Castles of Kent
Hever Castle
In 1462, Sir Geoffrey
Bullen bought the property. The family rose to grest
prominence, and the castle was the setting for Henry
VIII's courtship of Sir Geoffrey Bullen's grandaughter
Anne Boleyn. She became Queen of England and in 1536
she was beheaded. Two years after his wife's death,
Henry VIII took over the castle.
Dover Castle
Set on two adjacent
islands in the middle of a lake and surrounded by five
hundred acres of parkland, Leeds Castle is renowned as
one of the most picturesque in the world. Edward I
acquired Leeds in 1272, remodeled the gatehouse and
built a new wall with D-shaped turrets. From the 16th
century, the crown granted the property to several
prominent families. There has been a great of
rebuilding over the centuries and in the 1930's, Lady
Baillie restored it to its original medieval condition.
Leeds Castle
Dover was held by
parliament during the civil war and escaped serious
damage. In the 1970's the castle was strengthened by
the introduction of gun batteries. The tops of the
towers and walls were stripped bare. No other castle in
England was so strategically placed and its importance
maintained from the Napoleanic wars to World War II.
Rochester Castle
The Bishop of Rochester
built a castle on this site in 1090 out of stones used
from the city's Roman walls. The castle came under
siege in 1215, and the square corners were attacked.
After this siege, it was realized that the corners of
castles were their weak spots, so from then on, castles
were built with round corners.
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