extensively planted. Rice, the chief of Pemba’s imports, could easily be grown on the island. Cotton cloths (Kangas) form the next most considerable item in the imports.
Pemba has three ports, all on the west side of the island. Shaki-Shaki, the capital and the centre of trade, is centrally situated at the head of a shallow tidal creek partly blocked by dense growths of mangroves. Mkoani is on the south-west coast, Kishi-Kashi on the north-west coast; at the last-named port there is a deep and well-sheltered harbour, approached however by a narrow and dangerous channel.
Pemba is administered as an integral part of the Zanzibar dominions, and yields a considerable surplus to the exchequer, mainly from a 25% duty imposed on cloves exported. There is a weekly steamship service to Zanzibar, and in 1907 the two islands were connected by wireless telegraphy (see Zanzibar).
PEMBROKE, EARLS OF. The title of earl of Pembroke
has been held successively by several English families, the jurisdiction and dignity of a palatine earldom being originally attached to it. The first creation dates from 1138, when the earldom of Pembroke was conferred by King Stephen on Gilbert de Clare (d. 1148), son of Gilbert Fitz-Richard, who possessed the lordship of Strigul (Estrighoiel, in Domesday Book), the modern Chepstow. After the battle of Lincoln (1141), in which he took part, the earl joined the party of the empress Matilda, and he married Henry I.’s mistress, Isabel, daughter of Robert de Beaumont, earl of Leicester.
Richard de Clare, 2nd earl of Pembroke (d. 1176), commonly known as “Strongbow,” son of the first earl, succeeded to his father’s estates in 1148, but had forfeited or lost them by 1168. In that year Dermot, king of Leinster, driven out of his kingdom by Roderick, king of Connaught, came to solicit help from Henry II. He secured the services of Earl Richard, promising him the hand of his daughter Eva and the succession to Leinster. The earl crossed over in person (1170), took both Waterford and Dublin, and was married to Eva. But Henry II., jealous of this success, ordered all the troops to return by Easter 1171. In May Dermot died; this was the signal of a general rising, and Richard barely managed to keep Roderick of Connaught out of Dublin Immediately afterwards he hurried to England to solicit help from Henry II., and surrendered to him all his lands and castles. Henry crossed over in October 1172; he stayed in Ireland six months, and put his own men into nearly all the important places, Richard keeping only Kildare. In 1173 he went in person to France to help Henry II., and was present at Verneuil, being reinstated in Leinster as a reward. In 1174 he advanced into Connaught and was severely defeated, but fortunately Raymond le Gros re-established his supremacy in Leinster. Early in 1176 Richard died, just as Raymond had taken Limerick for him Strongbow was the statesman, as the Fitzgeralds were the soldiers, of the conquest. He is vividly described by Giraldus Cambrensis as a tall and fair man, of pleasing appearance, modest in his bearing, delicate in features, of a low voice, but sage in council and the idol of his soldiers. He was buried in the cathedral church of Dublin, where his effigy and that of his wife are still preserved.
See Giraldus Cambrensis, Expugnatio hibernica; and the Song of Dermot, edited by G. H. Orpen (1892).
Strongbow having died without male issue, His daughter Isabel became countess of Pembroke in her own right, and the title was borne by her husband, Sir William Marshal, or Le Maréchal, second son of John le Maréchal, by Sibylle, the sister of Patrick, earl of Salisbury. John le Maréchal was a partisan of the empress Matilda, and died about 1164.
