sssffiaasaffiKBsa ■9 ;,*#s THE .,1IvWk, H : 0 l 5 NIL I A/' V. E. H. KNOWLES M. A. ■ • ■. ~?yjW0. • .* * .•7 V,.:. L. •V- • • '•TT'N/Ai /m . ■ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Getty Research Institute https://archive.org/details/castleofkenilworOOknow WATER TOWER (EARLY 13TH CENTURY). THE A HAND-BOOK FOB VISITOBS. BY THE HEY. E. H. KNOWLES, M.A. PRINCIPAL OF ST. BEES THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE; FORMERLY MICIIEL FELLOW OF QUEEN’S COLLEGE, OXFORD. AUTHOR OF ‘NOTES ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS.’ ‘■‘■Kenilworth , a large and beautiful strong Castle of Warwickshire — J. Collier. WARWICK: HENRY T. COOKE AND SON, PUBLISHERS, HIGH STREET. MDCCCLXXII. TABLE OF CONTENTS. --»•*.—- CHAPTER PAGE Preface. I.—The Plans ... . ... ... ... ... ... ... i— 2 II.—Name of Kenilworth ... . ... ... ... ... ... 3 III. —Successive Owners ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 3—5 —Royal Visits .. ... .. .. ... ... ... ... 5—6 IV. —Roads to the Castle ... ... ... ... ... ... 6—7 V.—Earthworks and Pools ... ... ... ... ... .. ... 7—8—9 VI.—Walk Round the Outer Walls ... ... ... ... ... 9—12 VII.—Entrances ... ... ... ... ... .. ... .. 13—14 VIII.—The Farmyard .. .. ... .. ... ... 14—16 IX.—Walk Round the Inner Walls ... .. . . ... ... ... 17—19 X.—Caesar’s Tower (outside.) ... ... ... ... ... ... 19—21 „ „ (inside.) ... ... .. .. ... ... ... 22—23 —Castle Rising ... ... ... ... ... ... . 23—24 XI.—Kitchen, Hall, &c. .. ... ... ... ... ... ... 25—28 XII.-—State Rooms ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 28—29 XIII. —Leicester’s Building ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 30—31 XIV. —Garden and Pleasaunce ... ... ... .. ... ... 31— 32 XV.—Chapels ... .. ... ... ... ... ... ... 32—33 XVI.—Manor, Chase, and Estate ... ... ... .. ... ... 33 XVII.—Fireplaces ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 34 XVIII.—Extracts from Pipe Rolls, &c. ... ... ... ... ... 34—39 XIX.—Robert Dudley. Public Life ... ... ... ... ... .. 40—42 ,, ,, Private Life ... ... ... ... ... 42—44 Postscript i. Amy Robsart ... ... ... ... ... ... 44—45 Postscript 2. Leicester’s Expences ... ... ... ... ... 46—50 XX.—Surveys and Valuations .. ... ... ... ... ... 51—54 XXL—Masons’ Marks ... .. ... .. ... ... ... 55 XXII.—Base Mouldings ... .. ... ... ... .. .. 56 XXIII.-—Mangonels, &c. ... . ... ... ... ... ... 56—57 XXIV.—Mr. Best’s Account ... .. ... .. ... ... .. 57—58 XXV.—Siege of Kenilworth ... ... ... ... ... ... 58—60 —Attack and Defence of a Castle ... .. ... ... ... 60—63 XXVI.—Principal Changes . .. . ... ... ... ... 63—64 XXVII.—Repairs ... ... ... . ... ... 65—66 APPENDIX I. Laneham’s Letter .. ... ... ... ... ... .. .. 67—116 APPENDIX II. Mr. Furnivall’s Forewords ... ... ... ... . ... 117 GASCOIGNE . .. ... ... ... ... ... ... i.—xxxii. Index. PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS. Water Tower Mortimer’s Tower Alure Corbeling Lunn’s Tower and King’s Chamber John of Gaunt’s Tower Strong Tower (Mervyn’s) Strong Tower and Hall Great Hall The Lobby Fragments of Decorated Work Leicester Buildings ... Norman Keep or Cesar’s Tower Water tower Chimney-piece Porch of the Gate Tower Gate Tower Fireplace and Room in the Gateway Tower South Front of the Original Barbican Lunn’s Tower Norman Window in the Keep Swan Tower Guard Room Buttress Kenilworth Castle from the South Facing Title. Title Page. 8 io 14 16 18 24 26 28 32 36 40 48 54 53 64 65 72 80 88 96 104 108 PLANS. Kenilworth Castle, 12th Century ... ... ... 1 „ „ 13th Century ... ... ••• 1 ,, „ 3rd Period ... ... 2 Base Mouldings ... . ... ... ... 56 TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF CLARENDON. My Lord, A trustworthy guide to your great Castle has long- been needed: and believing that I possess some special qualifications for the task (a genuine love of ancient remains, some knowledge of old stone-work, and the great advantage of close neighbourhood) I have under¬ taken to write this book; and now I respectfully dedicate it to you. Your Lordship’s obedient Servant, E. H. KNOWLES. Kenilworth, October, 1871. TO THE READER Reader, I have been asked to be your guide, and I have taken great pains to explain the subject to you: but any corrections or hints will be most welcome. You must treat this as a hand-book: whatever I have added to my history of the stone-work, has been borrowed from others or written by myself, as subordinate and secondary, simply to satisfy your wants as an intelligent visitor. My researches are very second-hand, for the most part. I cannot romance about the past; so, if my dry pages tire you, you may r refresh yourself with ‘Ivanhoe’ or ‘Kenilworth,’—but then you must replace Front de Boeuf by r a Statesman, and Amy Robsart by some heroine who is not known to have died 15 years before her coming hither. For more copious history go to ‘Dugdale;’ for more general views of Ancient Domestic / # Architecture read Parker’s valuable work and Viollet le Due’s admirable Dictionary. And consult my Index for some additional notes. E. H. K. Plaster Work from Leicester’s Buildings. 1571- WATER TOWER. A Bastion of the 2nd Age. preface; The fortress of an English Baron in the 12th Century consisted principally of a Keepf or massive tower in which he and his family lived, calculated to defy all the known methods of war by the thickness of its walls, the difficulties of its one or more portals, the smallness of its lower windows, and the strength of its earthwork, palisades, VIEW OF NORMAN KEEP. Description of Norman Keep:— A. Chamber, with ‘Lift’ in the wall. 15 . Small Court, with external Staircase. C. Palisade. D. Chapel Windows. E. Small Entrance Tower probably rather later ) F. Swing Drawbridge. * I mus t here confess my debt to Mr. Parker's “Domestic Architecture," from which nearly the whole substance of this preface is derived. + Les donjons Normands sont des tanieres plutot quo des edifices.—Sulky dens rather than houses.— Le Due. I must ask the reader's forgiveness for the attempt at a Norman Keep, which I could not make perfectly accurate, and yet choose to insert for those who are out of the way of seeing better things. and fosse. Beyond the fosse were one or more barbican towers, and the earthwork itself had possibly bastions* of stone. The keep had its entrance protected by a projecting turret, or by a strongly walled court, and the chief door was usually on the upper floor, nearly the whole of which was taken up by the Great Hall, divided into aisles by pillars of wood or stone. Here, in rude fashion, the Lord and his retainers fed and slept. The Chapel was often a small apartment, but large enough for the Priest to say mass in it, placed in the most protected part possible, and looking eastward. The lower floor served as cellar, brewery, storehouse, and perhaps in time of assatdt even as stable. The cooking seems often, if not usually, to have been done out of doors, in the court-yard. In the latter years of the 12th Century,! or the beginning of the 13th, the Norman family began to be tired of such strait quarters. Preserving the keep, if it were habitable, they threw out a line of fortification (bastions, curtain-wall, and fosse), outside the original limits; and, these once secured, they substituted an inner wall of stone for the old earthwork and palisade, forming out of the old enclosure an inner bailey or court; and by partitions dividing the outer space into such other courts as seemed fit. The approaches to the Castle were now scientifically guarded, and more than one tower with its drawbridge secured the passage of the new moat. And the ampler space thus gained was made useful by giving to the officers of the garrison the towers to live in, and by erecting round the inside of the wall, workshops and sheds and small dwellings of woodj or stone. The wood in process of time made way for stone, and different apartments were built along the line of the fortification wall, which were often inhabited by the owner of the Castle himself, when fear of an approaching enemy did not deter him from consulting his own ease and convenience. Castles of this period had at most two gates besides posterns. (Le Due.) Towards the end of the 13th Century, another step in luxury is often found to have been taken. Then (but not in Kenilworth as we have it now until 100 years later) § the Hall was made the principal building, with buttery, pantry, and kitchen office grouped near it: the solar or lord’s room, and the new and larger chapel being not far off. As time went on, the fortress became, by slow degrees, a palace, breaking through its old walls with ornamental buildings, in which less and less attention was paid to defensive schemes. 1 he growth in civilization and luxury was now considerable; drainage was well attended to (f. e. from 1220 downwards); wainscoting much used in state apartments; small trim gardens kept in the quadrangles or courts; glass more used in domestic work; forks were not unknown (at least for fruit). - Remains of one early Tower have been found in the wall of the Inner Bailey of Kenilworth, not far from (E). Plan 111. t See Le Dues account of Richard the First’s Castle on the Seine, his Chateau “Gaillard," (i.e. the ‘Sans Souci' or 'Saucy' fortress) for some idea how military engineering was being improved towards the end of the 12th Century, and specially by Richard. t Sometimes, even fireplaces and all were of plaster-work, a fact to be remembered often, when no traces of fireplaces arc found. Place \\ as olten found in the larger kitchens for one or more forges. J, The roofs ° f , th J °l d ke ® ps ' be, ' ng mostl - v of oaken shingles (cindulae), were often out of repair at this time. Kenilworth keep was repanecl in 1233.— Cf. Parker s Dom. Arch. 1. />. 58. Hie disrepair of oaken shingles was owing doubtless only to the haste with which they were cut and used; for if properly seasoned they will last a very long time. ' 11/ 12 th CENTURY or. 1 st PE [lion. Birmuufh Hu/h level- (Charnel 1st Period' TIN iltered ah WO t« Titty North/ ddchts full Z^Perwd hqhLevel Channel a .. Warwfl 13™ CENTURY or. 2 m PERIOD .vpvttrpo o a -to CoveR^X- . LU‘inii‘ ltl,I 1 M l PLANS. THE The Castle oe Kenilworth is an excellent type of the fortress of an English noble, having (1.) rare earthworks, and a noble keep, with (2.) some tine remains and interesting traces of its second age, and with (3.) grand rains as well of the Edwardian as of the Elizabethan styles. 1. PALISADE AGE. Plan (I.) will give the reader all that is known of Geoffrey de Clinton’s* work (before 113G). Lnckilv (a fact, I believe, not hitherto noticed) a iiortion of his fosse and the South w r all of his barbican by the pool remain—the former partly filled up by Hawkeswortli, (17th Century)—the latter incorporated with the Early English wall of later date, hut easily recognisable bv its three curious windows. Neither the 1st. nor the 2nd. Plan pretends to absolute accuracy, hut it is thought that both will assist the reader in understanding the growth of the Castle from the first. 2. THE STONE-WALL AGE. Plan (II.) shews the growth of the Castle during the second period (1180—sav— 1300.) The second Geoffrey de Clinton, son and heir to the first, began the changes here v J J O O noted (at least it seems sot) about 1180; building Lunn’s Tower and digging a new moat to the northward, so as to extend the enclosure of the Castle. * The Castle is said to have been founded 1120. It may be remarked here, that in spite of changes, similar but firr more extensive and complicated, the ground plan of the Tower of London still preserves a trace of the first line of circumvallation. Some have thought that the keep dates only from King John’s reign, but as I have shewn elsewhere, this opinion is supported by no evidence whatever, either from stonework or from documents. The remains of the original Norman fosse are quite enough to put such a view out of court at once. t We learn from Dugdale, that the founder had but one pool. His grandson releases all his rights in the pools about 1190. Indeed, any one who will examine Plan II, will see that the lower pool is a second thought, a necessary corollary from the extension of the accommodation and the water defences. The E. moat must issue somewhere, and by spreading it over the square space left, the south wall was protected. From this, down the valley for a considerable distance, there extended at first, a long marsh, and in after times, a succession of long pools belonging to the priory or abbey. B THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. Much money was laid out between 1212 and 1217, upon the new plan of fortification, (v. app. 1.) The earthwork and palisade of the inner enceinte were exchanged for a stone wall of considerable strength. The older parts of The Water Tower, the Swan and Mortimer Towers were erected. Probably, however, part of the outer wall near the pool, was not yet completed, and a stockade sufficed for some years; at least, in Henry the III' 1 ’ 8 reign, (1242), the south defences were re-built, and, indeed, some part of the eastern outer walls is so carelessly put together, as to make me ascribe it to one of the l)e Montforts, who probably completed the defences in a hurry* (after 1255.) The lower pool belongs certainly to this second age. No traces of the timber buildings of this period remain, (heyond some put-log holes, which are not quite easy to interpret); possibly they were some of them destroyed by Simon de Montfort, who liked a low curtain-wall and a clear space inside, that he might ply his mangonels and petrariae with effect. 3. THE PALACE AGE. Plan (III.) gives the Castle in its last and present state. John of Gaunt, in the reign of Richard II., (about 1392) began to re-build the kitchens, buttery, pantry, hall, &c. Then breaking through the inner Early English wall, lie built a range of state-rooms with a grand tower along its south front; and repaired some of the outer defences; employing, probably, nearly the same gang of men on all. Lastly, from 1570-1575, Robert Dudley added greatly to the accommodation of the Castle rearing from the bottom of the ancient moat his picturesque buildings, and adding a third entrance, with a fine gateway tower—buff destroying much that was infinitely more artistic and precious than anything that he built. Minor changes will he noticed elsewhere in their order. It is satisfactory to find that the principal features of the building (though parts are now in a dangerous state) have not suffered very much during the last 150 years. Buck’s views (about 1720) shew them nearly as they are now, so far as wo can judge, excepting the roof of the Water Tower, and the steps to the Great Hall. The fine Church and buildings of the Priory have alas suffered far more severely. People still living remember much that has now perished. A fanciful picture lias been pointed of the Castle, as seen from the east, with highly ornate terraces, and other accessories; which undoubtedly are pretty, hut unhappily are false. In some of this work the inside of the wall is mere rubbish, with scarcely any mortar; but this is not surprising, as the difficulty of getting waggon-loads of lime over a few miles of bad road must have been great, even in the ipiietest times and witli plenty of men. During the necessary repair (1868) tons of loose stone came down at once. + I think, however, from the places in which some fine fragments have been found, that John of Gaunt did a good deal ot mischief to older work of 1230—1330. They had been used as rubble. FLAW HI. , 3™PERIOD From. ke.njJwnr'ih/ lUxaybrou/MML’ On/tory Chapel ) - J wwr TngjcU 7n > /> Base Court L Swan Tower M Gai'den. N Gate 7 tMu.se. O Puna s Tower P StaMes- Q. Water Tower. R Arocrmj mthae Wall- £ Read of water pewsaqe from the lake. T Mortimers Tower. ' U Tdbyarcb. ir jL/„ , 7 i _ l Lower- Pool Moal: Iff Cook&&:So , 't.:TiibhrhersWarvrwA< kenilv/orth T^rt / sy f r 'sy 7 70 ( 0/0 CASTLE 7 orrr I 7 0770 TILE CASTLE OL KENILWORTH f) PTT APT'F'R TT Vi/ »A* *A* %At «X> iA> »Ai iAJi «A» V» 1A1 Ju * NAME OE KENILWOETH. If Alfricus (see Camden) he right in translating ‘worth’ as ‘praedium’ a ‘farm’ (‘homestead’) or‘possession,’ then ‘Kenilworth’ may reasonably be supposed to mean the farm or estate of Kenelm, some Saxon thane. Respecting the orthography, the vulgar Killingworth seems to be a mere corruption. Dugdale gives the old formas Chinewfde, but in Norman documents it is Chinilewrda, Chenillcworda.