Sandown Castle (Isle of Wight)

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Sandown Castle floor plan from 1559

Sandown Castle was an artillery fort that King Henry VIII had built in 1545 in Sandown on the English Isle of Wight to protect against an alleged attack by the French . Therefore it is one of the device forts . The stone castle with angled bastions was a conglomerate of Italian and traditional English military architecture. The site was raided by French troops in the summer of the same year when the fort was still under construction. It later suffered from coastal erosion and the fort was demolished in 1631.

history

16th Century

background

Sandown Castle was built as a result of international tensions between England, France and the Holy Roman Empire during the final years of Henry VIII's reign. Traditionally the Crown had left coastal defense to the local lords and communities and only played a modest role in the construction and maintenance of coastal fortresses. While France and the Holy Roman Empire were in conflict, raids on England by sea were common, but an invasion of England appeared unlikely. Modest fortifications, such as simple log houses or towers, existed in south-west England and along the Sussex coast ; a few more impressive castles were in the north of England, but in general the fortresses were not very large.

In 1533 King Heinrich broke with Pope Paul III. about the annulment of his long marriage to Catherine of Aragon and another marriage. Katharina was an aunt of the Spanish King Charles V and he saw the annulment of the marriage as a personal insult. This led to an alliance between France and the Holy Roman Empire against King Henry in 1538 and the Pope encouraged the two countries to attack England. An invasion of England seemed certain. In response, King Heinrich issued an order (English: Device), which contained orders to "defend the empire in times of invasion" and to build forts along the English coast. The immediate danger passed, but manifested itself in 1544 when France, supported by its allies in Scotland , threatened to invade England across the English Channel . King Heinrich therefore issued another order in 1544 that the country's defenses were to be reinforced, especially along the south coast.

construction

From April to September 1545, Sandown Castle was built over Sandown Bay to protect the southeast coast of the Isle of Wight. Built under the supervision of Italian civil engineer Giovanni Portinari , surveyor William Ridgeway and foreman John Portinar , it cost £ 2,400. The castle was built around a central courtyard with a square tower and two angled bastions on the land side and one circular Bastion on the seaside. The rear of the stone defenses were protected by a moat and the castle had a wooden pier where ships could dock.

The angled bastions reflect Italian views of military architecture at the time and may also have been influenced by Richard Lee , the royal construction supervisor, as well as Portinari's own experiences in the rest of Europe. Although Sandown Castle was relatively modern for an English fortress, the castle did not have any of the more modern arrow-shaped bastions found at nearby Yarmouth Castle . Sandown Castle has been criticized for this: Andrew Saunders describes the castle as an unpleasant "hybrid" between English and continental European ideas, John Hale as a fearful, confused flirtation with modern construction.

Before the castle could be completed, the French attacked. Admiral Claude d'Annebault crossed the English Channel with his troops and arrived on July 19 with 200 ships outside the Solent . Local authorities feared the unfinished Sandown Castle could be targeted by a night attack. 2000 French soldiers landed on the Isle of Wight and attacked Sandown, where construction workers were still going. But the advance soon came to a standstill and the French withdrew to their fleet, which ended the threat of invasion. The castle was finally completed after her departure.

17th century

In the 17th century, coastal erosion had eroded the castle's walls. In 1627 King Charles I announced that he would have the fortress repaired, but instead had the ruins torn down in 1631 under the supervision of Sir John Oglander . A new fortress, Sandown Fort , was built instead. It was further inland and possible remains of the old castle are still visible on the beach at low tide.

