Many royal visits were paid during the succeeding reigns, and Edward II. was deposed in the Great Hall, and afterwards kept a prisoner in the castle. In 1563 Kenilworth was granted by Queen Elizabeth to her favourite, Robert Dudley, who in the following year was created Earl of Leicester. Soon after coming into possession of this magnificent fortress dwelling he set about to make radical alterations. We are told that he “gutted the keep and forebuilding, afterwards fitting them up in the Tudor style, and also erected the pile of buildings which are known by his name, and rebuilt the Gallery Tower on the outer end of the dam, and probably added an upper story to the great barn.” One of his finest additions was undoubtedly the great gate–house on the north side, by which means he turned what had formerly been the rear of the castle into the front, approaching it from the road crossing the valley instead of from the side of the fields and lake. It is considered by several authorities, too, that it was probably he who later on filled up the ditch of the inner ward. The building material he used was ashlar, and although the work was not badly done, it was probably carried out too rapidly, and was, therefore, not of a very substantial or lasting character. Afterwards, when the castle was allowed to fall into disrepair, and the roofs and floors disappeared, the walls soon gave way and became unsafe. Doubtless with a view of entertaining his royal mistress, who visited the castle in 1566, 1568, 1572, and 1575, Robert Dudley spent an immense sum on his alterations, which has been variously estimated from fifty to seventy–five thousand pounds: a sum which in those days, of course, represented a far greater amount than would appear at first sight. Although no doubt Queen Elizabeth was entertained right royally on the occasions of all her visits, it was the last one, which began on Saturday 9th of July, and did not end until the 26th, that is most historically famous by reason of the extraordinarily lavish and interesting character of its entertainments prepared for the Queen. From contemporary accounts—all the revels were chronicled in detail by Laneham, an attendant on the Queen—we gather at least some idea of what these famous festivities were like. The Queen was met, whilst still distant from the castle several hundred yards, by a person dressed to represent “one of the ten sibills cumly clad in a pall of white sylk, who pronounced a proper poezie in English rime and meeter.” This service “Her Majestie benignly accepted, and passed foorth into the next gate of the Brayz, which, for the length, largenes, and use, they now call the Tylt–yard.”