Yesterday we visited Pembroke Castle. The site of the castle was first occupied by cave dwellers in the Old Stone Age, some 12,000 years ago. In the late 11th century, Roger de Montgomery, a cousin of William the Conqueror, built a castle here. It was constructed of timber, not stone.
It passed through different hands. In the 12th century William Strongbow and then his son, Richard, possessed the castle and it was from here that Richard Strongbow in 1170 assembled 1,200 men and sailed to Ireland. He landed near Waterford and in September of the same year captured Dublin and proclaimed himself Lord of Leinster and Governor of Ireland. This displeased Henry II who hot-footed it to Ireland via Pembroke to chastise him. He was forgiven but when he died in 1176 the castle became the property of the Crown. The present stone castle was started in 1204 by William Marshall, a conspicuously good egg, who was married to Strongbow’s daughter Isabel. There is an effigy of him in Temple Church by virtue of his being accepted into the Knights Templar on his deathbed.
Then there was plenty of militaristic toing and froing which need not concern us this morning. However, it is noteworthy that the future King Henry VII was born in the castle in 1457. In the Civil War Cromwell lay siege to Pembroke, eventually captured it and destroyed many of the towers and defences. That was pretty much the end of the castle until it was restored in the 19th and 20th centuries. There was a surprising resumption of military activity nearby not so long ago.
To the west of Pembroke lies Castlemartin Camp. For thirty-five years from 1961, the Federal German Army used the ranges to train their tank battalions. It was a NATO arrangement that only came to an end after German unification when ranges became available in the former East Germany. It must have been galling for the locals to see German uniforms so soon after the end of the war but Pathé News puts a good spin on it.