OF KENILWORTH.] KING EDWARD IN KENILWORTH. 221 the survey, is "carried upon pillars and architecture of freestone, carved and wrought as the like are not within this kingdom." It is of the same dimensions as the Barons' Hall, above, and was intended "for the domestics and those numerous guests and retainers who were not entitled to a place at the upper table." On each side of the upper hall is a fire-place; near to the inner court is." an oriel, in plan comprehending five sides of an octagon, and a fire-place. On the side opposite is a recess with a single window and a small closet, described by the guide as 'Queen Elizabeth's dressingroom." From the period just mentioned till that of Edward the Second, Kenilworth appears to have enjoyed uninterrupted tranquillity, if not sunshine. It was the frequent resort of that " brave but unlettered nobility" among whom it was the monarch's ambition to keep alive the martial ardour which his example had awakened. On the death of the first Edward, however, and the accession of his son, a crisis was approaching. The reign of the latter, his weak and impolitic government, his disregard of public opinion, his total abandonment of the kingly duties in favour of pleasure; his patronage of foreign adventurers, and his protection of servile flatterers, on whom he lavished wealth, and power, and honours, alienated the nobility, and hastened his own downfall and that of his favourites. But without minutely entering into this subject, we shall merely touch upon such facts, or incidents, as connect the Castle of Kenilworth with the history of that period. On the attainder of Thomas Earl of Lancaster, in the fifteenth year of this reign, Kenilworth again reverted to the crown, and was held by the king until the eve of his 'abdication,' when the orders issued to Odo de Stoke, his castellan, for its defence, could not be carried into effect. The king had left the capital and become a fugitive from his exasperated vassals. Having lost his favourites-the Gavestons, and now losing both the Le Despensers by a horrid death-the unhappy monarch, thinking to secure his safety by flight, went on board a ship at Bristol, with the view of seeking refuge on the coast of Ireland. But contrary winds prevailing, he was driven on the coast of Wales, and being there made prisoner by Leicester, brother of him whom he had lately caused to be attainted, was conducted to Kenilworth Castle. "Alas," says the chronicle, "with corrupt dispositions even to everting of all bonds of either religious or civil duty, what will not money, diligence, and fair words accomplish! For by these means the desolate, sad, and unfortunate king fell into his cousin of Lancaster's hands, and with him the yonger Lord Spenser, Earle of Glocester, Robert Baldock, Lord Chancellour, and Simon de Reding, there being no regard had to the detention of any other. The king was conveyed by the earle from the place of his surprise to Monmouth and Ledbury, and so on to the Castle of Kenelworth, belonging to the Earle of Leicester, who was appointed to attend him; that is, to keepe him safe. The other three, Spenser, Baldock, and Reding, were strongly guarded to Hereford, there to be disposed of at the pleasure of their most capitall enemies; " as hereafter will appear. "The mournefull king being at Kenelworth Castle, there repaired thither the Bishops of Winchester, Hereford, and Lincolne, two earles, two abbots, foure barons, two justices, three knights for every county, and for London, and other principall places, chiefly for the Cinque ports, a certaine chosen number, selected by the parliament, which then the queene and her sonne held at London. The Bishops of Winchester and Lincolne, as it was agreed upon, came thither before any of the rest, as well to give the king to vnderstand what kinde of embassage was approaching, as to prepare him by the best arguments they could, to satisfie the desire and expectation of their new moulded common-weale, which could onely be by resignation of his crown, that his sonne might reign in his stead." When they were admitted to his presence-the Earl of Leicester, his keeper, being at hand-they "together so wrought upon him, partly by shewing the necessity, partly by other reasons, drawn out of common places, thoroughly studied for that purpose, that-although not without many sobs and teareshe finally did not dissent, if his answere, which some doubt, were truly reported to parliament." The whole company sent by the Order of State-if "that might be called a if" body which then had no head therefrom London, being placed by the Bishop of Hereford according to their degrees in the Presence Chamber of Kenilworth Castle, the king gowned in blacke came forth at last out of an inwarde roome-the Privy Chamber *—and presented himself to his vassalls, where-as being privy to their errand-sorrow stroke such a chillnesse into him that he fell to the earth, lying stretched forth in a deadly swoon." The Earl of Leicester and the Bishop of Worcester beholding this ran to him, and with much labour recovered the half-dead king, setting him on his feet. * Of both these apartments, as of the White Hall, nothing now remains but fragments of walls and staircases, and a part of two large bow windows; the But "rueful inner of which, like those of the hall, is picturesquely festooned with ivy.-Notes. OF KENILWORTH.] THE KING DEPOSED.-BISHOP OF HEREFORD. 223 and heavy" as this sight was, we read not yet of any acts or effects of compassion expressed toward him-so settled was their hatred and aversion. Miser atque infelix est etiam Rex, Nec quenquam, mihi crede, facit diadema beatum. The king being now come to himself-but to the sense of his miserythe Bishop of Hereford declared to him the cause of their present embassy, and running over the former points, concluded saying, "That the king must resigne his diadem to his eldest sonne; or, after the refusall, suffer them to elect such a personne as themselves should judge to be most fit and able to defend the kingdome." The delirious king having heard this speech, "brake forth into sighes and teares." Yet, nevertheless, said that "it was greatly to his goode pleasure and liking that—seeing it could none other be on his behalfe -his eldest son was so gracious in their sight; and therefore he gave them thanks for choosing him to be their kinge." This being said, there was "forthwith a proceeding to the short ceremony of his resignation, which principally consisted in the surrender of his diadem and ensigns of majestie to the use of his sonne, the new kinge. .. Edward being thus de-kinged, the embassie rode joyfully backe to London, to the Parliament with the aforenamed ensigns and dispatch of their