| Date | Event | | 1/4/1291 | In April 1291, Sir Henry de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, was issued with a writ, along with other court nobles and their forces, to meet at Norham where a Scottish delegation was to discuss Scotland’s succession in light of the death, the year before, of Margaret of Norway (the only surviving descendant of King Alexander III of Scotland). |
| 3/4/1253 | On 3rd April 1253, Edmund de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, and Lord of the Honour of Pontefract, determined to establish a house of Friars Preachers on his own estates after the death of Richard Wych, Bishop of Chichester. Edmund donated land (about 6 acres), probably in 1256, for the building of a Dominican church of Pontefract and left his heart to be buried there (dying in 1258). |
| 5/4/1272 | On 5th April 1272, Henry de Lacy, future lord of Pontefract, was granted custody of Knaresborough Castle, formerly held by Henry III’s brother, Richard, Earl of Cornwall.
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| 11/4/1239 | On 11th April 1239, John de Lacy, Lord of Pontefract, was at Westminster to witness Amaury de Montfort, the elder brother of Simon de Montfort, in the presence of Henry III and the papal legate, proclaim the rights to the Earldom of Leicester lay with Simon. |
| 15/4/1296 | In April 1296, Sir Henry de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, founded Whalley Abbey, Lancashire to which his great-grandfather’s foundation of Stanlaw, Cheshire was transferred. |
| 20/4/1251 | On 20th April 1251, Edmund de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, acted as valettus (page, groom) to Henry III, which lasted until 28th June of that year. By this time, Edmund was in his early twenties but, having inherited his father John’s estates as a minor, was raised in the household of Henry III. |
| 27/4/1279 | On 27th April 1279, Sir Henry de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, was appointed as Joint-Lieutenant (locum tenentibus) of England i.e. king’s regent/deputy during King Edward I’s absence in France. This status was in alliance with the Bishops of Hereford and Worcester and the king’s cousin, Edmund, 2nd Earl of Cornwall. Edward departed for France on 11th May in order to take possession of Queen Eleanor’s recently inherited county of Ponthieu and to conclude a treaty with Philip III regarding Edward’s jurisdiction in Gascony. |
| 30/4/1230 | On 30th April 1230, John de Lacy, Baron of Pontefract, sailed out of Portsmouth with Henry III to secure most of Brittany and Poitou, areas held before 1224. De lacy received the manors of Collingham and Bardesy as reward for this service. |
| Date | Event | | 1/4/1370 | In April 1370, Edward III ordered John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and lord of Pontefract, to take an army to Gascony to reinforce Prince Edward. He arrived in Gascony at the end of July and met up with his brother. Prince Edward was unfortunately very ill and after the successful siege of Limoges, Edward returned to Bordeaux and learned that his son and heir, Edward of Angouleme, had died. As Edward returned to England with his wife and remaining son, Richard of Bordeaux (later Richard II), Gaunt was left with the task of administering the remains of the principality and organising the funeral of Edward’s son.
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| 2/4/1387 | On 2nd April 1387, John of Gaunt, lord of Pontefract, and King John of Portugal besieged Benevente de Campos but had to move on after a ‘friendly’ jousting match with the defenders as they had inadequate siege equipment. Gaunt’s army of around 1500 was a small part of the 9000 or so troops and Gaunt was relegated to a junior role. |
| 3/4/1331 | On 3rd April 1331, Edward III wrote from Dover to Pope John XXII and fourteen cardinals requesting the canonisation of the executed Thomas, Earl of Lancaster and lord of Pontefract. |
| 3/4/1367 | On 3rd April 1367 (some sources say 15th April, Maundy Thursday 1367 or even 1366), Henry of Bolingbroke (later Henry IV) was born to Blanche of Lancaster and John of Gaunt, lord of Pontefract, at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire. |
| 3/4/1367 | On 3rd April 1367, an Anglo-Gascon army in support of Pedro (The Cruel) King of Castile and León, led by the Black Prince and his brother, John of Gaunt, lord of Pontefract, who led the vanguard alongside Sir John Chandos, beat the forces of Enrique of Trastamara at Nάjera. According to John of Malvern, 3,000 of the enemy were captured and more than 7,000 killed, in battle or flight, with many drowning in the river; English casualties were slight and Enrique escaped and was sheltered by Louis, Duke of Anjou, brother of the French king, Charles V. Albeit Enrique’s warhorse was given to Edward III as a gift, it was poor recompense for failing to kill or capture Enrique. The Black Prince had stated to John of Gaunt before the battle: ‘We must be mindful of our martial heritage and that prowess stands above all other things in life….Let us be ruled by an ardent spirit. If we are to die, let our manner of dying do us credit.’ |
