Kenilworth Castle facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Kenilworth Castle |
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| Warwickshire, England | |
Kenilworth Castle, viewed from the site entrance
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 Kenilworth Castle
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| Coordinates | 52°20′53″N 1°35′32″W / 52.3479693°N 1.5923611°W |
| Grid reference | grid reference SP2794172163 |
| Type | Inner and outer bailey walls with great tower |
| Site information | |
| Owner | Town of Kenilworth |
| Controlled by | English Heritage |
| Open to the public |
Yes |
| Condition | Ruined |
| Site history | |
| Materials | New red sandstone |
| Battles/wars | Siege of Kenilworth (great siege of 1266) |
Kenilworth Castle is a famous castle located in the town of Kenilworth in Warwickshire, England. Today, much of it is in ruins, but it is managed by English Heritage and open to the public.
This castle was first built during the Norman conquest of England and was developed over many centuries, right up to the Tudor period. Experts have called it "the finest surviving example of a semi-royal palace of the later middle ages." This means it was a very important and grand home for powerful people, almost like a royal palace.
Kenilworth Castle played a big role in English history. It was the site of a six-month-long siege of Kenilworth in 1266, which is believed to be the longest siege in Medieval English history. It was also a key base for the Lancastrian side during the Wars of the Roses. Important events like the removal of King Edward II from his throne happened here. Legend says that in 1414, the French sent King Henry V a gift of tennis balls at Kenilworth, which supposedly made him angry enough to start the campaign that led to the famous Battle of Agincourt. Later, in 1575, the Earl of Leicester hosted a huge party for Elizabeth I at the castle. Kenilworth is also known as one of the few major castles in Britain that were built as "water-castles" or "lake-fortresses," using water as a strong defense.
The castle was built and changed over many years. It started in the 1120s with a strong Norman great tower. King John made it much bigger in the early 1200s, adding huge water defenses by damming local streams. These defenses were so good they helped the castle survive attacks by land and water in 1266. Later, John of Gaunt spent a lot of money in the late 1300s, turning the medieval castle into a grand palace fortress with the latest Perpendicular style. Finally, the Earl of Leicester expanded it even more in the 1500s, adding new Tudor buildings to make it a fashionable Renaissance palace.
Castle Design and Surroundings
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Even though Kenilworth Castle is now mostly in ruins, it still shows us how English military and civil buildings changed over five centuries. The castle was partly destroyed in 1649 by Parliament's forces after the English Civil War. This was done to stop it from being used as a military base. The castle is built almost entirely from local new red sandstone.
Castle Entrance and Outer Walls
To the south-east of the main castle are the Brays. This area was once a large outer defense with a stone wall and a gatehouse. It guarded the main path to the castle. Today, only earthworks and small pieces of stone walls remain, and part of the area is now a car park.
Beyond the Brays, you can see the ruins of the Gallery Tower. This was another gatehouse that was updated in the 1400s. The Gallery Tower originally protected a long, narrow walled path, about 152-metre (499-foot) long, that leads from the Brays to the main castle. This path was called the Tiltyard because it was used for jousting in medieval times. The Tiltyard also acted as a dam and part of the castle's defenses. To the east of the Tiltyard was a marshy area called the Lower Pool, which was once flooded. To the west was the Great Mere, a large lake covering about 100 acres (40 ha), which was held back by the Tiltyard. The Great Mere has since been drained and is now a meadow.
You usually enter the outer bailey of Kenilworth Castle through Mortimer's Tower. This tower is a ruin today, but it was originally a Norman stone gatehouse. It was made bigger in the late 1200s and 1500s. The outer bailey wall is long and relatively low. It was built mainly by King John and was designed to be protected mostly by the water system of the Great Mere and Lower Pool. The north side of this wall was almost completely destroyed in 1649. Other parts of the outer bailey include a watergate, the King's Gate (added later for farming), the Swan Tower (named after swans on the Great Mere), Lunn's Tower, and the Water Tower, which overlooked the Lower Pool.
Inner Castle Area
Kenilworth's inner court has several buildings built against a bailey wall, which was originally Norman. This area uses the natural advantage of a small hill that rises steeply from the surrounding land. The 1100s great tower stands on this hill and forms the north-east corner of the inner area. This great tower was ruined in 1649. It is known for its huge corner towers and very thick walls, about 5 metres (16 feet) thick. The towers are 30 metres (98 feet) high. The lowest floor is filled with earth, possibly from an earlier mound. The tall Tudor windows at the top of the tower were added in the 1570s.
