The possession of Kenilworth was the first object of the royal party; but not only was the castle strong, and its resources abundant, but the popular cause was in the ascendant, and the garrison included some of the greatest nobles and bravest soldiers in England. Henry, forty years before, had learned by the experience of Bedford that the siege of a well-appointed fortress was no light matter, and his preparations were very considerable. On the 8th of December he summoned his nobles to a muster at Northampton to proceed against Kenilworth, and on 26th December he called out the “posse” of Warwick and Oxford, “ad gravandum et expugnandum illos qui se tenent in Castro de Kenelworth.” The garrison refused to surrender the castle to Sir Simon, then in the hands of their enemies, and pleaded that they held it in trust for the Countess of Leicester, and could give it over to none other. It was the 23rd June, 1265, before the siege was commenced in good earnest. The royal head-quarters seem to have been on the north side of the castle, probably along the high ground between what is still called Camp Field and Clinton Green, and it is not improbable that the king’s pavilion was pitched at the former point so as to be out of reach of the sallies of the garrison. On the Sunday after St. Margaret’s day, 20th July, the sword of state, called “Curtana,” was brought to the camp, and, in the presence of the king, delivered to the keeper of the king’s pavilion. To the camp came also the legate, Ottoboni; and so intent was the king upon the siege that the Duke of Brunswick, who had come to Windsor to marry Henry’s niece, came on to the camp, where the marriage ceremony was performed. The garrison was, however, in no way daunted by these symptoms of the king’s determination to take the place. They constructed powerful engines, and threw great stones from the walls, some of which are probably the stone balls, 18 inches diameter, which have been found there, and are still preserved at the castle. Unfortunately, the political events were so important that the operations of the siege have escaped record. As, however, the royal cause gained ground, it became evident that, however strong the castle might be, its fall was a question of time only, and the counsels of Prince Edward and Prince Richard and the legate were directed to hasten this event by moderate means. A royal council was summoned, and met at Coventry, to settle the terms to be offered to the “disinherited”; and on the calends of November (31st October) the celebrated “Dictum” or “Ban” was proclaimed in camp, and on the following day confirmed, and, finally, on the Sunday, read out from the pulpit of Warwick Church by the legate in the presence of the king. The terms were, however, rejected by the garrison; on which the king decided to attack the place by storm, and, 20th November, masons, labourers, pioneers, and sappers were ordered up from Northampton.