23 . 



the situation is one that would be chosen in a pre- artillery 

 age. Adjoining this would be the chapel, and walls would 

 be defended by mural towers. This spot we associate with 

 the capture of Earl Mauduit by John Gifford in 1230, and 

 here probably stood the rude hall in which Piers Gaveston was 

 tried. I have before endeavoured to reconcile the statement 

 of Rous that Gifford razed the walls of the Castle between 

 the towers, with the statement that Henry III. made 

 Warwick the principal base of operations against Kenilworth 

 during the famous siege, I have shown that William and 

 Guy de Beauchamp occupied the Castle, and that the latter 

 felt himself strong enough to wrest Edward's Gascon 

 favourite from the custody of the Earl of Pembroke, in 

 1312, so that the Castle must have had an existence at that 

 period, though in 1316 it was returned as being only worth 

 the herbage growing in the ditches, and that was valued at 

 6s. 8d. only. 



This Guy de Beauchamp succeeded to the Earldom of 

 Warwick in 1298, and, during the twenty years he was Earl, 

 great changes took place in Warwick. A market had been 

 established in Warwick in the 18th Edward L, August 25, 

 1290, and the borough appears to have been thriving. 

 Shortly after his accession to the Earldom, Guy applied for, 

 and obtained, a patent for seven years for certain tolls to 

 pave and wall the town. These works were thus begun 

 irrespective of the Castle, but the tollage was insufficient, 

 and in 8th Edward II. (1314-5), he obtained an extension 

 of the patent for three years longer. Amongst the small 

 fragments of the walls and gates which remain, there is no 

 portion which we can safely attribute to this period. 

 Scarcely had this patent been renewed when Guy died, it is 

 thought of poison, and left his son Thomas de Beauchamp, 



