Size Does Matter

The third castle in our trip was Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire (pronounce that worr-ick-sher), about an hour north and east of the Lilacs. Kenilworth is the largest castle ruin in all of England. It also served as a model for castle design; its defenses allowed it to survive the longest castle siege in English history -- the castle held for nearly a year against attackers. At its prime, three sides of the castle were defended by a 100 acre man-made lake. The lake prevented siege engines from getting to an effective distance and also thwarted attempts to mine under walls to weaken them.


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Funny thing, though, King Henry III built the castle up to be one of the strongest in the land and then gave it over to Simon de Montfort who later turned against Henry and held the castle against him. At one point, Henry's son, Prince Edward, was imprisoned in the castle before escaping. The tides again turned and in 1265 De Montfort died in battle against Edward. Edward is also known as "Longshanks" or "The Hammer of the Scots" -- you might remember him as the bad guy from the movie Braveheart. Edward is also responsible for much of how the Tower of London -- the last castle in our tour -- stands today.

Eventually, Kenilworth ended up in the hands of Robert Dudley, "the favourite" dude of Queen Elizabeth I. He turned the place into various lodgings to fit all manner of royal tastes, especially the Queen. She visited several times and the last visit in 1575 was apparently such a party that it almost bankrupt Dudley and also might be the inspiration for Shakespear's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.

There were two major strongholds in this region: Kenilworth Castle and Warwick Castle. During the English Civil War, Warwick was held by Parliamentarian forces and Kenilworth was held by the Crown. The Crown was on the losing end of things and Kenilworth was looted and slighted (the man-made lake was drained, too) in 1656 (10 years after Raglan Castle.) Kenilworth stands mostly in ruin, while Warwick is now a medieval theme park.



Next castle on the list is Warwick. Til then. Cheers!