Pembroke Castle
 Castles |  Royal Britain |
Pembroke Castle is one of the largest, most impressive and best preserved Norman castles in Britain. It is situated on a rocky crag that juts up on a natural headland, where the cliffs fall away on three sides to the tidal waters of Pembroke River and Monkton Pill. The castle benefits greatly from the natural defences of a ready-made defensive site, a fact obviously appreciated by the architect when he allowed the castle's curtain wall to run in an irregular line following the shape of the rock.
The original castle was built on this site in 1090 by Arnulf of Montgomery, son of the Marcher Lord of Shrewsbury, and in 1109, Gilbert Strongbow became its commander with the title Earl of Pembroke. The present limestone fortress, with its massive curtain wall containing seven bastion towers, was built by the Normans between 1190 and 1245 on the site of the former structure. The only land approach to the castle was from the south and as the most vulnerable side was double-walled with an outer ditch. The gatehouse here has a cross-arch connecting its two drum towers.
The Great Keep of Pembroke Castle is one of the oldest parts of the fortress and its most outstanding feature. Built between 1200-10 by William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, it is a towering cylindrical building nearly 80ft in height with walls 19ft thick at the base, standing in the inner bailey at the northern end of the complex. Considered to be the finest medieval round tower in Britain it is unusual for being both circular and roofed, the latter being in the form of a stone dome. A spiral staircase is built within the huge wall allowing access to the four floors, the roof and basement. To the east of the tower sit two adjacent halls, the most northerly of which shares its outer wall with that of the encircling curtain wall. Beneath this wall lies a large natural cavern called the ‘Wogan', entered from the north hall down a slippery spiral staircase. The cavern opens onto the river and was probably used to receive stores.
The castle is well positioned for reaching Ireland and in 1148 Richard the Strongbow set sail with a force of mounted Welsh archers to subdue the Irish. Henry I and II garrisoned foreign mercenaries there. The Marshall family was replaced by the great house of Valence in the reign of Henry III, William of Valence being the half-brother of the king and the male heir of the Marshalls leaving no successor.
Pembroke Castle was closely associated with the dawn of the Tudor period. When in 1471 Henry VI was captured at the Battle of Tewkesbury and subsequently murdered in the Tower of London, the sole Lancastrian claimant to the throne was Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond. Born in 1456, Henry had grown to manhood at Pembroke but was forced to flee to France with his uncle Jasper when Yorkists besieged the castle. In 1485, Henry returned to his birthplace from exile with 2000 men, and at Milford Haven gathered to himself an army of 5000 with which he carried the day at Bosworth Field, defeating and killing the Yorkist Richard III. By this act Henry became the first Tudor king, Henry VII, 1485-1509.
During the Civil War, 1642-9, Pembroke declared for the Parliamentarians at the behest of its Mayor. However, in 1648 the Mayor changed allegiance feeling betrayed when Cromwell dissolved Parliament. This was a major blow for the Roundheads who retaliated with a fiercesome onslaught of cannon fire upon the castle, which surrendered after a six-week siege, and was ‘slighted' on the orders of Cromwell so that it could not again become a refuge for Royalist dissidents. Thus Pembroke has the dubious distinction of being one of the few castles to be attacked by both sides during the Civil War. An account of the day claims ‘only the betrayal of its water supply brought its surrender. The traitor was discovered and buried in the water pit'. A quite feasible account as Pembroke Castle, on the face of it, would seem virtually impregnable, even Owain Glyndwr in the early 15 th century, conqueror of Harlech and Caerphilly Castles, besieged Pembroke to no avail. Restoration of the castle began in the 19 th century.