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 THE PEMBROKE STORY

Discovering our past is central to what we do: researching Pembroke's great and prestigious history is an ongoing process. 

We have produced 'The Story of Pembroke', a series of Interpretation panels depicting our history through the ages. These are now on display in Pembroke Museum which is organised along a timeline, the unfolding story of our town from earliest times to the modern age.

 

The Timeline below enables you to follow the course of Pembroke's history (in the right hand column) set against national events (in the left hand column) .  There are pages for each stage of our history: click on the image on the timeline or on one of the buttons in the next column to follow the story.

Please note: these pages are in a continual stage of revision - covering 10,000 years of history is a big project!!

TIMELINE OF HISTORY

10-4000BC

Mesolithic or

Middle Stone Age

Priory farm cave Cave Dwellers in Priory Farm Cave
4000-2500BC

Neolithic or

New Stone Age

Cromlech, Angle Evidence of cromlechs nearby at Angle and Manorbier
2,500-800BC

Bronze Age


Stone Henge

Bronze Age
Evidence of settlements, burial barrows & standing stones.
Bronze Age Hoard in Catshole Cave
800BC-
43AD
Iron Age
Round House
Evidence of Iron Age forts throughout the area
43 AD Roman Invasion of Britain
Roman
No evidence of Roman occupation but Roman coins found in the Castle .
446 AD Roman rule ends and the Dark Age descents.  Also known as the
Age of Saints
Celtic pattern
Early Christian sites at St Daniels & Monkton

 

877

Saxon/ Viking Invaders
Viking

Viking Settlements


Hubba in Miford Haven with a fleet of 23 ships

1066 Norman Invasion
William I
The Conqueror
Norman
Rhys ap Tewdur holds the Normans at bay
1087 William II Pembroke Castle 1093 Rhys killed & Arnulf de Montgomery establishes Pembroke Castle
1100- Henry I Nest

1100 Nest marries Gerald de Windsor, Castellan of Pembroke


1130 Henry grants Pembroke's first charter

1135 Stephen v Matilda
Civil War in England
matilda

Gruffudd ap Rhys leads Welsh insurgence

1136 Gwenllian killed in battle at Kidwelly

1138 Earldom of Pembroke created -
        Gilbert de Clare created first Earl

1154

 

1170

Henry II

 

Murder of Becket

Becket

1154 Henry grants Pembroke's new charter


The Lord Rhys received by Henry II at Pembroke

1170 Conquest of Ireland
Ireland

Pembroke's Geraldines lead the Invasion


1171 Henry at Pembroke Castle


1176 death of Strongbow.  Infant heiress Isabel made a royal ward -

1189 Richard !
(Lionheart)
Tournament

William Marshal acting Regent for Richard.


1199 marries Isabel& becomes Earl of Pembroke

1199

 

1215

John

 

Magna Carta

Donjon

1199 Grants new charter to Pembroke


1200 Pembroke Castle enlarged & Donjob added


1210 John in Pembroke assembling a force at Kingsbridge en route to Ireland.

1216 Henry III Henry 111

1219 Death of William Marshal - succeeded by son William Marshal II

1245 Joan inherits Earldom & marries William de Valence

1264 Simon de Montfort- forces Henry to summon parliament
Welsh Dragon
Welsh War under Llewellyn the Great -
Pembroke threatened but manages to buy off Llewllyn

1272
1283

1305

Edward I
Llewellyn murdered-end of Welsh Wars
William Wallace executed
Knight

1282-3 - De Valence commands the King's army in West Wales

1296 Death of Willam - Joan administers Earldom until her death

1307


1314

 

1327

Edward II


Robert the Bruce
defeats English in Scotland
Edward mudered

Scotland

1307 Aymer de Valence becomes Earl of Pembroke


1314 Aymer commands English forces in Scotland - defeated at Bannockburn

1327

1346

 

1348

Edward III


Battle of Crecy -
Hundred Years War
The Black Death

battle of Crecy

1339 Lawrence Hastings becomes Earl


1347 captures French fleet at Calais


1349 Plague strikes Pembroke


1368 John Hastings inherits Earldom

1377

1381

1399

Richard III


Peasants Revolt

Richard murdered in Pontefract Castle

Peasants Revolt
1389?-John Hastings killed
King claims Pembroke ending the title Earl of Pembroke

