Fortress Britain

All the Invasions and Incursions since 1066

Ian Hernon

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780752497129
• eBook ISBN: 9780752497174
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture General

As Stuart Laycock's book All the Countries We've Ever Invaded: and the Few We Never got Round to shows, the British have not been backward in coming forward when it comes to aggressive forays abroad. But it hasn't all been one way. In 1193 for example, the Danes teamed up serial offenders, the French, for a full-scale invasion. The French Prince Louis the Lion came close to success exactly 150 years after the Battle of Hastings. The 100 Years War saw multiple raids on British towns and ports by the Spanish and French. Following the Armada, there was the bloodless invasion of 1688, Bonnie Prince Charlie's march south, the remarkable American John Paul Jones' attack on Whitehaven during the American War of Independence, the German occupation of the Channel Islands and – the great what if of British, perhaps world history – the threat of Operation Sealion. Ian Hernon brings his journalistic flair to bear in this dramatic narrative of the survival of an island race over 900 years – sometimes, surprisingly, against the odds. Whilst such a history (one leaving out the boring bits) is bound to entertain, it also cannot fail to inform: where were shots last exchanged with an enemy on the mainland? At Graveney Marsh in Kent.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 After Hastings
• 2 King Louis of England?
• 3 The Hundred Years’ War
• 4 The Pretenders
• 5 Henry’s Castles and the Invasion of the Isle of Wight
• 6 The Spanish Armada
• 7 Mousehole
• 8 The Barbary Pirates
• 9 The Battle of the Medway
• 10 The ‘Glorious’ Invasion
• 11 The French Armada of 1692
• 12 The Jacobite Invasion of England
• 13 The Choiseul Plan
• 14 John Paul Jones
• 15 The Battle of Fishguard
• 16 The Napoleon Threat and Britain’s ‘Great Terror’
• 17 Threats from America and Germany
• 18 Operation Sea Lion
• 19 The Battle of Graveney Marsh
• 20 The Occupation of the Channel Islands
• Conclusions
• Appendix 1: Chroniclers’ Accounts of the 1377 Raids
• Appendix 2: Later History of Castles and Fortifications Featured
• Appendix 3: Samuel Pepys’s Diary Extracts
• Appendix 4: Martello Towers
• Appendix 5: Pillboxes
• Bibliography and Sources
• Plate Section
• About the Author
• Copyright