Photos of the Historic Beautiful St Mawes Castle Falmouth

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Photos of the Beautiful Historic St Mawes Castle a Renaissance Henry VIII Henrician or Device Castle, Falmouth, England. Photos by photographer Paul E Williams. (TIP – use the icons below the slideshow for thumbnail photos and info)

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Photos of the St Mawes Castle a Henry VIII Device Castle,

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Photos of Historic St Mawes Castle, Near Falmouth England

St Mawes Castle Henry VIII Device Castle

St Mawes Castle was built as part of a defensive chain of south coast fortresses between 1540 & 1545 by King Henry VIII. These castle are known Device Castles.

In 1534 with the English Act of Supremacy, Henry VII made himself the head of the church in England and broke with the Pope in Rome. This isolated England and with the Divorce of his first wife, the Spanish Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII made himself and enemy of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire.

Expecting to be attacked Henry VIII ordered the building a a chain of forts from Hull to New Haven that would be state of the art cannon emplacements. These artillery forts became known as Device Forts or Henrician Castles.

Location of St Mawes Castle

St Mawes Castle is a Device Castle built to overlook the extensive harbour of Falmouth, one of the largest natural harbours in England. As well as its innovative military design St Mawes Fort architecture is also designed to be aesthetically pleasing.

The castle did not see any military action against a Spanish invasion as the great Spainish Armada was famously destroyed by Sir Francis Drake.

Innovative Military Design

The design of St Mawes Castle was so ahead of its time that it was still in use by Parliamentary forces in 1646 during the English Civil War. St Mawes Castle was strengthened in the Naplolionic wars and in 1870, the battery was armed with four 64 pounder guns.