Cowes Castle

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West Cowes Castle

Cowes Castle , and West Cowes Castle , a fort in Cowes on the British island of Isle of Wight . The castle, which was built in 1539 at the behest of King Henry VIII to protect against a feared invasion of France and the Holy Roman Empire , contains a ring bastion , wing bastions and a donjon . It is one of the device forts . In 1547 17 cannons were set up there. Together with its sister fort East Cowes Castle , the fort watched over the entrance to the medina , an important anchorage . The threat of invasion passed, but the fortress remained in use until the mid-19th century. There were only brief military actions there in 1642 during the English Civil War .

In 1854, Cowes Castle was abandoned and first leased and then sold to the Royal Yacht Squadron for use as their new clubhouse. The Squadron commissioned the architect Anthony Salvin to rebuild large parts of it from 1856-1858. During World War II , Cowes Castle became a headquarters for parts of Operation Neptune , but served the Squadron outside of that time and is an important landmark for yachting competitions from the Isle of Wight.

history

16th Century

Cowes Castle was built as a result of international tensions between England, France and the Holy Roman Empire during the final years of King Henry VIII's reign. Traditionally, the Crown had left coastal defense to the local nobles and municipalities and only played a subordinate role in the construction and maintenance of coastal forts. While France and the Holy Roman Empire were at war with each other, raids by sea were common, but invasion of England seemed very unlikely. Limited defenses around simple log houses and towers existed in the south-west and along the Sussex coast , supplemented by some more impressive structures in the north of England. In general, however, the forts were very limited in size.

In 1533 King Henry VIII broke with Pope Paul III. in order to be able to annul the long marriage with his wife, Katharina von Aragon , and to be able to remarry. Katharina was the aunt of King Charles V of Spain and took the cancellation as a personal insult. This resulted in France and the Holy Roman Empire forming an alliance against King Henry VIII in 1538 and the Pope encouraging both countries to attack England. In response to this, King Henry VIII issued an order (English: "Device"; hence the name "Device Fort") in 1539, the instructions for the "defense of the empire in times of invasion" and the construction of forts along the English Included coastline.

The Solent , a body of water that provides access to the ports of Southampton and Portsmouth , was considered vulnerable to enemy attack. Two forts were built on the east and west sides of the medina, the entrance to the main port of the adjacent Isle of Wight, and were intended to be used for attacking any enemy ship that might approach. The forts were named after the area's traditional name, The Cowes. The western fortress, built in 1539, had a D-shaped bastion at the front, a circular two-story donjon at the rear, and two lower buildings on either side, all of which were armed with artillery. On the landward side a 4 meter wide protected ditch and one on the crown at least 2.4 meters wide stone wall the fort The fort was made. Limestone - stone built, possibly from the demolition of the reign of Henry VIII dissolved. Beaulieu Abbey was recycled.

Settlements formed around the two forts on the medina, but East Cowes Castle was soon abandoned and eventually destroyed by coastal erosion . Therefore, West Cowes Castle is now often simply called "Cowes Castle". Inspections in 1547 showed that there were 17 iron and bronze cannons at West Cowes Castle , but that nine of them were inoperable. Nevertheless, the fort was used even after the danger of invasion ended and the garrison consisted of a captain, a gatekeeper and three gunners during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

17th to 19th century

Floor plan of the fort from 1725

Cowes Castle served as a residence for important visitors to the Isle of Wight and also as a prison; the captain of the fort was also responsible for arranging the arrival of foreign ships. When the English civil war broke out between the supporters of King Charles I and those of Parliament in 1642 , the captain of the fort, Humphrey Turney , initially mistook it for the king. On August 12, grew as the tensions between the two factions on the island, Turney fired even one of the guns of the fort on the ship Lion of parliamentarists from. An unknown Scottish sea ​​captain then came ashore on August 16 and arrested Turney before more men landed, took the fort for the parliamentarians and held it until the end of the civil war.

During the interregnum , the fort continued to be used as a prison. King Charles I could not be imprisoned in the fort on his way to Parliamentary imprisonment at Carisbrooke Castle in 1647 because the prison was already occupied. Instead he was housed in a pub . The royalist William Davenant was imprisoned at Cowes Castle in 1650 and wrote the poem Gondibert there . As with East Cowes Castle, coastal erosion was a particular problem for the fort. An inspection in 1692 showed that the walls had burst and threatened to collapse, and in 1785 the historian Francis Grose observed that the fort was “heavily fenced with stakes and planks ”Was to help curb sea erosion.

