Kenilworth Castle is a huge structure spanning many centuries and styles and now you can visit the Elizabethan knot garden too. Begun in the twelfth century, the castle reached it’s heyday in the sixteenth century and witnessed many important events in English history.
Visiting Kenilworth Castle
As an English Heritage site, the castle is well signposted and has a good car park. There is an excellent cafe and all the usual facilities you’d expect.
My Experience
We have been to Kenilworth many times and every visit to this structure reveals something new. There is the almost intact late Norman keep, the high medieval great hall and the Elizabethan gardens and Leicester’s gatehouse to display the evolution of the fortress.
The water defences are now drained but you can still get a sense of the scale of them. The buildings are restored sufficiently to allow visitors to go onto upper levels in places and there are obviously plenty of information boards. The knot garden is beautiful and a real contrast to some of the stark and utilitarian buildings.
The cafe is great here and is in the stable block, along with an exhibition detailing the history of the castle. The photos below are a composite of various visits to Kenilworth Castle over the years.
Kenilworth Castle Photo Gallery
As these photos are taken in the dim and distant past of 2010 they were not taken in RAW so these are pretty much unedited jpgs. I’d like to think my own skill in photography has moved on since then too so these may not be ideal pictures. Sorry!
History
By the early twelfth century Roger de Beaumont, Earl of Warwick had become a formidable regional power in the Midlands with his authority centred on nearby Warwick Castle. Henry I sought to weaken this power and installed a new magnate – Geoffrey de Clinton, Lord Chamberlain – as Sheriff of Warwickshire. It is he who built Kenilworth Castle; construction started no later than 1129 initially of timber but soon after (possibly even concurrently) in stone. Its strategic position was such that in 1173, whilst faced with a revolt led by one of his sons, Henry II garrisoned Kenilworth at his own expense and in 1180 the castle was brought into Royal ownership. Strengthening of the defences and improvements to living quarters were subsequently made, at great expense, during the reign of King John.
John’s son, King Henry III, granted Kenilworth to his sister whose husband – Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester – became its Governor in 1244. Montfort rebelled against Henry and at the Battle of Lewes (1264) captured both the King and his son, the future Edward I. The latter escaped, raised an army and engaged Montfort’s godson Simon near Kenilworth defeating them and capturing enemy banners which were used to approach and destroy the forces of the Earl at the Battle of Evesham (1265). The late Earls supporters gathered at Kenilworth which was placed under siege and, despite holding out for six months under the command of Montfort’s son, ultimately fell. Henry then granted the castle and Montfort estates to his second son Edmund, Earl of Lancaster.
By 1322 the castle was in the hands of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster who rebelled against Edward II; the uprising failed and the castle was once again taken into Royal ownership. Thomas was executed near Pontefract Castle but Edward’s regime had other powerful enemies; in 1326 Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, imprisoned Edward II at Kenilworth and forced him to abdicate his throne in favour of his son, Edward III, who was at the time under the effective control of the Earl.
By the mid-1350s the castle underwent significant enhancements to convert it from a fortress into a palace. John of Gaunt, son of Edward III, built the Great Hall around this time and in the early fifteenth century, Henry V built a wooden retreat in the grounds; the Pleasance in the Marsh. This conversion continued in the subsequent century when the castle was granted by Elizabeth I to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.
During the Civil War Kenilworth was initially garrisoned for the King. In 1642 it was used as a base for attacks on Parliamentary strongholds in the Midlands and provided logistics support to the Royalist forces amassing for the Battle of Edgehill. The battle was inconclusive however and the Royalists withdrew their garrison with the vacuum quickly being filled by Parliament who held it until the end of the war. This did not save it from the post-war slighting imposed on so many other English castles; in 1649 the Great Tower and sections of the battlements were ordered to be partially dismantled. Following the war the Gatehouse was converted into a comfortable lodging but the castle never regained its former status.
References
The history above is copied from the excellent castles forts battles site here.
The English Heritage site here is excellent for full visitor information.
Wiki has a very detailed page on the castle here.