KENILWORTH CASTLE, WARWICKSHIRE

This castle is located in the town centre of Kenilworth which is 6 miles away from Coventry.

Kenilworth Castle is the largest castle ruin in England; it is a stone motte and bailey fortress.  The inner bailey has an impressive Norman keep, the outer bailey consists a gatehouse and stables.  This is all supported by a high curtain wall with round & polygonal flanking towers. The castle is thought to have been built during the reign of King Arthur, but was probably demolished during the wars between King Edmund and Canute the second, King of the Danes and rebuilt the next century.

In 1129 Geoffrey de Clinton was given the castle from King Henry I.  In 1244 the castle was owned by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester.  In 1266 there was a siege at the castle by Simon de Montfort’s fellow nobles as de Montfort was killed in battle on August 4^th 1265, they used the castle as a refuge.  In July 1266 the 6 month siege came to an abrupt end as the Barons were overcome by disease and famine where they surrendered.  Edmund, Earl of Lancaster and Leicester took over the castle which then it was inherited by Edward II who was imprisoned by Henry, Earl of Lancaster and murdered there.  Henry Earl of Lancaster took the castle and it then passed to his son and grand-daughter, to John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster.  In 1364 John De Gaunt turned the castle into a palace.  John’s son, Henry Bolingbroke, became King and Kenilworth remained a royal property until the reign of Elizabeth I.  In 1563 Robert Dudley had the castle from Queen Elizabeth I.  Queen Elizabeth I visited Robert Dudley in 1566, 1568, 1575.  The castle went under restoration in 1660 while King Charles II was on the throne.  The castle was owned by Sir Edward Hyde, Baron Kenilworth and Earl of Clarendon.  The castle stayed in the hands of the Earl of Clarendon until 1937 when it was bought by Sir John Siddeley, later Lord Kenilworth.  In 1958 the castle was presented to the town of Kenilworth for the 400^th anniversary of Elizabeth I.  Then English Heritage took the castle over from 1984.

Kenilworth Castle has been reported to be haunted by The White Lady who sits at a window inside the Gatehouse.  There is also a car park attendant who likes to do his rounds still and wears his peaked cap & bum-bag.  A rector who resided at the rectory called “High Trees” in Aston, caught his wife in bed with another man and murdered her; the rector was captured for his crime, held & executed at Kenilworth Castle.  Perhaps also Edward II comes back to where he was murdered.