone and used “flirting”, as a way of getting her own way on foreign policy. As a consequence, “Leicester’s Building” was hardly ever used.

During the English Civil War, Kenilworth was held by the Royalists. However, after the war, the victorious Parliamentarian side decided that Kenilworth should never act as a fortress again and so did sufficient damage to the defences to fulfil their plan.

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Essential Information.

Address ;Kenilworth Castle Castle Green, Off Castle Road, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, CV8 1NG

Telephone: 01926 852078

Opening times and ticket prices;

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