| 3/4/1381 | On 3rd April 1381, John of Gaunt, lord of Pontefract, dined the Duke of Teschen and King Wenceslas’ envoys at his Savoy Palace in London to celebrate the impending marriage of Richard II (who died at Pontefract Castle nineteen years later) to Anne of Bohemia. |
| 3/4/1384 | On 3rd April 1384, John of Gaunt, lord of Pontefract, and his brothers, Thomas, Earl of Buckingham, and Edmund, Earl of Cambridge, wove their way to Edinburgh with 4,000 men to deal with a Scottish incursion by the Earls of Douglas and March who had taken Lochmaben Castle in Annandale. Unable to meet the withdrawing Scots in open battle, the campaign was abandoned and Gaunt retreated to Durham by the 23rd of the month. |
| 4/4/1331 | On 4th April 1331, Edward III departed England to meet Philip VI of France at Pont-Sainte-Maxence. The king was disguised as a merchant and his small retinue included Henry of Grosmont, nephew of the executed Thomas, Earl of Lancaster and lord of Pontefract. |
| 6/4/1327 | On 6th April 1327, most of the executed Thomas, Earl of Lancaster’s and lord of Pontefract lands were given to his brother, Henry, minus Pontefract, which was in the possession of the Dowager Queen Isabella, his niece. Henry was appointed guardian and head of the regency council which would rule during the minority of his fourteen-years-old great-nephew, Edward III. Henry, however, was ‘deposed’ from this role by Sir Roger Mortimer and lover, Isabella.
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| 9/4/1322 | On 9th April 1322, Edward II was at Pontefract and made the following request:
‘To William Melton, Archbishop of York. Request that he will help the king with an honourable and suitable aid, so that the king’s majesty may be honoured beyond the estate that Thomas, late earl of Lancaster, lately held, when the archbishop had treaty with him and granted him 2,000 marks (£1.045 million in today’s money) from himself and his clergy for the defence of his church and the people of the marches of Scotland against the invasion of the Scots.’ |
| 10/4/1308 |  When a parliament met in April 1308, a group of magnates led by Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln and lord of Pontefract, produced a series of three articles of shattering constitutional importance. 'Homage and the oath of allegiance are more in respect of the crown than in respect of the King's person' they declared; drawing, for the first time, an explicit distinction between the king and the office he held. |
| 10/4/1362 | On 10th April 1362, Maud of Lancaster, Countess of Hainault, elder daughter of the late Henry, 1st Duke of Lancaster, died. All Maud’s (who had no issue) lands (including Pontefract) and money passed to her younger sister, Blanche, and thereby to her husband, John of Gaunt who received the title ‘Duke of Lancaster’ on 13th November that year. This meant that John now had a greater income and inheritance (the Lancastrian inheritance was worth around £12,000 a year or about £9.1 million today) than his elder brother Lionel. Soon after inheriting the duchy, rumours circulated that he had poisoned his sister-in-law although it is much more likely she was killed by the bubonic plague or an infection. |
| 14/4/1361 | On 14th April 1361, the Black Prince attended Henry of Grosmont’s, lord of Pontefract, funeral at the Newarke (Leicester) and placed two pieces of golden cloth on the bier. |
| 21/4/1317 | Royal envoys visited Thomas of Lancaster, lord of Pontefract, at Donington between 21st April and 2nd May 1317, and again between 29th May and 12th June 1317. It may have been the latter embassy which delivered a writ of summons to the Earl to be at Newcastle on 8th July 1317 for a new campaign; was this summons intended as a final test of the Earl’s loyalty? |
| 23/4/1344 | On 23rd April 1344, according to The Complete Peerage, under 'the Founders of the Order of the Garter' the Order was first instituted (other dates from 1344 to 1351 have been proposed). Henry of Grosmont, first Duke of Lancaster, who was the nephew of Thomas 2nd Earl of Lancaster, lord of Pontefract, was the second inductee to this order. After Thomas' execution in 1322, the Honour of Pontefract was eventually restored to Thomas's brother Henry, the father of Henry Grosmont. |
| 23/4/1358 | On St. George’s Day 1358, a great tournament was held at Windsor in celebration of the English victory at Poitiers and capture of the French king. Unfortunately for Henry, Duke of Lancaster and lord of Pontefract, he was severely wounded whilst jousting with a knight. |
| 23/4/1361 | In April 1361 (probably St George’s Day the 23rd), John of Gaunt, not long after the death of his father-in-law, Henry, 1st Duke of Lancaster (lord of Pontefract) and soon to receive this title from Edward III, was fast-tracked into the Order of the Garter. |