Much of the northern part of the inner bailey was built by John of Gaunt, a son of King Edward III, between 1372 and 1380. This part of the castle is considered "the finest surviving example of a semi-royal palace of the later middle ages." Gaunt's building style focused on rectangular shapes, separating the ground floor service areas from the upper living areas. He made the outside look plain but the inside very fancy, especially on the first floor. This style is an early example of the Perpendicular style.
Gaunt's most important building is his great hall. This hall replaced earlier ones on the same spot and was inspired by King Edward III's design at Windsor Castle. It had a special sequence of rooms, reached by a very grand staircase that is now gone. From the great hall, visitors could look out through huge windows at the Great Mere or the inner court. The undercroft (basement) of the hall, used by staff, had narrow windows. The roof was built in 1376 and was the widest hall roof in England at the time that didn't need pillars.
The great hall was designed to look somewhat symmetrical from the outside. The Strong and Saintlowe Towers act like "wings" to the hall, and the base of the hall matches that of the great tower. An unusual multi-sided tower, the Oriel, was built for Gaunt to have private gatherings away from the main parties. Gaunt's Strong Tower is called "Strong" because all its floors are made of stone arches, which was a very sturdy design.
Other parts of the castle built by Gaunt include the southern range of royal apartments, Gaunt's Tower, and the main kitchen. These buildings shared the same style as the great hall, making Gaunt's palace look unified. Gaunt's new kitchen was twice the size of kitchens in similar castles, measuring nineteen by eight metres (62 by 26 feet).
The rest of the inner court was built by Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, in the 1570s. He built a tower, now called Leicester's building, on the south side of the court. This was a guest wing, extending beyond the inner bailey wall for more space. Leicester's building was four floors high and built in a fashionable Tudor style with many windows. It was designed to look good next to the old great tower, which is why it was so tall. Leicester's building influenced later Elizabethan country house designs. Modern viewing platforms, added in 2014, let you see views from what was Queen Elizabeth I's bedroom.
Leicester also built a loggia, which is an open gallery, next to the great keep. This led to the new formal gardens. The loggia was designed to frame the view of the gardens beautifully as people walked through. This was a new design in the 1500s, recently brought from Italy.
Other Castle Areas
The rest of Kenilworth Castle's inside is divided into three areas: the base court, the left-hand court, and the right-hand court. The base court was a more public area, while the left and right courts were used for more private events. A line of trees now crosses the base court, but it was originally more open. A chapel once stood here, but only its foundations remain today.
Leicester's gatehouse was built on the north side of the base court. It replaced an older gatehouse and provided a stylish entrance from the direction of Coventry. Its outside design, with its symbolic towers and battlements, looked like castles from a century or more before. However, the inside was very modern for its time, with wood paneling, similar to Leicester's building in the inner court. Leicester's gatehouse is one of the few parts of the castle that is still mostly complete. The stables, built by John Dudley in the 1550s, also survive. They are large stone buildings with a timber-framed upper story. Leicester might have wanted to create an old-fashioned view across the base court, mixing old ideas of chivalry with the castle's modern changes.
Gardens and Landscape
Much of the right-hand court of Kenilworth Castle is taken up by the castle garden. For most of Kenilworth's history, the castle garden was used for entertainment, while the surrounding land was used for hunting. From the 1500s onwards, there were elaborate knot gardens in the base court. Today, the gardens are designed to look as much like their original appearance in 1575 as possible. They have a steep terrace and steps leading down to eight square knot gardens. In Elizabethan gardens, the plants were not the main focus; instead, the design focused on sculptures, including wooden obelisks and a marble fountain. A timber aviary houses various birds. The original garden was greatly influenced by the Italian Renaissance garden at Villa d'Este.
To the north-west of the castle are earthworks marking the spot of the "Pleasance." This was created in 1414 by King Henry V. The Pleasance was a banqueting house built like a miniature castle. It was surrounded by two diamond-shaped moats and had its own dock, meaning you had to reach it by boat across the Great Mere. The Pleasance was later taken apart by Henry VIII, and some of its timber was moved inside the castle itself. These parts were finally destroyed in the 1650s.
Castle History
1100s: Early Days
Kenilworth Castle was started in the early 1120s by Geoffrey de Clinton. He was a powerful official for King Henry I. We are not entirely sure what the castle looked like at first. Some think it was a motte, which is an earthen mound with wooden buildings. However, the stone great tower might have been part of the original plan. Geoffrey de Clinton was a rival to the Earl of Warwick, who owned Warwick Castle nearby. The king made Clinton the sheriff of Warwickshire to balance the Earl's power.
Later, during a period of civil war called the Anarchy (1135–54), the castle's development slowed down. When Henry II became king, he faced a big rebellion in 1173–74. Kenilworth was used by Henry II's forces. During this time, the castle became fully owned by the king, showing how important it was for military purposes. By this point, Kenilworth Castle had the great keep, the inner bailey wall, a basic path across a smaller lake, and a hunting area.
