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The Grade I Listed Pembroke Castle, the original family seat of the Earldom of Pembroke. It is a medieval Linear castle as it is a castle designed to confront its attackers with a series of barriers/impediments in a line. In Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, South Wales.

 

In 1093 Arnulf of Montgomery built the first castle at the site when he fortified the promontory beside the Pembroke River during the Norman invasion of Wales. A century later, the castle was given by Richard I to William Marshal, who became one of the most powerful men in 12th-century Britain. He rebuilt Pembroke in stone creating most of the structure that remains today.

 

It 1648 during the Second English Civil War it was the centre of the Siege of Pembroke. Colonel Horton marched his 3,000 troops west to Tenby and laid siege to Tenby Castle which was held by about 500 Royalists under command of Colonel Rice Powell. Oliver Cromwell later arrived with further troops, leaving Horton with enough men to deal with Powel, Cromwell marched the rest of the army to lay siege to Pembroke.

 

When Tenby Castle was stormed Powel was taken prisoner, but Pembroke Castle, under command of General Rowland Laugharne and John Poyer, was a strong medieval fortress which could not be taken as quickly. It stood on a rocky promontory surrounded on three sides by the sea, and on the landward side its defences consisted of a deep ditch and walls up to 20 feet (6.1 m) thick.

 

Ships carrying siege artillery to Cromwell were forced back up the Bristol Channel to Gloucester by storms, so Cromwell tried a frontal assault. It failed because the ladders used to escalade the walls were too short. The defenders managed to surprise the besiegers in a sudden sortie, killing thirty of the besiegers and damaging the circumvallation. The siege guns arrived in mid-June but over the next month they made little impact on the thick curtain walls.

 

Eventually, the siege ended when Cromwell's forces discovered the conduit pipe which delivered water to the castle and cut off the defenders' water supply. Poyer and Laugharne were forced to surrender on 11 July.

 

Cromwell then ordered the castle slighted so that it could never again be used as a military fortress. Laugharne, Poyer and Powell were taken to London, tried and sentenced to death, but Poyer alone was executed on 25 April 1649, being the victim selected by lot.

 

Major restoration took place during the early 20th century, the castle it is open to the public and is the largest privately-owned castle in Wales.

 

Information Source:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pembroke_Castle

 

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Uploaded on November 20, 2021
Taken on June 21, 2017