was positioned on the Hurst Spit, a strip of shingle sheltering saltmarsh and mud flats, only across the water from the Isle of Wight. Temporary earthwork fortifications were erected on the site and, after the other three castles had been completed, work then began on Hurst in 1541 under the direction of John Mille, the financial controller, and probably Thomas Bertie, a master mason. Bertie was appointed as the castle's captain in 1542 and the work was completed by January 1544, at a cost of over £3,200. The result was a stone artillery fort with a central keep and three bastions, surrounded by a moat, capable of holding up to 71 guns. In 1547, however, Hurst was equipped with 26 artillery pieces–four made of brass and the remainder iron–comprising a two sakers, a culverin, a demi-cannon, a curtall cannon, two demi-culverins, six portpieces, four slings, two quarter-slings, and seven bases, three of them inoperable. A 1559 survey commented that Hurst Castle was essential for sending reinforcements from the mainland to the island, and noted that it was equipped with eleven brass and iron guns, with nine further broken guns, along with handguns, bows and arrows, pikes and bills. The survey observed that the castle was vulnerable to attack because it lacked flanking protection and had rounded walls, and that it was expensive to garrison because of its size, requiring a captain, his deputy, twelve gunners, nine soldiers and a porter. The historian John Kenyon notes, however, that its considerable armament made it one of the most powerful forts in the south, even if it was equipped with lighter guns than would have been ideal for its "ship-killing" role. Meanwhile, the invasion threat from France had passed and a lasting peace was made in 1558; government concerns shifted away from the south coast towards the Spanish threat to the south-west of England. By 1569, when Thomas Carew was serving as Hurst's captain, there were less than ten guns but the same size of garrison to that seven years before. His son, Sir Thomas Gorges, became captain in turn, and in 1593 he reported that the castle's gun platforms were in serious need of repair. 17th century In the early 1600s, England was at peace with France and Spain, and the country's coastal defences received little attention. The Gorges family continued as captains at Hurst, with Sir Edward Gorges taking up the