employment.” (So far Speed, Polyd. Virg., Thomas de la More, Walsingham.) * "Now, after he was deposed of his kinglie honor and title," says Holinshed, “the said King Edward remained for a time at Killingworth Castle in custodie of the Earle of Leicester. But within a while the queen was informed by the Bishop of Hereford-whose hatred towards him had no end -that the Earle of Leicester favoured her husbande too much, and more than stoode with the suretie of her sonne's estate; whereupon he, the king, was appointed to the keeping of two other lords, Thomas Berkeley and John Maltravers, who receiving him of the Earle of Leicester on the third of April, conveyed him from Kenilworth to Berkeley Castle, there to remain a close prisoner." With the episode of this tragical history every reader is acquainted. In the words of the prophetic Bard of Gray, he seems to hear The shrieks of death through Berkeley's roofs that ring, But taking leave of this melancholy incident in the history of Kenilworth Castle, we pass on in company with the circumstantial chroniclers of that * Isabel, daughter of Philip the Fair, King of France, married in her twelfth year to Edward, Jan. 22, 1308, in the church of Our Lady at Boulogne, 66 was his wife twenty years, his widow thirty, and died at the age of sixty-three."-See ELTHAM HALL, in this work. day. On the accession of Edward the Third, Henry, brother of the attainted lord, and who had captured the fugitive king in Wales, was restored to all his titles, honours, and estates, when Kenilworth became once more the seat of baronial splendour. To this nobleman succeeded Henry his son, whom the sovereign, as a farther mark of his approbation, created Earl of Derby and of Lincoln, and lastly Duke of Lancaster. But here the line was again cut short. Dying without male issue in the thirtyfifth year of that reign, his two daughters became heirs to his vast demesne. Maude, the elder of these, married William Duke of Bavaria; and Blanche, the younger, John of Gaunt, fourth son of Edward the Third, who shortly after, reviving the late title, created him Duke of Lancaster, "by girding him with a sword, and putting a. cap of fur on his head, with a circlet of gold and pearles." To him, in right of his wife, was assigned, in the partition of lands which followed, the Castle of Kenilworth as part of her dower; but to which, after the death of the said Maude, Duchess of Bavaria, the manor of Leicester and a great many others, as enumerated by Dugd. vol. ii. p. 114, were added. Lancaster Buildings, so called from this celebrated personage, were among the important additions which he made to the Castle during the interval which elapsed between his accession to the demesne, and his death in 1399. The repairs, additions, and embellishments which he contributed to this ancient fortress, consisted of the range of buildings here named-forming the south side of the interior quadrangle; and the tower, with three stories of arches adjoining the hall on the north side. He flanked the outer walls with turrets, and accomplished many other works calculated to improve and strengthen the means of defence. Visitors will do well to climb over these arches, which the ruined state of the building and the rubbish that has fallen down render no difficult task, and from the top "they will enjoy a magnificent view of the country, with the house and church at Honiley in the back ground. One cannot stand here a moment without being struck with the idea of what a glorious prospect it must have been, with the valleys on either hand filled with the transparent waters of the lake, surrounded with a beautiful variety of pleasure-ground laid out in lawns and woods." Du marbre, de l'airain, qu'un vain luxe prodigue, OF KENILWORTH.] JOHN OF GAUNT-HIS FAMILY. 225 In the following reign, when so much noble blood flowed on the scaffold, Lancaster was often exposed to the cold-hearted suspicions of his nephew, Richard the Second. In a former part of this work, where we have detailed at some length the circumstances attending the trial and execution of Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, the Duke of Lancaster appeared at his trial; and it was he, John of Gaunt, who was conspicuously active in bringing that unhappy nobleman to the block. He survived him, however, only two years, and after many splendid services to the state, and having borne the titles of "Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Brittany, King of Castille," and been thrice married, he died at his castle of Leicester, or, according to others, at Ely House, in Holborn. Instances of his knightly prowess and prudent sayings are often detailed by the old chroniclers. When leading the van in the battle against Henry, the bastard brother of Don Pedro in Spain, near the city of Pampeluna, pointing to the enemy in front, "There," said he to Sir William Beauchamp, " there are your enemies; this day you shall seeme a good knight or die in the quarrel." When John Wycliffe was called before the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, and other prelates and peers, of whom this Duke of Lancaster was one; he (in favour of Wycliffe) spoke some reproachful words against the bishop, which gave such discontent to the citizens that they rose in an uproar and resolved to have murdered him, and to have set fire to his house called the Savoy-then the fairest structure in England—had 'not the bishop qualified them.' On the accession of his nephew, King Richard, observing that he was under improper influence, and fearing that public blame might attach to him as the principal adviser, he obtained leave to retire to his Castle of Hereford, which he intended to have made his chief residence, and had taken measures for repairing and fortifying it. But in this he was defeated by the king's injustice, who took it from him, at which he was much troubled, and in consequence took up his residence in his Castle of Kenilworth.-[Baron.] The Hall, already mentioned, was finished only two years before the death of John of Gaunt, who, after being deprived of his other castle by King Richard, as above stated, employed his active mind in a thorough restoration of that at Kenilworth; "and for which," says Dugdale, "he obtained a warrant from Richard, directed to Robert de Skillington, master By his first wife, the countess of Kenilworth, he had, besides his son and heir (Henry de Bolingbroke) two daughters, Philippa, Queen of Portugal, and Elizabeth, Countess of Pembroke. By his second wife, Constance, daughter of the King of Portugal, he had another daughter, Catherine, who became consort of the Spanish king. And by Catherine VOL. I. Swinford, his third wife, he had five sons, namely, GG |