Kenilworth is an historical novel by Sir Walter Scott. The title refers to Dudley's Kenilworth Castle in Kenilworth, Warwickshire. The novel opens, however, at Cumnor Place, near Abingdon in Berkshire. Kenilworth is set in 1575, and centers on the secret marriage of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, and Amy Robsart, daughter of Sir Hugh Robsart, and a tragic series of events begins when Amy flees her father and her betrothed, Tressilian, to marry the Earl.