Pembroke Castle, South Wales

Many of the castles we see today still exist because of the early preservation works understand by someone who fell in love with them.  At Pembroke this was an antiquarian by the name of Mr. J.R. Cobb who purchased cared for and restored the castle in the late 19th century.  Without his interventions Pembroke Castle may have been lost.

Pembroke’s round keep was built by William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, in the early 13th century.  The castle and the title of Earl of Pembroke came to him through marriage. The walls of the keep are 19 feet think at the base.  The keep would have originally been entered through an external wooden staircase to the first floor.

In the 15th century the castle was granted to Jasper Tudor, half brother of Henry VI.  It was under his protection that his widowed sister-in-law Margaret Beaufort  gave birth at Pembroke to Henry Tudor, later Henry VII.