1200s: King John and the Great Siege
King Richard I didn't pay much attention to Kenilworth. But under King John, a lot of building work started again. When John was in trouble with the Church in 1208, he began to rebuild and improve several important royal castles, including Kenilworth. Between 1210 and 1216, John spent a lot of money on Kenilworth. He built the outer bailey wall in stone and made the defenses better. He also greatly improved the castle's water defenses by damming local streams, creating the huge Great Mere. This made Kenilworth one of the largest English castles of its time, with one of the biggest artificial lake defenses in England.
King John considered Kenilworth a very important castle. He even had to give it to the rebel barons as a promise for the Magna Carta, before it returned to royal control under his son, Henry III.
In 1244, Henry III gave Kenilworth to Simon de Montfort, who later led a rebellion against the king. Montfort used Kenilworth as his main base. After a battle in 1264, King Henry was forced to give his son, Prince Edward, to the rebels as a hostage. Edward was taken to Kenilworth, where some writers said he was held in harsh conditions. Edward was released in 1265 and later defeated Montfort. The remaining rebels gathered at Kenilworth Castle the next spring. Edward's forces then began to attack the castle.
The Siege of Kenilworth in 1266 was "probably the longest in English history." It was also the largest siege in England at the time, with many soldiers involved. The castle was protected by its huge water defenses and held out against the attack. Even though Edward tried to attack the weaker north wall, using huge siege towers and even a night attack with barges, the castle stood strong. The distance between the royal trebuchets (large stone-throwing machines) and the walls made them less effective. Finally, a peace agreement called the Dictum of Kenilworth was reached. The rebels agreed to give up the castle if they could buy back their lands. The siege ended on December 14, 1266. The water defenses at Kenilworth later influenced the design of other castles in Wales, like Caerphilly.
After the siege, Henry III gave Kenilworth to his son, Edmund Crouchback. Edmund held many tournaments at Kenilworth in the late 1200s. In 1279, a huge event called "the Round Table" was held in the tiltyard, where a hundred knights competed for three days, inspired by the Arthurian legends.
1300s: Royal Drama and Grand Building
Edmund Crouchback's son, Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, inherited the castle in 1298. He became the richest nobleman in England. Kenilworth became his main castle. Thomas built the first great hall at the castle from 1314 to 1317 and added the Water Tower. He also made the hunting grounds larger.
Lancaster became an opponent of King Edward II. In 1322, war broke out, and Lancaster was captured and executed. His lands, including Kenilworth, were taken by the king. Edward II and his wife, Isabella of France, spent Christmas 1323 at Kenilworth with big celebrations.
However, in 1326, Edward II was removed from power by Isabella and her ally. Edward was captured and imprisoned at Kenilworth in late 1326. Kenilworth was chosen because it was a strong fortress and had a history linked to ideas of freedom. King Edward formally gave up his throne in the great hall of the castle on January 21, 1327. But it became clear that Kenilworth was not the best place to keep him, as some nobles still supported him. So, Edward was moved to another castle, where he died shortly after.
Henry of Grosmont, inherited the castle in 1345. He updated the great hall with a grander interior and roof. His daughter, Blanche of Lancaster, inherited the castle and married John of Gaunt, a son of King Edward III. Their marriage made John the second richest man in England. John of Gaunt began building at Kenilworth between 1373 and 1380. He built a grander great hall, the Strong Tower, Saintlowe Tower, the royal apartments, and a new kitchen complex. He spent a lot of time at Kenilworth, especially as his health declined.
1400s: Royal Visits and Tennis Balls
Many castles were left to fall apart in the 1400s, but Kenilworth continued to be used as an important "palace fortress." King Henry IV, John of Gaunt's son, took control of Kenilworth when he became king in 1399 and used the castle often. King Henry V also used Kenilworth a lot, but he preferred to stay in the Pleasance, the mock castle he had built across the Great Mere.
According to a writer of the time, John Strecche, the French made fun of Henry V in 1414 by sending him a gift of tennis balls at Kenilworth. The French meant to suggest that Henry was not a good warrior. Strecche said this gift made Henry decide to fight the Agincourt campaign. This story was later used by Shakespeare in his play Henry V.
English castles, including Kenilworth, were not the main focus during the Wars of the Roses (1455–85). These wars were mostly fought in big battles. However, Queen Margaret used Kenilworth as one of her main military bases. King Henry VI's court often stayed at Kenilworth for protection. Kenilworth remained an important stronghold for the Lancastrian side. When Henry VII won the war, Kenilworth again received royal attention. Henry visited often and had a tennis court built at the castle. His son, Henry VIII, decided that Kenilworth should remain a royal castle.
