King Charles's Castle
Encyclopedia
Isles of Scilly
The Isles of Scilly form an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain. The islands have had a unitary authority council since 1890, and are separate from the Cornwall unitary authority, but some services are combined with Cornwall and the islands are still part...
. It is now in ruins and the site is administered by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
. It was a semi-hexagonal structure to provide a wide field of fire and two-storeyed to give at least two tiers of guns. The domestic quarters for the garrison were at the rear.
Despite its name, the castle was built 1550-1554 during the reign of Edward VI
Edward VI of England
Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...
. During the Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
low earthwork defences were thrown up beyond the castle to protect it from landward attack. After the war it was replaced by Cromwell's Castle
Cromwell's Castle
Cromwell's Castle is on the island of Tresco in the Isles of Scilly .It is a coastal Gun Tower built by Oliver Cromwell in 1651-1652 as a replacement for King Charles's Castle. The guns were mounted on the roof above the garrison's living quarters and magazines. The tower was originally entered at...
.