Editing Kenilworth Castle (section)

===12th century===
[[File:Kenilworth Castle keep, 2008.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|The [[keep|great tower]] is one of Kenilworth Castle's earliest surviving structures.]]
Kenilworth Castle was founded in the early 1120s by [[Geoffrey de Clinton]], Lord Chamberlain and treasurer to [[King Henry I of England|Henry I]].<ref name="Pettifer, p.257.">Pettifer, p.257.</ref> The castle's original form is uncertain. It has been suggested that it consisted of a [[motte]], an earthen mound surmounted by wooden buildings; however, the stone [[keep|great tower]] may have been part of the original design.<ref name="Morris 2010, p.37."/> Clinton was a local rival to [[Roger de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Warwick|Roger de Beaumont]], the Earl of Warwick and owner of the neighbouring [[Warwick Castle]], and the king made Clinton the [[sheriff]] in Warwickshire to act as a counterbalance to Beaumont's power.<ref>Crouch, pp.116–7.</ref> It appears Clinton had begun to lose the king's favour when in 1130 he was tried for treason, although he was soon acquitted, and when he died in 1133, his son, also called Geoffrey, was only a minor when he inherited his father's estates. These included the family estates at [[Stewkley]] and [[Aston Clinton]] in [[Buckinghamshire]].<ref name="Morris 2010, p.37."/> Geoffrey II built the church of [http://www.greatenglishchurches.co.uk/html/stewkley.html St Michael and All Angels] in Stewkley in 1150, which is considered one of the finest surviving original Norman Churches in England. The disputes with Beaumont continued with Geoffrey II and his uncle [[William de Clinton]], until Geoffrey was forced to come to terms with Beaumont and the dispute was eventually settled when he married Beaumont's daughter, Agnes. These disputes and the difficult years of [[the Anarchy]] (1135–54), delayed any further development of the castle at Kenilworth.<ref name="Morris 2010, p.37."/>

[[Henry II of England|Henry II]] succeeded to the throne at the end of the Anarchy but during the [[revolt of 1173–74]] he faced a significant uprising led by his son, [[Henry the Young King|Henry]], backed by the French crown. The conflict spread across England and Kenilworth was garrisoned by Henry II's forces; Geoffrey II de Clinton died in this period and the castle was taken fully into royal possession, a sign of its military importance.<ref name="Pettifer, p.257."/> The de Clintons by now had moved to their estates in Buckinghamshire.<ref name="Hull 2009, p.102."/> By this point Kenilworth Castle consisted of the great keep, the inner bailey wall, a basic causeway across the smaller lake that preceded the creation of the Great Mere, and the local [[Chase (land)|chase]] for hunting.<ref name="Morris 2010, p.37."/>