The history

From the 1490s to today

Early gun towers, the king’s plan, the alliance against Henry, war with France, the Armadas, the Civil Wars, and the forts’ long lives afterwards.

Jump to: Before the plan | The danger | The king’s plan | War with France | A new idea from Italy | Elizabeth and the Armadas | The Civil Wars | Later centuries | Today | For teachers

Before the plan

Henry VIII reigned from 1509 to 1547. English Heritage: History of Portland Castle Before Henry’s programme there were already gun towers, for example at Dartmouth in the 1490s. English Heritage: Tudors: War

Camber had a gun tower from 1512, and St Catherine’s Castle at Fowey had one from about 1520. English Heritage: Tudors: War

In 1537 John Arundell asked the king to protect the River Fal with blockhouses. English Heritage: History of St Mawes Castle

Early Tudor handguns were costly, slower to shoot and less effective than a longbow used by a skilled archer. English Heritage: Tudors: War

The danger

Henry had outraged the pope by divorcing Katherine of Aragon, taking control of the Church in England and destroying the monasteries. English Heritage: History of Walmer Castle After Henry’s break with Rome, England found itself politically isolated. English Heritage: History of St Mawes Castle

Early in 1539 Pope Paul III arranged a treaty between Francis I of France and Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. English Heritage: History of Walmer Castle The pope urged them to invade England to punish Henry VIII. English Heritage: History of Walmer Castle

Our sources date the alliance differently: see when sources disagree.

Local Learning says Henry VIII and his government feared an invasion by France and Spain, whose kings opposed Henry’s break with the Catholic Church. English Heritage: Local Learning, Pendennis and St Mawes Castles Deal’s visit page says Henry built the castles to defend against a threatened invasion by European Catholic powers. English Heritage: Deal Castle

Walmer’s history page says it was built against the “perceived threat” of invasion from Europe. English Heritage: History of Walmer Castle Portland’s history page says how real the invasion threat was is debatable. English Heritage: History of Portland Castle

Our sources describe the threat in different ways: see when sources disagree.

Deal’s history page gives Charles V’s reign as 1516–56. English Heritage: History of Deal Castle Portland’s history page gives Charles V’s reign as 1519–58. English Heritage: History of Portland Castle

Two English Heritage pages give different reigns for Charles V: see when sources disagree.

The king’s plan

In February 1539 the king’s council put into action “the device of the king”, a plan to improve the country’s defences. English Heritage: History of Portland Castle English Heritage’s Local Learning page calls the plan the “device by the king”. English Heritage: Local Learning, Pendennis and St Mawes Castles

Our sources name the plan in different ways: see when sources disagree.

“Expert men” were sent around England and Wales to suggest how to defend the coast. English Heritage: History of Portland Castle Between 1539 and 1547 Henry VIII made a national plan to defend England against invasion by powerful Catholic forces in Europe. English Heritage: Tudors: War

He built over 30 new gun forts to stop enemies capturing harbours and estuaries along the east and south coasts. English Heritage: Tudors: War Local Learning says over 30 forts were built, the largest coastal defence programme in England since the Roman period. English Heritage: Local Learning, Pendennis and St Mawes Castles

By the end of Henry’s reign in 1547, Deal was one of 42 new artillery forts protecting ports, anchorages and estuaries. English Heritage: History of Deal Castle

Our sources give different numbers: see when sources disagree.

The forts ran in a chain from Hull in the north-east round to Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire. English Heritage: History of Hurst Castle Hurst’s history page calls this the first centrally planned system of coastal defence since a chain of Roman forts more than 1,200 years earlier. English Heritage: History of Hurst Castle

Hurst’s significance page calls it the first national system of coastal defence since the Roman period. English Heritage: Significance of Hurst Castle

Hurst’s significance page dates the chain of artillery forts to between 1539 and 1545. English Heritage: Significance of Hurst Castle Deal’s history and stories page dates Henry’s coastal forts to between 1539 and 1547. English Heritage: Deal Castle, history and stories

Local Learning dates Pendennis and St Mawes to 1539–45. English Heritage: Local Learning, Pendennis and St Mawes Castles

Our sources date the programme differently: see when sources disagree.