* In Saxon times and earlier, there was, as Dugdale writes, no fortress here; the nearest one was on Hom-hill, near Stoneleisdi Abbey, which was demolished in the wars J o t/ J between King Edmund and Canute the Dane. There are probably fortyt or fifty villages and towns in England, whose names end in ‘worth,’ and their sites do not bear out Yerstegan’s definition of that word, as ‘the land in the fork of two rivers, or a peninsula in a river.’ lie instances divers places in Germany, Tlionawerd (Donauwerth), Keyserswerd, &c. See Laneham’s learning in his letter, and the note there. Kenilworth is said in Domesday “jacere ad stanlei manerium regis.” prr a TncpK? 'p VTT W XaXaA X AHXl XXX* SHORT LIST OF THE SUCCESSIVE OWNERS OF KENILWORTH CASTLE. About 1135. 1165. About 1175. 1181. Geoffrey de Clinton, the founder. X The Crown. Henry of Anjou being no friend to private Castles. Geoffrey de Clinton, the son. § The Crown. * Du Cange prints it by mistake as Chenilenede, putting ‘ne’ for dvr.' t As Bedworth, Kibworth, Bosworth, Lutterworth, Wandsworth, Tamworth, Petworth, U ark worth: they are widely spread, but principally in the middle counties. A Roger Clinton built part of Lichfield Castle, 1140. § As appears from a charter of his (Kenilworth Illustrated), Dugdale says, he was possessed of a great estate, holding seventeen Knight’s fees of the Earl of Warwick. Spelman gives this table, eighteen Acrae = one Bovate, eight Bovates = one Carucate or hide, eight Carucates = one Knight’s fee. But the Acra was not our ‘acre; it varied, being sometimes only 2500 square feet, or q of our statute acre : then a Knight s fee would be some seventy acres ot arable land. 4 THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. Before 1200. ? 1217. 1254. 12GG. 1266. t 1322. 1589. 1611. 1612. 1621. ? Henry (le Clinton,* grandson. The Crown. Henry de Clinton, great grandson. The Crown. Simon de Montfort, by grant. The Crown, by capture. Edmund, Earl of Leicester, Derby, (and Lancaster), by grant. Thomas, his son, beheaded, 1325, whose brother Henry had his revenge. The Crown, by confiscation. Henry, brother to Thomas. Henry, son of Ilenrv. Blanche, second daughter of Henry=John of Gaunt. Henry, her son. And so it came to the Crown again. Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, by grant. Ambrose, Earl of Warwick, by gift for his life. || Sir Robert, son of the E. of Leicester. The Crown, by confiscation. 7 t/ But Prince Henry bought it for €14,500, of which, only £3,000 seem to have been paid. Prince Charles. The Lord Carey (by lease). “In the beginning of King John’s time, Henry de Clinton (grandson to the founder), released to the King all his rights to the same; as also in the woods and pools, and whatever else belonged thereto, excepting what lie had pos¬ session of at the death of Henry II.: which Henry de Clinton had issue Henry; who being in the rebellion against King John (at the later end of his reign) submitted himself, and returned to obedience in 1218, second Henry III., assuring the King ot his future fidelity; whereupon the Shiriff had command to give him livery of those lands in Kenilworth, of his inheritance by right from his father.” t In 1278, was held the Round Table, and Dugdale’s ‘famous concourse of noble persons from 8. Matthew’s Eve to the morrow ot 8. Michael. Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, being the chief and the occasion thereof.’ Quaere, was he then lodged in the Tower that bears his name? + The ‘lively and unlucky’ Eleanor Cobliam, Duchess of Gloucester, was imprisoned here, under care of Sir Thomas Stanley, between 1441 and 14 17. After her condemnation for treason and witchcraft in 1411, and her public penance in Saint Pauls, she was conveyed to Chester Castle, and thence to Kenilworth. In 1447, Humphrey was accused (among other charges) of cons, iring to deliver her out of prison here. (Rapin cites liyiner’s Foedera Tom. xi., p. 45.) Dr. Doran, in Notes and Queries, second Ser. xi., p. 218, says, that she had an annuity of lOO marks for her support, and other payments are recorded in her behalf. Her prison house is still pointed out, viz., the Crypt under the Chancel of St. Germanus, Isle of Man. This building was used as a place of punishment for persons under ecclesiastical censure, as late as the episcopate of Bishop Wilson. Within the Cathedral-fortress of Peel Castle Dame Eleanor died and was buried, 1454. She is said to haunt the place. A courteous note from W. Jackson, Esq., of Fleatham House, Saint Bees, informs me, that the skeleton of a tall woman has been lately found between the crypt vaulting and choir pavement of 8. Germanus, and ‘has been for special reasons supposed to be that of Eleanor Cobliam.’ § It appears that Sir John Dudley, between 15130 and 1540, held some office in Kenilworth, the same indeed that Sir Andrew Flamoke had held, to whom Henry VIII. gave the Abbey lands. Ad lard (Amye Robsart, p.p. 104, 105). But this does not shew that he had the Castle for his own. || Here his daughter Douglas was baptized, June 5th, 1 GOO. 9 THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 1(526. About 1649. 1660. 1685. 178(5. 1824. 1838. 1870. The Careys, &c., by grant. Colonel Hawkesworth ancl others, by grant from Cromwell. The daughters of Henry Carey, Earl of Monmouth, “intercede and prevail to hold the said manors as their father did before them, by lease or leases from the Crown.” (Best’s account, MS. 1716.) Lawrence, Lord Hyde, Baron of Kenilworth, Earl of Rochester, by errant. Henry, Lord Hyde, Baron of Kenilworth, Earl of Rochester and Clarendon. His grand daughter Jane=William Capel, Earl of Essex. Charlotte, her daugliter=Thomas Villiers, younger brother of William, Earl of Jersey, in whom the Earldom of Clarendon was revived, 1776. Thomas. John Charles, his brother. George William Frederick, their nephew. Edward Hyde, his eldest son. e 7 LIST OF LOYAL VISITS. 1265. 1266. 1326. 1377. 1414. 1437. 1449. 1450. 1456-7. 1483-4. 1487. 1493. 1566. * Henry the III., Prince Edward, and Richard, King here by Simon de Montfort. e/ Henry the III. at the Siege. fEdward II., is brought hither a prisoner. John of Gaunt retired hither with his suite. ; of the Romans, detained Henry, Prince of Wales, writes to his father, Henry IV., “ Eserit en v’ re cliastel de Kenilworth.” Henry V., kept his Lent here—read Henry V., Act i., Sec. 1, 2. Henry VI., kept Christmas here. Henry VI. and his Queen removed hither because of Cade’s rebellion. Henry VI. and bis Queen spent the Tuesday after Michaelmas here—read 2 Henry VI., Act iv., Sec. 9. Henry VI. was here. King Richard III. Henry VII. celebrated Witsuntide here. Henry VII. and bis Queen. Henry VIII. */ Queen Elizabeth. Tlu* King’s sister, the Countess, offered them ‘all the solace she could t Here he received the news ‘that in a Parliament held at Westminster on the morrow alter twclf day, lie was deposed, and his sou, young Edward, elected King in his stead, being then but fourteen years ot age. Hence about Palm Sunday following (April 5th), under custody of Sir Thomas ( journey, (not Berkley as in Kenilworth Illustrated,) and of Sir John Maltravers, he was hurried privately to Berkley Castle in Gloucestershire, and there most barbarously murdered, September 21st. THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTII. 6 1568.* 1572.f 1575. 1617. 1619-21 1624. 1642. 1644. Queen Elizabeth. 5 ? >5 James I. Prince Henry (Mr. Best’s account). Prince Charles. Charles I. Charles I. CHAPTER IV. HOADS TO THE CASTLE. (SEE MAP 1.) The road from Warwick and Leamington Priors has possibly been altered; yet it certainly approached the Brays as it does to-day. The nature of the ground however was different. A great part of the way lay through dense woods, and where a stream had to be crossed, a deepisli ford as at Cliesford, or a swamp + as here must be faced. The road from Coventry led over sounder land, but was unsafe for travellers from the thickness of its woods;§ it approached the Castle as it does now by what has long been the High Street, but another part branched off to the north into Redfen Lane. The Birmingham road (or Redfen lane) makes a turn over what was swampy ground beyond the head of l)e Clinton’s north pool; then it crosses the line of the high level water course (as altered by his successors), and runs in a straight line for the North Portal. || When Henry I. ennobled and enriched his chamberlain and treasurer, that he might secure, as it were, a nucleus of loyal support in this county, the track-roads through this dense country soon assumed new importance, and He Clinton, while he chose perhaps See note in Notices of Robert Dudley —The Lady of the Lake forgets the visit in 1568. (Princely Pleasures.) —See extracts from the Black Book of the Warwick Corporation, in Kenilworth Illustrated ; and Strickland's life of El izabeth. t The French envoys came with the Queen on this visit in 1572. X Till the Priory pool was made, and even then probably a ford sufficed. § In 1250, six acres of underwood were cut down for the security of passengers, on the road between Coventry and Warwick. || Along the present road may still be seen traces of an old paved way, along which the high level channel (1185?) ran, to fill the northern moats, and to make the lake water more manageable in time of flood. T1IE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 7 tile best possible military position for tlie defence of bis bouse, secured the command over them; and bis successors bad no rivals hereabouts, except (for 150 years) tlie Templars at Temple Balsall, (Henry II.—Edward II.) whose beautiful work there has happily sur¬ vived, shewing a tine E. English basement, (about 1220) with a glorious Early Decorated superstructure, built late in Edward the Ist’s reign. err a TP i qpif?'lQ XT w XX-Q.X X JjiXi V i THE EARTHWORKS AND POOLS. Plan (I.) gives the great dam, and the earthen tete-du-pont which guarded it. Plan (II.) shews the later moat and lower pool. When (about 1120) the estate of Kenilworth was given to Geoffrey de Clinton, be constructed a dam across the valley, so as to form a lake or pool half a mile in length, and a quarter of a mile broad, (containing about 111 acres,) and some 20 feet deep, having an outlet below, at Z, which was managed by sluices.* The road from Warwick entered tlie precincts where the round-fronted! towers and curtain-wall still stand (added early in Henry Illd’s reign). The visitor crossed tlie moat or mill-brook, as it is called from there having been a mill at the stone dam, (X. grans. vide Map II.) into tlie Brays,J a pleasant meadow within the fortress, surrounded by the earthwork, watch-towers, and stockade, and by tlie mill-brook and tlie channel from the lake, traces of which are left in the end of the (so called) ‘Tiltyard.’ o -flo 0 bgatc A second draw-bridge admitted him through the Gallery Tower§ into the ® 0 forr. Tiltyard, as the top of the dam|| is now and lias long been called, but I think To fill the fosse outside his grand Braye or Tete-du-pont, Clinton brought a millrace from a reservoir, which he made within Wedgnock Park, near Fern Hill, with a fine dam, which, though Hawkesworth (?) cut it in two, is in good preservation. Again, to fill the north and east ditches, he brought the high level channel from the north, (see plan I.) but this was diverted by his successor, about 1190. t An early English building (about 1220.) Successor probably to a merely temporary tower of timber. + Mr. Robinson, in his Essay on the Military Architecture of this county, derives the name from Braile, the old military term for an outwork beyond the precincts, defended by palisades. But the reader will find this definition from Le-Duc to be decisive. Braie—“most frequently a palisaded work, strengthened at intervals by watch-towers to protect sentinels.”—Some-times it was nearly equivalent to foreclose, lice, &c., and was close to the outer wall. But the usual sense is exactly applicable here; and it is pleasant to find the old name so faithfully kept. See Laneham s letter, where the word Braiz is ordinarily misinterpreted. Note that Laneham says of it, ‘-which (for the length, largeness, and use, as well it may so serve,) they call now the Tiltyard.” § More properly (it seems) called the Floodgate Tower; its remains are now but uninteresting, and of late character. Note i. —The sluice work at the south-east corner, where the lower pool discharged its waters into the stream. 2. At the north-east corner, two fine stone fragments from the early English chapel, about 1230, (for section v., chap, xv.) which make me think that Leicester did rebuild this Tower in place probably of a ruinous wooden or stone one. 3. In Dugdale’s plan a stair leads down to the upper pool. 4.—Inside the wall is an odd little baserelief of the Royal Lion of England, carved possibly in Elizabeth’s time by some prentice hand in an idle hour. || Caleetum or causeway (chaussee ) s THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. not till after the 13th Century. At the further end there does not seem to have been any tower of stone built in the 12th Century; for the present ruin, called Mortimer’s iUortimnA Tower, was not built before 1200-1215, (8 yds. * 10 yds.,) and was enlarged " ^oforr. ” i n the style of Henry III. about 1223. Note 1.—The drain to the later part from a garde-robe above. 2.