| 23/4/1377 | On 23rd April 1377, Edward III nominated the heirs to the kingdom for the Order of the Garter: his grandsons Richard of Bordeaux (later Richard II) and Henry of Bolingbroke (later Henry IV and son and heir of John of Gaunt who had made Pontefract Castle his personal residence). In addition, Edward also knighted his youngest son, Thomas of Woodstock and the young heirs to the earldoms of Oxford, Salisbury, and Stafford and the heirs to the baronies of Mowbray, Beaumont and Percy concluding with knighting his own illegitimate son, John Southeray (by Edward’s mistress Alice Perrers). |
| 28/4/1308 | On 28th April 1308, the nobility met with Edward II at the convening of parliament. The feeling amongst the lords of the realm had been growing, for a while, that Edward II could not meet and govern the needs of his kingdom. Earlier in the month, the earls had met at Henry de Lacy’s castle at Pontefract to discuss their next steps. The only real supporter, of influence, for Edward in the country was Thomas of Lancaster. The earls met to draw up a document that was presented to Edward at the parliament of 28th April. Henry de Lacy - who was now 58 and had been the right-hand man of Edward I - was a moderating force on the final document that emerged. However, on this date, Henry would confront the king on behalf of the peers stating ‘Homage and oath of allegiance are more in respect of the crown than in respect of the kings’s person’. If the king could not be guided by reason, then his subjects had a duty to act to ‘re-instate the king in the dignity of the crown’; by force if necessary. |
| 28/4/1376 | On 28th April 1376, the Good Parliament opened in the King’s Chamber at Westminster Palace; Parliament not having sat for three years, its longest adjournment since the turn of the century. Edward III was unpopular and desperate for funds and with his heir, the Black Prince, too ill to continue attending (he died six weeks later on the 8th June), John of Gaunt, lord of Pontefract, was made his representative. This Parliament was notable for electing the first ever Speaker of the House of Commons, Peter de la Mare, a Hertfordshire knight and a steward of the Earl of March. |
| Date | Event | | 2/4/1432 | On 2nd April 1432, Sir Thomas Swynford, son of Sir Hugh Swynford and Katherine (later Duchess of Lancaster) died in Kettlethorp, Lincolnshire. Thomas had been gaoler of the deposed Richard II at Pontefract Castle. |
| 4/4/1413 | On 4th April 1413, Sir Robert de Neville died (some sources say) at the age of around ninety, a remarkable age for the time. He was JP for Yorkshire, Sheriff of Yorkshire and Constable of Pontefract Castle sometime before February 1399. His marriage to Margaret de la Pole, daughter of Sir William de la Pole, 4th Earl of Suffolk, (sometime Admiral of England and Baron of the Exchequer), enabled de la Pole to temporarily win his way back into royal favour by connection to one of the north’s leading families. After Neville’s marriage in 1344, he spent long periods overseas fighting with the Black Prince in France (including Crecy 1346, Poitiers 1356), being rewarded with an annuity of 100 marks a year (£79,000 in today's money) . From 1351, he assumed the arduous responsibility for the post of overseer of the prince’s horses, harness and fodder for his campaigns abroad. He even endured a short period of imprisonment for debt in Newgate gaol. Neville accused one of Richard II’s favourites, Edward, Earl of Rutland and Duke of Aumale, of depriving him of the constableship of Pontefract Castle. He was present at Ravenspur with a sizeable body of men in July 1399 to welcome Henry Bolingbroke (later Henry IV) from exile and provided Henry with an armed bodyguard during the October Parliament. Henry IV sanctioned the marriage of Neville’s granddaughter and heir, Margaret, to his own half-brother, Thomas Beaufort, the youngest of his father’s three sons by Katherine Swynford. On Neville’s death, the majority of his estates descended to Margaret, then Countess of Dorset, but she died childless before April 1424. |
| 11/4/1492 | In the Spring of 1492, Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey and 2nd Duke of Norfolk, was sent north by Henry VII as the King’s Lieutenant administering law and order, collecting taxes and dealing with dissent, including riots which took place at Ackworth, near Pontefract. Interestingly, Howard had been badly wounded at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 fighting for Richard III against Henry Tudor (VII). |
| 15/4/1408 | On 15th April 1408 (Easter Sunday), Henry IV was at Pontefract Castle, remaining there for the feast of St George. It was the first time in his reign that he was not at Windsor to oversee the Garter festivities in person. |
| 17/4/1404 | On 17th April 1404, Henry IV sent two men to arrest John Staunton, servant of the Countess of Oxford, as well as a canon of St Osyth, a goldsmith and the Countess herself for broadcasting that Richard II, who had ‘died’ at Pontefract Castle in February 1400, was still alive and would be returning imminently. |
