Kenilworth Castle – Warwickshire.
Professor Richard Oram.
In 1418 the captive King James I was brought from London to the sumptuous splendour of one of his captor’s most magnificent castles, Kenilworth. Standing at the edge of a great man-made lake or mere and surrounded by parks and chases for hunting, it was a fortress-cum-palace where royal display, comfort and leisure far outweighed any concern for defence.
Transformed from its old-fashioned defensive appearance into state-of-the-art luxury and convenience in the 1380s by John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, grandfather of the English king, Henry V, it was no grim prison to hold the captive James. Yes, he was still a prisoner under guard, but he was not always kept in close confinement. At Kenilworth, he could indulge in the pleasures of the hunt albeit under supervision, enjoying a degree of freedom that is at odds with Victorian romantic ideas of his isolation under lock and key.
Although much altered and expanded in Elizabethan times, the magnificence of John of Gaunt’s palace is still plain to see. With its great hall and ducal chamber, whose vast windows offered views to the west over the shimmering waters of the now-drained mere, Kenilworth was conceived as a stage-set on which this most ambitious of the Plantagenet princes could display his power, wealth and status. James cannot but have been overawed at this bold projection of the might and sophistication of his English host.
James was only at Kenilworth for a few short weeks in 1418 but its impression on him was lasting. When he finally gained his freedom and returned to Scotland in 1424, one of his first projects was the transformation of the old royal manor-house at Linlithgow into a splendid show-piece palace that came to symbolise the power and magnificence of the Stewart dynasty. With its loch-side setting, gardens, parks and hunting-grounds, the influence of Kenilworth on its design is unmistakable.