On 4th June 1643, Queen Henrietta Maria left York with the Earl of Newcastle to stay at Pontefract Castle. She was on her way south to provide the king with arms, ammunition, supplies and money she had obtained on the continent. She stayed at Pontefract for several days before leaving for Newark, arriving there on the 16th June. At Pontefract, a council of war was held of which Sir Henry Slingsby wrote: ‘his excellency (Newcastle)….advice might be taken….whether to march up with the Queen and so join with the King, or else with the army to stay, and only give order for some regiments to wait upon her majesty. If he marched up, his army would give a gallant addition to the King’s, but then he left the country in my Lord Fairfax’s power, and it might be he should have him march in the rear of him, and join in the Parliament’s forces.. if he stayed, he might send some forces with the Queen, and yet be able to lay siege to my Lord Fairfax in Leeds, or fight him in the field. Well, this latter was resolved on……’

On 23rd August 1649, Cornet Michael Blackburn, who had escaped from the besieged Pontefract Castle with Colonel John Morris, gave a speech immediately before his execution: ‘…I am not a Gentleman by birth, but my Parents are of an honest quality and condition; I was brought up in the Protestant Religion, and in that Religion I have lived, and in that I now die; I have some five or six years engaged in this War, wherein I had no other End or Intention but to do my King true and faithful service…….I have always been faithful to him…and for his Son, the King that now is, I wonder any man of this Kingdom should have the boldness or impudence to lift up his hand against him, to keep him from his Crown whereof he is Heir apparent, and hath as good right and title to it by his Birthright, as any man living hath of his Inheritance or Possession: I pray God bless him, forgive all my enemies, and Lord Jesus receive my Spirit.’ Despite Charles I’s execution, Blackburn’s sentiments did not presage a protectorate, in the eyes of  many, at this stage with executive power lying with The Council of State and legislative functions carried out by the Rump Parliament until 1653. Cromwell was installed as Lord Protector for life on 16th December 1653 and in 1655 the first Protectorate Parliament gave way to a period of military Rule of the Major-Generals.

In early April of 1649, a review after the third siege of Pontefract Castle found much devastation in and around the town: 200 or so houses had been destroyed (about a quarter of the total); All Saints’ Church and adjacent vicarage lay in ruins; and restoration and the cost of repair put at £40,000 (over £6 million today).

Even though Parliamentary troops had re-entered the upper part of Pontefract town on 21st March 1645, Pontefract Castle’s garrison was sufficiently confident to make sallies on 31st March and in the early days of April.

On 3rd March 1645, Sir Marmaduke Langdale returned south from Pontefract having relieved the castle’s first siege there two days before. His 2800 strong force (2000 horse and 800 infantry) had come to Pontefract via Northampton, Melton Mowbray and Wentbridge and, after his victory at Chequerfield near the castle and chasing of the Parliamentary troops all the way back to Tadcaster, left 160 enemy dead and wounded on the field and another 140 at Ferrybridge. Over 600 prisoners were taken, including Colonels Thornton and Maleverer.

On 7th February 1645, Parliamentarian commander Lord Fairfax sent a thousand of his cavalry across the Pennines to assist in the siege of Chester with about half of these forces, under Sir Henry Constable and Colonel Sir Thomas Norcliffe, from Pontefract. Fairfax was relieved somewhat to lose such men that he could not pay for their services. However, the Pontefract besiegers were reinforced with around 250 infantry.

On 8th January 1645, Pontefract Castle’s governor, Sir Richard Lowther, sent 140 horsemen to Newark to conserve supplies of food and fuel at the besieged garrison and employ them more usefully elsewhere.

On 28th December 1644, All Saints Church, located in a strategic position next to Pontefract Castle, was taken by Parliamentary forces but its Royalist defenders climbed up into the steeple and escaped back into the castle the following day by way of the belfry rope. One of the escapees was killed whilst crossing the churchyard with their leader, Captain Walker, sustaining a wound to the thigh albeit he recovered.

Royalist Sir Marmaduke Langdale, having seized Berwick on 28th April 1648 and in anticipation of the Duke of Hamilton’s invasion of England from Scotland in support of Charles I, assembled a force of some 3,000 in Cumberland and Westmorland. The plan was to march south and link up with forces commanded by Colonel Morris who was to seize Pontefract Castle days later.

The will of executed Colonel John Morris, last Governor of Pontefract Castle, dated 8th August 1649 included: ‘…I give and bequeath in manner following, vizt. All my Lands, tenements and hereditaments which now I have, or of right ought to have, I give and bequeath to Robert Marris, my eldest sonne…….that he shall pay to his Brother Castilion, and to his sister, Marye, the Sume of Three hundred pounds a piece of good and lawfull money of England. And if it happen that my now wife shall have another child, Then my mind and Will is that my said Sonne, Robert, shall pay unto Castilion and Mary…but two hundred pounds a piece; And other two hundred pounds to that Child which shall please God, my Wife shall bring forth…..my Will is that the Third part thereof shall be unto my Wife, Marjory (Jur) Morris and the residue equallie to be divided amongst my said youngest Children……….And if the Bond of Mr Ridges be recovered, That then my Brother Edward, my Sister Elizabeth, my Sister Anne, and my Cosen Anne Burbridge, shall have out of the same bond Twentie pounds a piece…’