UK: Warwickshire – Kenilworth Castle

Kenilworth Castle and its Elizabethan Gardens is the star of Kenilworth’s show and has been described as “the finest surviving example of a semi-royal palace of the later middle ages…”.
From medieval fortress to Elizabethan palace, Kenilworth Castle has been at the centre of England’s affairs for much of its 900-year history. It was at the centre of the almost six-month-long Siege of Kenilworth in 1266, thought to be the longest siege in Medieval English history, and it formed a base for Lancastrian operations in the Wars of the Roses. It saw the removal of Edward II from the English throne, the French insult to Henry V in 1414 (said by John Strecche to have encouraged the Agincourt campaign), and Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester’s lavish reception of Elizabeth I in 1575.