Six ships of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

have borne the name HMS ''Windsor Castle'', after

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original cast ...

, an official residence of the

British monarch The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional form of government by which a hereditary sovereign reigns as the head of state of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies (the Bailiwi ...

: * was a 90-gun second-rate

ship of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colu ...

launched in 1678 and wrecked in 1693. * HMS ''Windsor Castle'' was a 90-gun second rate previously named . She was launched in 1679, renamed HMS ''Princess Anne'' in 1701, HMS ''Windsor Castle'' in 1702 and HMS ''Blenheim'' in 1706, before being broken up in 1763. * was a 98-gun second-rate ship of the line launched in 1790. She was reduced to 74 guns in 1814 and was broken up in 1839. * HMS ''Windsor Castle'' was a 120-gun first rate. She was renamed a month after being launched as a screw-propelled ship in 1852. * was laid down as a 116-gun first rate named HMS ''Victoria'', but was renamed in 1855 before being launched in 1858. She had been converted to a 100-gun screw-propelled ship on the stocks, and was rearmed with 97 guns in 1862. She was renamed HMS ''Cambridge'' in 1869, when she replaced the 1815 vessel as a gunnery school ship. She was sold in 1908. * was an ex-Russian merchant ship, seized in 1918 or 1919 and converted to an armed merchantman in the British Caspian Flotilla.

See also