The history of a fabric, so intimately connected with some of the most
important events recorded in the chronicles of our country, as that of
Warwick Castle, cannot fail to be alike interesting to the antiquary, the
historian, and the man of letters. This noble edifice is also rendered
the more attractive, as being one of the very few that have escaped the
ravages of war, or have defied the mouldering hand of time; it having
been inhabited from its first foundation up to the present time, a period
of nearly one thousand years. Before, however, noticing the castle, it
will be necessary to make a few remarks on the antiquity of the town of
which it is the chief ornament.
The town of Warwick is delightfully situated on the banks of the river
Avon, nearly in the centre of the county to which it has given its name,
and of which it is the principal town. Much diversity of opinion exists
among antiquaries, as to whether it be of Roman or Saxon origin; but it
is the opinion of Rous, as well as that of the learned Dugdale,[1] that
its foundation is as remote as the earliest period of the Christian era.
These authors attribute its erection to Gutheline, or Kimbeline, a
British king, who called it after his own name, Caer-Guthleon, a compound
of the British word Caer, (_civitas_,) and Gutieon, or Gutheline, which
afterwards, for the sake of brevity, was usually denominated _Caerleon_.
We are also informed that Guiderius, the son and successor of Kimbeline,
greatly extended it, granting thereto numerous privileges and immunities;
but being afterwards almost totally destroyed by the incursions of the
Picts and Scots, it lay in a ruinous condition until it was rebuilt by
the renowned Caractacus. This town afterwards greatly suffered from the
ravages of the Danish invaders; but was again repaired by the lady
Ethelfleda, the daughter of King Alfred, to whom it had been given,
together with the kingdom of Mercia, of which it was the capital, by her
father. Camden,[2] with whose opinion several other antiquaries also
concur, supposes that Warwick was the ancient _Præsidium_ of the Romans,
and the post where the præfect of the Dalmatian horse was stationed by
the governor of Britain, as mentioned in the Notitia.
[1] "Warwickshire," p. 298, edit. 1661.
[2] Vide Camden's "Britannia," by Bishop Gibson, vol. i. p. 603,
edit. 1722.
The appearance of this town in the time of Leland is thus described by
that celebrated writer:--"The town of Warwick hath been right strongly
defended and waullid, having a compace of a good mile within the waul.
The dike is most manifestly perceived from the castelle to the west gate,
and there is a great crest of yearth that the waul stood on. Within the
precincts of the toune is but one paroche chirche, dedicated to St. Mary,
standing in the middle of the toune, faire and large. The toune standeth
on a main rokki hill, rising from est to west. The beauty and glory of it
is yn two streetes, whereof the hye street goes from est to west, having
a righte goodely crosse in the middle of it, making a quadrivium, and
goeth from north to south." Its present name is derived, according to
Matthew Paris, from Warmund, the father of Offa, king of the Mercians,
who rebuilt it, and called it after his own name, Warwick.[3]
[3] "Inter _Occidentalium Anglorum_ Reges illustrissimos,
præcipua commendationis laude celebratur, rex _Warmundus_, ab his
qui Historias _Anglorum_ non solum relatu proferre, sed etiam
scriptis inserere, consueverant. Is fundator cujusdam urbis a
seipso denominatæ; quæ lingua _Anglicana Warwick_, id est, _Curia
Warmundi_ nuncupatur."--Matthæi Paris "Historia Major," à Watts,
edit. 1640.
The castle, which is one of the most magnificent specimens of the ancient
baronial splendour of our ancestors now remaining in this kingdom, rears
its proud and lofty turrets, gray with age, in the immediate vicinity of
the town. It stands on a rocky eminence, forty feet in perpendicular
height, and overhanging the river, which laves its base. The first
fortified building on this spot was erected by the before-mentioned lady
Ethelfleda, who built the donjon upon an artificial mound of earth. No
part of that edifice, however, is now supposed to remain, except the
mound, which is still to be traced in the western part of the grounds
surrounding the castle. The present structure is evidently the work of
different ages, the most ancient part being erected, as appears from the
"Domesday Book," in the reign of Edward the Confessor; which document
also informs us, that it was "a special strong hold for the midland part
of the kingdom." In the reign of William the Norman it received
considerable additions and improvements; when Turchill, the then vicomes
of Warwick, was ordered by that monarch to enlarge and repair it. The
Conqueror, however, being distrustful of Turchill, committed the custody
of it to one of his own followers, Henry de Newburgh, whom he created
Earl of Warwick, the first of that title of the Norman line. The stately
building at the north-east angle, called _Guy's Tower_, was erected in
the year 1394, by Thomas Beauchamp, the son and successor of the first
earl of that family, and was so called in honour of the ancient hero of
that name, and also one of the earls of Warwick. It is 128 feet in
height, and the walls, which are of solid masonry, measure 10 feet in
thickness. _Cæsar's Tower_, which is supposed to be the most ancient part
of the fabric, is 147 feet in height; but appears to be less lofty than
that of Guy's, from its being situated on a less elevated part of the
rock.
In the reign of Henry III., Warwick Castle was of such importance, that
security was required from Margery, the sister and heiress of Thomas de
Newburgh, the sixth earl of the Norman line, that she would not marry
with any person in whom the king could not place the greatest confidence.
During the same reign, in the year 1265, William Manduit, who had
garrisoned the castle on the side of the king against the rebellious
barons, was surprised by John Gifford, the governor of Kenilworth Castle,
who, having destroyed a great part of the walls, took him, together with
the countess, his wife, prisoners; and a ransom of nineteen hundred marks
were paid, before their release could be obtained. The last attack which
it sustained was during the civil wars in the seventeenth century, when
it was besieged for a fortnight, but did not surrender.
Few persons have made a greater figure in history than the earls of
Warwick, from the renowned
---- Sir Guy of Warwicke, as was weten
In palmer wyse, as Colman hath it wryten;
The battaill toke on hym for Englandis right,
With the Colbrond in armes for to fight.[4]
up to the accomplished Sir Fulk Greville, to whom the castle, with all
its dependencies, was granted by James I., after having passed through
the successive lines of Beauchamp, Neville, Plantagenet, and Dudley.