—The solitary Norman embrasure. Above the archway, says Mr. Robinson in his essay, was a projecting wooden gallery, called a hretache, from which stones, beams, hot pitch, and other annoyances could be burled down upon those emovod in battering down the massive doors which closed it. The inhabitants of Kenilworth are said to have been forced to demolish this tower bv order of Cromwell. e/ (Tin The Causeway originally led along* the east side of the Norman moat, com- fltaiuiffoajr. manded bv the barbican and the earthworks, and by the artillery from the keep. It terminated at the draw-bridge on the S. E. angle of the keep (see A ignette ol Keep.) This causeway* is flanked on both sides by fragments of wall mostly of latish masonry. In the 17th Century it was divided in order to drain the pool, and the materials were probably thrown, with stones of Henry YIII’s building, into the old moat below the keep, to make the process of dismantling and carting away materials easier and cheaper. When the plan of the Castle was extended, (1180, &c.) the old moat was probably ^floats of 2nb I think filled up at the north side; and the draw-bridge tower was moved a good distance northwards. (See Plan II.) There was then a double fosse at the north entrance (of which vestiges may still be seen); from this the water which had been kept at a convenient depth by tlief high level channel, (formed 1136-1180) flowed round the base of Lunn’s Tower and the east wall into the lower pool, separated from this by a narrow causeway* that led to a postern in the AVater Tower; and so southwards into the river. Plan (II.) shews the form of these secondary defences, and the site of the second mill at (U, or) U 2. * Its dimensions are given in “Kenilworth Illustrated,” as 395 feet long, and from 40 to 50 feet wide; but it must be remembered that at present it actually blocks up half the loop-holes of Henry Ill’s turrets, and that its breadth at the top was originally about IS feet or 20 at most. It was widened possibly (though I much doubt this) for the great Tournament, 1279; but part of its revetement at least is by Leicester, and I think it clear that he widened it. The entrance between the flanking turrets was 3 or 9 feet only. Near it to the south is a passage or doorway to the lower pool (1 14th Century.) And along the W. side is some possibly early stonework in the line of the present wall. Read Laneham’s account of the Queen’s Entrance, where he seems to call the ‘Brays’ the tiltyard, as most probably it was, and then soon afterwards speaks of the Great Dam as the tiltyard, as it also certainly was in his day. Mr. Charles Draper, of Clinton House, tells me, that Hawkesworth only made a culvert through the dam, the top of which was perfect till the great flood of ls3L + By what are called the Prior’s Fields to the North of the Castle, ran a water-course, between high banks now levelled, down which the stream of the north arm ran from a weir to fill the north ditches; it is marked, but not accurately, iu Plans I. and II., where 1 have assigned it to the founder of the Castle, believing it to have been diverted by his successor, when the outworks were improved, about 1130. X This kept the water of the moat at a rather high level than that of the lower pool, and there may have been a narrow draw-bridge over the sluice gates. The moat has been made a little shallower, and there was a dam or two some¬ where on the north side (perhaps a causeway to the great gate opposite Red fen Lane, if not a narrow wall under a draw¬ bridge.) The high level was I believe only altered about 1 ISO, v. u. above. MORTIMER’S TOWER (EARLY 13TH CENTURY). THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 9 I ought to add that the bream of the upper pool were famous in the neighbourhood, and that the Monks of the Priory had license to fish there with boat and nets for their Friday’s dinner.* The ‘Incliford’ brook or “Kenilworth river” found its way down from here to the ‘Abbey Bridge’f through what must have been a mere swamp, afterwards formed into the Abbev Pool. fatocr Hcrol. Map II will shew what is left of the eastern moat and lower pool. Remains of ancient masonry may be seen on both sides of the channel, by the great earth¬ work, running E. Indeed, there seems to have been a smallish oval pool above the mill4 The lower pool between the causeway of the Water Tower and these earthworks must have been shallow. But it is hard to say what changes Leicester wrought here. I believe he made some ornamental terraces round the Lower Pool. Indeed, in Dugdale’s ‘plot’ all the east moat and lower pool are marked as orchard, as if he had quite filled them up, and Mr. Best, in 1710, only charges Hawkesworth with draining “flu 1 famous Pool.” ?. e. the upper one. firr a 'pqp'ry'in vrr w XX«Q,X X XiXb V Xi WALK ROUND THE OUTER WALLS. Plan III has the several noticeable objects pointed out by figures, by which the visitor who obtains permission can, if he will, test these notes; but the walk has no special interest for any but an archaeologist. 1. Leaving Mortimer’s Tower, and crossing the covered drain we have 2. A piece of middle Early English wall (about 1240), connecting that tower and its entrance with the Castle. 3. Then§ an Early English postern door and a longish stretch of E. English work to the fourth buttress, all perhaps of one date. * This shews that the Pool of the Priory was of more recent formation. The Monks probably soon followed the example of their neighbour. But with such large pools as they afterwards possessed, they could not need the Thursday’s fishing. t Called from its shape ‘the Packsaddle Bridge;’ it was destroyed by a flood in 1(173. In July, (1 28), 1831, a similar flood (after heavy rain of only a few hours) carried away the modern bridge by the tiltyard, a few moments after two or three persons now living had crossed; this proves the necessity or utility of the high and low level watercourses, made by the Norman owners, as overflow channels. I must here acknowledge my obligations to Mr. Luke lleynes. f; See U, Plan II. Local tradition however, says, that the mill was at LI 2, and is most probably right, as the earthworks seem to shew; if so, these traces must be explained otherwise, as probably belonging to some ornamental gardening of Leicester. § The base of an earlyish arrow-slit is still in its place. C 10 THE CASTLE OE KENILWOR/TH 4. Next comes one of the most original and interesting parts of the Castle, what, is really the South front of the Norman Barbican, built to defend the moat-foot and causeway, (see Plan I.). It has three very peculiar windows, splayless outside, and broadening towards the sill: of course they have been filled up behind with rubble, but the rebates for shutters may still be seen inside. The buttress to the west, concealing the coins, is hollow. 5. Then a shorter piece of wall (1242) with a rather later buttress (?12(50) built up against it. 6. (due west) a rather earlier piece with a later buttress. 7. Then a nice remnant of * early parapet corbeling that carried the alure, (1240 ), than earlyisli buttress demolished. 8. Turning slightly northwards we have a stretch of similar wall with two buttresses. 9. Same wall and a buttress. 10. Same to angle. 11. A few more yards of similar work running W. N. W. tl ZD 12. A longer piece of (?) John of Gaunt’s work (1390) or later. 13, 14. An angular shallow buttress, and a pretty flat-trefoil or shoulder-arched window with some thirty yards of earlyisli work: an inside ‘domus’ has stood here (?1242), yetf the lower masonry at least is much earlier. 15. Thirteenth Century wall with the sallyports leading to and from the lake. 10. Another angular shallow buttress, part of another inside dwelling (domus), and a longish hit of wall (13th century). 17. Then a square headed opening, and a high bit J of motley wall. 18. Two Early English buttresses close together, the larger of which (altered in the last century?), screens an early and very curious recess (described in “Walk round the Inner Wall”), and the latter is close to the partition wall between the Plcasance and the Basecourt. 19. A bit of motley and then Early English to 20. A late Norman § drain (about 1180 or 1200), then a shallow buttress and a piece of old wall. In this early walling may be seen holes similar to those described in chapter x., 4. v. t See Pipe Roll (for 1242) in the appendix. t Along this curtain wall were found holes similar to those noticed in the face of the Keep. I mean, those in which oak logs were placed while the wall was building. § Leading to the S. E. corner of the Pleasance and belonging probably to some early domus or hall in the inside court, but certainly not earlier than the date given, namely the beginning of the second Age. ALURE CORBELING (13TH CENTURY). THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH 11 21. Piece inserted with four centred arch, through which Elizabeth must, I suppose, have gone to cross the timber bridge over the lake .—See Lanehams Letter. It is now blocked up. 22. Old wall again. 23. To the Swan Tower, which flanked the entrance to the moat, built possibly in 1219. Swans were probably fed here in Q. Elizabeth’s time. 24. 25, and 26. The whole range of North wall, probably the strongest part of the enceinte, with its double moat, and triple fortifications with draw-bridges, opposite the Birmingham road or Redfen Lane, was all destroyed, when (about *1650,) the castle was dismantled. The end of it may be seen in Leicester’s Gateway Tower. 27. The line of the moat is interrupted by Leicester’s Gateway bridge on a narrow arch. The whole platform is probably Hawkesworth’s work, who removed the 13th century buttresses, about 1650, when he destroyed the wall, and re-erected them on the East side of his platform, where their antique look has often puzzled me. 28, 29. The wall is demolished as far as the gorge of fLunn’s Tower, which was built 1175 or 1180, but has undergone some changes. Two squincli arches connect it with the alure along the curtain wall, by a passage defended by a high parapet.—See “Earm-yard in Base-court.” Notice the splay of the base which has been covered with water. The photograph will shew every thing else of interest. The walls at the base are about six feet thick. Observe the ‘hourd’ holes. “To see (says, Mr. Robinson in Ids essay on the military architecture of Warwickshire), to see the battlements cutting their jagged and broken outlines sharply against the sky, was only to see a castle on a peace footing; as war drew near, they threw out long pieces of wood projecting over the moat, and on these formed a hanging gallery, called a hoard or hourd, which gave them a directly perpendicular command of the wall from its summit to its base, and enabled the defenders to proceed from point to point unexposed to the assailants. If you examine the upper part of Lunn’s Tower, you will still see the holes in which these supports were placed.” These hourds had port-holes protected by shutters that fell after a shot was delivered from the fort; and to destroy such timber galleries, the besiegers’ first efforts were directed. The reader will find them most ingeniously represented in Le Due’s great Leicester must have altered much of the northern line of defence, changing the entrance, making aviaries when; the great towers had stood, or inserting ornamental work into their gorges or backs. t This name is discussed elsewhere. In confirmation of the notion that this tower is named after its successful lieutenant of 12G5, I must refer to Le Due, s. c. Chateau. He describes the general defence of a Castle, as consisting of several small distinct garrisons, every post, each curtain, each bastion having its separate commandant and company of defenders, each gate having its own captain and his several men-at-arms. Si m’est avis que Dangier porte La clef de la premiere porte Qui ovre vers orient Avec li, an mien escient, A trente sergens tout a conte.— Roman . N ear the Water Tower is a very fine merlon, perfect, though without its embrasure. It will give some idea of what was the appearance of all this piece of wall, before its parapet was spoilt. And each face of the Water Tower may have had two similar but smaller merlons with a narrow embrasure. I ()t a cross shape to allow, as Mr. Robinson suggests, the use of cross-bows. This shape had the defect of weak¬ ness at the cross arms, as is very evident. + Aotice here again the holes for the construction of the ‘horde’ (English hurdle, German horde, French hourd, old French hordel, &c.; late Latin hurdieium. hordecium; probably it was but an improvement on the simple hurdle, having both offence and defence in view; indeed the same name was given to battering towers). And above them notice THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH 115 fj TT A 'pcpxj -p TTTY Vjj XXixX X X_lX\ V XX■ THE ENTRANCES TO THE That on the road from Warwick has been partly described, but the visitor should Mortimer’s (having got leave,) examine Mortimer’s* tower with care, noting the one ® 0 tocr. battlement which has been walled up some 650 years, and is the only one left in the Castle. Its corbels are quite Norman. It is observable also, with what slight foundations our earlv builders were often contented. «/ Any one can see at once that there is here an older tower encased on three sides by a more modern but still ancient one, with two semicircular bastions. Below the battlements and corbel are two put-log holes, which may, perhaps, have belonged to a Tiurdicium or horde” of some sort, one 6 feet above the other (Somewhat in this way, ; see Le "Due. s.v. Hourd). The drain was connected with two garderobes above. Plan II shews that the road from Birmingham having turned at the north arm of itoair from the pool, or at the fen above it, runs along its eastern edge, straight for the girmittjjlam. great portal of the Castle. Here all vestiges of fortification have disappeared. Leicester began the demolition, and Hawkesworth and his fellows finished it. Leicester broke through the high curtain wall, a good deal eastward of the old (Satctoair entrance, and inserted his stately Gateway Tower, through which a road ®otorr. twelve feet in width, led across the moat, which he narrowed. The present entrance must he nearly as Hawkesworth left it, about 1656, A.D. He iiafolifsfoortlfs blocked up the tower archway, with bay f windows; added a rather picturesque Jjousf. building to the east, filled up the moat, re-erecting part of the early English buttresses of the north wall (which he had destroyed), to flank and support his esplanade. In the exterior of this tower, remark 1, the porch which has been taken out of the ruins, (it is said, from Dudley’s lobby). The door inside it was stolen from Leicester’s buildings, and these fragments of alabaster came from some state chambers of his time. 2. The traces of the high north wall of the Castle in the western side, where the basement moulding is interrupted, and the face is rubble instead of ashlar. the sills of two loop-holes, six yards apart. The French ‘bretache’ is sometimes nearly equivalent, at least the verb bretescher stood for fortifying with hourds. * Built about 1200-12lb, and enlarged probably in 1223. Dugdale oddly ascribes it to Leicester, who “raised it from the ground in memory of one more antient; wherein, as I guess, either the Lord Mortimer, at the time of that solemn tilting (1279), did lodge; or else because Sir John Mortimer, Kt., prisoner here in Henry Vth’s time, was detained herein.” (See “the Earthworks and Pools.”) t These are not unpieturesque, and being made of Leicester’s own window nmllions, do master Hawkesworth’s taste and ingenuity, some credit. He made himself comfortable, obeyed orders, and after all did not do so much damage, probably, as Leicester himself, or even John of Gaunt. I'id his side-door come from the Keep ? THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 11 Q o . Tlic arms of Beauchamp on the south front, to which, * certainly, Leicester had no rmlit whatever. O Inside are 1, a curious t oak staircase, in the S. W. turret. 2. The famous fireplace, (about 1570), the chimney piece of which is made up of a fine alabaster one, brought probably from J the Privy Chamber, and some elaborate oak carving out of the Presence Chamber. Some interesting old oak wainscoting taken from the same place. 4.—A less curious chimney piece of oak upstairs. 5.—Some very beautiful fragments of early Decorated work, probably belonging to the “King’s” chapel.—See vignette, in chapter xv. 0.—Fragments of fine plaster-work, 16th century. § The entrance from the Birmingham road was disused it seems by Leicester, (see jof Laneham’s description of the Garden), and altogether destroyed in the I7tli Cntnmn. century. Look at the large spherical stones close by. These were most probably ./>., 242, 2 44, in Purler's Glossary. § In the right splay of the S. window of this recess, about 50 or GO years ago some wag cut the following lines, which are now a good deal effaced: — Ever to vex The softer sex Is an unmanly thing, Sir, If that you do May they prove untrue And you in a halter swing, Sir' Some years afterwards an answer was subjoined:— Never tq vex The softer sex Is gallantry too far carried ; The man is a fool Who follows that rule And never deserves to be married. Though this is doggrel, one can forgive the men, that thus sharpened their wits and blunted their knives, more easily than the aftercomers who erased their work. THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 28 above which the south gable of the Hall must have towered, ornamented possibly with a large window in its head. Notice the very tine arch which has been rebuilt lately.