In the course of the 18th century, Cowes came into fashion as an excursion destination with a number of bathhouses , one of them next to the fort. By the beginning of the 19th century, the town became a popular bathing resort. Cowes Castle was partially renovated in 1716 to modernize its living quarters. Most of the front facade of the donjon was torn down and rebuilt with new windows, a tourelle for a spiral staircase was built, new two- and three-story residential wings were added and a garden was created over the landside defensive structures. In 1795, the writer Richard Warner noted that the garrison consisted of a captain, a gatekeeper, two soldiers, a chief gunner and five common gunners, whose annual pay was £ 103. The fort remained in use during the coalition wars and was equipped with eleven nine-pounder cannons in 1825. Warner, however, had complained that the fort was "completely useless" from a military point of view, and an 1824 tourist guide reiterated this assessment, describing Cowes Castle as "useless as a defensive position" and ridiculing the sentry there.

An engraving of the fort from 1796

Lord Anglesey became captain of Cowes Castle in 1826, which at the time was more of a sinecure than a regular military establishment, and spent a certain amount of time at the fort each year, lusciously improving the interior. Lord Anglesey was also a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron , founded in 1815 and based at the time at the Gloster Hotel in Cowes. At that time, sailing had become a prestigious event there; the painter William Turner sketched the yachts sailing in front of the fort when he visited there in 1827. When Lord Anglesey died in 1854, the government abandoned the fort and leased it initially to Lord Anglesey's son-in-law, Lord Conyngham , and then to the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1855.

Architect Anthony Salvin , an expert in customizing medieval buildings, was commissioned by the Royal Yacht Squadron to redesign the building between 1856 and 1858. He enlarged the house, changed its profile, built a new tower, platform and gatehouse , as well as a servant wing, ballroom and other living quarters for members, all at a cost of about £ 6,000. Prince Albert and Edward, the Prince of Wales , visited the fort before it was officially reopened in 1858. The rebuilding work had a mixed response; a local newspaper compared the result with "a correctional institution ". Cowes became an important sailing center. After King William IV's miniature frigate '' Royal Adelaide '' was destroyed in 1877, the Prince of Wales donated its 21 bronze cannons to the fort.

20th and 21st centuries

Wilhelm IV's bronze cannons on the fort in 2012

In 1917 the Royal Yacht Squadron bought Cowes Castle from the Crown. Further renovation work was carried out on the property in the 1920s and a ballroom in an adjacent hotel was purchased and served as an annex for the female members.

The Isle of Wight became an important staging area for Allied troops to invade France during World War II . In October 1942 the fort was taken over by the British Admiralty and became the headquarters of senior officers of the HQ Naval Commander Force "J" Landing Craft Base , known as HMS Vectris . The armed forces' ships anchored in the nearby Solent and took part in Operation Overlord . The fort was damaged in the German air raids on the Isle of Wight .

After the war, the architect AG Biggs carried out significant additions to the fort between 1962 and 1968. B. he completely rebuilt the west wing so that more living space was created for female club members. To do this, he used building blocks from East Cowes Castle , an 18th and 19th century country house that had been demolished the previous year. A prefabricated greenhouse extension followed in 1988 and a new pavilion, designed by Sir Thomas Croft , was added in 2000.

During excavations in the winter of 2010-2011, the remains of the old castle wall and moat were discovered and more than 400 artifacts were removed and placed in the Isle of Wight County Museum . Cowes Castle is a major landmark for sailing and powerboat events, especially as the start or finish of local races. English Heritage has the fort as a historical building II *. Grade listed.

