Siege of Kenilworth Castle

Background

Simon de Monfort was killed at the Battle of Evesham in August of 1265. His son, Simon de Montfort the Younger, agreed to surrender in December at Northampton. He also agreed to surrender Kenilworth Castle, a refuge of baron loyalists. Letters were sent to the garrison at Kenilworth asking for their surrender; however, they were rejected, first in December of 1265 and again in March of 1266. The second time, a royal messenger was sent to the castle to demand its surrender. Henry de Hastings sent him back, minus one hand.

 

 

After the Battle of Chesterfield in May of 1266, the last of the primary barons resisting the authority of King Henry III scattered. Robert de Ferrers, 6th Earl of Derby, was captured at Chesterfield and held prisoner at Windsor Castle and the Tower of London for three years. Baldwin Wake joined with other disinherited barons at the Isle of Axholme. John d'Eiville also escaped the battlefield. John would be a participant in the Siege of Kenilworth Castle. He was joined by Simon de Monfort the Younger at Kenilworth.

On June 21st, the Siege of Kenilworth began and would last 172 days. It was the longest and largest recorded siege in English History. King Henry III arrived at Kenilworth on June 22nd and established four siege camps around the castle. They were commanded by the King, Prince Edward, Prince Edmund, and Roger de Mortimer.

Battle

Henry de Hastings commanded a garrison of over a thousand men who defended the castle against royalists under Prince Edward.

The royalist army under Prince Edward tried all kinds of methods to breach Kenilworth Castle's defenses during the siege. Stone throwing trebuchets, mangonels, ballistas, and fighting towers were tried, but the artificial lake around the castle made it difficult to get close enough to make these weapons useful. Barges were then sent from Chester, hoping they could be used to cross the water defenses to attack, but these also failed.

In July 1266, Cardinal Ottobuono, wearing his red cope, excommunicates the rebels inside the castle from a safe vantage point atop Castle Hill. This act renewed the defiance of the rebels inside, who dressed Philip Porpeis as a "White Legate", who stood on the castle battlements and excommunicated the King, Cardinal and whole royalist army.

Archbishop William Freney tried to negotiate with the garrison but was refused entry. The garrison defending Kenilworth Castle declined to accept the terms.

The Dictum of Kenilworth was written by a small group of bishops and barons who were given until All Saints Day (November 1st) to devise provisions for a settlement between the rebellious barons and the King.

The Dictum was made public on October 31st, 1266. As part of the Dictum, the barons would have their lands restored, which had been disinherited and taken by the King when the rebellion began. The restoration also required each baron to pay a penalty proportional to their involvement in the uprising. Most of them were fined a value of 5 times their lands' annual yield, apart from Robert de Ferrers, 6th Earl of Derby, and Henry de Hastings, who were both levied a fine of seven times their lands' annual yield. The Dictum also allowed for the rebels to leave the castle unmolested.

Despite the Dictum, Kenilworth Castle held out. The King gave the rebels 40 days of grace. If they did not surrender by then, they could expect no mercy, and the King and Prince Edward prepared for an all-out final assault. By mid-November, conditions inside the castle were deteriorating quickly as starvation and disease began to set in.

On December 13th, the rebels finally surrendered the castle due to a lack of food and suffering from disease.

Aftermath

On December 15th, 1266, King Henry III left Kenilworth, ending a six-month stay during which time England was governed directly from Kenilworth - a situation unprecedented in English medieval history.

King Henry granted Kenilworth Castle and the earldom of Leicester to his second son, Prince Edmond. Edmond was later also created Earl of Lancaster. This began an almost 200-year span of Lancastrian ownership of the castle.

Henry de Hastings would command the last remnants of the baronial forces on the Isle of Ely but submitted to the King in July of 1267. Prince Edward received the last barons into the King's peace after they swore on the Holy Gospels to keep the peace and never bear arms against the King or his heirs again.

The Second Barons' War was over.

The Dictum of Kenilworth would later become part of the Statute of Marlborough, four chapters of which are still in force in English law.

Prince Edward would learn from the struggles he encountered trying to besiege Kenilworth Castle's water defenses and incorporate those defenses in many of the Iron Ring of Castles he would build in Wales to subdue the Welsh.