* Molars. A south door leads out of the oriel into the Solar-passage. Nothing much remains to be noticed inside liere.f The apartments in the upper- part of the S. W. tower are ruinous (notice the fireplace). A staircase (also of John of Gaunt’s time), leads out of the Solar and its cellars to a garderobe, in the S. inner wall. pri a 'ptp'ip'p yTT THE STATE-ROOM RANGE. In John of Gaunt’s time, no doubt a suite of rooms ran eastward as far as the "rand o Tower and Lobby, which are oven now conspicuous ornaments of tlie Castle. Whether these had become ruinous by Leicester’s time we do not know; at any rate lie altered the floor-levels} and built largely here, raising the wall, forming a room 58 by Sitlntc 25 feet ot singular shape, with two bay windows; and it was called the White Hall. (E. in Plan III). Gown. I h<' repair of the wall was quite necessary, as a very few winters would have brought the whole, arch and all, t In the cellar of the solar apartment, notice the fireplace (1 100) with its sunken hearth pan. Did Salvador practice his deadly chemistry here, in Leicester’s employ ? + r, i the suite of state rooms running eastward. Leicester raised some of the floors and so gave height to the old Ct liars THE LOBBY, FROM THE NORTH-WEST (ABOUT 14OO). THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 29 Here a great Oriel window of Leicester’s work supplanted an original Norman Tower (? about 1150). The ashlar coins of it were discovered during recent repairs, interrupted by ties of very Early English, hut still of later date. The Plan and view of the Lobby* (about 1400) and of the Great Tower will explain gobbjr. nearly everything. The garderobes of the latter must be noticed. Le Hue would call them “monumental.” The cellar windows of the former have one curious feature; they have had shutters, and stanchions, and bars from the first; hut besides this, a glass groove has been cut in both, on left side and sill, and awkwardly too, as if by a workman in a had position. There is no groove on right and top. This was done probably in Leicester’s time, who made many alterations in the upper or Presence Chamber, wainscoting it richly. Some of his woodwork is now in the Gateway Tower; and some fragments of very fine plaster- work have been found in recent excavations.t Passing on under the Early wall, we come to a drain (14th Century) and a fireplace* of the same date, remnants of a building which Leicester partly rebuilt. CIjcuuba\ The room above was called the Privy Chamber; it had a hay window and measured about 23 feet square. Then the original wall (Plan II) takes a turn N. E. and disappears, though frag¬ ments of it are discoverable in the wall of Leicester’s building. * It is likely that Queen Elizabeth entered by a more eastern portal. This is hardly a state entrance. Mr. Parker’s informant, though evidently an intelligent man, oddly mistook the lobby for the apse of a chapel, though it has seats in the windows, and does not point eastward .—Domestic Arch. III., p.p. 240, 24-1.— See Pugin for restoration. 4 It would not be possible to make better. The cellar was floored with a rougher sort., some two inches in thickness, and the upper room with what is as fair and hard as alabaster, though it has fallen 200 years. j The necessity for re-building the inner face of this wall is much to be regretted: but if the place must be over¬ run by idle and mischievous people, many necessary evils ensue. THE CASTLE OF KENILWORTH. 32 marsh. King Henry VIII., who bestowed great cost in repairing Kenilworth Castle, caused the said banketing house to be taken downe and part of it to be set up in the Base Court at Killingworth.* In this Lent season, whilst the K. lay at Kenelworth, messengers came to him from the dolphin of France named Charles, with a present of Paris balles for him to play withall, but the king wrote to him that he would shortly send to him Londonf balles, with the which he would breake doone the roofes of houses.”— Kenilworth Illustrated. nrr a 'pqp'ip'p ‘Y > T7 > w XX XLX X XjI iAj V i There were either two or three, in the middle of the 13th Century. One in the Keep, Capella turris. One other, at least, Capella Castri (perhaps the same as Capella Regis). Rut we find by Laneham’s letter, that on the 10th and 17th July, 1575, Queen Elizabeth attended Divine Service at the Parish Church. Seemingly, the ‘Great Court’ was then clear. And as, therefore, the larger Chapel guufi’s stood somewhere§ there, I think that (Hjapcl. Leicester bad already destroyed it, [two very fine fragments of it (? 1230), are to be seen at the Floodgate (or Gallery) Tower], and secularized the smaller one in the Keep. The great probability is, > as I have elsewhere said, that this was in the S. W. turret where he made a second staircase. A chimney place remains to the W. ot the gate. Leland calls it a pretty banqueting-house of timber, that stoocle thereby in the meere. + My Lord, Prince Dolphin is very pleasant with me: But tell him, that insteed of balles of leather We will tosse him balles of brasse and yron. Yea, such balles, as never were tost in France. (The Famous Victories of llenry the Fifth..) t In all Castles mass was said every morning .—Broadstone of Honour. § At Raby (Durham), the Chapel slopes away from the Hall, 2/3 down it, but the Chapel of Kenilworth Castle must have been built earlier in the 13th Century, a little time after the very beautiful Priory Church, now alas destroyed. THE CASTLE OF KENILWORTH 38 Two or three beautiful fragments of Early Decorated work have been discovered, sufficient only to prove that the building to which they belonged was of a very high excellence. It would not he possible, I think, to do finer work in sandstone. Some of them perhaps belonged to a Royal Seat. Examine the fragment on the title-page. TT A •ptp'r?1Q 'Y’V7’Y w XXXkX. X Xjt JX lAj v X i THE MANOR, CHASE, AND ESTATE. The first definite particulars that Dugdale gives us are, that in August, 1266, Henry III. gave by charter to Edmund, his younger son, the Castle, reserving to himself the advowsons of the Priory of Kenilworth, and Abbey of Stoneleigli; and on the 28th December, of that year, conferred on him certain privileges; free chase and free warren* in all his demesne, lands, and woods belonging to this Castle. In 1267, the king gave him a weekly Mercate (Market) on the Tuesday, and a fair yearly to he held on the Even, Day, and Morrow of the feast of S. Michael. In 1279, the same Edmund held the Castle ‘in demesn,’ having two mills standing upon the water of the pool; eight acres of meadow, &c. Also two woods, one called the frith and another the park, then common, and containing 300 acres according to the large measure. At that time it was certified that this park here contained 40 acres of wood, and a pool half a mile in length and a quarter of a mile in breadth, as also that he had here a court leet, gallows, assize of bread and beer, with a market on the Tuesday. In 1302, John Peclie, then Lord of Honily (and in 1322, of Temple Balsall), released His right of common there, so that Earl Thomas (son of Edmund) might hold it up enclosed with ditches and pales; with certain reservations of pasturage. In Elizabeth’s time, Robert, Lord Dudley, enlarged the chase, impaling part of Blakwell within it, and also a large nook, extending from Rudfen-lanef towards the pool; which being then a waste wherein the inhabitants of Kenilworth had common, in consideration thereof he gave them all those fields called Prior’s fields, lying north of the Castle.J He is said to have spent £60,000 in all upon buildings, parks, and chase. See Survey in James the First’s time infra. * license to keep what were called beasts and fowl of warren, such as rabbits, hares, partridges, pheasants, &c. + Now called Redfen-lane or the Birmingham road. t In 1576, Leicester obtained a grant for a weekly market on Wednesday, and a yearly fair on Midsummer-day. F THE CASTLE OF KENILWORTH. 34 (~3 XT A •pcp'Wr'p YTHT w XXiiX X XnXl A V XX* THE FIREPLACES. Those of the 13th Century have carved hacks for some feet up; those of John of Gaunt’s work (14th Century) have straight backs, mostly tiled. In one fireplace have been found live courses of glazed yellow tiles, made for domestic flooring, not late in the 13th Century- Only hut one chimney shaft has escaped, a mere fragment (13tli Century) over the Guard-house. Leicester’s fireplaces have straight backs without tiles (16th Century). ri tr a 'P c P1f?'P YTrTTT w XX«Q,X X JjxJX A. V XXX* EXTRACTS FROM PIPE ROLLS, Ac. 1165. 11. Henry II. The shiriff accounted for the profit of the Park. 1173. 19. Henry II. It was possessed and garrison’d by the king, his eldest son (whom he had crowned) then rebelling against him; with whom Lewis K. of France, Rob. Earl of Leicester, Hugh Earl of Chester, and many other great men took part. At which time there was layd in a C. quarters of bread corn, at viii//. vim. ii d. charge (being not then much more than 2d. a bushel;) 20 quarters of barley at 33s. 4d. (2-|d. a busliell). An hundred hogs at £7 10s. (18d. apiece). Forty cows, salted at £4 (2 shillings apiece), cxx cheeses at 40s. (a groat each) 25 quarters of salt at 30s. (^d. lb. nearly). At which time a hundred shillings were allowed for making of a gaol there. THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. Ol» 1174. 20. Henry II 1181. 27. Henry II lls2. 28. Henry II. 1184. 30. Henry II. 1185. 31. Henry II. 1187. 33. Henry II. 1189, 1190, 1191. Richard I. 1204. 5. John. 1212. 13. John. 4213. 14. J olm 1216. 17. John. 1219. 3. Henry III. 1221, 1222. 5 & G. Ilenrv III. The same sheriff Bertram de Yerdon accounts for large sums for payment of soldiers, horse and foot, therein. William de la Warde accounts for the Earm of the W ard thereof (? dues from country people in lieu of service). 39 shillings and 50sh. 8d. de perquisitione commorantium in praedicta Warda. (Some it seems in those turbulent times ‘purchased’ a right of ‘residing’ within ward for safety), &c., &c. Hugo de Rampan accounts for the farm ix shillings. xxvi/{. ix.s-. ixrZ. spent in repairing the wall, &c. ‘Workmanship about the Gaol.’ Michel Belet pays 5G shillings de pasnagio liaiae for the paunage or pasturage of the park. Farm, custody, repairs accounted for. Hugh de Cliaucumb governor in place of Hugh Bardolf, &c. William de Cantilupe (Sherilf) spent £361 7s. on building upon this Castle.* Also £102 19s. 3R1. on chamber and wardrobe (? the Water Tower in which the Queen’s Chamber stood). £224 more in building. The same sheriff spends £402 2s. more on repairs. The Castle was now strictly garrisoned under Ralph de NormanviUe commandant. The King’s son being therein. £150 2s. 3d. spent on re-building a tower (turella) which had fallen the Christmas before (? the S. W. turret of the Keep which shews later work in windows and arrow-holes). More money in repairs, a hundred shillings each year. * The £ 1200 more or less (perhaps £16,000 of our money), which were laid out on the Castle during eight years must include some alterations in the keep (? in S. W. turret), perhaps all the Northern defences, certainly great part of the northern wall, a considerable portion of the inner enceinte, changes in Lunn’s Tower, the Water Tower; and possibly the outer Barbican on the Warwick road. It has been argued from the greatness of the sum, and from the existence of a stringcourse in the Keep faces (rare in early Norman domestic buildings), that the Keep must be referred to the reign of John; but the alterations and expensive buildings, consequent upon the adoption of a new system of fortification, and on the alteration of the high level watercourse, and above all, the remains of the original fosse give a sufficient answer to the one argument, and the other is refuted by the existence of Early Norman stringcourses, eg. at the Priory, Dover, (a very similar one, 1139). Such a view is completely untenable. THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 36 1223. 1224. 1225. 1227. 1228. 1229. 1231. 1232. 1233. 1235. 1236. 1242. 7. Henry III. 8 . Henry III. e/ 9. Henry III. 11 . Henry III. «/ 12. Henry III. 13. Henry III. 15. Henry III. 16. Henry III. 17. Henry III. 19. Henry III. 20. Henry III. 26. Henry III. t/ Those who sell wind-fallen trees in the park are ordered to furnish the sheriff a part to repair His dwelling in the Castle, &c. £17 and ~ mark spent in work, repairs of Castle and (domi) the temporary dwellings inside the walls. 100 shillings spent on the improvement of the Hall, (possibly still in the Keep, though a drain (before 1200 ) leads to the lake from some large building. 125 shillings spent on building. 42. sli. spent on the carriage of five tuns of wine from Southampton (only 6 days journey). 14. sli. on improvement of the Gaol and of a certain chamber. £10 on improvement of the domi or dwellings along the wall. 100 shillings more. And 5 5 marks on the baiae vivarii; mending the banks of the great pool. Stephen de Segrave, sheriff. lOOsli. spent on improvement of the ‘domi’ (which were of timber and plaster and so perishable) and 20 marks on repair of a certain turret. Again a hundred shillings on improvement of the domi or dwellings. £32 on repairs of the Keep, in lead, wood, and stone. £50 in other repairs. £4 10s. 6 d. spent on the bridge of the Castle (probably the one under the Keep to the east), and on repairs of the pool banks. 46s. 7d. on improvement of the domi (which evidently need constant repairs).* 47s. 8 d. on repairs of the calcetum (dam or causeway) across the valley; part of the stone revetement may be of this date therefore, but perhaps very little indeed. This entry, as it is the most important of all, and has been inaccurately copied (it seems by Eugdale) shall be given at length. * Also, £6 Its. 4d. on a fair and sufficient Oriel or Porch-house (of timber) to the King’s Chamber in Lunn’s lower; the put-log holes for which are yet to be seen. It was, as I have elsewhere said (possibly), destroyed by Simon de Montfort, to give his mangonels free play over a low curtain-wall at this salient point. LEICESTER’S BUILDINGS (l 5/ i), FROM THE NORTH-EAST. THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 37 “Et in capella” castri tie Ken. lambruscand’ et depingend’ et pariete ligneo in eadem faciendo et duabus sedibns in eadem Regis et Reginae decenter depietis. Et in sede Reginae in capella turris ejusdem castri quae diruta est reficienda et magna camera ejusdem castri reoperienda et gayola ibidem cum brethaschia in qua campanae dependant omnibus etiam gutteris ibidem reparandis. Muro etiam ibidem ex parte australi, super vivarii quantum necesse est, prosternendo et reficiendo. Et in camera Reginae ibidem lambruscand’ et lineanda et fenestris ejusdem camerae frangendis et majoribus faciendis. Et in caminis camerae Regis et camerae Reginae reparandis, et quadam privata camera juxta cameram Reginae, et quadam nova camera in ballio versus vivarium facienda et ea columpnis lapideis sub- fulcienda et muro ejusdem castri reparando, et duabus portis ibidem reparandis. Quodam etiam muro intra intrinsecum et extrinsecum murum ejusdem castri faciendo, quadam etiam nova portion ante cameram Reginae cum quadam trappa facienda quadam etiam fenestra in capella Regis exparte boreali, et ponte tornitio* faciendo, &c. In the chapel of the Castle—wainscoting, painting, a wooden screen, seats for King and Queen fairly painted. In the smaller chapel of the Keep, repairs of the Queen’s seat which had been destroyed. Re-rooting and repairs of the Great Chamber, and ot the Gaol, with bretache or (?) wooden gable turret for bells. The wall along the necessary extent of pool to be pulled down and re-built. The Queen’s Chamber to have wainscot, the walls lined (see specimen chap, ix.), the windows broken down and enlarged. * Corrupt name for “pons versatilis,” we find it also as pont de tornes. I may note that this word seems sometimes equivalent to ‘parapets. how here walles were broke with engines strong, here bretages al about forbrent and destroyed.