 1074 - Abt 1126 (52 years)
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| Name |
Arnulph de Montgomery |
| Birth |
1074 |
Pembroke Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
Abt 1126 |
| Person ID |
I36805 |
Bob Juch's Tree |
| Last Modified |
31 Dec 2022 |
| Father |
1st Earl of Shrewsbury Roger de Montgomery, b. 1022, St Germain Montgomery, Normandy, France d. 27 Jul 1094, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England (Age 72 years) |
| Relationship |
natural |
| Mother |
Mabel de Talvas d'Alencon, b. Abt 1026, Alençon, Orne, Basse-Normandie, France d. 2 Dec 1079, Bures Castle near Bayeux, France (Age 53 years) |
| Relationship |
natural |
| Marriage |
1048 |
Perche, France |
| Family ID |
F13488 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
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| Notes |
- PEMBROKE
From Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of Wales (1833)
PEMBROKE, a borough, market-town, and sea-port, having separate jurisdiction, locally in the hundred of Castlemartin, county of PEMBROKE, SOUTH WALES, 6 miles (S.E. by E.) from Milford, 10 (S. by E.) from Haverford west, and 248 (W.) from London, containing, exclusively of the parish of Monkton, 5383 inhabitants. The name of this place is derived from the words Pen-Bro, literally signifying a headland or promontory, and originally applied to a district nearly corresponding in extent with the present hundred of Castlemartin, stretching out into the sea, and separating Milford Haven, on the north, from the Bristol channel on the south. On the erection of a castle and the consequent growth of the town, the name of the district in which they were situated was transferred to them, and subsequently to the whole of the county of which that town became the capital. The early history of this place is involved in some confusion: it is stated by Giraldus Cambrensis, that Arnulph de Montgomery erected here, in the reign of Henry I, a slender fortress of stakes and turf, which, on his return into England, he placed under the custody of his constable and lieutenant, Giraldus de Windesor. In the Chronicle of Caradoc of Llancarvan, who was contemporary with Giraldus, it is expressly stated that the castle was attacked in 1092, and again in 1094, by the forces of Cadwgan ab Bleddyn, but that it was so strongly fortified as to baffle every effort of that chieftain to reduce it. The latter of these dates, which is some years prior to the accession of Henry I, contradicts the statement of Giraldus Cambrensis, with respect to the time of the original foundation; and the result of the attacks by so formidable an enemy is at variance with his description of the character of the fortress. Arnulph de Montgomery, on the accession of Henry I., having joined in a confederacy against that sovereign, the castle of Pembroke, together with his other estates, became forfeited to the crown, and Henry afterwards conferred the castle, together with the lordship of Carew and several other manors, on Giraldus de Windesor, Arnulph's lieutenant, who had married Nt, daughter of Rhys ab Tewdwr. According to Caradoc of Llancarvan, Giraldus or Gerald de Windesor rebuilt the castle of Pembroke in the year 1105, on a more advantageous site, called "Congarth Vechan," and removed into it his family and his goods. Soon after this, according to some authorities, Owain, son of Cadwgan ab Bleddyn, having heard the beauty of Nt extolled at a banquet given by Cadwgan, either at his castle of Aberteivy, or at that of Eare Weare, in the parish of Amroath, came, under the pretence of relationship, to pay her a visit at this place, and becoming enamored at this interview, resolved upon carrying her away by force. For this purpose, having obtained the aid of some young men as profligate as himself he returned in the evening to the castle, which he entered unobserved, and, placing a guard over the chamber of Nt, set fire to the building, and, in the confusion and alarm which ensued, forcibly conveyed her and her children to his residence in Powys. Other writers, however, are of opinion that the castle of Carew was the scene of this outrage and abduction. The alliance of Gerald with the native princes of the country, by his marriage with Nt, who was some time after restored to him, subsequently excited the jealousy of Henry, who used every possible means to circumscribe his authority, as far as was consistent with the safety of the English interests in this province.
Gilbert de Clare, surnamed Strongbow, was created Earl of Pembroke, by Henry I., in 1109, and thus became possessed of the royal territories in this quarter, and of the castle of Pembroke; and in 1138, the earldom was erected into a county palatine, with the privilege of jura regalia; and, under the authority of its earl, a session and a monthly county court were held within the castle. In the latter all pleas of the crown were determined, fines levied, and recoveries passed: the writs were issued in the name of the earl, who held also at this place his courts of chancery and exchequer. Strongbow enlarged the castle, which he strengthened with additional fortifications, and made it in every respect a residence suitable to the dignity of the elevated rank which he held. He also incorporated the inhabitants of the town, which had arisen under the protection of the castle, and which he surrounded with a lofty embattled wall, defended by numerous bastions, and entered by three principal gates and a postern. Under the protection and influence of its earls Pembroke became a place of great importance; and in the year 1172, Henry II. kept the festival of Easter in the castle. Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, after the defeat of the Lancastrians at the battle of Barnet, retired into the castle, in which were then residing the young Earl of Richmond and his mother; but he was soon besieged by Morgan ab Thomas, brother of the celebrated Rhys ab Thomas, a zealous partisan of the house of York, to whom he must have surrendered the fortress, had not David, another brother, who had embraced the opposite interest, come promptly to his assistance, and conveyed him, together with the Countess of Richmond and her son, to Tenby, where they embarked for France.
The suppression of the palatine jurisdiction, in the reign of Henry VIII., deprived Pembroke of its dignity as the metropolis of a regality; but during the civil war of the seventeenth century, its strength rendered it the scene of many important transactions. The castle, at the commencement of the war, was the only fortress possessed by the parliamentarians in this part of the principality, and was placed under the command of Colonel Rowland Laugharne. In 1643, Admiral Swanley arrived with the parliamentarian fleet in Milford Haven, and reinforced the garrison with two hundred mariners and several small pieces of cannon, with the aid of which the governor succeeded in reducing most of the neighboring fortresses, which were garrisoned for the king. In 1647, Colonel Laugharne, and likewise Colonels Powell and Poyer, abandoning the interest of the parliament, and embracing that of the opposite party, made Pembroke their head-quarters, and the rallying point for the army which they raised on behalf of the king; and after their defeat in the disastrous battle of St. Fagan's, in Glamorganshire, retired hither with the remnant of their forces, closely followed by the parliamentarian army, led by Cromwell in person, who immediately commenced the siege of the town, taking post at Welsdon, a village about two miles and a half from it. The siege was conducted with the greatest vigor, and sustained with obstinate valor by the garrison, who were resolved to hold out to the last extremity; but Cromwell having found means to destroy their mills, and their supply of water being also cut off by the destruction of a staircase leading into a cavern under one of the towers, in which was their chief reservoir, there remained only the alternative of a lingering death or immediate submission. Under these circumstances the garrison capitulated, on condition that their chief leaders should throw themselves on the mercy of the parliament; that several of the inferior officers should leave the kingdom, not to return within two years; that all arms and ammunition should be given up, and that the town should be spared from plunder. Laugharne, Powell, and Poyer were afterwards tried by a court martial, and being found guilty of treason, were condemned to be shot; but the authorities being induced to spare two of them, it was ordered that they should draw lots for this favor; and accordingly three papers were folded up, on two of which was written "Life given by God, "and the third left blank: the latter was drawn by Colonel Poyer, who was shot in Covent Garden, on the 25th of April, 1649. That the surrender of the garrison was justly attributed to the failure of their supply of water, by the accident above noticed, has been confirmed by a recent discovery of the cavern, in which was found a copious spring of water, with the shattered remains of a staircase leading to it from the tower, the bones of a man, and several cannon balls.
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