Individual references and comments

  1. ^ MW Thompson: The Decline of the Castle . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1987. ISBN 1-854226-08-8 . P. 111.
  2. ^ A b John R. Hale: Renaissance War Studies . Hambledon Press, London 1983. ISBN 0-907628-17-6 . P. 63.
  3. ^ DJ Cathcart King: The Castle in England and Wales: An Interpretative History . Routledge Press, London 1991. ISBN 978-0-415003-50-6 . Pp. 176-177.
  4. ^ A b B. M. Morley: Henry VIII and the Development of Coastal Defense . Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London 1976. ISBN 0-116707-77-1 . P. 7.
  5. ^ Peter Harrington: The Castles of Henry VIII . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2007. ISBN 978-1-472803-80-1 . P. 5.
  6. ^ John R. Hale: Renaissance War Studies . Hambledon Press, London 1983. ISBN 0-907628-17-6 . Pp. 63-64.
  7. ^ John R. Hale: Renaissance War Studies . Hambledon Press, London 1983. ISBN 0-907628-17-6 . P. 66.
  8. ^ Peter Harrington: The Castles of Henry VIII . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2007. ISBN 978-1-472803-80-1 . P. 6.
  9. ^ Peter Harrington: The Castles of Henry VIII . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2007. ISBN 978-1-472803-80-1 . P. 11.
  10. ^ Steven A. Walton: State Building Through Building for the State: Foreign and Domestic Expertise in Tudor Fortification in Osiris . Issue 25, No. 1 (2010). P. 70.
  11. ^ John R. Hale: Renaissance War Studies . Hambledon Press, London 1983. ISBN 0-907628-17-6 . P. 80.
  12. ^ Peter Harrington: The Castles of Henry VIII . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2007. ISBN 978-1-472803-80-1 . Pp. 29-30.
  13. ^ A b Peter Harrington: The Castles of Henry VIII . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2007. ISBN 978-1-472803-80-1 . Pp. 8, 31-32.
  14. ^ A b Andrew Saunders: Fortress Britain: Artillery Fortifications in the British Isles and Ireland . Beaufort, Liphook 1989. ISBN 1-855120-00-3 . P. 51.
  15. ↑ a b Sandown Castle . Historic England. English Heritage. Retrieved August 25, 2016.
  16. ↑ It is difficult to compare costs and prices from the early modern period with today's costs and prices. £ 2,400 from 1545 can now be anywhere from £ 1.03m to £ 474.3m, depending on the benchmark. As a comparison, the total expenditure of the crown for all Device forts throughout England from 1539 to 1547 was £ 376,500. B. St Mawes Castle alone cost £ 5,018, and Sandgate Castle £ 5,584.
  17. ↑ Lawrence H. Officer, Samuel H. Williamson: Five Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a UK Pound Amount, 1270 to Present . MeasuringWorth. 2014. Retrieved August 24, 2016.
  18. ↑ Martin Biddle, Jonathan Hiller, Ian Scott, Anthony Streeten: Henry VIII's Coastal Artillery Fort at Camber Castle, Rye, East Sussex: An Archaeological, Structural and Historical Investigation . Oxbow Books, Oxford 2001. ISBN 0-904220-23-0 . P. 12.
  19. ↑ a b c Peter Harrington: The Castles of Henry VIII . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2007. ISBN 978-1-472803-80-1 . P. 32.
  20. ↑ a b c d Parishes: Brading . British History Online. 1912. Retrieved August 25, 2016.
  21. ^ Peter Harrington: The Castles of Henry VIII . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2007. ISBN 978-1-472803-80-1 . Pp. 15-16, 32.
  22. ^ John R. Hale: Renaissance War Studies . Hambledon Press, London 1983. ISBN 0-907628-17-6 . P. 90.
  23. ^ John R. Hale: Renaissance War Studies . Hambledon Press, London 1983. ISBN 0-907628-17-6 . Pp. 89-90.
  24. ^ Henry Potter: Henry VIII and Francis I: The Final Conflict, 1540-47 . Koninklijke Brill, Leiden 2011. ISBN 978-9-004204-31-7 . P. 37.
  25. ^ John R. Hale: Renaissance War Studies . Hambledon Press, London 1983. ISBN 0-907628-17-6 . P. 86.
  26. ^ Peter Harrington: The Castles of Henry VIII . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2007. ISBN 978-1-472803-80-1 . Pp. 45-46.
  27. ^ A b Peter Harrington: The Castles of Henry VIII . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2007. ISBN 978-1-472803-80-1 . P. 46.
  28. ^ WH Davenport Adams: Isle of Wight: Its History, Topography and Antiquities . New, revised edition. T. Nelson and Sons, London 1884. p. 200.

Coordinates: 50 ° 39 ′ 26 ″  N , 1 ° 8 ′ 51 ″  W.