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The Isle of Wight is an English island and county, off the southern English coast, to the south of the county of Hampshire, between the Solent and the English Channel. Popular from Victorian times as a holiday resort, the Isle of Wight is known for its natural beauty and as home to the Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes, a town that hosts a world famous annual regatta.
Colloquially known as "The Island" by its residents, it possesses a rich history including its own brief status as a vassal kingdom in the fifteenth century. It was home to poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Queen Victoria had her much loved summer residence and final home Osborne House built in East Cowes. Its maritime history encompasses boat building and sail making through to the manufacture of flying boats and the world's first hovercraft. Its space history includes the launch of the Black Arrow and Black Knight space rockets. It is home to the Bestival and the recently revived Isle of Wight Festival, which, in 1970, was one of the largest rock music events ever held. The island is also one of the richest fossil locations for dinosaurs in Europe.
In 686 AD, it became the last part of the British Isles to convert to Christianity, almost a century after the rest of Great Britain.
The island is the smallest ceremonial county in England (when not including the predominantly urban counties of Bristol and the City of London) at 380 kmē (147 sq mi), just beating the revived Rutland at 382 kmē (148 sq mi), although at low tide it is actually larger than Rutland. With just one Member of Parliament and 132,731 permanent residents in the 2001 census, it is also the most populated Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom. It has historically been part of Hampshire.
The Norman Conquest created the position of Lord of the Isle of Wight. Carisbrooke Priory and the fort of Carisbrooke Castle were founded. The Island did not come under full control of the crown until it was sold by the dying last Norman Lord, Lady Isabella de Fortibus, to Edward I in 1293. The Lordship thereafter became a Royal appointment, with a brief interruption when Henry de Beauchamp, 1st Duke of Warwick was crowned King of the Isle of Wight, King Henry VI assisting in person at the ceremony, placing the crown on his head. He died in 1445, aged 22. With no male heir, his regal title expired with him.
Henry VIII, who developed the Royal Navy and its permanent base at Portsmouth, fortified the Island at Yarmouth, East & West Cowes and Sandown, sometimes re-using stone from dissolved monasteries as building material. Sir Richard Worsley, Captain of the Island at this time, successfully commanded the resistance to the last of the French attacks in 1545; the French attempts to conquer the Island being decisively stopped after the English victory in the Battle of Bonchurch. Much later on, after the Spanish Armada in 1588, the threat of Spanish attacks remained and the outer fortifications of Carisbrooke Castle were built between 1597 and 1602. During the English Civil War King Charles fled to the Isle of Wight, believing he would receive sympathy from the governor, Robert Hammond. Hammond was appalled, and incarcerated the king in Carisbrooke Castle.
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