The Siege of Pembroke occurred from 31 May to 11 July 1648 at the start of the Second English Civil War, when the unpaid Parliamentarian garrison of Pembroke Castle in Wales mutinied and declared for King Charles I. The castle, which had become a refuge for rebellious Parliamentarian soldiers after the First English Civil War, was recaptured by Oliver Cromwell after a two-month siege.
Background[]
While King Charles I of England and Scotland was held prisoner by Parliament in the aftermath of his defeat in the First English Civil War, he played the moderate Presbyterian and radical Independent factions within Parliament against each other as they deliberated over the peace terms. The Presbyterians were disposed to accommodate him, but the Independent-dominated New Model Army became increasingly impatient with Charles. Concerned over its increasing power, Parliament tried to have the army disbanded, but this failed due to Oliver Cromwell's intervention. Meanwhile, Charles concluded a secret alliance with some of the more moderate Scots, and Royalist agents were also secretly prepared for a great uprising in England to coincide with another Scots invasion, this time on the side of the King.
Siege[]
On 23 March 1648, the garrison of Pembroke declared for the King in the belief that he would settle their arrears of pay. Cromwell was at once sent to deal with them, but, a month later, more Royalist rebels seized Berwick and Carlisle, paving the way for the Scottish army to invade England. Cromwell attempted a frontal assault on Pembroke after ships carrying artillery to his army were forced back up the Bristol Channel to Gloucester by storms, but this assault was unsuccessful. The siege guns arrived in mid-June, and Cromwell's forces also located the castle's conduit pipe and cut off its water supply, starving the garrison into surrender in July 1648. Cromwell then had the castle slighted so that it could never again be used as a fortress, and the rebel leader John Poyer was executed in London.