Enormous and inspiring terror, these ruins were in the 13C the home of Simon de Montfort. King Edward II, all dressed in black, was kept prisoner here in the great hall before being led to Berkeley Castle for his execution in 1327. Fortified by John of Gand (14 C), then residence of the counts of Leicester (end 16 C), it was destroyed after the civil war and its ivy-covered ruins inspired Walter Scott's novel Kenilworth (1862).