Warwick Castle
A castle begun by William the Conqueror once held a king prisoner, had unfinished artillery towers and now fires a giant trebuchet over the River Avon.
Published
Quick Facts
- Location
- Warwick, Warwickshire, on a bend of the River Avon
- Founded
- 1068, on the orders of William the Conqueror
- Stone towers
- Guy's Tower and Caesar's Tower, built in the 14th century
- Guy's Tower
- Twelve-sided, about 39 metres (128 ft) tall
- Landscaping
- Grounds reworked by Capability Brown from 1749
- Family owners
- Greville family from 1604 until 1978
- Since 1978
- Run as a visitor attraction, first by Madame Tussauds' owners and now by Merlin Entertainments
- Famous resident
- Richard Neville, 'Kingmaker' Earl of Warwick
The castle that kept a king under lock and key
In 1469 Warwick Castle did something few castles can claim: it held the King of England. Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick and the man later nicknamed the Kingmaker, had helped put Edward IV on the throne. Then they fell out. Neville seized Edward and had him held at Warwick before moving him north. The plan did not last. Edward was soon free, and Neville was killed at the Battle of Barnet in 1471. Even so, his name stuck to the castle, and few owners have left a bigger mark on its story.
A Norman mound on the Avon
William the Conqueror ordered a fortress here in 1068, just two years after Hastings. It began as a motte-and-bailey, a huge earth mound topped by a timber stronghold, with the river guarding one side. Henry de Beaumont became the first Earl of Warwick, and the castle became the heart of the earldom. The timber was later replaced by stone. The most striking additions came in the 14th century, during the Hundred Years' War. Thomas Beauchamp, 11th Earl, developed the gatehouse, barbican and Caesar's Tower. Guy's Tower followed in 1395 under his son, Thomas Beauchamp, 12th Earl. Together they still shape the skyline from across the river.
Myths: Caesar, Guy and the dun cow
Caesar's Tower has nothing to do with Julius Caesar. The name is a romantic label, and the tower is firmly medieval. Its base holds a dungeon, which is the sort of detail that keeps the myth going. Guy's Tower takes its name from Guy of Warwick, a legendary hero of medieval romance. Guy was said to have slain a giant, Colbrand, and a monstrous dun cow before turning hermit. He is a storybook figure, not a documented earl, but he became so popular that the castle's owners embraced him.
The towers Richard III never finished
Look at the castle's flank near the Avon and you can spot two towers, Bear Tower and Clarence Tower, that look different from the rest. They were begun in the 1480s by Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III. They were designed to carry artillery, an early sign that cannon were changing castle design. They were never completed. Richard's reign ended at Bosworth in 1485, leaving the towers as a snapshot of medieval defence turning towards the gunpowder age.
From fortress to country house
In 1604 James I granted the castle to Sir Fulke Greville, a poet and courtier. He spent heavily turning a battered fortress into a comfortable residence. Elizabeth I had already stayed in 1572, when Warwick was one of the great houses of the Midlands. The castle was besieged by Royalists in 1642 during the Civil War but held out for Parliament. In the 1700s the Grevilles brought in Capability Brown, who began work on the grounds in 1749 and gave the castle its sweeping lawns running down to the river. The Great Hall was badly damaged by a fire in 1871 and restored afterwards. The grand Warwick Vase, a Roman marble piece found at Hadrian's Villa, was once displayed in the castle's conservatory. The original is now in Glasgow's Burrell Collection, while a copy stands at Warwick.
What to look out for today
The Greville family sold the castle in 1978 and it has been run as a visitor attraction ever since. Today it mixes real fortifications with live displays, including a working trebuchet, the great siege engine of the Middle Ages. Walk the ramparts and compare the sturdy 14th-century towers with Richard III's unfinished ones. Look for the long views along the Avon that Capability Brown shaped, and the peacocks wandering the gardens. Then step back on the far bank of the river for the classic view of the castle rising above the water.
Notable people
- William the Conqueror
- Henry de Beaumont
- Thomas Beauchamp
- Richard Neville
- Edward IV
- Richard III
- Sir Fulke Greville
- Capability Brown
- Elizabeth I
- Guy of Warwick