| 17/4/1486 | On 17th April 1486 (until the 20th), Henry VII was at Pontefract Castle on his way to York. He had set off from the Priory of St John of Jerusalem near London in mid-March on his first official progress of the North. Although the first armed uprising against Henry, after the Battle of Bosworth, by Yorkist supporters Francis Lord Lovell and Humphrey Stafford, did not occur until Eastertime 1486 (Easter Sunday was 4th April), after Lovell and Stafford had escaped from sanctuary at Colchester Abbey, the new king had been monitoring their activities for some time. An attempt to capture Henry VII at York was apparently foiled by Henry Percy on St George’s Day. Lovell fled to Flanders and the Stafford brothers were forcibly removed from sanctuary at Culham on the 14th May. Humphrey was executed but his younger brother, Thomas, was pardoned. |
| 20/4/1408 | On 20th April 1408, Henry IV, at Pontefract, made the following letter of safe protection for Alexander de Carnys, Provost of the Collegiate Church of Lincluden, Scotland:
'… Know ye, that being prompted by affection, and at the special request of our dearly beloved cousin Archibald Earl of Douglas, we have taken and do hereby take under our special protection, safe keeping and defence. Master Alexander de Carnys, Provost of the Collegiate Church of Lincluden in Scotland, wheresoever the said Provost may happen to be in person within the Kingdom of Scotland; also, the said place of Lincluden and the poor chaplains serving God therein; also, the lands of the said Provost round the church, with his granges, crops, cattle and goods of whatever sort whether ecclesiastical or temporal. Therefore we command you and each of you that ye neither inflict nor allow to be inflicted any injury, molestation, loss, violence, interference or any other hardship, upon the said Provost wheresoever he may be in person in the said Kingdom of Scotland, or upon the said place of Lincluden, or upon the chaplains and poor men serving God in the said place, either on their persons, lands, granges, crops, goods, cattle or property of any kind whatever aforesaid……….. This (mandate) to remain in force for three years. In testimony whereof, &c., the King, at the Castle of Pontefract, this twentieth day of April [1408].’ |
| 22/4/1473 | On 22nd April 1473 (possibly 1476) a signet letter close (a letter sent closed-up and sealed with a signet ring and written on paper not vellum) signed and dated from Pontefract was sent by Richard, Duke of Gloucester, to a group of Westmorland councillors regarding a dispute between some tenants of Ralph Nevill, Earl of Westmorland, concerning leaseholds around Raby and Brancepeth in County Durham. The letter was sold at Christies in 2012 for £21,250. |
| 24/4/1483 | On 24th April 1483, Richard Duke of Gloucester came to Pontefract Castle prior to meeting Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers and Richard Grey at Northampton on the 29th. It was at Northampton that Gloucester had agreed to meet with his supporter Buckingham, who had a retinue of 300 men, the same as the Duke of Gloucester. After an apparently convivial dinner Earl Rivers and Richard Grey found that their rooms were locked from the outside. In the morning, they were arrested by Gloucester and Buckingham. Following the arrest, Richard and his retinue rode the fifteen miles to Stony Stratford where they dismissed the king's (Edward V) escort and arrested two of his household; the chamberlain Thomas Vaughan and Richard Haute, who along with Earl Rivers and Richard Grey would be subsequently executed at Pontefract in June. It was from that day that Richard's plan to take control of Edward V gathered pace. |
| 25/4/1408 | On 25th April 1408, whilst at Pontefract, Henry IV delegated to the Earl of Westmorland the right to pardon or punish six rebels captured after the Battle of Bramham Moor (on 19th February) |
| 27/4/1473 | On 27th April 1473, in a letter dated at Pontefract, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, granted Richard Knaresborough an annuity of six marks (£5,000 in today's money). |
| 29/4/1484 | On the 29th April 1484, Richard III arrived at Pontefract Castle on his northern progress of that year, before heading off to York. From there, Richard would go on to Middleham, Barnard Castle, Newcastle and Durham which he would reach on the 14th May. |
| 30/4/1408 | Having spent three weeks over Easter at Pontefract, Henry IV left the castle on 30th April 1408 arriving at Windsor by 21st May and the Tower of London 29th-31st May. Henry had headed for Yorkshire to supervise the arrests and executions of fugitives from the Battle of Bramham Moor, south of Wetherby, in February in which Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, was killed and his invading army from Scotland routed. Percy’s ‘treacherous’ body was hanged, drawn and quartered, his head placed on London Bridge and other parts of his anatomy displayed in various locations. |
| 30/4/1474 | On 30th April 1474, in letters dated that day at Pontefract, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, ordered £29 12s (£20,300 in today's money) worth of seafish from Thomas and Robert Burdon for his household and £54 (£37,000 in today's money) of sheep and cattle from Matthew Metcalfe. |
