Device fort

Despite a French raid against the Isle of Wight in 1545, the Device Forts saw almost no action before peace was declared in 1546. Some of the defences were left to deteriorate and were decommissioned only a few years after their construction. After war broke out with Spain in 1569, Elizabeth I improved many of the remaining fortifications, including during the attack of the Spanish Armada of 1588. By the end of the century, the defences were badly out of date and for the first few decades of the 17th century many of the forts were left to decay. Most of the fortifications saw service in the First and Second English Civil Wars during the 1640s and were garrisoned during the Interregnum, continuing to form the backbone of England's coastal defences against the Dutch after Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660. Again left to fall in ruin during the 18th century, many of the Device Forts were modernised and rearmed during the Napoleonic Wars, until peace was declared in 1815.