—IF. and the Werwolf, l, .3001. THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 38 The chimnies of King’s and Queen’s Chambers repaired, the lower Privy Chamber to the latter built. See cli. viij. A new chamber built in the outer bailey towards the pool, with buttresses, see ch. vi., 13, 14, repairs of wall, and two gates, a partition wall in outer bailey. A new porch before the Queen’s Chamber, with a trap-door (trappa descendens from one story to another, in lieu of a staircase). A north window in the King’s Chapel, and lastly, a drawbridge. Gilbert de Segrave is made governour. 1244. 28. Henrv III. & Simon de Montfort is made governor. 1248. 32. Henry III. The custody given to Elianor, the King’s sister, wife to Simon de Montfort. 1250. 34. Henry III. The constable is ordered to cut down 6 acres of wood on the road from Warwick to Coventry, for the security of passengers. 1254. 38. Henry III. e/ The Castle is granted to Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, and Elianor his wife, during their lives. 1265. 49. Henry III. After the battle of Lewes, many prisoners* were brought here. One of his sons, Simon, garrisons the Castle with the survivors of Evesham, but on the King’s ap¬ proach, 1266, made his way to Axholme, in Lincoln¬ shire and Prance for help, leaving Henry de Hastings commandant. The King in spite of the resistance offered, published the decree or dictum de Kenilworth, allowing the disinherited rebels to recover their lands bv fines. «/ But the Castle held out, and was onlv reduced after a siege of 6 months by starvation and disease. 1269. 53. Henry III. £75 13s. 9d. are allowed to the sheriff, William Bagot, for 255 quarters of wheat, 52 oxen and 173 muttons sent to the King’s army during the siege. 1279. 7. Edward I. Edmund Earl of Leicester and Lancaster, to whom the Castle had been given in 1266, held a famous f tourney here, probably within the Brays, at which Roger Mortimer, Earl of March was present. * Henry Hid. the King of the Romans, and Prince Edward, besides others, t This is the celebrated ‘Round Table’ on which see note in index. THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 39 1322. 15. Edward II. The Castle garrisoned for the Crown. 1327. 20. Edward II. The King brought hither a prisoner. 1392. 15. RichardII. John of Gaunt begins building. 1414 * Henry V. Builds le ‘pl esails en Marys’ the traces of which are seen at the Chase Earm, (see Map I.); it was a square enclosure of some 2 acres, with angle-towers of no great strength. Henry VIII. demolished it. 1484. 2 . Richard III. £20 paid to John Beaufitz for divers reparacions made in the Castell of Kyllingworth. 1563. 5. Elizabeth. Robert Dudley begins his changes in the Castle, “tilling up a great proportion of the wide and deep double ditch wherein the water of the pool came” as may he seen by the traces of the old Avail in the side of the Gateway ToAver which projects over the old ditch many feet. 1571. 13. Elizabeth. The Eloodgate or Gallery Tower and Leicester’s build¬ ings possibly erected. 1642. Charles I. A slender garrison placed here hut withdrawn.f 1649. The Castle Avas given with the Manor to the foUowing officers of Oliver Cromwell’s army:— Colonel Hawkesworth; Major (Richard) Creed; Cap¬ tain (Benjamin) Pliippes; Captain Ayres; Captain (Richard) Smith; Captain Matthews; (Captain Robert) Hope; Captain Palmer; Captain Clarke; Captain Coles. Hawkesworth converted the Gatehouse into a resi¬ dence, and drained the pool* before 1660. Read Henry V., act. 1., sc. 1, 2. t After the battle of Edgehill, for we find that some Royalist prisoners (taken there) were confined in the Castle; e.q. Richard Shuckbnrgh, the merry sportsman, who was a hunting when he met the King, Oct. 22, 1(512, he went home, aroused his tenants, and the next day attended the army to the field, where he was knighted, and fought. * T say pool, not pools, because I fancy that Leicester altered the lower pool very considerably, to make terrace walks. In 1(510, the pool (sing. i.e. the upper pool) and floodgates are estimated to yield £1(5 :3s. 8d. (Adlard, ‘Amye Robsart’), shewing, I think, that Leicester did drain the lower pool, as we see in Dugdalc. to THE CASTLE OF KENILWORTH. p TT A pcpXJTD 'Y’T'Y' \jj XXixX X XtXi w/LJ.tAin THESE SHORT NOTICES OE ROBERT DUDLEY, EARL OE LEICESTER, ARE BASED ON LODGE’S ACCOUNT, AND ON CAMDEN. -—- 2 _----- PUBLIC LIRE. Robert Dudley, the fifth son of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, by Jane, daughter of Sir Henry Gtuldeford, was born in or about 1532. His father, who surrounded the person of Edward the Sixth with his offspring, procured for him in 1551, the post of one of the six Gentlemen of the Bed-chamber, and about the same time that of Master of the Buckliounds. Upon the accession of Mary, he was formally sentenced to death for his relationship to the Lady Jane Grey, but was pardoned and liberated Oct. 18, 1551. In Easter term, 1555, he went abroad and served at the battle of S. Quentin. Strvpe tells how he ingratiated himself with Mary and Philip, and indeed, Lodge conjectures that the passionate regard of Elizabeth was won by his adroit and secret services in her behalf. Elizabeth, on coming to the throne made Dudley Master of the Horse, and in June, 1559, Knight of the Garter, and member of the Privy Council. In 1563, she gave him Kenilworth,* besides other gifts of value; and seeing his growing influence with the Queen, numerous public bodies! paid profitable court to him (among them notably the city of Coventry). Like his royal mistress he was fond of gifts, though at times he could spend lavishly enough. In 1561, Sept. 28, he was created Baron of Denbigh; and, on the next day following, Earl of Leicester; and again, before the end of that year, Chancellor of Oxford, and had serious hopes of marrying the Queen. * When did Robert and Ambrose Dudley assume the Beauchainp-N eville cognizance, the Bear and Ragged Staff? in 1571. The former carved over his new gate-house the Beauchamp arms, with as little or less right, but see"note from Sir Philip Sydney, in ch. vii. + Leicester was made High Steward of King’s Lynn before June, 1571, as a gift of =£100 was then made to him for certain suits. In the book of the Corporation of King’s Lynn, I find a present of 3 great gilt bowles, with covers; 2 gilt graven ffaggons; 1 gilt graven spout-pot, worth in all L97 Us. 8d., given to Leicester, Dec. 7, 1597. NORMAN KEEP OR OESAR’S TOWER (BEFORE 1133), FROM THE SOUTH-EAST. THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 11 The pretended negotiations for his marriage to Mary Queen of Scots, and for that of Elizabeth to the Archduke Charles, did not much affect his power: in 1569 lie was able to overthrow the Duke of Norfolk hv treachery.* The Queen came to Kenilworth in 1566 and in 1568. In the former year, Dudley was made Knight of the Great Order of S. Michel. In 1570, as is suspected, he removed Sir Nicholas Throckmorton by poison.f In 1572 and 15754 the Queen again honoured him with a visit at Kenilworth, the expence of which he was enabled the better to sustain, as money came in on all sides and by all means fair and foul. The last and fourth visit was longer than any that she ever vouchsafed to a subject, and some of its heavy magnificence is well described by Laneham. I 11 1576, he obtained, by grant, a weekly market on Wednesdays, and a fair on Midsummer-days. In 1577, Elizabeth wrote a letter of thanks to the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury, for personal attentions to him—but on the discovery (1579) of his marriage to the Countess of Essex,§ her resentment was great—yet she soon pardoned him, and in 1582, || gave him the triumph of escorting his rival the Duke of Anjou to the Low Countries, where he probably laid the ground-work for that proud appointment which he afterwards held there. On his return (so his enemies allege) he proposed the poisoning of Mary Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth was base enough to listen to his argument, though she did not adopt his suggestion.^" * See Strickland, vi. p. 313, &c. Darcie, 209, &c. t Sir Thomas Throckmorton, of Littleton in this county, his nephew, wrote an Historical Poem, “the Legend of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, Knight, Chief Butler of England, and Chamberlain of the Exchequer.” + The Queen evidently paid four visits to this Castle, and therefore, as in 1575, the ‘Lady of the Lake’ sings of her thrice coming; it seems that for some convenient reason one of the visits was purposely forgotten. The ‘unlooked- for’ visit in 1568, is proved by the Coventry MS. Annals: which give also a long list of presents made to Leicester. § Leicester was accused of having seduced Lady Essex, as well as Lady Douglass. Walter Devereux, her husband, died September, 1576, in Ireland, after suffering grievous torment for 22 days. Camden says of the Queen’s displeasure, “Leyeestrium in castellulo Greenvici se coutinere jussit.” || Again the attempt (in 1579) to assassinate the Baron de Simier. agent of the Duke of Anjou, was attributed to Leicester, whose character is bad enough to give colour to any accusations; but it is only just to remember that this and other charges rest on the anonymous authority of “Leicester’s Commonwealth,” a bitter attack, said to have been written by Parsons. See Disraeli’s Amenities of Literature, vol. ii. p. 315., ed IS 10. Simier had told the Queen of Leicester’s marriage to Lady Essex. The History of ... . Elizabeth .... Faithfully translated out of the French, by Abraham Darcie, 1621, which seems to be an almost literal translation of the 1st edition of Camden’s Elizabetha, gives in its slight variations from the 2nd edition of the original a proof of strong dislike to Leicester. Under 1575, Camden says of Essex (I quote tin 1 2nd edition, 1625), “Planeque nihil abstrusis in aula artibus oinittitur ut molestiarum assiduitate mitissimus ejus animus contabesceret”—Abraham Darcie. ‘And sure nothing was omitted by the close and subtill dealings of Leicester, with continuall troubles to oppress the milde and peaceable spirit of this noble worthy. Camden of the attempt on Simier (2nd edition). ‘ Nee defueruut qui eum insimularunt quasi Teuderium a Begin Satellitio Sicarium ad tollendum Simierum Subornasset,” w h Darcie renders. ‘And they were not wanting that would doe, what he (Leicester) would have them doe. Tender, one of the Quecnes guard is suborned to kill Simier.' H While there, Leicester made great outward show of religion, taking care to partake frequently of the Lord’s Supper .—See Gerard Brandt. Camden says of his secular ambition, “non dubium quin ille dominationem sibi arripere cogitarit.”—Read the Quarterly Review, No. 189, and (by the way) Camden, mdj.xxi. ed. 1625, p. 211. G T1IE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 42 In 1585, Leicester was appointed General of the Queen’s forces in the United provinces, and was invested by the States with supreme authority; but his government was weak, and his military experience insufficient, and he returned to England in disgust. Ilis second attempt with new levies in June, 1587, was equally unsuccessful, and he was finally recalled in September. Yet, the Queen’s favour was undiminished; she made him Steward of her Llouse- hold, Chief Justice of the Eorests south of Trent, and in 1588, appointed him to the command of her Army of Defence, as Lieutenant-General. Indeed, hut for the re¬ monstrances of Burgliley and Hatton, he would have been Vice-General of the whole Kingdom. Baffled for the time, he set off for a brief sojourn at Kenilworth; hut his end was approaching; stopping on his way at Cornhury, his seat in Oxfordshire, he was carried off hy poison, Sep. 4, 1588. PRIVATE LIFE. On June 4, 1550, Robert Dudley, in presence of Edward the 6th, married Amy (or Anne), daughter of Sir John Robsart, of Stanfield Hall, Norfolk. She died on the 8th September, 15G0, hy the hands (as it was believed) of Sir Richard Verney and Antony Eorster, two of Dudley’s retainers. The Manor House at Cumnor was solitary; her servants had been sent to Abingdon Eair; in short, suspicion was aroused, hut enquiry was demanded in vain, though the demand afterwards proved an obstacle to his marry¬ ing the Queen.* In 1572, he married Douglass, Lady Sheffield, whom he had seduced at Belvoir Castle during a progress of the Queen. A letter dropped hy her excited her husband’s suspicion; and he hurried to London, but was poisoned hy Salvador, Leicester’s physician and chemist. Having married her, by private contract, in Cannon Row, London, (two days after which her son was horn) and then solemnly, at Asher in Surrey, in 1573, as was proved on oath, he lived with her some time: and hy her lie had issue, Robert, whose legitimacy he afterwards basely denied, and a daughter. But in 1578, he fell in love with Lettice,t daughter,of Sir Erancis Knowles, and relict of Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex, and deserted the Lady Douglass; he offered her a * (The Memoirs of Gervase Holies); an amusing extract from a letter (May, 1573), of Gilbert Talbot (in Miss Strickland, vol. <>), describes the sisters, ‘my Lady Sheffield and Frances Howard,’ as striving who shall love him (Lr.) the best. “There are spies over them.” t The Lady Lettice, who, says Holies, served Leicester “in his own kind everyway,” was born 1539 or 1540; married, at the age of 20, Walter Devereux, Viscount Hereford, and after Earl of Essex; then in 157s she married Leicester; but, it seems, fickle as himself, then she fell in love with Christopher Blunt, ‘gent, of the Earle’s horse,’ whom, after Leicester was disposed of, she wedded, but lost in 1601, with her own son, both being beheaded on Tower Hill; she herself lived on, a hale old lady to the age of 94 years, dying on Christmas Day, 1034. THE CASTLE OF KENILWORTH. 