| Date | Event | | 1/4/1645 | 
In the first week of April 1645, Parliament's Sir Thomas Fairfax entrusted the siege of Sandal to Sir John Savile of Lupset. While the Parliamentary besiegers were at prayer one day in April, the castle garrison attacked them killing 42 men, taking more than 50 prisoners and capturing many weapons. Sir John was so dejected by this reverse that he lifted the siege and joined the main Parliamentary force in Yorkshire then engaged in the siege of Pontefract Castle. The picture is of Sir Thomas Fairfax in Cassell's Illustrated History of England published 1865, which was taken from an authentic portrait. |
| 1/4/1649 | According to a manuscript by Royalist, Captain Thomas Paulden, written not long after ( probably early April that year) Pontefract Castle’s final surrender in 1649: ‘ Of some 600 that wee entered into the Castle there came out betwixt six & seuenscore, & many of them sicke & lame hauing beene besieged almost 7 monneths..’ |
| 3/4/1649 | A letter from Colonel Robert Lilburne (one of the regicides who signed the death-warrant of Charles I) from York dated 3rd April 1649, referred to news of Colonel Morris, his servant Peter and Cornet Blackburn who had escaped from besieged Pontefract Castle the previous month: ‘ Morrise & 2 more (being going to ye Ile of Mann) was taken & are now att Lancastr The Scotts are of Laite much spoken off, yt they are p’pareing many forces, & speakes big words, & people begin to feare them……..I am told p’paracon is making to begin to pull down Pontefr’ some day this weeke, w’ch is glad newes to very many…’ |
| 4/4/1645 | On 4th April 1645, three companies, consisting of thirty Royalist men each, sallied forth from the castle and attacked the besiegers. The Parliamentary besiegers had converted different houses and barns in the town, and the houses of the aldermen, who had fled to the castle, had been occupied. In this successful sally forth, Alderman Rusby's house and barn were assaulted and one captain and three privates were killed. The rest dispersed and the house and barn were set on fire while sentries near the low church were also attacked and compelled to retreat with the loss of one taken prisoner. Following this, the besiegers drew up their forces and lined the hedges from the park to Denwell with infantry. Their standards were erected at the top of Skinner Lane and the castle garrison, seeing this, directed its cannon against them and beat them down. |
| 4/4/1649 |  On 4th April 1649, days after the surrender of the castle, Parliament issued an order for the castle's immediate demolition. John Harrison was paid £80 (over £14,000 in today's money) to demolish the Round Tower and £34 (£6,000) for demolishing the two skreens from the Gate House to the Round Tower, and thence to the Treasurer Tower. Other payments included: Thomas Thurston £10 (£1800 now) for levelling Neville’s Mount; Thomas Tayler £35 2s 6d (£6300) for taking down the timber in the Constable Tower and the Chapel; Simon Procter £104 5s 6d (£18700) for demolishing The King’s and Queen’s Towers, Edward Harrison thirty shillings (£270) for taking down a screen; George Rennard ten shillings (£90) for pulling crooks out of the walls. The selling of the various materials (lead, wood, iron, glass etc) raised £1779 17s 4d (£320,000) out of which the commissioners paid a total for the demolition of the castle of £777, 4 shilling, 6 pence (nearly £140,000 in today's money). The commissioners handed over £1000 (£180,000) to the Mayor and Corporation for the purposes specified in the petition: St Giles’s Church was repaired and refurbished with a new vicarage and the Government received a balance of £2 12s 10d (£467). Unfortunately for All Saints’ Church, damaged during the sieges of the castle and most probably ‘the place of public worship’ mentioned in the town’s petition, no monies were forthcoming from this process. |
| 5/4/1645 | On 5th April 1645, a party of horse under the command of Washington and Beale, and forty musketeers, under the command of Captain Smith, attacked the Parliamentary forces besieging the castle. The horses compelled the Parliamentarians to retreat into the town and to double the number of their cavalry and return and renew their attack, supported by 100 musketeers lining the hedges. Though the Parliamentary forces kept up heavy fire, the royalist party stood its ground and captured two butchers coming into the town loaded with meat for the market, thus providing the castle with fresh meat. |
