Qualla: Pendennis Castle

Pendennis Castle: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Parts from Crown Copyright, Her Majesty's Stationery Office (no individual author listed); remainder by Hchc2009, Public domain. On 17 August 1646, about 900 starving Royalist soldiers marched out of Pendennis Castle. Some were terminally ill with malnutrition. They had held the fort for five months against a Parliamentary army on land and a flotilla of ten ships at sea. Their commander, Sir John Arundell, had finally agreed to an honourable surrender two days earlier. Pendennis was among the last Royalist fortifications to hold out in the English Civil War. Raglan Castle in Wales surrendered just days later, on 19 August, and Harlech Castle held out until March 1647. The garrison emerged with colours flying and matches lit, the conventional honours for a defeated force that had fought to the limit of endurance. Behind them, the castle stood mostly intact. Four centuries later, it still does.

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Image: Parts from Crown Copyright, Her Majesty's Stationery Office (no individual author listed); remainder by Hchc2009 | Public domain

Pendennis Castle: Henry VIII's Defence Programme

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 3.0. Pendennis was built between 1540 and 1542 because Henry VIII expected to be invaded. In 1533 he had broken with Rome to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, who happened to be the aunt of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. In 1538 France and the Empire allied against him. Th...

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Image: Nilfanion | CC BY-SA 3.0

Pendennis Castle: The Elizabethan Star Fort

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Crown Copyright, Her Majesty's Stationery Office (no individual author listed), Public domain. In 1597 a Spanish fleet of around 13,000 men set out for Pendennis. Bad weather scattered them before they could land. The near-miss caused panic in the privy council. A review by Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Nicholas Parker and Sir Ferdinando Gorges concluded that the original Tudor ...

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Image: Crown Copyright, Her Majesty's Stationery Office (no individual author listed) | Public domain

Pendennis Castle: Five Months of Hunger

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Downer, CC BY-SA 2.0. When civil war broke out in 1642 Pendennis was held for the king. The town of Falmouth below the castle was a Royalist port; Carrick Roads sheltered Royalist privateers. In early 1646, with the war lost almost everywhere else, Pendennis was one of the last fortresses still flying...

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Image: Chris Downer | CC BY-SA 2.0

Pendennis Castle: Pay Dispute, 1647

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rod Allday, CC BY-SA 2.0. There is a coda to the siege that says something about civil war finance. In 1647, the year after the Royalists left, Parliament cut the levels of the armed forces nationally. Most discharged soldiers got two months' pay. The Pendennis garrison was offered only one. The men, led ...

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Image: Rod Allday | CC BY-SA 2.0

Pendennis Castle: Napoleonic Upgrade and the Half-Moon Battery

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Downer, CC BY-SA 2.0. The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars turned Falmouth back into a major military depot, and Pendennis was extensively rearmed. The government built the Half-Moon Battery in 1793, a new gun position just outside the 16th-century ramparts on the southern shoulder of the head...

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Image: Chris Downer | CC BY-SA 2.0

Pendennis Castle: The Last Real War

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tim Green from Bradford, CC BY 2.0. The castle was rearmed for the First World War but saw no action. It was rearmed again for the Second, when Falmouth was a critical embarkation point for American troops preparing for D-Day. New radar-controlled 6-inch Mark 24 guns were installed in 1943. The Pendennis gun batter...

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Image: Tim Green from Bradford | CC BY 2.0