1399

 

1400

Henry IV
Henry Bolingbroke


Owen Glyndwr's Revolt

Glyndwr

 

1405 Pembroke on alert as French invade

1413


1415


1422

Henry V


Battle of Agincourt
Henry dies leaving infant son

Battle of Agincourt 1415  

1422

1452


1461

Henry VI
The Wars of the Roses
Henry deposed - Yorkist Edward proclaimed King
Tudor Rose

Queen Catherine marries Owen Tudor


1454 Jaspar Tudor made Earl of Pembroke


1457 birth of Henry Tudor in Pembroke Castle

1461
1470
1471
Edward IV
Henry VI restored
Battle of Tewkesbury - Edward IV triumphant
Henry murdered.
Battle of Tewkesbury 1471
1461 Earldom granted to William Herbert
1470 Jasper and Henry return to Pembroke
1471 Jasper and Henry escape to Brittany - Henry becomes the Lancastrian heir after Prince Edward's death.

1483

 

1485

Richard III
seizes power & puts Princes in the Tower
Battle of Bosworth
Battle of Bosworth 1485

1485 Richard grants Pembroke new charter instituting a mayor and corporation


1485 Henry Tudor returns with an army landing at Dale, Pembrokeshire

1485 Henry VII
The Tudor Age
Henry VII
1485 The Ealdom of Pembroke again granted to Jasper
Henry Tudor, later Henry VIII, inherits Earldom on Jasper's death

1509


1536

1536

Henry VIII


Act of Union of England & Wales
Dissolution of the monasteries

Anne Boleyn

1532 Anne Boleyn made Marchioness of Pembroke (executed 1536)


Earldom of Pembroke abolished
Monkton Priory dissolved

1543 2nd Act of Union Act of Union Haverfordwest granted county status & effectivley becomes County Town
Loss of of Pembroke's privieged position meant years of decline during Tudor times
1558 Elizabeth I George Owen Map  
1603 James I
The Stuart Dynasty leads to the United Kingdom
Stuart

James grants a new Charter to Pembroke


James sells castle to the Pryses of Gogerddan

1625


1642
1646

Charles I


Civil War
End of First Civil War

Cavalier

 

Pembroke, led by its Mayor John Poyer, declares for Parliament
1645 Poyer Governor of Pembroke Castle-

1648

 

1649

Second Civil War

 

Execution of Charles I

Roundhead

1648 Poyer delivers first shots of Second Civil War


Cromwell supervises the siege of Pembroke
Execution of Poyer

1649
1653
The Interregnum
Cromwell becomes Lord Protector
Cromwell
Cromwell orders destruction of Pembroke castle
1660 Charles II &
The Restoration of the Monarchy
Shipping Pembroke never again plays a prominent part in national affairs.
During the peace which follows Pembroke
gradually benefits from the growth in trade

1700

 

 

1797

Eighteenth Century

 

 

The Last Invasion

Orielton House, Chain Back, Main Street

1724 Daniel Defoe visits Pembroke "A prosperous port .."


Owens of Orielton & 1710 Election


John Wesley preaches at Pembroke


Escape of the French from Golden Prison

1800

1834
1837

Nineteenth Century

New Poor Law
Queen Victoria crowned

Pembroke-Tenby Railway

1814 Founding of Pembroke Dock


1829 Turner paints Pembroke Castle

1839 Pembroke Union Workhouse built


1863 Pembroke & Tenby Railway Act

1900 Moden Times kathleen&may

End of the port - Kathleen&May last ship to visit in 1952


1954 Mill burns down


Post war expansion


The Pembroke Conservation Area 1977

 

Back to top

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Through the Ages

 

Beginnings

 

Round House
Iron and Rome

 

Celtic pattern
Dark Ages

 

Norman
Normans

 

Earldom of Pembroke

 

Medieval Pembroke

 

Tudor Rose
Wars of the Roses

 

Henry VII
Tudor

 

Stuart
Stuart & Civil War

 

Shipping
18th Century

 

Pembroke-Tenby Railway
19th Century

 

kathleen&may
Modern Times

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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