Deal Castle was built in 1539–40 on Henry VIII’s orders, designed for all-round fire from over 140 guns. English Heritage: History of Deal Castle On 27 December 1539 Anne of Cleves landed at Deal and rested at the unfinished castle. English Heritage: Deal Castle, history and stories

The Downs castles were finished in October 1540. English Heritage: History of Deal Castle Walmer was finished in 1540, part of a defensive line 2.7 miles long from Walmer to Deal and Sandown. English Heritage: History of Walmer Castle

By 1540 the fear of invasion had mostly died down, but Henry pressed on with the building. English Heritage: History of Hurst Castle

By the end of his reign Henry had built a powerful navy of warships, the first line of defence. English Heritage: Tudors: War

War with France

In 1544 at least 38,000 men went to France, then the largest English army ever sent overseas. English Heritage: Tudors: War A 7.32-metre bronze cannon at Dover Castle, the “pocket pistol”, was presented to Henry VIII in 1544. English Heritage: Tudors: War

The Mary Rose sank in 1545 during a fight with the French fleet in the Solent. English Heritage: Tudors: War

In 1545, when England and France were fighting, three forces of French soldiers landed on the eastern side of the Isle of Wight. English Heritage: History of Yarmouth Castle The fighting of 1545 was part of a larger war in which Henry VIII was allied with the Holy Roman Emperor against the French. English Heritage: History of Yarmouth Castle

Fighting between England and France in 1545 was the direct reason for building Yarmouth Castle. English Heritage: History of Yarmouth Castle Yarmouth Castle, begun in 1546–7, was the last fort of the programme. English Heritage: History of Yarmouth Castle

A new idea from Italy

The angle bastion was an Italian idea. English Heritage: History of Yarmouth Castle Round designs left blind spots at the foot of the bastion walls. English Heritage: History of Yarmouth Castle

The first English angle bastion survives at Yarmouth, from 1547. English Heritage: Tudors: War It is the earliest surviving English try-out of a new kind of fortification. English Heritage: History of Yarmouth Castle

Later bastioned forts were built at Berwick-upon-Tweed (1553–1570), Carisbrooke (1587–1602) and Pendennis (1597–1600). English Heritage: Tudors: War The angle bastion became the main way to build forts for the next 300 years. English Heritage: Tudors: War

The forts turned out to be a dead end in fort design, but they were strong obstacles for many years. English Heritage: Tudors: War

Elizabeth and the Armadas

Elizabeth I reigned from 1558 to 1603. English Heritage: History of Yarmouth Castle After Henry died, Deal was kept going on a shoestring for the rest of the 1500s. English Heritage: History of Deal Castle

In 1570 the castle had only 17 guns, most of them not fit to use. English Heritage: History of Deal Castle

Upnor Castle is a rare Elizabethan artillery fort, begun in 1559, built to protect warships at Chatham. English Heritage: Upnor Castle Upnor Castle (1559) was of an outdated design. English Heritage: Tudors: War

In 1574 the captain reported that the guns were not fit for service. English Heritage: History of Portland Castle

Pendennis was strengthened against planned Spanish invasions in 1574, 1579, 1588 and 1596–7. English Heritage: History of Pendennis Castle By 1600 the engineer Paul Ive had wrapped Henry’s castle inside a much bigger fortress. English Heritage: History of Pendennis Castle

In 1595 a small Spanish force raided Cornwall. English Heritage: History of St Mawes Castle In 1596 and 1597 another Armada set sail for Carrick Roads but was stopped by bad weather. English Heritage: History of St Mawes Castle

In 1596–7 a Spanish fleet planned to land troops at Pendennis; the attack never came. English Heritage: History of Pendennis Castle

Our sources list different years: see when sources disagree.

The Civil Wars

Deal’s history page puts James I (reigned 1603–25) and Charles I under the heading “Stuart neglect”. English Heritage: History of Deal Castle Under James I and Charles I the castle had a small garrison of about 22 men. English Heritage: History of Deal Castle

In 1639, during the Battle of the Downs, 2,000 shipwrecked sailors struggled ashore. English Heritage: History of Deal Castle

In 1643 Royalists recaptured the castle by pretending to be friendly troops. English Heritage: History of Portland Castle In a four-month siege in 1644 Portland’s Royalist garrison held firm. English Heritage: History of Portland Castle

