Kenilworth

Kenilworth, a market-town of Warwickshire, on a small sub-affluent of the Avon, 5 miles N. of Warwick and 5 SSW. of Coventry. The castle, founded about 1120 by Geoffrey de Clinton, was defended for six months (1265-66) by Simon de Montfort's son, and passed by marriage (1359) to John of Gaunt, and so to his son, Henry IV. It continued a crown possession till in 1563 Elizabeth conferred it on Leicester, who here in July 1575 entertained her for eighteen days at a daily cost of £1000—that sumptuous entertainment described in Scott's Kenilworth. Dismantled by the Roundheads, the castle has belonged since the Restoration to the Earls of Clarendon. Its noble ruins comprise 'Caesar's Tower,' the original Norman keep, with walls 16 feet thick; Mervyn's Tower and the Great Hall, both built by John of Gaunt; and the more recent but more dilapidated Leicester's Buildings. There is a fragment also of an Augustinian priory (c. 1122); and the parish church has a good Norman doorway. Tanning is the chief industry. Pop. (1851) 2886; (1891) 4173.