13 pension to disown her marriage, but on her refusal he attempted to poison her. She nar¬ rowly escaped, with the loss of her hair and nails, and to save her life she publicly married Sir Edward Stafford. [A servant, poisoned while himself engaged in the poison¬ ing of Sir T. Overbury, escaped with the same injury.] By this his third (?) marriage Leicester had a son Robert, who died in child¬ hood, 1584. At his death,* in 1588, Leicester, whose personalty was valued at about £30,000, left the Estate of Kenilworth to his brother Ambrose, Earl of Warwick, for his life, then to revert to his long disowned son, Sir Robert Dudley. Sir Robert, who had been entered at Christ Church, in 1587, as ‘Comitis Filins,’ an earl’s son (Adlard), succeeded to the Estate in 1590; and married Alice, third daughter of Sir Thomas Leigh, of Stoneleigli: his children by this marriage were, Douglas, a daughter baptised June 5, 1G00; Alicia Frances, who married Sir Gilbert Kniveton; Anne, who married Sir Robt. Ilolbornc; and Catherine, who survived her mother and was wife to Sir Richard Leveson, (Adlard). [The Duchess Alice died in London, aged 90, Jan. 22, 1668-9.] Soon after, if not before, the accession of James, in 1603, he laid claim to his father’s Earldom, and with this to the Warwick Estates; hut his stepmother Lettice opposed him successfully. In his disappointment he obtained licence to travel for three years, and went abroad. But his enemies at Court obtained his recall, and not obeying he lost his estate as well as his claim. His Castle and Manor were seized on to the King’s use, under the Statute of ‘Fugitives’ (? outlaws): see extracts in Kenilworth Illustrated. Like his father, goodly and accomplished, (‘Aulicus omnibus numeris absolutus’) but loose in morals, he left the Ladyf Alice in England, and persuaded Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Robert Southwell, of Wood Rising, in Norfolk, to elope with him in the disguise of a p a ge— a papal dispensation for their marriage was obtained, about 1606. They were received with distinction by the Grand Duke of Tuscany; a pension of nearly £1000 was settled on him, so that he could afford, in 1611, to resign his worthless claim to his * Sir Robert Naunton writes, that he swallowed, by mistake, poison that he had prepared for some other person. A MS. quoted by Bliss, in his edition of the Athenae Oxonienses, says that it was given by Lettice his wife • and Drum¬ mond of Hawthornden says that having received it from him as a cordial medicine, she gave it him innocently. Camden says of his property “Cum autem in aere Reginae asset, bona auctione diveudita.” He was in the Queen’s debt and his goods were sold by Auction. + This Lady Alice, on the 4th May, 1G21, resigned her jointure in the Kenilworth Estate to Prince Charles : in Kid8 she gave for the altar of S. Nicholas’ Church, Kenilworth, its unsurpassed Flagon, Charger, Chalice and Covers, the work of some eminent London goldsmith. Charles the First made her a duchess. Her daughter Alicia, in KJ24, augmented the Vicarage with some lands at Mancetter. There is a monument in Stoneleigli C hurch to the memory of both these ladies. THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 44 Estates to Prince Henry. In 1020, lie was made Duke by the Emperor Eerdinand the 2nd*, and this title (with the addition of ‘Northumberland’) was shared with him by both his true and his sham wife, and descended to his son Charles. lie built himself a palace in Elorence; and his daughters, by Elizabeth Southwell, married Princes of the Empire. He died in 1649, in Elorence; [He drained some morasses between Pisa and the sea, and wrote ‘Del Arcano del Mare’ and other works.]f X Vi/D X iD w X X X X* OF AMY EOBSAET. In Ilarl, MS. 897, f. 80, b. [Notes and Queries, 3rd Series, December, 1804], we have the funeral certificate of Amy Robsart. “Lady Amic Robsart, late wyff to the right noble the lord Robert Dudley, Knight, and companion of the most nohle Order of the Garter, and Master of the Horse to the Queenes most excellent majestic, died on Sunday, the 8tli September, at a howsse of Mr. Eorester, iij myles from Oxford, in the 2 yere of Queue Elizabeth 1500; and was heryed on Sonday the 22 of September next enshewenge, in our Lady Churche of Oxford.” The reader will recollect that Amy’s husband acquired the Castle of Kenilworth in June, 1563, and received the Queen in state, 1575. An attempt has been lately made by Mr. Adlard, following Mr. Pettigrew, to clear Robert Dudley of the grave charge of murdering his poor deserted wife. It is based 1, on the internal evidence of Leicester’s letters and conduct. 2, on what is known of Amy Robsart’s behaviour. 3, on the formal verdict of the Jury. 4, on the date and character of Parsons’ (?) libel (Leicester’s Commonwealth), 1584. 5, on Sir Philip Sydney’s generous answer thereto. ‘The Duke’ was created a Roman Patrizio by patent in 1(530. t Sir Francis Leake writes to the Earl of Shrewsbury from Sutton, July G, 1G05. “I am sorrie for Sr. Roberte Dudleye’s greatt ouerthroe, because 1 was muche bounde in dewtie to hys father; and yf he doe marrio Mrs. Southwell ytt ys felonie by these laste statutes.” i.e. of James. 1, c. xi. For fuller details of Sir Robert Dudley, his voyage in 1591 to Trinidad, &c, see Mr. Adlard’s ‘Amy Robsart.’ lie is there said to have probably had for his first wife a sister of Thomas Cavendish. THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. Now first, Lord Robert Dudley upon receipt of the horrible news did not hurry from the Court to Cumnor, but went off to his house at Kew. He did not even attend the funeral at Oxford, afraid, it seems, of facing the people of the neighbourhood and such orators as Babington. Both he and liis kinsman* Blount are desperately anxious to hear the popular rumours and afraid of his being suspected. 2, Mr. Adlard suggests that Amy, Lady Dudley, may have committed suicide:—But this is more inconsistent with the verdict of ‘miscliaunce’ than any other theory;—and seems but ill-supported by the evidence “that she prayed to be delivered from desper¬ ation.” That she was a prudent sensible woman we may gather from her extant letter (given by Wright and by Adlard); she was now 28 years old, and it is not very common for persons of that age to die of falling down stairs, or to choose that method of suicide. That she was most unhappy, and had the gravest reasons for unhappiness, is too evident. But even if we grant her husband all that is now alleged, he really was guilty of her death. 3, The verdict of the Jury carried little weight, except with those, who like the Queen, favoured Dudley more than he deserved, or those who were in fear of him, as many were. Scarcely a week after the death of Lady Amy, that verdict was publicly challenged, and an inquiry petitioned for by Thomas Lever, a noted divine of high character; but Leicester was at Court, and the appeal was stifled. 4, The libel (of Parsons) was (it is true) posterior to Amy’s death by many years, but it only made public what had long been kept safely enough in documents and in malicious memories; and 5, Whatever must be on this score deducted from its weight, must also be taken from Sir Philip Sydney’s generous defence of Dudley. All our notables are being rehabilitated one after another, with more or less ingenuity, but I see no sufficient cause for acquitting Robert Dudleyf. That lie did murder Amy, no one ought to say; but that he was wicked and unscrupulous enough to wrong and murder any woman, and that he did wrong her is, I think, most manifest. Unfortunately, Anthony Forster’s dwelling can bear now no evidence either way, but it seems hasty to assume that murder cannot be quietly done in a house where two gentlewomen like Mrs. Odingsells and Mrs. Owen are residing, though their presence is certainly an argument of some weight against it 4 Their correspondence beginning Sept. 9, 15G0, was discovered in the Pepysian Library by Mr. Craik. + Of his political puritanism and religious profession there are many proofs.—Collier Ecc. Hist. vui. p. 45, &c. f See again Quarterly Review, No. 189. THE CASTLE OF KENILWORTH. 46 POSTSCRIPT II. LEICESTER’S EXPENCES IN THE LOW COUNTRIES. I am enabled by the kindness of Mr. Staunton of Longbridge, to give my readers a few extracts from the Book of Expences of the Earl of Leicester, in 1585-6, beginning after his arrival at Flushing. Laied out the xi th of December, 1585. Delivered to Mr. Burburye w ch he gave in reward to the porters Guners & wachemen at flushinge by yo r 1. comandmt the sum of five pounds v H To George Brooke yo r 1. servant w ch he gaue in reward to the poore of the church at fflushinge by yo r 1. comandmt twentye shillinges xx s Paid to Mr. Grey the Shipmaster for the discharge of all yo r 1. lioyes to the Burgomasters or waterbalyfes of fflushinge by yo r 1. com’andmt twentye shillinges xx s More to George Brooke the same day w ch he gave in reward to the muzitions of the shipp w ch yo r 1. came in called the Amatist twentye shillinges xx 8 The xii th of December. Delivered to Rafe Moore the same day w ch he payed to Edmund Carve yo r 1. servant being borowed of him & lost by you r 1. in play on sliipborde as you came to fflushinge twentie shillinges. xx s The xiii th of December. Paied to Lawrance Ramsey the xiij th of November for his horse liyre from London to Harwitche as appeareth by his byll vnder Mr. Blunte hands x s Paied to foure of yo r 1. footemen the same day for their dyet & lodginge at Harw ch & there suppers & lodginge at Mydlborowe the fyrst night when yo r 1. lay at Flushing as appeareth by their byll vnder mr. Blunte hand THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 47 To Robert Tyder the same clay w ch he gave in reward by m r . Blunte comandm 4 from yo r Ex. to certen poore Duche men laborers w ch workinge stone out of a seller by the street craved of yo r Ex. as you ridd by to shewe yo r selfe & see the towne of myddelborow. Delivered to yo r 1. three cliaplens the xiiij th of December vz to m 1 '. John Knewstub to m r George Gyfford & m r Dudley Efenor at Myddlbrow by yo r 1. com’andm 4 the some of thertie pounds xxx H Geuen to Owyn yo r 1. Armorer of Kyllingwortlie the same day (xv tL ) by yo r comandm 4 fortye sliillinge xl s Paied the xv 4h of December to Steuene Jonson you r 1. Servant for a gerdell and hangers of gold silver & blacke silke made by yo r Ex:* com¬ andm 1 for a short sword w ch was geven yo r 1. by m r . Nycolas Sanders & for tow brushes for yo r 1. wardrobe as appeareth by a byll under his hand lij 9 Paied the same day (xvj 4h ) to Doctor James by yo r 1. comandm 4 for a reame of paper eleven shillings xi s Delivered the same day (xvij 4h ) to m r Heigliam Captayne w ch he gave in reward by yo v Ex: comandm 4 to nycolas Stase mayster of the barke called the Grace of God, w ch cariecl yo r 1. provision of beere wyne etc from London to fllushinge liavinge suffered greate losse in his passage by wether Paied the same day to Charles m r Secretaries man w ch he gaue in re¬ ward by yo r comandm 4 to a Ducheman that brought yo r 1. towe flowers of waxe lyke unto nosegayes abort! yo r hoye at yo r 1. firste enterance Yo r 1. lost in play the same day (xxiij th ) at niglite in Counte morisses lioye at Doble hand Loclam To the mayster of my 1. Embassadors hoye the same day that carried yo r 1. alonge yo r jorney to Hollande liavinge forsaken yo r owne in the way by reson of the unsweetnes thereof by yo r 1. comandm 4 twenty crownes Sente to yo r 1. the xviij 4h of December by m r Eflud yo r 1. secretarie to my 1. Embassadors lioy r e where yo r 1. played w 4h S r William Russell at Tantos by yo r Comandm 4 twentie pounds w ch money yo r 1. reservs still in yo r owne purse for playe Paied the same day (xxij 4h of December) at Dort for three Elemisli ells of blacke silke broad ryben for yo r 1. vse for a gerdell xx s I s v 11 XX li ii s vi d * Camden (p. 509, Ed. 1025), Excellentiaeque titulo, quo primus Anglorum usus erat, exploso. 48 THE CASTLE OF KENILWORTH. Delivered to John wake yo r 1. servante the same day at Dort w cl ‘ he o-aue in reward by yo r Ex: comandm* to the Ducke hunters w ch yo r 1. wente to see for the straungenes of there maner ot takinge. To mr. Gyfford yo r 1. chaplen av cU he gaue in reward by your com¬ andm* the same day to the scolmasters at Dort y* presented \eises to yo r 1. Geven in reward the same night by yo r 1. comandm* to the mynister of Roterdam that presented yo r 1. w tb a booke The xxvj* h of December. To the orgen player of the cliurche of Dclplie the same day by yo 1 . comandm* xxx th of December To the saied Vnderhill the same day w ch he delivered yo r 1. to cast to a hoy that slidd uppon the ise under yo r bed-chamber window at the Haghe Paied to m r Downhall yo r 1. Secretarie the same day for tow cards bought bv vo r 1. comandm* on the lvliole world an other of Holland Ze- O *7 fj land Efriseland & Gelderland Geven in reward to yo r 1. players the same day by your comandment ten pounds Paied to Richard Gardner yo r 1. groome the same day for tow fyre- shovels & toive paire of tonge for yo r 1. bed-chamber and av*' 1 drawinge chamber at Delphe &c. as apperetli by his byll The first day of Januarie. Geuen in rewarde the same day to the corne-cutter by yo 1 1. comandm* Paied to Robart Efalwell Cole-bearer for an axe to cleave wood for yo r 1. Chamber the same day as apperetli by his byll vnder m r George hand Paied the same day at the Haghe for the furringe of goAvne av* 11 fox foure pounds ten shillings yo r 1. taffeta To yo r 1. players that go comandm* the same day. backe into England for tlier charge by yo r 1. Geven in reward by l.vo r comandment to a Ducheman Porter ot the boose that presented yo 1 ' 1. w lh pyctoothe the same day WATER TOWER—INNER FAgADE (13TII CENTURY). THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. Yo r 1. gave William Kempe the player therten shillings the same night (ij Jan) in yo r bedchamber out of the ten pounds which I gave yo r 1. for play w th Count Moris & my lord of Essex at dohle hand Lodam with tliertye shillings yo r 1. saied was in exchange of a rose nohle w ch was geuen him by Count Hollocke yo r 1. lost in playe the same night (the iiij) at Leiden in yo r bedchamber at the dohle hand Lodam against Count Moris & my 1. of Essex & betting with Sir William Russell Paied to Robert Litcliford yo r 1. servant the same day for the washing of yo r 1. lynen at Myddelborow Hort and Haglie & for the mending of yo r L. Clocke at Haglie and cariage of yo r bed trunke & chest with ar¬ mor for yo r owne bodie from Haglie to London as appereth by a byll vnder his hand Yo r 1: loste in play w th my 1. North S r William Russell & M r Digbye the same night (iv Jan.) in yo r bed-chamber at single Lodfi fortye shillings To Richard Pepper yo r 1. footman w ch he gave in reward by yo r 1. comand the same day (v th ) to Count Morices fawkener y fc presented yo r 1 . w th a cople of hearnes & a bitter in yo r coche as you ridd betweene Leiden and Haglie Paied the same day at Leiden for six yards of blacke satten at xij s the yard w ch yo r 1. gave to the gentle-woman y‘ keeps the liowse where yo r 1. laye there by yo r comandnY Paied to yo 1 ' 1. Goldsmytlie in Haglie the vi th of Januarie 1585 for xij payre of agletts of angell gold weighing one ouce three quarters at three pounds y e ounce as appereth by a hill of his hand fyve shillings for the makinge of the same agletts fiftene shillings Paied the same day (vij th Jan.) for carnation riben to xii pairc of gold tags w ch ware made for yo r 1. at Haglie. Paied the same day (ix Jan.) at Haglie by yo r 1. cohiandm* to a merchant of myddleborow for xiiij ounces of gold & silver lace w th a hyase worke in the myddest contayninge xxi yards at viij s the ounce w ch lace was laied vppon a buffo gerkin the some fyve pounds twelve shillings Paied the same day (xyj. Jan) at Leiden to ffredericke the Italian Inginer for a slead & furniture bought at Amsterdam by yo 1- 1. comandnT ten pounds THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 50 The xx th of January. Paietl the same clay for a skryne of wicker for vo 1 1. bedchamber w th out a frame xxi th of January To m r . Doctor James the xxi th of January w cb he gave in reward at Leiden by yo r 1. comandm 4 to m r . Dudley yo r 1. paige uppon bis goinge away with m r . Sidney forty shillings Paied to Humfrey Adlington yo r Ex: footeman for a bottle of new renishe wyne w ch he was comanded to fetclie the xxiiij of January at diner tyme for yo r Ex: to tast. t/ v Paied the same day (xxx Jan) for the amendnT of the small cheanes of y* George w ch yo r 1. brake at yo 1 ' lightinge of vo r horse betwene Leiden and Haghe. Delivered to Lawrance Ramsay the laste of January to bye the pic¬ ture of a burgomaster at Leiden w ch was made by vo r Ex: comandnT ther foure pounds To m r Ilciden the same day w ch he gave in reward by yo r ex: com¬ andnT to the three keepers of the councell chamber dowers at the Haglie thertie shillings Paied to Raffe Moore the same day for iiij payre of spectacles at xij a the payre to yo r Ex: vse The therde of Eebruary To m r Ilynde the same day \v ob he gave in reward by yo r Ex: comandnT to the mayde in the Boorcs house where yo r Ex: lighte & went in as you rich! a liawkinge at the pye. Paied by vo r Ex: comandnT the vth of february to nT. Wvlliam «/ «/ Clerke Doctour of the Civill law for the printing & byndinge of rewle booke of the mylitary lawes as appereth by his by 11 onder his hand Geven in reward the same day at the Haghe by yo 1 Ex: comandnT to m r Edmond Carew at his goinge over into England twentie pounds More the x tb of february to the saiecl Mr. Carew uppon his request to vo r Ex: as money imprest thirtie pounds. my xl s i\ ;r ii XXX s my nrj h iuj 5 XX 1 xxx ii THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 51 pjrr A 'PH’TPIR 1C 1C V.'7 XJ.XlX X XlXl SURVEYS OF THE REIGN OF CASTLE IN JAMES I. THE (FROM KENILWORTH ILLUSTRATED.) THE CASTLE OF KILLINGrWOKTH SITUATE UPON A EOCK. Circuit . . . . 