| 6/4/1645 | On 6th April 1645, the Royalist garrison, having attended divine service on Easter Sunday, was ordered to arms (Nathan Drake, a contemporary chronicler of the siege, must have used the Julian calendar as in the Gregorian system Easter Sunday would have been 16th April). Strong parties were sent in different directions to make a combined and general attack on the enemy's positions. Captains Washington and Beale commanded the horse attended by fifty musketeers under Captain Munroe. Captain Flood commanded another body of fifty musketeers. To each of these bodies were added twenty-five men, volunteers who served under the four colonels within the castle. The first party sallied forth out of Swillington Tower, up Northgate and made a long and desperate attack upon the enemy's positions which were bravely defended. The other party went out of the lower gate to the Low Church and, having dispersed the guards, it turned up the south side of the town by the Halfpenny House to the enemy's trenches where an attack was made. While these parties were engaged with the enemy they were partly protected and assisted by the fire of their friends in the castle. The principal loss fell to the besiegers, having 130 killed besides the wounded. The besieged had only two men killed and two wounded and took one prisoner, a quantity of muskets and swords and one drum. On the same evening, a party of 100 men sallied forth up Northgate and thence into the market place where they kept up a severe fire, blowing up about twenty men, many of whom were killed and the rest so badly burned that there was little chance of recovery. |
| 7/4/1645 | On 7th April 1645, the Royalist garrison made another sally to Baghill where it killed one man and took another prisoner plus two horses. The musketeers from the castle protected them and by a vigorous fire killed eight or ten men in the trenches. The following day, the garrison repeated the attack against the Parliamentary works at Baghill, but on the whole were unsuccessful. The besiegers, having reinforced their numbers, compelled the party from the castle to retreat, which they did without loss. Lieutenant Moore was wounded by a shot in the arm. At this time, a body of troops, under the command of Sir John Savile, which had been at Sandal Castle, came to strengthen the besiegers. They were principally stationed at the New Hall and during the remaining part of the siege suffered a great deal from the sallies and the fire of the garrison. |
| 9/4/1617 | On 9th April 1617, King James I, on his progress to Scotland, rested at Pontefract for two nights at the New Hall, a mansion of Edward, Earl of Shrewsbury. During his stay, he inspected the College of St Clement recently established in the castle, for a Dean and three Prebendaries. |
| 10/4/1645 | Even though Sir John Savile arrived with reinforcements the Parliamentarians could not mount a close siege of the castle. The besieged Royalists at the castle continued their attacks on the besieging forces on the 10th April 1645. About twenty Parliamentarians were killed during the day and in the night the cannon was discharged twice, loaded with grape shot, into the trenches at Baghill where the cries of the besiegers indicated the slaughter inflicted. While standing near the gate of the of the Barbican, Alderman Thomas Wilkinson was killed by a Parliamentarian shot from Baghill. |
| 12/4/1687 | On 12th April 1687, Nathaniel Johnston M.D. was created a Fellow and admitted to the Royal College of Physicians by the charter of James II. Born in 1627, Johnston practised at Pontefract, but took up the antiquities and natural history of Yorkshire and was a political theorist and High Tory pamphleteer. He was a great friend and correspondent of antiquarian Ralph Thoresby whom he first met at Pontefract on 26th February 1682. Johnston died in 1705 and his property at and near Pontefract was sold by the Court of Chancery in 1707. |
| 13/4/1645 | On 13th April 1645, Parliamentary forces besieging the castle were observed to have drawn up three or four troops of horse as if they intended to form a body for some important enterprise. In spite of heavy losses, it seems that the besiegers were steadily increasing their strength through reinforcements. Shots were fired killing two men and wounding four others. The besieged were endeavouring to protect their cattle, which they sent out to graze in the adjoining meadows, by firing from the towers while the besiegers shot at the cattle compelling them to be driven back into the castle again for security. The cattle would be a means of fresh meat and milk for the Royalists and so the longer they were kept alive the better. A party of Parliamentarians attacked Swillington Tower but heavy fire of musketry from the tower compelled it to retreat and the cattle were secured. |
