Key primary sources for the study of Kenilworth Castle.
Medieval
The works to the castle executed by the Angevin kings feature in the Pipe Rolls for the reigns of Henry II to Henry III. The originals of these documents are in The National Archives (TNA) as E372, but the transcripts were published by the Pipe Roll Society and are accessible online. Primary records of John of Gaunt’s work for the years 1372–83 are in TNA (DL42/13 and DL42/14) and were published by the Camden Society (3rd series, vols 20, 21, 56 and 57) as John of Gaunt’s Register 1372–76, and John of Gaunt’s Register 1379–83. The first volumes can be read online John of Gaunt's Register.
The annual Receivers’ accounts for the Lordship of Kenilworth, running from the later 14th century to the mid 16th century, can be found in the TNA: DL 29/463/7539-7603. Printed selections from these are published by in Harvey, J H 1944. ‘Side-Lights on Kenilworth Castle’, Archaeological Journal, 101, 91–107.
Two important mid 16th-century written surveys of the castle give a detailed picture of its appearance before the earl of Leicester’s work: in The National Archives (SC12/16/22): survey of Kenilworth Castle and Abbey, c 1545 and the Survey of c 1563 in the National Library of Wales (Chirk MS F 13310), published in Molyneux, N A D 2008. ‘Kenilworth Castle in 1563’, English Heritage Historical Review, 3, 46–61.
Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester
Important material for the 16th and 17th centuries can be found throughout the State Papers. The original documents are in TNA (the SP series). Complete scans are now available online through a subscription service while digital access to the printed calendars can be found through British History online.
A range of surveys survive of the castle and its contents in Dudley’s day. In The National Archives (LR2/185, fols 28-50) there is the Survey of the Manor and Castle of Kenilworth for the earl of Leicester, September 1581.
In the British Library, London (BL Add MS 78176, fols 28-45v) there is the earl of Leicester’s inventory of Kenilworth Castle, c 1578, which has been published by Elizabeth Goldring in the English Heritage Historical Review, 2 (2007), 36–59.
A wealth of primary material relating to Leicester’s household of Dudley has been published in Adams, S 1995. 'The Household Accounts and Disbursement Books of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, 1558–1561, 1584–1586, Camden Society, 5th Series, Cambridge.
The Kenilworth Game Book, listing the deer in Leicester’s parks in the 1560s and 1570s and giving valuable information about who hunted there, is in the Centre for Kentish Studies (CKS, U1475/E93).
Robert Langham’s description of the queen’s visit of 1575 has been published in numerous editions. The most recent scholarly edition is Kuin, R J P (ed) 1993. 'Robert Langham, A Letter', Leiden: Brill.
The 17th century and beyond
Several surveys of the castle were made in the first decade of the 17th century in connection with its sequestration by the Crown and subsequent purchase by Henry, Prince of Wales. A pair of surveys, one in the National Archives (TNA, SP14/48, no. 26,) and one in the British Library (BL, Cotton MS Tiberius E VIII, fols 212-213v) valued the castle and its lands in 1609, while a document of c 1610 gives an assessment of its suitability for royal use (BL, Cotton Vespasian F. IX, fol 271).
The Parliamentary surveys of the castle and its lands, 1651, are to be found in TNA (E317/WARW/17-21).
In a private collection are the Hawkesworth papers, documenting the sale of the castle in 1650–1. Extracts of these are printed as Carey-Hill, E 1929-30. ‘The Hawkesworth Papers, 1601–60’, Transactions of the Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society, 54.
A variety of material, especially relating to the castle in the 17th centuries and later, is to be found in the Warwickshire Record Office (WRO). Important among these are the papers of the late 17th century vicar of Kenilworth, William Best (WRO, CR31/55) and James Fish’s 1692 estate survey (WRO, CR0143A).
The history of the castle in the 20th century, especially after it came into state ownership in 1937, can be traced through the WORK14 series in The National Archives, and further relevant material found in English Heritage archives.
A wide range of other material in record offices around England can be found by searching Access to Archives.
1620: Kenilworth Castle from the east, a lost fresco from Newnham Paddox, surviving in two later copies: an oil painting in the collection of English Heritage and an engraving published in 'A Guide to Kenilworth', Merridew & Sons, 1822. (1)
1628: Survey of the Kenilworth estate by Thomas Harding (TNA, MR1/301)
1656: Plan of the castle in Dugdale, 'Antiquities of Warwickshire', 160.
1656: Three views of Kenilworth in Dugdale, 'Antiquities of Warwickshire', opposite 168.
1692: Survey of Kenilworth estate by James Fish, Warwickshire Record Office, CR0143A.
1729: View from the east by Samuel and Nathaniel Buck, 'Views of Ruins of Castles & Abbeys in England, Part 2', 1726–1739
1830: View from the south by J M W Turner, Fine Art Museums of San Francisco
Most of the material from the 20th century archaeological investigations can be found in the English Heritage collections store, currently at Atcham in Shropshire. The related site archives are also here.
A number of architectural fragments from the castle can be seen incorporated in the buildings of Castle Green and around the church of St Nicholas at Kenilworth.
Recent work has identified a wide range of objects belonging to Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, once at Kenilworth, a number of which survive. See Goldring, E 2007. 'The Earl of Leicester’s Inventory of Kenilworth Castle, c 1578’, English Heritage Historical Review, 2, 36–59 and Goldring, E 2005. ‘Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I and the Earl of Leicester for Kenilworth Castle’, The Burlington Magazine, 147, 654–60.
Morris, R 2010. 'Kenilworth Castle', English Heritage guidebook, 2nd edition, London
Colvin, H M (ed) 1963–82. ‘The History of the King’s Works’, 6 vols, London
Salzman, L F (ed) 1951. ‘The Victoria History of the County of Warwick Volume 6’, 134–8 British History Online
Harvey, J H 1944. 'Side-Lights on Kenilworth Castle’, Archaeological Journal, 101, 91–107
Morris, R K 2009. '“I Was Never More in Love with an Olde Howse nor never Newe Worke Coulde be Better Bestowed”: The Earl of Leicester’s remodelling of Kenilworth Castle for Queen Elizabeth I’, Antiquaries Journal, 89, 241–305
(1) For a consideration of the Newnham Paddox image and Dugdale's plan, see Anna Keay, 'Visual Sources' in 'The Elizabethan Garden at Kenilworth', forthcoming.