1. The Circuite whereof within the walls conteyneth 7 acres, upon which the walls are so spacious & faire that two or three persons may walke together upon most places thereof. Building . . . . 2. The Castle with the 4 Gatehouses all built of freestone hewen and cult, the Avails in many places of 15 and 10 foot tliicke, some more, some lesse, the least fower toot in thicknes square. Covering . ... 3. The Castle and 4 Gatehouses all covered with lead, whereby it is subject to no other decay than the glasse through the extremity of weather. Roomes .... 4. The Roomes of great State within the same & such as are are able to receave his Ma ty the Queen & Prince at one tyme, built with as much uniformity and con- veniencv as any houses of later tyme, and with such stately sellars all caried upon pillars and architecture of free stone carved and wrought as the like are not within the kingdome, and also all other houses for offices aunswerable. Chases & Parks . . 5. There lieth about the same in Chases and Parks £.1200 p aim, £.900 ivliereof are grounds for pleasure, the rest in meadow & pasture thereto adjoyning. Tennants and Freeholders. THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 52 Kingswood Copses Poole* Tyrol >er & Woods Compasse. . Survey * The floodgates were here mentioned. Leicester 0. There joynetli upon this ground a parklike ground called Kings Wood, with 15 several coppisscs lyeng altogether eonteyning 789 acres within the same, which in the Earle of Leicesters tyme were stored with red Deere since which the Deere, strayed, hut the ground in no sort blemished, having great store of Tymber & other Trees of much valewe upon the same. 7. There runneth through the said grounds by the walls of the said Castle a faire Poole eonteyning 111 acres well stored with fish and fowle which at pleasure is to be lett round about the Castle. 8. In Tymber and woods upon tlieis grounds to the valew (as hath been offered) of £.20000 having a convenient tvme to remove them, which to his Ma tie in the Sur- vey are but valewed at £.11722 which proportion in a like measure is held in all the rest upon the other valewes to his Ma'J. 9. The Circuit of the Castle, Manors, Parks, and Chase being round together conteyne at least 19 or 20 miles in a pleasaunt countrey, the like both for strength, state, and pleasure not being within the Realme of England. 10. Tlieis lands have been surveied by Commission 1-9 from the King and the Lo : Privy Seale with direcions from his Lp. to finde all things under the true worth, and upon oath of Jurors as well as freeholders as custumary Tenants, which course being held by them are notwithstanding surveied and returned at £38554. 15*. Out of which for S r . Rob : Dudleys contempt there is to be deducted £10000. [and] for the La : Dudleys Joynture which is without ympeacli- ment of wast, whereby sliee may fell all the woods which by the survey amount unto £11722, what slial be thought reasonable. rented at ,£G Ids. Id. a year in the time of James the First. No second or lower pool is had probably drained it. THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH 53 £. s. The Totall of the Survey 5 In Land . . 16431 0 ariseth as followeth, In Woods . 11722 2 viz. ) The Castle . 10401 4 His Ma tie : hath herein the meane profitts of the Castle and premisses through S r Roht: Dudleys contempt during his life or his Ma ts : pardon. The Revercon in fee being in the Lo: privy scale. VALUATION. There is a valuation of the Castle of Kenilworth in the British Museum, Cotton MSS. Tiberius, E. viii. evidently made about this period, but the signature and date are so much injured by the fire in the Cotton Library as to be illegible. The Manors of Kenilworth and Rudfin were valued at the same time, the former at 21,010/. 16s. the latter amounted to 38,554/. 15s. The valuation of the Castle is as follows:— Castle of Kenelwortlie, &c. The Circuit whereof within the utter walls cont. 6a. 3r. 14p. Valew Although most of y e wals In frestone at 2s. Gd. the tun Tuns £. s. d. are of very great thicknes & cariadge .... 703574 . . . 9196 15 0 yet this computacon risetli but at 4 foot throughout in In workmanship digging & £. s. d. thickness of Hewen stone. laieng at 20 d. each tun 6670 14 4 Arched vaults & pillcrs of £. frestone .... valued at . . 834 Paving of freestone at 2(/. Eeet £. s. d. the foot .... 14540 . . . 121 3 4 Timber in y e buildings at 8s. Tuns £. the tun 1185 . . . . 474 The survey of the Castle and Possessions at Kenilworth here given, is a verbatim copy of the Cotton MS. Vespasian F. ix. being the document consulted by Dugdale, but not printed by him in the original spelling, and having an omission in the tenth article. 54 THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. All y e pipes for carklge of y e water from y e cundit lied being3q rs of a myle distant is in tlie title of Lead. Lead all y e buildings being cover’d therewith at £12 the tun . . . . Iron barrs of windowes &c. 2991 at 2d. the pound wamble . . . . Casem ts for windowes at son- drie rates . . . . Tuns lb £. s. d. 1241 80 . . . 1494 8 6 Waight £. s. d. 19565 lb . . 163 0 10 Casem ts £. . (Mortimer’s Tower) -V- Water Tower Later HiI 14th Century (late) 16th Century. f -^$7 $T-#£/is£ - v t^xJX /Cv^l Azf t!£ w X/ *f* A Oriel - - - x T 07 /VCR £ Lobby - - - Solar Passages, &c. - V K_ \ V* X Y Barn - ^ HHt A J “™^ orfih v4-xx^v^^x P ^^ Gateway Leicester’s Buildings Some few of Leicester’s ashlar stones may he of older date. 56 THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. f} TT A 'pCp'CT'O VYTT wxXxj.X JL JCaXv NOTICE OF BASE MOULDINGS. The Reader will see without much difficulty the difference of date. ! B’ is a very weak though a genuine hase, certainly some of the earliest work in the Castle, and not later than 1136. prr A 'pcp'CJ'o yYTTT w x *aZsl J7Y» v/XitAiXtAiXi In Le Hue. s. v. Chateau we read out of Guillaume de Lorris, Roman de la Rose, v. 38. Yous poissies les mangoniaus Veoir pardessus les creniaux. When Simon de Montfort (the father) was besieging Toulouse he made himself master of a chateau outside, which (rightly or wrongly) passed for a Roman work, but whose walls were very high. Being pressed for time, (rather than raze the walls between the towers) to allow of the establishment of large engines, he made terrace works inside. Thus, the defensive system of castles before (or about) the second half of the 13th Century consisted in towers of considerable command, joined by curtains of small eleva¬ tion so as to permit the setting up of powerful machines placed upon the ground, the tops of which were as de Lorris says, visible above the battlements (So Le Due.) There¬ fore, as is elsewhere noted, the ‘fair and competent’ oriol of (1235) the King’s Chamber may possibly have come to an untimely end about 1260, at the hands of the same great Engineer’s son, the report of whose machines at Kenilworth frightened the men of his time. The mangonel and petraria differed as to size chiefly. Will. Brito in Hu Cange. Intcrea grossos petraria mittit ab intus Assidue lapides, mangonellusque minores. “Meanwhile, from within, the perriere discharges right hi the mangonels sends lesser ones.” stones unceasingly, and THE CASTLE OF KENILWORTH. •)< The spherical stones, roughly hewn, of considerable diameter, which are still to he seen here, have probably been made for the perriere; but this may have been called mangonel* in England, where it was previously little known. It was long before these machines (formidable alike to both sides) gave way to cannon: but when our modern system of artillery became really effective, then both the J fj d e/ J ancient fortifications and the ancient engines were given up. Le Hue gives an excellent account of this revolution in the science of war. A small working model may be seen in the Gateway Tower. O t' d /rnr a 'pcrrr'iry'p 'x/' "SC TAY w XXvQ.X X Xii Xv» vAaiAoX V i EXTRACTS FROM AN ‘ACCOUNT,’ UR AWED UP BY WILLIAM BEST, YICAR, 1716. 1645, Cromwell’s Army enter Kenilworth and lodged in the Church. In the year 1648, Jan. 30, that Good King of ever glorious memory was Barbarously murdered. Soon after, the Usurper Cromwell gave the mannor of Kenilworth to his Officers belonging to his Army, viz.:—Coll 1 - ITawkesworth; Major Creed; Capt. Phippes; Capt. Ayres; Captain Smith; Capt. Matthews; Hope; Palmer; Clark; Coles. These new Lordes of the mann r tyranize and govern the Parish as they list. They pull down and demolish the Castle, cut down the King’s woods, destroy his parks and chase, and divide the lands into farms, amongst themselves, and build houses for themselves to dwell in. Hawkesworth posts himself in the Gatehouse of the Castle and drainsf the famous Pool, consisting of several hundred Acres of ground. Hope and Palmer enclose a fourth part of coihons called the King’s woods from the Inhabitants’ Liberty, and take it as their own free Estate. In the year 1657, these Petty Lords, with some of the Inhabitants of the Parish, took a survey and gave in an estimate of all the lands within the liberties of the said Mann r - And in the following year 1658, viz.: June 14tli, they in great pomp and * Or generally “Engine.” As doth the routing of the stone That from the engine is let gon.— Chance's House of Fame. t I have affixed the date (before IfiGO) to this Act of Hawkesworth, because of Dugdale’s silence in 1056, his engraving gives the pool, and though he does not profess to bring down his history to that date, it seems safer to suppose that the pool may have been drained about 1U5G. I THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 58 ceremony, make their perambulation and goe tlieir procession round the Bounds of the Parish. But what is very remarkable, during the 20 years Rebellion and Usurpation, these Rapacious* Vermin never once seized on the noble plate belonging to the Communion Table, nor ever attempted to engross to themselves or alienate the Tithes from the Church. But from time to time set up Ministers and allowed them to have and enjoy all the Tythes the said John Best dyed possessed of, according to the endowments of the said Rob-Earle of Leicester. In the year 1GG0, May 29th, King Charles the 2nd was Restored to his Crown, and came to enjoy his own dominions, and among other lands the Mannor of Kenelwortli. Then these Lords Soldiers soon scampered away, and the Daughters of the said Lord Cary, Earl of Monmouth, intercede and prevail to hold the said Mannor as their father did before them by Lease or Leases from the Crowne. cj rr a inqp'ip p yT¥ w xxx »xr\» v i 8IEGE OE KENILWORTH. Thes riche. Men. wcned bon siker Tliurli walle and tliurli diclie. The ded his echte on sikere stude lie hit sent to heuenriche. .Poema Morale, xij Century. Great as Henry III. was in many things, lie was neither a great King, like his son Edward, nor a great General like Simon de Montfort, his brother-in-law; and the mis¬ conduct of his foreign wars caused discontent among his nobles, 1242-1253. To attach de Montfort to himself, and secure if he could the loyal adhesion of the strongest fortress in the district, he first made him Governor of the Castle and Manor, and then gave them to him and his wife Eleanor for their lives, 1254. But it is not wise to give one’s enemy a torch to fire one’s house with. Kenilworth was a dangerous gift to any but a most sure friend, and De Montfort, who had great knowledge of military science, began without delay to strengthen his new acquisition in every way, by repairs, by Collecting munitions of war, by making formidable engines Mr. Best does not see that their rapacity had some limit, at least: this is rather to the credit of the poor vermin. THE GATE ' PORCH OF TOWEL (ABOUT 1571 ) THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 59 such as lie had seen used in France, mangonels and perrieres, of a size and kind strange to most Englishmen. He made Sir John Gitfard, a man of proved valour, his com¬ mandant; who surprised Warwick Castle, and after dismantling it brought the Earl and his family prisoners to Kenilworth. The battle of Lewes, 1264, and the escape of Prince Edward, are not matters of our local history:—The former event had seemed to ensure He Montfort’s triumph; the latter was the beginning of his downfall. Too shrewd not to see his danger, he despatched his eldest son Simon, to bring reinforcements from the north; hut the latter suffered severe loss in an engagement with the Prince in this village, and was obliged to throw himself and his men into the Castle. The fatal battle of Evesham followed, Aug. 5,1265. The younger Simon, not trust¬ ing to the clemency of enemies, who had mutilated his father’s corpse, resolved to hold the Castle against all comers; hut, as succour was necessary, he* stole awav into France to seek it from his family, leaving Henry dc Hastings his commandant. Annoyed by the ravages of the garrison, the King marched this way, got the supplies for which he waited at Warwick, both men and materials; and invested the place, June 25, 1266, (v. note). Desirous to avoid bloodshed, he offered pardon to the besieged; but having more faith in their Avails than in his promises, they refused his offers with insult and even maimed his messenger. The siege grew warm; with the engines which the great Earl had provided the garrison! did much mischief, and their sallies liarrassed the besiegers constantly and hotly. Yet anxious to quiet his exhausted realm at any cost, Henry held a council at Coventry, and published, 31 Oct. 1266, the famous Ran or Dictum de Kenilworth,J enabling those whose estates were confiscated to redeem them hv fines, varying from two to seven vears’ value. €/ On this, special offers of mercy Avere sent both to those within the Castle, and to Simon and his friends then in the Isle of Ely. The answer was the same; the council Avas none of their choosing; the Dictum they could not suffer. The King’s patience Avas uoav exhausted; he resolved on storming the contumacious fortress; and impressed all masons and labourers Avithin the Shire, men and tools, as pioneers for the assault. He fortified also and garrisoned the Isle of Axholme in Lincolnshire. t Possibly “Lunn” signalized himself at this time, and left his name to the tower which he commanded. X A copy is in the Cottonian Library, and in Tyrrel’s History of England, p. 10G5. THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 00 Meanwhile, tiling’s went ill inside; though hearts were staunch, victual ran short; and disease was rife among them, produced by the closeness of their quarters; and lastly, no relief seemed near. When, therefore, the King, having some inkling of this, made a fresh offer of the same clemency, they agreed that they would send one beyond sea to Simon, and if in 40 days he come not to their help, they would render themselves to the King, who was meanwhile to feed them. Sickness however waits hut ill; and ere their messenger could return, their last hope died within them, and they capitulated after a six months’ resistance about December 21,1266; “coming out so pale and meagre” that it could not be conceived how a garrison in so wretched a state could hold out so stoutly, or obtain terms so favourable.