This is leisters building today, as you can see, the picture shows that it is a ruin but you can still get a good, vague idea of it’s shape and size. The windows are not defensive in any way. During the time of Dudley, the windows had clear diamond shaped Tudor glass in which were palatial features. Also in the picture, the thickness of the walls compared to the keep shows that it was obviously not for defence.
Source A is an artist’s impression of Kenilworth Castle in the 20th century. In the picture it shows leisters building to have small crenulations (not for defence) and also it shows it to be very large and with a decorative flag on top. This picture, I believe is not very reliable because if it was drawn for viewing, the artist would obviously have made it to look more attractive than it may have been.
Aspects that make Kenilworth Castle a palace in 1575
Leisters building
This is the fireplaces inside leisters building. The pictures aren’t very clear but the fireplaces show decorative aspects, including evidence of wooden patterns and also the sheer size of the fireplace. It’s chimneys showed no evidence for defensive reasons and I saw this on my site visit.
When Elizabeth visited here in 1575, Dudley spared no expense to entertain her. He spent £60,000 – an enormous sum in those days, on the buildings and elaborate celebrations.
This is one of the windows in the principal apartment. It looks out over the outer court to the curtain wall. It is probably the view that Elizabeth I enjoyed when she stayed in this apartment, though she would have seen not trees, but the lake and the water pageants arranged for her entertainment.
There was a suite of rooms on each floor and they are built with very high quality masonry, which shows that they were intended for important guests.
The Elizabethan Pleasure Gardens
The magnificent pleasure gardens at Kenilworth Castle commissioned by Robert Dudley, were a true statement of Elizabethan design. When it was created it was fit for a queen and was used regularly by the inhabitants of Kenilworth and also the queen herself. The garden comprised of an aviary, a range of plants and fruit trees and the most spectacular of all, a huge 18ft centrepiece.
Recently, the English heritage has undertaken construction on the once great gardens, so when I visited the castle I did not see for myself, so I used the internet for sources and research. For 2009, Kenilworth is hoping to re-open the gardens to the public using Robert Langham’s description of the gardens in his letter from 1575.
The Great Lake
This is where the great lake was situated before it was drained. It was used for both palatial and defensive aspects. For the queen’s visit, beautiful boats were sent to retrieve her and the queen was welcomed by the “Lady of the Lake”, floating on an artificial island in the middle of the waters. It was also used for fishing purposes. Due to the size and depth of the lake, it meant without enemies using boats to sail across, they could not get close to the castle, making it a very good defensive feature. I could see the depth and the sheer size of the lake by the amount of ditches around the grounds.
Aspects that made Kenilworth Castle a Fortress in 1575
The Keep
The builders spread the foundation out away from the walls, hoping to deter any attackers from undermining the walls. Also, attackers would find it impossible to place ladders close enough to the walls, due to the sloping foundations.
This is leisters building and the keep. When I visited the castle, I compared the two buildings. The keep had very thick walls – up to 3 metres in some areas. This was obviously for defensive reasons because it would prevent madder demolishing the walls, whereas leisters building had many palatial features including artificial crenulations (I knew this, as the crenulations were not of a size to shield an archer) and large windows.
The highest level of the Keep was the defensive level. Here you can still see the arches of the original building. The arrow slits were widened into a triangle shape at the bottom, so that the archers could shoot down into the castle courtyard if it were invaded.
Although the keep was the most defensive point of the castle, for the queen’s visit a huge Elizabethan clock face was added to the wall facing London Road to great visitors.
Plinths were also added at the base of the keep to support and strengthen it.
Mortimer’s Tower
In the medieval times, Mortimer’s Tower was the main entrance to the castle and along with many other things Mortimer’s Tower was dismantled around 1650 after the Civil War had ended.
When I visited Kenilworth, using my Kenilworth Castle site investigation sheet, I noted down numerous things that made Mortimer’s Tower defensive. There was evidence that included ‘murder holes’. These were holes in the ceiling so that defenders could rain rocks or other substances on the attackers’ heads, a portcullis to ensure that enemies did not have access to the inside of the castle and also narrow slits to ensure that archers could easily fire at the opposition. Mortimer’s Tower was an essential strong point to Kenilworth.
This is what remains of Mortimer’s Tower today.
Saintlowe Tower and the strong tower were used to strengthen the great hall. Both had arrow slits and crenulations and thick walls. These all added to Kenilworth Castle to make it more defensive. Although both towers had defensive features, they also had palatial aspects as well, including large decorative windows and attractive borders on the inside walls.
The Curtain wall was the perimeter around the castle grounds that provided a line of defence after the moat and lake. I knew it was for defensive purposes because of the thickness of the wall and also because it had buttercus’s to support it. This is what remains of it today.
The medieval towers flanking the stables are Lunn’s Tower and the Water Tower. Both towers have a spiral staircase at one corner. Lunn’s Tower has arrow slits similar to the ones at the top of the Keep and this was a defensive tower but the Water Tower was built later, with large windows and window seats and it’s arrow slits are purely decorative and are in fact dummy slits – making the Water Tower a palatial feature.
Online Source Analysis
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‘1563 – the fifth year of her reign – Queen Elizabeth I bestowed Kenilworth Castle upon Robert Lord Dudley – her favourite. A year later she titled him Baron of Denbigh and Earl of Leicester. He made extensive additions and alterations to the castle to continue John of Gaunt’s transformation of the fortress into a palace. Some of the Norman features were modernised with fashionable Tudor to please Elizabeth. For example, he replaced arrow slits in the Keep with large windows to allow more light into the building.’
This source states that Robert Dudley transformed the castle from it’s previous fortress position into a palace with many major transformations.
In conclusion, I believe that after closely analysing the site, Kenilworth Castle in 1575 was a fortress. I can prove this as all the modifications to Kenilworth were all to make it more attractive (e.g. dummy arrow slits). I did not use many of the sources in the source booklet provided as I didn’t believe that they showed the castle’s true aspects for me to make a decision.
