KING Henry the Eighth of England was a man of many talents and not a few wives. He was the last British king of that name, matched only in number by the eight monarchs with the glorious Christian appellation of Edward.

None of the others comes close, there being only four Georges and four Williams. Of the rest, there were only two or three of the same name, with King John and Queens Anne and Victoria standing alone.

Following his father, Henry VII, who established the Tudor dynasty, Henry VIII ruled for 38 years. Two of his children, Edward VII and Mary I reigned but 11 years in total. Their sister and the last Tudor, Elizabeth I, was the "Virgin Queen", who ruled apparently in that state for 45 years.

In his search for a male heir, Henry had six wives; two he divorced, two he beheaded, one died naturally and the last outlived him. In order to get away with such social manipulation, Henry had to show the Pope the door and set up his own church, which allowed divorce, while presumably not condoning beheadings.

As most of Europe was Catholic, Henry's actions in divorcing Britain from the Vatican fold and making himself a de facto pope were not well received by the monarchs across the English Channel. They were determined to teach the English upstart a lesson and plans were laid for an invasion of the British Isles.

To counter such a threat, Henry was forced to awaken the country from a slumber of over 1,000 years since Roman times, when the "Saxon Shore Forts" had first defended the coast of England.

Islands, like Bermuda and Britain, have the best natural defence of the ocean seas, which present a major deterrent to any invaders. Not all coastlines are Cliffs of Dover and landing places for armies in boats are usually to be found.

At such beaches, fortifications are built to repel the enemy as he disembarks. Within 20 years of the settlement of Bermuda in 1612, several dozen such forts were built to defend the beaches of the east, south and west coasts.

Building coastal forts and other great "King's Works", such as the outstanding Nonsuch Palace, were Henry VIII's other loves, if his wives so counted. The scandal of his personal life has come down to us as social heritage, but his greater legacy is in the buildings of his making that yet stand, such as Sandgate Castle on the Kentish Coast, a few miles west of Folkestone.

In 1976, I supervised a project at Sandgate Castle for the then "Inspector of Ancient Monuments", Jonathan Coad, now a leading expert on Royal Naval dockyards including Bermuda. It was Coad who had pointed out the importance of the Commissioner's House to the Board of Trustees of the Bermuda Maritime Museum during a visit the previous year.

Without that timely emphasis, it is likely that the House, now an outstanding Bermuda monument, would have been demolished through ignorance and the daunting task of its restoration to the fledging museum operation.

It was at Sandgate Castle that my interest in fortifications began in earnest. Its conversion to a Martello Tower connected such study with our own such building at Ferry Reach.

SANDGATE Castle was built in 1539-40 and was similar to other forts erected by Henry at Walmer and Deal on the south coast of England. It was typical of the new type of fortification designed to house cannon in gunports, while maintaining older crenellations for archers and musketry men. The bastions were rounded and the fort rose in height from the outer sections to the high point of the central Keep.

This design of fortification persisted into the 1600s and two forts at Bermuda, Smith's and Southampton, incorporated some of its elements. Unfortunately, some of the fine crenellated walls at Southampton Fort were lost in the recent hurricane. Sandgate has also suffered by environmental attack and a third of the fort has been lost to the sea.

In considering the use of Sandgate Castle as a heritage site, we decided to excavate half of it where the outer ward had been filled up in the Martello Tower conversion. Teams of Junior Leaders of the Royal Engineers were volunteered for the task, which eventually revealed gunports and features of the Tudor fort that had been buried in 1805-08.

The discoveries also included a domed cesspit, in which were found a group of gold coins, likely in a small purse that had accidentally been thrown down the garbage chute from the kitchen. A split-level monument was the goal, so that the visitor walked back in time from the Napoleonic period at the upper level down to the earlier Tudor works uncovered by the excavations.

During the Napoleonic period, the east and south coasts of England was again under serious threat of invasion and a large number of Martello Towers were built there in the first decade of the 1800s. The outer works of Sandgate Castle were reduced and partly buried and the Keep was rebuilt as a "glorified Martello Tower". That is to say that it was not a classic Martello Tower, such as several on the hills behind, but a converted building that attempted to emulate the architectural style.

By comparison, the Martello Tower at Ferry Reach is a classic egg-shaped south coast tower, though built in hard Bermuda limestone, rather than the less durable brick and plaster of the English works.

ARCHITECTURAL heritage connects all peoples, for it is our ability to construct such lasting monuments that distinguishes us from other creatures. That is not to say that it makes us better or superior, but that it imparts identity to our descendants and ourselves. A pride of place derived from a pride in surviving architectural heritage helps to make good society.

Dr. Edward Harris, MBE, JP, FSA, Bermudian, is the Executive Director of the Bermuda Maritime Museum. The views expressed here are his opinion, not necessarily those of the trustees or staff of the Museum. Comments can be sent to drharrislogic.bm, to PO Box MA 133, Sandys MABX, or by telephone at 799-5480.