“PEMBROKE, June 28.--I have some few days since despatched horse
and dragoons for the North. I sent them by the way of Winchester;
thinking it fit to do so in regard of this enclosed letter, which I
received from Colonel Dukenfield: requiring them to give him
assistance on the way.”... “Here is, as I have formerly acquainted
your Excellency, a very desperate enemy, who, being put out of all
hope of mercy, are resolved to endure to the uttermost extremity,
being very many of them gentlemen of quality, and men thoroughly
resolved. They have made some notable sallies upon
Lieutenant-Colonel Reade’s quarter, to his loss. [Reade had been
intrusted with the siege of Tenby, ended June 2, and was now
assisting at the reduction of Pembroke.] We are forced to keep
divers posts, or else they would have relief, or their horse break
away; our foot about them are four and twenty hundred; we always
necessitated to have some in garrisons. The country, since we sat
down before this place, have made two or three insurrections, and
are ready to do it every day. So that--what with looking to them,
and disposing our horse to that end, and to get us in provisions,
without which we should starve--this country being so miserably
exhausted and so poor, and we with no money to buy victuals.
Indeed, whatever may be thought, it’s a mercy we have been able to
keep our men together in the midst of such necessity, the
sustenance of the foot, for most part, being but bread and water.
Our guns, through the unhappy accident at Berkley, are not yet come
to us; and, indeed, it was a very unhappy thing they were brought
thither, the wind having been always so cross, that since they were
recovered from sinking, they could not come to us: and this place
not being to be had without fit instruments for battering--except
by starving. And truly I believe the enemy’s straits do increase
upon them; and that within a few days an end will be put to this
business--which surely might have been before, if we had received
things wherewith to have done it....”
“PEMBROKE, July 11, 1648.--To Hon. W. Lenthal, Esq., Speaker of the
House of Commons.
“SIR,--The town and castle of Pembroke were surrendered to me this
day, being the eleventh of July, upon the provisions which I send
you here enclosed. [See Rushworth, vol. vii., 1190.] What arms,
ammunition, victuals, ordnance, or other necessaries of war, are in
the town, I have not to certify you--the commissioners I sent in to
receive the same not being yet returned, nor like suddenly to be;
and I was unwilling to defer giving you an account of this mercy
for a day. The persons excepted are such as have formerly served
you in a very good cause; but being now apostatized, I did rather
make election of them than of those who had always been for the
King, judging their iniquity double, because they have sinned
against so much light, and against so many evidences of divine
Providence going along with and prospering a just cause, in the
management of which they themselves had a share.
“I rest your humble servant, OL. C.”
[Colonel Poyer has had to surrender the castle; Maj.-Gen. Laugharne and
certain other “persons excepted,” have had to surrender at mercy; a
great many more on terms. “Pembroke happily is down, and the Welsh war
is ended.”]
The “certain persons” here alluded to were Colonels Laugharne, Powel,
and Poyer. They were tried by court-martial and found guilty; but
Parliament having determined to punish only one, three papers were given
to them, on two of which were written, “Life given by God;” the blank
paper fell into the hands of the unfortunate Poyer, and served as his
death-warrant.
* * * * *
Of these three officers--“heads of the insurrection in South
Wales”--Clarendon gives the following account:--“Laugharne, Powel, and
Poyer, commanded those parts under the Parliament, which they had served
from the beginning. The first of them was a gentleman of good
extraction, and a fair fortune in land in those counties, who had been
bred a page under the Earl of Essex, when he had a command in the Low
Countries, and continued his dependence upon him afterwards, and was
much in his favour; and by that relation was first engaged in the
rebellion, as many other gentlemen had been without wishing ill to the
King. The second, Powel, was a gentleman too, but a soldier of fortune:
the third, Poyer, had from a low trade raised himself in the war to the
reputation of a very diligent and stout officer, and was at this time
trusted by the Parliament with the government of the town and castle of
Pembroke. These three communicated their discontents to each other, and
all thought themselves ill-requited by the Parliament for the services
they had done, and that other men, especially Colonel Mitten, were
preferred before them; and resolved to take the opportunity of the Scots
coming in, to declare for the King upon the Presbyterian account. But
Laugharne, who was not infected with any of these freaks, and doubted
not to reduce the other two when it should be time to sober resolution,
would not engage till he first sent a confidant to Paris, to inform the
Prince of what he had determined, and of what their wants consisted,
which if not relieved, they should not be able to pursue their purpose,
desiring to receive orders for the time of their declaring, and
assurance that they should in time receive those supplies they stood in
need of. And the Lord Jermyn sent him a promise under his hand, ‘that he
should not fail of receiving all the things he had desired, before he
could be pressed by the enemy,’ and therefore conjured him and his
friends ‘forthwith to declare for the King, which, he assured them,
would be of singular benefit and advantage to his Majesty’s service,
since, upon the first notice of their having declared, the Scottish army
would be ready to march into England.’ Hereupon they presently declared,
before they were provided to keep the field for want of ammunition and
money, and when Pembroke was not supplied with provisions for above two
months, and were never thought of after.”
* * * * *
<g>Pembroke Castle</g> contained many elegant apartments, appropriated to the
use of its lords, in one of which <g>Henry</g> VII. first saw the light of day.
In the inner ward stands the <g>Keep</g>, a circular tower of vast strength and
elegant proportions. The height is computed at seventy feet, the
interior diameter at twenty-four, and the walls from fourteen to
seventeen feet in thickness. <g>The State Apartments</g> appear to have been
finished in a style of great elegance. On the north of the great tower
is a long range of apartments, which seem to be of more recent
construction, or to have been modernised in later times by one or other
of its titled proprietors. From this part of the castle a staircase
communicates with Leland’s “marvellus vault callid the Hogan”--a large
cavern in the rock, opening upon the water, and extending a great way
under the buildings. The entrance is now partially walled up, and formed
into a spacious doorway. The name _Hogan_--which has occasioned some
discussion among antiquaries and etymologists--is probably derived from
_ogof_ or _ogov_, the British name for a cavern. This castle is justly
considered one of the most splendid remnants of military architecture in
the United Kingdom; and, from the state of preservation in which it is
maintained, the design and execution of every compartment may still be
traced with accuracy and precision.
[Illustration: _Pembroke Castle._