Walmer Castle against Charles' brother, King James II, the townsfolk of Deal seized Walmer Castle on behalf of William III, the Prince of Orange. By the end of the century, however, the castle was increasingly regarded as out of date from a military perspective. In the 18th century, Walmer Castle became the official residence of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. The Lord Warden was originally a medieval title linked to five key ports along the coast of England; the position's prominence had faded, but it still retained important judicial and military functions. When Lionel Sackville, the Duke of Dorset, was
Cinque Ports an early concept that military service at sea constituted land tenure "per baroniam" making them "quasi" feudal barons. The early-14th-century treatise "Modus Tenendi Parliamentum" stated the Barons of the Cinque Ports to hold a place of precedence below the lay magnates (Lords Temporal) but above the representatives of the shires and boroughs (Knights of the Shire and burgesses). During the deposition of Edward II, the chronicles made a specific point of noting the presence of the Barons in the embassy of deposition - "praecipue de portubus...barones des Portez" ('especially the [Cinque] Ports...the barones of the Ports'). Writs of summons to