History of Kenilworth

Geoffrey de Clinton (d. 1134) initiated the building of an Augustinian priory in 1122, at the same time as he initiated the building of Kenilworth Castle. The priory was raised to the rank of abbey in 1450 and suppressed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s. Thereafter the abbey grounds next to the castle, were made common land in exchange for common land that Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of