| 14/4/1645 | On 14th April 1645, three wagonloads of ammunition were brought to further strengthen the position of the Parliamentary besiegers of Pontefract Castle. At the time, the Treaty of Uxbridge between King and Parliament had failed and it was believed that it was Charles I’s intention to raise the siege at Chester and to detach a part of his forces to recover his authority in Yorkshire. An army of 3,000 Scots lay at Leeds, thirteen miles away, and a general engagement was expected in this part of the country between the Parliamentary forces and the Royalists under the command of Prince Rupert, nephew of Charles I. Parliament had made an alliance with the Scottish covenanters, having accepted the Solemn League and Covenant towards the end of 1643. It was accepted that the Scots at Leeds were prepared to join the other Parliamentary forces, drawn from Knaresborough, York, Cawood, Selby and Pontefract. Also on the 14 April, a party of twenty Royalist musketeers without any formal commander, except one of their companions William Wether, attacked a barricade, which the besiegers had erected near the New Hall, driving the men away. The attack began to demolish the structure and continued until the the enemy's cavalry were seen ready to charge. The party retreated to the castle without loss. The same night, William Wether, with six of his companions, fell on Parliamentary trenches near Broad Lane end and killed three men and an officer in a black coat and buff scarf, supposed to be Colonel Eden. They dispersed the rest and returned safely to the castle. |
| 15/4/1645 | On 15th April 1645, various attacks were made by the garrison but without much loss to the Parliamentary besiegers. On this day, the Royalist garrison suffered the loss of Colonel Tindall, Lieutenant Colonel Middleton and other officers as well as many soldiers of lesser rank. |
| 16/4/1645 | A vigorous and successful sally was made on the 16th April 1645. Two parties of fifty Royalist musketeers went out; one, under Captain Hemsworth, went out of the lower gate to the trenches near Alderman Lunn's house and the other under Captain Munroe went from Swillington Tower up Northgate to the enemy's upper trenches. Fifty volunteers drawn from four divisions assisted these. A party of horse under Captain Beale and Cornet Speight (a cornet was the lowest commissioned officer in a cavalry regiment) was stationed near Baghill to prevent the horse of the Parliamentarians giving any assistance to their infantry during the attack. The two parties assaulted their enemy's trenches and compelled them to retreat to another trench near the bridge. The loss to the besiegers was about fifty men killed, wounded or taken and the next day the Parliamentarians were seen to carry away seven wagons loaded with wounded men. |
| 18/4/1645 |  On 18th April 1645, Parliamentarian reinforcements of 600 Scottish troops, under the command of Colonel Montgomery, arrived at Pontefract Castle to assist with the ongoing siege. The garrison kept up heavy fire from the castle; several were killed including Captain Hamilton and several officers. The day was market-day and the besiegers drew out a considerable body of cavalry and musketeers on Baghill to protect the butchers and others coming into the town and also to prevent the garrison obtaining a supply of fresh provisions. The besieged Royalists, however, by well-directed fire from the towers dispersed these men who quit their station. The same day, a party of Scots from Monkhill was unsuccessful in driving away a party of musketeers sent from the castle to protect the grazing cattle. The besieged discovered about forty oxen and cows belonging to the enemy, grazing in the fields. A body of men under Captain Beale and Cornet Speight and another infantry under Majors Bland and Dinnis sallied forth, seizing all the cattle and returning to the castle without any loss. The picture is of unknown source but was published in The Story Of Scotland, First Press and Scottish Daily Record Group, 1999-2000. |
| 19/4/1603 | On 19th April 1603, according to the historian Richard Holmes in his book 'Pontefract: its Name, its Lords, its Castles', King James I, on his journey from Edinburgh to London to claim his throne, came to Pontefract. The castle was included in jointure property (reverting to a wife after her husband's death) of his wife, Anne of Denmark. Anne, unfortunately, did not survive James. Holmes remarks: 'As was the case in other places where he stayed, the dirty habits of his followers seem to have brought upon the town a visitation of the plague, which broke out on September 2nd 1603, as is marked by an entry in the church books "Plague begonne" . The plague gradually increased in virulence during September (10 deaths/vs 11 in same month the previous year), raged violently during October (57/11), November (67/7) and December (32/8), then somewhat abating in January (18/7) and February (10/6) and nearly died out in March (13/9).' |
| 19/4/1645 | On 19th April 1645, the besieged Royalists set fire to the lower side of Monkhill and at three different times compelled the Parliamentarians to retreat from their positions. |
| 20/4/1645 | On Sunday 20th April, the Scots supporting the besieging Parliamentary forces set fire to the upper part of Monkhill and began entrenchments from Bondgate Mill towards their barricades at Cherry Orchard Head and from thence raised several strong works to the top of Monkhill. The besieged, in order to annoy the enemy on Baghill, began to raise a mount within the Barbican which became known as Neville's Mount. On this they intended to plant the only large cannon they possessed. The besiegers, seeing this structure, continued a steady fire against the men but the work continued and was completed without suffering any damage on this and the following day. The besieged fired several cannon on this day, one of which shot through the Parliamentary barricade behind the School House where it was supposed to have done much damage. By mistake, the Scots took a party of their own men to be Royalists and fired upon them, killing a major before realising their mistake. |