The date of Sir William Marshal’s birth is uncertain, but his parents were married not earlier than 1141, and he was a mere child in 1152, when he attracted the notice of King Stephen. In 1170 he was selected for a position in the household of Prince Henry, the heir-apparent, and remained there until the death of his young patron (1183) He undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where he served as a crusader with distinction for two years. Although he had abetted the prince in rebellion he was pardoned by Henry II. and admitted to the royal service about 1188. In 1189 he covered the flight of Henry II. from Le Mans to Chinon, and, in a skirmish, unhorsed the undutiful Richard Cœur de Lion. None the less Richard, on his accession, promoted Marshal and confirmed the old king’s licence for his marriage with the heiress of Strigul and Pembroke. This match gave Marshal the rank of an earl, with great estates in Wales and Ireland, and he was included in the council of regency which the king appointed on his departure for the third crusade (1190). He took the side of Prince John when the latter expelled the justiciar, William Longchamp, from the kingdom, but he soon discovered that the interests of John were different from those of Richard. Hence in 1193 he joined with the loyalists in making war upon the prince. Richard forgave Marshal his first error of judgment, allowed him to succeed his brother, John Marshal, in the hereditary marshalship, and on his death-bed designated him as custodian of Rouen and of the royal treasure during the interregnum. Though he quarrelled more than once with John, Marshal was one of the few English laymen who clung to the royal side through the Barons’ War. He was one of John’s executors, and was subsequently elected regent of the king and kingdom by the royalist barons in 1216. In spite of his advanced age he prosecuted the war against Prince Louis and the rebels with remarkable energy. In the battle of Lincoln (May 1217) he charged and fought at the head of the young king’s army, and he was preparing to besiege Louis in London when the war was terminated by the naval victory of Hubert de Burgh in the straits of Dover. He was criticized for the generosity of the terms he accorded to Louis and the rebels (September 1217); but his desire for an expeditious settlement was dictated by sound statesmanship. Self-restraint and compromise were the key-notes of Marshal’s policy. Both before and after the peace of 1217 he reissued Magna Carta. He fell ill early in the year 1219, and died on the 14th of May at his manor of Caversham near Reading. He was succeeded in the regency by Hubert de Burgh, in his earldom by his five sons in succession.
See the metrical French life, Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal (ed P. Meyer, 3 vols., Paris, 1891–1901); the Minority of Henry III., by G. J. Turner (Trans. Royal Hist. Soc., new series, vol. xviii. pp. 245–295); and W. Stubbs, Constitutional History, chs. xii. and xiv. (Oxford, 1896–1897).
Marshal’s eldest son, William Marshal (d. 1231), 2nd earl of Pembroke of this line, passed some years in warfare in Wales and in Ireland, where he was justiciar from 1224 to 1226; he also served Henry III. in France. His second wife was the king’s sister, Eleanor, afterwards the Wife of Simon de Montfort, but he left no children. His brother Richard Marshal (d. 1234), 3rd earl, came to the front as the leader of the baronial party, and the chief antagonist of the foreign friends of Henry III. Fearing treachery he refused to visit the king at Gloucester in August 1233, and Henry declared him a traitor. He crossed to Ireland, where Peter des Roches had instigated his enemies to attack him, and in April 1234 he was overpowered and wounded, and died a prisoner. His brother Gilbert (d. 1241), who became the 4th earl, was a friend and ally of Richard, earl of Cornwall. When another brother, Anselm, the 6th earl, died in December 1245, the male descendants of the great earl marshal became extinct. The extensive family possessions were now divided among Anselm’s live sisters and their descendants, the earldom of Pembroke reverting to the Crown.
The next holder of the lands of the earldom of Pembroke was William de Valence (d. 1296), a younger son of Hugh de Lusignan, count of La Marche, by his marriage with Isabella of Angouléme (d. 1246), widow of the English king John, and was born at Valence, near Lusignan. In 1247 William and his brothers, Guy and Aymer, crossed over to England at the invitation of their half-brother, Henry III. In 1250 Aymer (d. 1260) was elected bishop of Winchester, and in 1247 Henry arranged a marriage between William and Joan de Munchensi (d. 1307) a granddaughter of William Marshal, 1st earl of Pembroke. The custody of Joan’s property, which included the castle and lordship of Pembroke, was entrusted to her husband, who in 1295 was summoned to parliament as earl of Pembroke. In South Wales
