And later rulers would make the most of castles, even if they did not build them in great numbers. During fears of a French invasion of England in the 1540s, Henry VIII considerably strengthened the south coast’s string of fortresses. Four hundred years later the largest castle in that region, at Dover, was still a critical part of British military defense strategy: it served as the command center for the Dunkirk evacuations at the beginning of the Second World War, and was later adapted to include a nuclear bunker in the rock below, for use in the event of a third world war fought with atomic
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