Individual references and comments

  1. ^ MW Thompson: The Decline of the Castle . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1987, ISBN 1-85422-608-8 , p. 111.
  2. ^ A b John R. Hale: Renaissance War Studies . Hambledon Press, London 1983, ISBN 0-907628-17-6 , p. 63.
  3. ^ J. Cathcart King: The Castle in England and Wales: An Interpretative History . Routledge Press, London 1991, ISBN 0-415-00350-4 , 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 0-11-670777-1 , p. 7.
  5. ^ Peter Herrington: The Castles of Henry VIII . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2007, ISBN 978-1-4728-0380-1 , p. 5.
  6. ^ John R. Hale: Renaissance War Studies . Hambledon Press, London 1983, ISBN 0-907628-17-6 , pp. 63-64.
  7. ^ Peter Herrington: The Castles of Henry VIII . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2007, ISBN 978-1-4728-0380-1 , p. 11.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l West Cowes Castle . Historic England. English Heritage. Retrieved February 29, 2016.
  10. ^ Dave Hopkins: Extensive Urban Survey - Hampshire and the Isle of Wight . English Heritage, London 2004, p. 2.
  11. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Cowes Castle. Royal Yacht Squadron, archived from the original on April 6, 2015 ; accessed on February 29, 2016 .
  12. ^ A b Andrew Saunders: Fortress Britain: Artillery Fortifications in the British Isles and Ireland . Beaufort, Liphook 1989, ISBN 1-85512-000-3 , p. 41.
  13. ^ A b West Cowes Castle Discoveries. Maritime Archeology, archived from the original on January 9, 2014 ; accessed on February 29, 2016 .
  14. ^ Andrew Saunders: Fortress Britain: Artillery Fortifications in the British Isles and Ireland . Beaufort, Liphook 1989, ISBN 1-85512-000-3 , pp. 40-41.
  15. ^ East Cowes Castle. Historic England. Retrieved March 1, 2016 .
  16. ^ A b c William Woolnoth: The Ancient Castles of England and Wales . Volume 1. Longman, Hurst and Company, London 1825. Chapter: Cowes Castle .
  17. ^ George Nelson Godwin: The Civil War in Hampshire (1642-45) and the Story of Basing House . New, revised edition. Henry March Gilbert and Son, Southampton 1904, pp. 26-27.
  18. ^ George Nelson Godwin: The Civil War in Hampshire (1642-45) and the Story of Basing House . New, revised edition. Henry March Gilbert and Son, Southampton 1904, p. 27.
  19. ^ A b Francis Grose: Antiquities of England and Wales . Volume 2. Hooper, London 1785, p. 181.
  20. ^ A b c Dave Hopkins: Extensive Urban Survey - Hampshire and the Isle of Wight . English Heritage, London 2004, p. 3.
  21. ↑ West Cowes Castle. Historic England. Retrieved March 1, 2016 .
  22. ^ A b Richard Warner: The History of the Isle of Wight . T. Cadell, W. Davies, T. Baker, Southampton 1795, p. 67.
  23. ↑ The comparison of costs and prices from the 18th century with today's costs and prices depends on the comparison factor. £ 103 out of 1795 can be anywhere from £ 9,700 to £ 690,000 in 2014 depending on which factor is used.
  24. ↑ Lawrence H. Officer, Samuel H. Williamson: Five Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a UK Pound Amount, 1270 to Present. MeasuringWorth, 2014, accessed March 1, 2016 .
  25. ^ NN: A Guide to all the Watering and Sea Bathing Places . Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, London 1824, p. 137.
  26. ^ Marquess of Anglesey: One Leg: The Life and Letters of Henry William Paget, First Marquess of Anglesey, KG 1768-1854 . Leo Cooper, London 1961, 1996, ISBN 1-78383-757-8 , p. 376.
  27. ↑ Yachts off Cowes Castle c.1827. Tate, accessed March 1, 2016 .
  28. ↑ a b c The RYS & Yachting. Royal Yacht Squadron, archived from the original on June 30, 2015 ; accessed on March 1, 2016 .
  29. ↑ a b The Castle. Royal Yacht Squadron, archived from the original on April 6, 2015 ; accessed on March 1, 2016 .
  30. ↑ Arthur H. Clark: The History of Yachting, 1600-1815 . GP Putman's Sons, New York / London 1904, p. 243.
  31. ↑ Miniature Frigate Royal Adelaine. Royal Museums Greenwich, archived from the original on June 30, 2015 ; accessed on March 1, 2016 .
  32. ^ Plan of Cowes Castle in the Isle of Wight, 1725. British Library, accessed March 1, 2016 .
  33. ↑ a b Eric Gault Finley: RCN Beach Commando “W” . Gilmore, Ottawa 1994, p. 1.
  34. ^ Operation Neptune. (PDF) SR, pp. 7–8 , archived from the original on June 30, 2015 ; accessed on March 1, 2016 .
  35. ^ Operation Neptune. (PDF) SR, pp. 7–10 , archived from the original on June 30, 2015 ; accessed on March 1, 2016 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 45 ′ 59.5 ″  N , 1 ° 18 ′ 4 ″  W.