The 1539 Kent coastal muster was the largest military mobilisation in the county since the French raids of the 1370s. Henry VIII personally ordered that every coastal parish in Kent should provide armed men to watch the beaches and beacons should be ready to fire at the first sign of enemy ships. The muster accompanied the construction of the Device Forts and represented a fundamental reorganisation of English coastal defence.
None recorded
County militia estimated at several thousand; coastal watch parties at every headland
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