Warwick Castle 
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THE CASTLE FROM THE MOUND 
Guy de Beauchamp, with other barons, seized 
the much hated Piers Gaveston, favourite of 
Edward IE, and brought him as a prisoner to the 
castle. This wretched person had dared to style 
the great baron “ I he Black Hound of Arden.” 
The Black Hound caught his fox and lodged him 
in the dungeon of the Caesar’s Tower. “Now you 
shall feel the hound’s teeth,” said the Earl to his 
prisoner who, after a mock trial, was beheaded 
at Blacklow Hill, where a monument marks Ins 
memory. To Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of War¬ 
wick and to his son, also named Thomas, who 
flourished in the 14th century, the castle owes much 
of its strength. The former erected Caesar’s Power. 
He fought on the bloody held of Crecy where the 
Black Prince won his spurs, and also at Poictiers, 
and became rich with the spoils of war and the heavy 
ransoms of French knights and princes which fell to 
his lot. He built the church of St. Mary, and sleeps 
his last sleep in its choir. His son Thomas built 
Guy’s Tower. Another tower tells of his prowess, 
the Beauchamp Tower in the Tower of London, 
which marks the site of his incarceration during the 
wane of royal favour. Richard, the son of the sec¬ 
ond Thomas, was a mighty warrior, a powerful and 
successful baron, foremost in valour in the field, a 
prince among knights. Many tales could be told of 
his might. The cognizance of the family “the Bear 
and the Ragged Staff” was borne in many a fray, 
and dreaded by every foeman. His son Henry ac¬ 
tually attained to regal rank, and was crowned King 
of the Isle of Wight by his grateful sovereign Henry 
VI. Like the leaves of the forest, great families 
have their day, then wither and die. The Beauch¬ 
amps pass, and the Nevils enter the lordly castle, and 
make it famous in English history. Richard Nevil, 
Earl of Salisbury, married Anne, the heiress of the 
Beauchamps, and is better known as “the King¬ 
maker,” the powerful baron who had six hundred 
armed retainers, made and unmade kings, and 
brought to his castle Edward IV. a prisoner in 
1469. Again the pageant passes. Barnet Field 
seals the fate of the King-maker. Troublous times 
are in store for the Earls of Warwick. A butt of 
Malmsey wine finishes the career of the Duke of 
Clarence, created Earl of Warwick by Edward IV., 
and his wife died suddenly, it is said, bv poison. 
Here comes the hunchback Richard and is joined by 
his gentle queen, Anne Nevil, and in the hall of the 
castle he receives the ambassador of Elizabeth of 
Castile, as well as the envoys of the King of France 
and the Duke of Burgundy, who come to congratu¬ 
late him on his accession. The Dudleys enter into 
possession of the castle. Some were beheaded, and 
Ambrose, known as “the good Earl of Warwick,” 
the last of the race, who entertained Queen Eliza¬ 
beth, died in his bed in 1589, and having no children, 
the title died with him. The castle was granted by 
James I. to Sir Eulke Greville, Lord Brooke, a costly 
present, as the buildings were so dilapidated that the 