1500s: Leicester's Grand Plans
The castle stayed in royal hands until it was given to John Dudley in 1553. Dudley began to modernize Kenilworth. Before he was executed in 1553, Dudley had built the new stable block and made the tiltyard wider.
Kenilworth was given back to Dudley's son, Robert, Earl of Leicester, in 1563, four years after Elizabeth I became queen. Leicester continued his father's work to modernize Kenilworth. He wanted to make sure the castle would impress Queen Elizabeth during her regular tours around the country. Elizabeth visited in 1566 and 1568. Leicester hired people to rebuild and extend the castle to provide modern rooms for the royal court. The result was called an English "Renaissance palace."
Elizabeth saw the partly finished castle in 1572, but the full effect of Leicester's work was clear during her last visit in 1575. Leicester wanted to impress Elizabeth in a final attempt to convince her to marry him, so he spent a lot of money. Elizabeth brought a large group of nobles and staff for the royal visit, which lasted an amazing nineteen days. Leicester entertained the Queen and people from the nearby area with shows, fireworks, bear baiting, plays, hunting, and huge feasts. The event was a great success and was the longest stay Elizabeth made at any property during her tours. However, she still did not marry Leicester.
When Leicester died in 1588, the castle passed to his family. Kenilworth Castle was valued at £10,401 at that time.
1600s: Civil War and Ruin
Sir Robert Dudley, Leicester's illegitimate son, tried but failed to prove his legal claim to the castle. He went to Italy in 1605. In the same year, Sir Thomas Chaloner was asked to oversee repairs to the castle and its grounds. This included planting gardens and improving fish-ponds. In 1611–12, Dudley arranged to sell Kenilworth Castle to Prince Henry, the eldest son of King James I. Henry died before the sale was complete, so his brother, Charles, finished buying it. When Charles became king, he gave the castle to his wife, Henrietta Maria. Kenilworth remained a popular place for both King James I and his son Charles, and it was well maintained.
The First English Civil War began in 1642. Kenilworth was used by King Charles's forces as a base for raids. After a battle, the royalist soldiers left, and the castle was taken over by Parliament's forces. After the war ended in 1646, Parliament ordered the slighting of Kenilworth in 1649. This meant parts of the castle were deliberately destroyed to prevent it from being used as a military stronghold again. One wall of the great tower, parts of the outer bailey, and the battlements were destroyed.
Colonel Joseph Hawkesworth, who was in charge of the destruction, bought the estate for himself. He turned Leicester's gatehouse into a house. Part of the base court became a farm, and many of the remaining buildings were stripped for their materials. In 1660, Charles II became king again, and Hawkesworth was quickly removed from Kenilworth. The castle eventually passed to Sir Edward Hyde. The ruined castle continued to be used as a farm, with the gatehouse as the main home.
1700s and 1800s: A Romantic Ruin
Kenilworth remained a ruin during the 1700s and 1800s. It was still used as a farm but became more and more popular as a tourist attraction. The first guidebook to the castle was printed in 1777.
The castle became even more famous after Sir Walter Scott wrote his novel Kenilworth in 1821. This book described Queen Elizabeth's royal visit. Scott's story was loosely based on the events of 1575 and made Kenilworth Castle popular in the Victorian imagination as a romantic Elizabethan place. The novel led to many plays, operas, and even dioramas. Famous artist J. M. W. Turner painted several watercolors of the castle.
The number of visitors grew, including Queen Victoria and Charles Dickens. Work was done in the 1800s to protect the stone from further damage.
1900s and 2000s: English Heritage
The castle remained the property of the Clarendon family until 1937. At that time, Lord Clarendon found the castle too expensive to maintain and sold it to an industrialist named Sir John Siddeley. Siddeley gave the running of the castle, along with a donation, to the Commissioner of Works. In 1958, his son gave the castle itself to the town of Kenilworth. English Heritage has managed the property since 1984, and it is open to the public. The castle is considered a Grade I listed building and a scheduled monument, meaning it is a very important historical site.
Between 2005 and 2009, English Heritage worked to restore Kenilworth's garden to look more like its Elizabethan form. This project cost over £2 million. In 2008, plans were suggested to re-create and flood the original Great Mere around the castle. This would bring back the castle's old look and help with flood control in the area. It was also hoped the lake could be used for boating.
Since 2017, an exhibition called 'Speed and Power: John Siddeley, Pioneer of the Motor Age' has been on display at the castle. The BBC One show Antiques Roadshow was filmed at the castle in 2020.
See also