In 1646 about 1,000 people held out in a five-month siege and surrendered in August when the food ran out. English Heritage: History of Pendennis Castle

In 1648 Deal was besieged; its defenders surrendered on 25 August. English Heritage: History of Deal Castle Sandown Castle surrendered on 3 September 1648. English Heritage: History of Deal Castle

In 1648 the soldiers at Walmer came under mortar fire and surrendered. English Heritage: History of Walmer Castle

King Charles I was held prisoner in the keep from 1 to 19 December 1648. English Heritage: History of Hurst Castle On 19 December 1648 Charles I was taken from Hurst on the journey that led to his execution in London. English Heritage: History of Hurst Castle

About 160 warships fought a battle off Portland in 1653. English Heritage: History of Portland Castle

In 1667 the Dutch sailed past Upnor. English Heritage: Upnor Castle On 26 June 1667 men and boys from Deal helped pile turf on Walmer’s ramparts to soak up cannon shot. English Heritage: History of Walmer Castle

Later centuries

The Captain’s House was built in 1730–32. English Heritage: History of Deal Castle The old Tudor parapets were taken down and replaced with decorative battlements. English Heritage: History of Deal Castle

In 1773 a list of the garrison named only eight gunners. English Heritage: History of Deal Castle

Prime Minister William Pitt became Lord Warden in 1792 and made Walmer his main home in 1802. English Heritage: History of Walmer Castle Of eight Lords Warden in a row, five were prime ministers. English Heritage: History of Walmer Castle

From 1816 the castle was rented to the Reverend John Manning as a home. English Heritage: History of Portland Castle

Falmouth was named a Defended Port in 1887, bringing new defences for the estuary. English Heritage: History of Pendennis Castle A minefield under the water was laid in 1885. English Heritage: History of Pendennis Castle

Two of the huge 38-ton guns from the 1870s are still there. English Heritage: Significance of Hurst Castle Hurst is one of very few of Henry’s castles to have been updated again and again, so it stayed in military use into the mid-1900s. English Heritage: Significance of Hurst Castle

In 1904 the War Office handed the castle to the Office of Works to be looked after as a historic building. English Heritage: History of Deal Castle

A German bomb badly damaged the Captain’s House on 5 October 1940. English Heritage: History of Deal Castle A garrison theatre was built there in the Second World War. English Heritage: Significance of Hurst Castle

Today

Both castles stayed in military use from 1540 until 1956. English Heritage: History of St Mawes Castle By 1956 the fort was no longer needed, because rockets had replaced coast guns. English Heritage: History of St Mawes Castle

Soldiers trained at Pendennis until 1956. English Heritage: History of Pendennis Castle A year after 1956 it was handed back to the Ministry of Works to open to the public. English Heritage: History of Pendennis Castle

Hurst came into the care of the Ministry of Works in 1956. English Heritage: History of Hurst Castle Deal reopened to the public in the early 1960s. English Heritage: History of Deal Castle

English Heritage has looked after Yarmouth since 1984. English Heritage: History of Yarmouth Castle

Today the Royal Marines Commandant General holds the post of Captain of Deal Castle as an honour. English Heritage: History of Deal Castle

For teachers: where this fits

The words “device forts” do not appear in the national curriculum in England. Department for Education: National curriculum in England, history programmes of study

At KS2, pupils in England study “an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066”. Department for Education: National curriculum in England, history programmes of study KS2 local history can be “a study of an aspect of history or a site dating from a period beyond 1066 that is significant in the locality”. Department for Education: National curriculum in England, history programmes of study

So at KS2 the Tudor forts can work as a theme that goes beyond 1066, or as a local history study where a fort is nearby (our suggestion).

At KS3, pupils study “the development of Church, state and society in Britain 1509-1745”. Department for Education: National curriculum in England, history programmes of study

One KS3 example is “the English Reformation and Counter-Reformation (Henry VIII to Mary I)”. Department for Education: National curriculum in England, history programmes of study Another is “the Elizabethan religious settlement and conflict with Catholics (including Scotland, Spain and Ireland)”. Department for Education: National curriculum in England, history programmes of study

The curriculum names concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance. Department for Education: National curriculum in England, history programmes of study Pupils should understand how evidence is used to make claims, and why there are different accounts of the past. Department for Education: National curriculum in England, history programmes of study

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