Editing Dover (section)

==History==
{{Main article|History of Dover}}
[[File:View of Dover by Richard Wilson, 1746-47.jpg|thumb|left|View of Dover, by [[Richard Wilson (painter)|Richard Wilson]], 1746-47]]
[[File:George Chambers (1803-40) - A View of Dover - RCIN 405276 - Royal Collection.jpg|thumb|View of Dover, by [[George Chambers (painter)|George Chambers]], 1832]]
[[File:Sea front, Dover, England-LCCN2002696721.jpg|thumb|Photochrom showing Dover Harbour Beach, c. 1900]]

[[Archaeology|Archaeological]] finds have shown that there were [[Stone Age]] people in the area, and that some [[Iron Age]] finds also exist.<ref>{{cite web|title=Archaeology|url=http://www.doversociety.org.uk/history-scrapbook/archaeology|publisher=The Dover Society|access-date=30 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180330080041/http://www.doversociety.org.uk/history-scrapbook/archaeology|archive-date=30 March 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref> During the [[Ancient Rome|Roman period]], the area became part of the Roman communications network. It was connected by road to [[Canterbury]] and [[Watling Street]] and it became ''[[Dubris|Portus Dubris]]'', a fortified port. Dover has a partly preserved Roman lighthouse (the tallest surviving Roman structure in Britain) and the remains of a villa with preserved Roman wall paintings.<ref>{{cite web|title=Roman Dover|url=http://www.dover-kent.co.uk/roman_index.htm|website=Dover-kent.co.uk|access-date=30 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180203015909/http://www.dover-kent.co.uk/roman_index.htm#|archive-date=3 February 2018|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> Dover later figured in [[Domesday Book]] (1086).

Forts were built above the port and lighthouses were constructed to guide passing ships. It is one of the [[Cinque Ports]].<ref>Oldfield, Thomas Hinton Burley. (1794). An entire and complete history, political and personal, of the boroughs of Great Britain: Together with the Cinque Ports, 2d ed. corr. and improved. London: B. Crosby.</ref> and has served as a bastion against various attackers: notably the French during the [[Napoleonic Wars]] and Germany during the [[Second World War]].

During the [[Cold War]], a [[Regional Seat of Government]] was located within the White Cliffs beneath Dover Castle. This is omitted from the strategic objects appearing on the Soviet 1:10,000 city plan of Dover that was produced in 1974.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kent|first=Alexander J.|date=21 April 2021|title=The Soviet military 1:10,000 city plan of Dover, UK (1974)|journal=[[The Cartographic Journal]]|volume=7|issue=2|pages=245–251|doi=10.1080/23729333.2021.1910185|s2cid=235304780|doi-access=free}}</ref> The port would have served as an embarkation point for sending reinforcements to the [[British Army of the Rhine]] in the event of a Soviet ground invasion of Europe.

In 1974, a discovery was made at [[Langdon Bay (Kent)|Langdon Bay]] off the coast near Dover. It contained bronze axes of French design and is probably the remainder of the cargo of a sunken ship. At the same time, this find also shows that trade routes across the Channel between England and France existed already in the [[Bronze Age]], or even earlier. In 1992, the so-called Dover boat from the Bronze Age was discovered in six metres depth underwater. This is one of the oldest finds of a seaworthy boat. Using the [[Radiocarbon dating|radiocarbon method]] of investigation, the boat's construction was dated to approximately [[1550 BC]].

===Etymology===
First recorded in its Latinised form of ''[[Portus Dubris]]'', the name derives from the [[Common Brittonic|Brythonic]] word for water ({{lang|wlm|dwfr}} in [[Middle Welsh]], {{lang|cy|dŵr}} in [[Welsh Language|Modern Welsh]] apart from '' 'dwfrliw' '' (Watercolour) which has retained the old Welsh spelling, {{lang|br|dour}} in [[Breton language|Breton]]). The same element is present in the town's French name {{lang|fr|Douvres}} and the name of the river, [[river Dour|''Dour'']], which is also evident in other English towns such as [[Wendover]]. However, the modern [[Welsh Language|Modern Welsh]] name {{lang|cy|Dofr}} is an adaptation of the English name ''Dover''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/name-origin?surname=dover#:~:text=English%3A%20habitational%20name%20from%20the,Welsh%20dwfr%20'water').|title=Website|website=ancestry.co.uk|access-date=2020-09-20|archive-date=28 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028214408/https://www.ancestry.co.uk/name-origin?surname=dover#:~:text=English%3A%20habitational%20name%20from%20the,Welsh%20dwfr%20'water').|url-status=live}}</ref>

The current name was in use at least by the time of Shakespeare's ''[[King Lear]]'' (between 1603 and 1606), in which the town and its cliffs play a prominent role.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Goldberg |first1=Jonathan |title=Dover Cliff and the Conditions of Representation: King Lear 4:6 in Perspective |journal=Poetics Today |date=1984 |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=537–547|doi=10.2307/1772378 |jstor=1772378 }}</ref>

===The Siege of Dover (1216)===

{{Main article|Battle of Sandwich (1217)}}

[[Louis VIII of France]] landed his army, seeking to depose [[Henry III of England|King Henry III]], on Dover's mainland beach. Henry III ambushed Louis' army with approximately 400 bowmen atop [[The White Cliffs of Dover]] and his cavalry attacking the invaders on the beach. However, the French slaughtered the English cavalry and made their way up the cliffs to disperse the bowmen. Louis' army seized Dover village, forcing the English back to Canterbury. French control of Dover lasted for three months after which English troops pushed back, forcing the French to surrender and return home.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}