* THE ATTACK AND DEFENCE OF A CASTLE. The science of military engineering had as much attention paid to it towards the end of the 12th Century, as it has now; and new varieties of attack were continually calling for new devices in fortifications. The founder of Kenilworth Castle was indeed no mean engineer, as we see by his grand causeway and dams and the well-devised Tift’ in the Keep; but as the upper part of his building lias perished we cannot quite tell by what means if any, lie contrived to protect the base of his tower. The defence of his secondary portal is simple and rude, and he seems to have trusted, like most English Barons of Lis day, to the sheer strength of his walls.f War of course breeds ingenuity in war, and before long the English became nearly as expert in attack and defence of walls as their neighbours were; + and were as much troubled with questions of war and schemes of assault, except that the excellence of their archers proved often a better cover for the assailants than any complicated machinery. The ‘horde,’ liourd, or hurdicium (really ‘hurdle’) was an early invention to restore the balance of power in favour of the besieged. The loop-hole and the embrasure gave him vantage enough at a distance, but without undue exposure, they were unable Some items of the King’s purveyance have come down to us. The Sheriff of Norfolk had to fetch 36 tuns of wine from Lenns (the Lynns). The Canons of Kenilworth furnished 300 quarters of corn and many other things, that their goods might be spared. The Sheriff of this county, William Bagot, brought in 255 quarters of wheat, 52 oxen, 173 ‘muttons’. Tradition goes, that the King carried overland large boats and launched them on the pool, to assault the south and west sides, which were always less strong than the others; but the resistance at the Brays must have been stout, or he might have opened the sluices and drained the lake by digging near the Floodgate Tower. t The Castles which were built in France, in the latter half of this Century, were far more scientific (Chateau “Gaillard” or “the Saucy” for example, built by Cceur de Lion, the great engineer of the age). f The Crusade of Cceur dc Lion must have helped towards this. THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 61 to save the base from being picked at by men close underneath the wall, and the bastion system was not yet perfected. So in exposed places, the engineer ran out from the walls beams, on which be raised a gallery faced with hurdles or planks and projecting over the moat or causeway; so instead of the mere loophole or embrasure be had a porthole, pro¬ tected by a moveable falling shutter; and further, he had below him holes for pouring down pots of hot lime, iron bars, stones, beams, &c. “Entour out bretesches levees Bien planchies et quernelees.” In turn, of course, the weapons of offence were improved to beat down this guard and smash the planking of the gallery or bretaehe (or brattish); and Hu Cange gives several extracts, in which walls are said to have been pierced and broken through with stone shot, sometimes of 2 cwt. At length such magnificent towers as we have at War¬ wick show the perfection of defence, the stone machicolations giving complete command of all below, and avoiding the weakness of the ‘horde.’ There are in Eroissart many descriptions of sieges and assaults, but none on the whole will serve our purpose so well as the attack on the Castle of Front de Bceuf in ‘Ivanhoe;’ it runs nearly thus. The Barbican was an exterior fortification, of no great height or strength, intended to protect the postern gate, divided from the rest of the Castle by the moat, so that it was easy to destroy the communications by withdrawing the temporary bridge. In the out¬ work Avas a sallyport, corresponding to the postern of the Castle, and the Avliolc Avas surrounded by a strong palisade. The assailants brought forward their mantlets and pavises, and Avere covered by the archers who kept up a cloud of arrows. No points at which a defender could sIioav the least part of his person escaped their cloth-yard shafts; every arrow had its individual aim; they fleAV by scores together against every embrasure and opening in the parapets, as avcII as at every window; two or three of the garrison Avere slain and several others A\ r ounded. The whizzing of shafts and of missiles on both sides Avas only interrupted by shouts when either side inflicted or sustained some notable loss. The Black Knight leads a body of men close under the outer barrier of the Barbi¬ can. They pull down the piles and palisades; they Iicav down the barriers with axes. The assailants Avin the barriers and press the besieged hard upon the outer walls; some plant ladders, some swarm like bees and endeavour to ascend upon the shoulders of each other; down go stones, beams, and trunks of trees upon their heads; and as fast as they bear the wounded to the rear, fresh men supply their places in the assault. The ladders are thrown down and the assailants lie grovelling under them; but the Black Knight approaches the postern Avitli his huge axe; though stones and beams are hailed doAvn upon him, he regards them not. The gate crashes, it is splintered by his blows. Ilis followers rush in and the outwork is aa ou. THE CASTLE OE KENILWOllTH. 02 The defendants destroy the plank that leads to the Castle; and their enemies strengthen themselves in the Barbican; after a while they prepare a bridge or floating raft, and thrust forward its whole length into the moat, so as to form a slippery and pre¬ carious passage for two men. The Knight crosses and begins to thunder upon the Castle Gate with his axe, pro¬ tected in part from shot and stones by the ruins of the former drawbridge which the defendants had demolished in their retreat from the Barbican, leaving the counterpoise still attached to the upper part of the portal. His followers had no such shelter; two were instantly shot with crossbow bolts, and two more fell into the moat; the others retreated back into the Barbican. On the Black Knight and Cedric, who is with him, a heavy piece of battlement is about to be launched, when the defence is paralysed by treachery; the besieged try a sally but are defeated, and the besiegers capture the Castle. This is, on the whole, a fine sketch of a sudden informal assault, and needs only some notice of the more formidable engines of the 12th and loth centuries to make it complete. We h ave read that the besiegers had Mantlets (large moveable covers of wood) and pavises (great standard shields for two men). The besieged had, in time of war, the hordes and bretaches mentioned above. (Front de Boeuf Avas at peace with his Norman neighbours, recollect.) The besiegers had also the aries, or battering ram of old, mounted in a tower of light timber, protected on three sides by hurdles and hides, which was called Sus,* the Sow, (Troye or Truve, Scroplia, in Latin, vinea). The Catus or cat, again, brought earth to All the moat up with; or sometimes in attack¬ ing a weak fort, 20 or 30 men would come up and hammer away with a heavy beam shod with iron. v. Froissart, Bk. 1. c. lx. Well! we have seen the barriersf carried and the Barbican stormed. Ordinarily, the next operation was to till up the moat with trunks of trees, hurdles, earth, &c., then the old ‘sow’ was moved forward to grub up the earth, and the battering ram played on the Avail, or a mine Avas dug. This was also, sometimes, fitted up with slinging engines as well, Froissart speaks of one that would hold 100 men; it was taken to pieces and conveyed in many waggons. Such engines had various names, according to their characters, ‘swallows,’ ‘donkeys,’ &c. 1 W itli their gate like a swing-glass, v. the rough sketch in preface. They could sometimes be leaped over, as at N oyon. THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 03 Both sides had perrieres,* mangonels, trebuchets, or trepjets, slinging-engines of all sizes down to the portable arblast, with its windlass and quarrell, besides the arms we are more familiar with. Masons and labourers are impressed, with mallets, crowbars, pickaxes; the pavises protect them, but from the ‘horde’ hot lime and melted pitch are poured, and heavy stones crush them. The ram strikes the wall, but hurdles and woolpacks deaden its blows. At last the breach is made in the wall of enceinte, or in the parapet or horde; then the Sow lets fall a ladder or plank, on which the forlorn-hope clambers to the wall, and a hand to hand combat, decides the day. (Trr /\ V)epic? "ip , Y''V''Y7’T w Xa«q.X X X-iX\) V Xi PBTNCTPAL CHANGES IN THE CASTLE. 1. The first Geoffrey Clinton made the great earthwork; the dam at Eern Hill; the watercourses; the keep with its court; one tower on the S. side of the inner court or Hailey; and the palisade round this last; the barbican, with the palisade and wooden watch-towers round the brays; all about 1136. 2. About 1150, one of his successors probably built (of stone) the Gateway Tower, by the S. E. corner of the Keep, and added on the great Northern Portal. 3. Another, about 1180, took up the new fashion of fortifications, and resolved to add both strength and space to the Castle; replaced the old palisade by a stone wall; dug the great double ditch to the north (changing the direction of the high level water¬ course); and began the large outer enceinte at the weakest point, hv building Lunn’s Tower; and then commenced Mortimer’s Tower. The original Great Hall was now built. 1. In King John’s time and the earlier years of Henry 3rd., this great change was completed; the Entrance Tower on the Warwick side was altered from wood to stone; the Water Tower was erected, and Mortimer’s Tower was enlarged. The larger (or King’s) Chapel was either built or improved. After 1240, the Queen’s Chamber was prepared for the occasional residence of royalty: most of the outer wall was built, and the Barbican was destroyed, all but the S. face of it. See Viollet le Due’s Dictionnaire Raisonne for an excellent account, s.v. ‘Engin,’ which however does not solve all the difficulties of the subject. Read his articles, Siege, Hourd, Bretache. THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. 64 5. About 1280-1320, very important and beautiful work was executed, but this lias all nearly disappeared under the destructive hands of John of Gaunt and Leicester. 6. About 1392, John of Gaunt reformed the Kitchens, removed the old Hall, and enlarging the site of the Inner Bailey, built the whole of the western range, both Hall and Solar rooms. Then he turned south and remodelled the state-rooms, raising the noble Tower and beautiful Lobby. He also covered the Keep Court with an upper story. 7. In the 16tli Century, Henry the 8th completed the Quadrangle with his new range of building on the old wall to the east of the Inner Bailev or Court. 8. About 1571, Leicester meddled with everything. Outside, he remodelled the Floodgate Tower and Tiltyard; and replaced the ancient barns and stables by a new range. Then, taking into his head that a new garden after the French fashion was needful for his full magnificence, he availed himself of the acre or so inside the north wall; but, to do this, he must change the north entrance, and put it further eastward, as otherwise the road would cross the middle of his Garden, which he meant to keep strictly private. So he turned the Tower into Aviaries, and broke through the Castle wall with his new Gate Tower. Then he transformed the gloomy grand old Keep, put a flat roof on, broke through the thick walls for new windows, and taking a dislike to John of Gaunt’s work in the Keep Court he remodelled it; and, caring just nothing for private chapels, he hollowed out the S. W. turret for a new staircase. But this was not enough: the Queen was coming again: and he re-forms the whole of the southern range of state-rooms, opening out the old south wall with grand oriel windows; and clears the Quadrangle of the now disused King’s Chapel. Then down in the original (but long dry) moat of Geoffrey Clinton, he sets the foundation of his great and picturesque ‘Buildings,’ &c. 9. Enter Hawkesworth and fellows, with orders to destroy and dismantle, about 1650. He makes havock and wreck of North wall, Keep, Keep-Court, Great Northern Portal, Mortimer’s Tower, Gaunt’s Tower, Barbican on the Warwick road; evervthinc' in fact is rendered untenable. Then he pierces the dam, only pierces it (for Mr. Charles Draper is quite correct about this) with a culvert in order to drain the lake; and turning the Gateway Tower into a very pretty residence, he spoils Leicester’s proud palace of its ornaments for his own comfort, which I trust was but seldom disturbed by archaeological conscience-pangs. Hawkesworth filled up the great old fosse below the Keep with the ruins of Henry the Stli’s buildings and the old Norman wall; they lie there buried now, and must be interesting, could we but get at them. Modern destroyers shall be noticed below. THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. G5 ns TT A 'pcp'ip'O YY¥TT vXX«q.JT X XnJX tA.w/x. V XX* EEPAIES. The work of the last three or four years has been more or less wisely clone. I, To preserve the building from the ravages of time, ivy, and the public. 2, Eor the safety of visitors. 3, In excavation. Eor the first object, the Keep has been imperfectly and not very well patched inside and out. The outer enceinte, and the south side of the inner wall have been in some measure looked to. Leicester’s Building has been fairly secured for some time to come; and the Great Hall has received some very necessary, though not faultless, repairs. The ivy has been ruthlessly hut wisely sacrificed everywhere. Time will, in some degree, restore picturesqueness to the Castle, and bring hack its old beauty; whereas, a very few more years of neglect would have irreparably ruined much that the archaeolo¬ gist prizes and will now prize for centuries. The crude ugliness of certain inside wall-facings is wholly due to the public and their pranks, sober and tipsy. 2, Eor the safety of the public aforesaid, many of the upper courses of stone have been taken up and re-laid in cement; and the small trees that in a storm worked like crowbars to dislodge them, have been removed. And 3, The curious recess near the pleasance; the Sallyport and domus-windows, the Cellars of Hall, Solar and State rooms, and the Keep-court, have been thoroughly cleared out; though the excavation has yielded but few discoveries of any value, beyond some fine fragments of carved stone. In spite of mistakes, which will no doubt some day be rectified, the repairs recently done are, on the whole, conservative and right. Old Ruins have many enemies; not to mention time and weather, careless agents and economical builders have made their mouldering walls a cheap quarry; hence you may see fragments of Kenilworth Priory and Castle miles away, in the road or in the farm-buildings. This evil however is now held pretty well in check, and the worst enemies we have now to guard against, are 1, the Ivy, 2, the Public, 3, the Restorer, all of which are the more dangerous because they have real claims on our respect. But the Ivy is the crowbar of a giant; give it once fair rooting in a building and nothing is strong enough to resist it: it will lift and move bodily many tons weight from a wall, cracking large stones across, and opening masonry to the weather. K GG THE CASTLE OE KENILWORTH. The Public are still worse;* every scramble along the walls, every careless stone- throwing, even a poke with an umbrella, or half-an-hour’s nse of a pocket knife; indeed everyone of the many and various delightful proclivities of the Public is mischievous. Rut herein are the Public most mischievous, that they are the principal causes of Restoration; half the mistakes that have lately been made in the Castle, indeed almost all that grieves the eye by crudeness of colour, or gauntness of form, is rendered neces¬ sary by the multitude and the unscrupulous acts of our many visitors. * The Ivy must, I fear, go; the Public must, I fear, come; and the Restorer after them. Within an hour after a curious fire-place was discovered, its hearth was mischievously broken up. A r P1P1f?l\T r nT f Y > dt