The siege of Pembroke took place in 1648 during the

Second English Civil War The Second English Civil War took place between February to August 1648 in Kingdom of England, England and Wales. It forms part of the series of conflicts known collectively as the 1639-1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which include the 1641� ...

. In the engagement, Parliamentarian troops led by

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...

sieged

Pembroke Castle Pembroke Castle ( cy, Castell Penfro) is a medieval castle in the centre of Pembroke, Pembrokeshire in Wales. The castle was the original family seat of the Earldom of Pembroke. A Grade I listed building since 1951, it underwent major restorati ...

in Wales. The Castle had become a refuge for rebellious Parliamentarian soldiers after the end of the

First English Civil War The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the Anglo ...

Background

In April 1648, Parliamentarian troops in Wales, who had not been paid for a long time, staged a

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...

rebellion under the command of the Colonel John Poyer, the Parliamentarian Governor of

. He was joined by Major-General

Rowland Laugharne Major General Rowland Laugharne (1607 – 1675) was a member of the Welsh gentry, and a prominent soldier during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, in which he fought on both sides. Laugharne began his career as a page to Robert Devereux, 3rd ...

, his district commander, and Colonel Rice Powell. After the failure of his pre-emptive strike against the small Parliamentarian army of Colonel Thomas Horton at the Battle of St. Fagans, Laugharne retreated with what was left of his army to join Colonel Poyer at Pembroke.

Prelude

Colonel Horton marched his 3,000 well disciplined troops, about half of which were dragoons, west to

Tenby Tenby ( cy, Dinbych-y-pysgod, lit=fortlet of the fish) is both a walled seaside town in Pembrokeshire, Wales, on the western side of Carmarthen Bay, and a local government community. Notable features include of sandy beaches and the Pembroke ...

and laid siege to

Tenby Castle Tenby Castle ( cy, Castell Dinbych-y-pysgod) was a fortification standing on a headland separated by an isthmus from the town of Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales. The remaining stone structure dates from the 13th century but there are mentions of the ...

which was held by about 500 Royalists under the command of Colonel Rice Powell.

with another Parliamentarian army consisting of three regiments of foot and two of horse had reached

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

on the day that the Royalist army was routed at the Battle of St. Fagans and proceeded to cross the south Welsh border shortly afterwards. He left Colonel Isaac Ewer in command of a small force to besiege the Royalist garrison of

Chepstow Castle Chepstow Castle ( cy, Castell Cas-gwent) at Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Wales is the oldest surviving post-Roman stone fortification in Britain. Located above cliffs on the River Wye, construction began in 1067 under the instruction of the Norma ...

which was under the command of Sir

Nicholas Kemeys Sir Nicholas Kemeys, 1st Baronet (before 1593 – 25 May 1648) was a Welsh landowner and soldier during the English Civil War in South Wales. Lineage The family claimed descent from a Stephen de Kemeys who held lands in the southern Welsh Ma ...

and pressed on to join Horton at

arriving on 15 May. Leaving Horton with enough men to deal with Powell, Cromwell marched the rest of the army to lay siege to Pembroke. Kemeys was killed when Chepstow Castle was stormed on 25 May, and Powell was taken prisoner when he surrendered Tenby Castle to Horton on 31 May, but Pembroke Castle was a very 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 thick.

The siege

Ships carrying siege artillery to Cromwell were forced back up the Bristol Channel to

by storms, so Cromwell tried a frontal assault. It failed because the ladders used to

escalade {{Unreferenced, date=May 2007 Escalade is the act of scaling defensive walls or ramparts with the aid of ladders. Escalade was a prominent feature of sieges in ancient and medieval warfare, and though it is no longer common in modern warfare ...

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 Investment is the military process of surrounding an enemy fort (or town) with armed forces to prevent entry or escape. It serves both to cut communications with the outside world and to prevent supplies and reinforcements from being introduced ...

. 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 Slighting is the deliberate damage of high-status buildings to reduce their value as military, administrative or social structures. This destruction of property sometimes extended to the contents of buildings and the surrounding landscape. It is ...

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.

Citations

References

External links

Wales and the Civil War
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pembroke, Siege of Sieges of the English Civil Wars Conflicts in 1648 1648 in Europe Wales in the English Civil War 1648 in Wales Siege of Pembroke Siege of Pembroke