Queen Elizabeth I's Apartments at Leicester's Kenilworth Castle

The construction of the enormous Kenilworth Castle spans many centuries and many different owners.The part of the castle of special interest to fans of Elizabethan history is known as Leicester's Building. Queen Elizabeth I's favorite, Robert Dudley, 1st earl of Leicester (c.1532-1588) took ownership of Kenilworth in 1563. He made many additions to the castle, including Leicester's Gatehouse and Leicester's Building, which  housed the apartments built for Queen Elizabeth I during her third visit to Kenilworth in 1572. The apartments were altered and improved before her fourth and final visit to the castle in July of 1575. This visit lasted for nineteen days - the longest stay by the queen at a courtier's home while on progress. There is an air of romanticism that surrounds this historic visit, as many historians suspect that, during the elaborate celebrations designed by Leicester in honor of the queen, queen Elizabeth's lifelong friend and confidante made his final proposal of marriage to the queen. Queen Elizabeth I was 42 years old.

Leicester's Building. Photo © A.Jensen/BeingBess.

The queen's privy apartments and gardens, which included an aviary, were completed between 1572-75 for her to enjoy upon her visits to the castle. Based upon an eyewitness account of the 1575 celebrations by Robert Langham, the garden has been meticulously recreated by Kenilworth Castle staff. When you walk among the flowers and the fountain, you are seeing the garden through Queen Elizabeth I's eyes.

A reproduction of Queen Elizabeth I's garden at Kenilworth Castle. Photo © A.Jensen/BeingBess

The first room of the queen's privy apartments, the outer chamber, stood before the door to the queen's bedchamber. It was here that Elizabeth I socialized with friends and courtiers. The floors above and below were probably used to lodge her ladies-in-waiting and other attendants. The stair turret was added around Elizabeth's third visit. It provided a private route for the queen to pass from her bedroom and inner chambers to the other floors of the building. Traces of the original stairs and landings survive, but they are to fragile to be walked upon by modern visitor.

The queen's private stair turret. Photo © A.Jensen/BeingBess.

The most important and private part of Leicester's Building was the queen's bedchamber. The presence of two fireplaces side-by-side informs us that there was formerly a timber wall between them, dividing the space into two rooms. The room furthest away was the queen's bedchamber. The room at the other end was the inner chamber, where Elizabeth I could meet with her councilors. The building was thoughtfully designed by Leicester so that courtiers could reach this point from the outer chamber without passing through the queen's bedchamber.

What the queen's bedchamber would have looked like in 1575. Photo © A.Jensen/BeingBess.

In what was probably the Long Gallery, a place where Queen Elizabeth could relax above her bedchamber, an interlude between the queen and some actors took place on 17 July, 1575. Elizabeth I was supposed to watch 'the Coventry men' perform a play for her below, but she became too distracted by the dancing that was going on in her own chamber (Elizabeth loved to dance). So, the queen asked the players to return two days later to re-stage the play. They honored their queen's request, and Elizabeth apparently liked the play very much, as she rewarded them with coins and with venison.

A view from the Long Gallery, where Queen Elizabeth I may have watched the Coventry men. Photo 

© A.Jensen/BeingBess

If you have not been to Kenilworth Castle before, I highly recommend it. Walking the ruins, which are in remarkable condition, is like stepping back in time. There are few places where one can connect so profoundly to Queen Elizabeth I, but Kenilworth is one of them.

A view of just part of the impressive Kenilworth Castle. Photo © A.Jensen/BeingBess.

Elizabethan Quote of the Day: Elizabeth's Physician Shares Sensitive Information

"If the King marries her, I guarantee ten children; and no one in the world knows her constitution better than I do."

Queen Elizabeth I's physician made this bold claim to the French ambassador in 1566, when the French King Charles IX was considering marrying the Tudor queen. 

A portrait of King Charles IX of France, circa 1572 in the Palace of Versailles. By or after Francois Clouet. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

The marriage, had it gone through, would have certainly been a disaster; Charles IX, along with his mother Catherine de Medicis, would eventually permit the massacre of the French Protestant's, known as Huguenots, which began with the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572. When he died without legitimate issue, Charles IX was succeeded by his brother, who became King Henri III.

The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre by Francois Dubois, circa 1572-84. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

Queen Elizabeth understood that her body was not her own; it belonged to the state and to her people. In fact, she allowed herself to be routinely examined well into her 40's to prove that she was still able to bear children. Yet imagine what Elizabeth would say if she knew that her physician's words concerning her fertility were being read hundreds of years later!

Elizabethan Quote of the Day: Elizabeth Speaks on Marriage and Children

"And therefore I say again, I will marry as soon as I can conveniently, if God take not him away with whom I mind to marry, or myself, or else some other great let happen. I can say no more, except the party were present. And I hope to have children, otherwise I would never marry." 

(Quote taken from Elizabeth I and her Parliaments 1559-1581, by J.E. Neale).

A portrait of Queen Elizabeth I from 1570. By Hans Eworth. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

Queen Elizabeth I said this in a speech delivered in 1566 to a delegation made up of both houses of Parliament. The members of Parliament were pressing the Queen to declare her intentions concerning the proposed marriage between herself and the Archduke Charles of Austria. 

A portrait of Archduke Charles (and his dog!) from 1569. Unknown artist. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

Of course, Queen Elizabeth I never married Archduke Charles, or anyone else for that matter. Though Elizabeth did not marry for a variety of reasons, evidence from her life suggests that she may have wanted children of her own; she was always kind to the children she would meet while on progress, she helped support her godsons at university and found husbands or court positions for the younger women (some of them god-daughters) charged to her care, and she held genuine affection for the children of her cousins, Katherine Carey-Knollys and Henry Carey, Baron Hunsdon.

A portrait of Eleanor Verney, Mrs. William Palmer circa 1590. Eleanor Verney-Palmer was a god-daughter of Queen Elizabeth I. Attributed to William Segar. Parham Park. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

Archduke Charles later sought the hand of Elizabeth's cousin and rival, Mary, Queen of Scots, but eventually wed Maria Anna of Bavaria, with whom he had twelve children.

A portrait of Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria from 1577. By Cornelis Vermeyen. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.