| 22/4/1645 | On 22nd April, the Scottish troops aiding the Parliamentarians marched away through the Park and were replaced by troops commanded by Sir John Savile. From this time, the besiegers regularly brought up parties to Baghill putting them behind hedges and in trenches. Keeping a constant watch on the garrison, they poured in their shot and opened fire at every available opportunity, which the besieged, in like manner, returned. In these attacks, lives were lost on both sides but it does not appear that the besieged Royalists were ever able to sally beyond the enemy's positions as, from this time, they were completely surrounded. |
| 23/4/1643 | On 23rd April 1643, Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, wrote to Charles: ‘My dear heart, …..Having heard that Pontefract was besieged, our army advanced, as soon as money could be got to make it march: they set off, and by the road, I gave six thousand pieces, for without that, they could not have marched; but this truth should not be known by every body. The army marched to Pontefract; I hear that the rebels quitted the place, and went to Leeds to join the rest of Fairfax’s forces: our troops followed them, and it was resolved to besiege Leeds……but when our cannon came to play, it produced no effect, on which a council of war was called…..’ |
| 23/4/1645 | On 23rd April 1645, Nathan Drake, Royalist diarist, recorded:' …came the beseegers from the upp’ towne to baghill wth 50 musketeres, 7 lined the hedge 7 the dike wth them; they played very soare against the Castle but did no harme, onely a young maid was Drying of Clothes in Mr Taytons Orchard (Close by the lower Castle gate). She was shott into the head whereof she dyed that night…’ |
| 24/4/1645 | On 24th April 1645, Nathan Drake, Royalist diarist, recorded: ‘ in the afternoone, at the burial of the maid, a few of our musketeers attended the Corpes to the Church, & gave a valley of Shott, wch gave the beseegers in the upp towne an Allarum…’ |
| 25/4/1645 | In late April 1645, on receiving information that the King had raised the siege at Chester and obtained some advantage over his enemies, the besieged Royalists in Pontefract Castle began to hope that they would be speedily relieved. What bolstered this hope was the information from a woman who had been taken to William Wether. She said that the besiegers would remain only two or three more days before the castle and that the troops of Parliament would be collected together to watch the approach of the royal army. It seems unlikely that a woman would have information on the plans of the besiegers but the besieged were eager to believe her and had high hopes that the siege of Pontefract Castle would be raised in the near future. This information was true as regards Chester but the conclusions drawn from it were never realised and the besiegers continued to surround the castle. |
| 26/4/1645 | The Parliamentary besiegers received a reinforcement of 150 men on 26th April 1645. They came by way of Ferrybridge to the New Hall where they kept up a strong guard. During the night, they sent 100 men from the upper town to Baghill where they 'threw up' a trench. While the besiegers were employed in preparing for their own security, the besieged sallied forth in large parties to prevent them. About sixty men, commanded by Captain Smith and Lieutenant Savile, sallied forth out of Swillington Tower, up Northgate where they greatly alarmed the Parliamentarians who took to arms, both in the town and through all their trenches. A brisk fire was kept up on both sides for half an hour and the besieged retreated without any loss. At the same time, another party sallied out of the east gate and drove the besiegers from their sentries to their works near the New Hall. The besiegers carried on their works on Baghill and kept a hundred musketeers stationed there; they were regularly relieved by the same number from the upper town. The fire of the besiegers was so vigorous and constant that the besieged were closely confined. They could not send their cattle to graze without extreme danger. The garrison now began to suffer and fresh meat was a luxury. Some of the besieged seeing three hogs, which had strayed from Broad Lane, rushed out of the garrison and drove them into the castle. Men were willing to risk their own lives to gain a little fresh meat. During the night, the Parliamentarians worked in completing the trenches. A hundred men were replaced by a hundred and fifty from the town the following morning and they continued with the same work the whole of the day. |
| 27/4/1645 | On 27th April 1645, a party of the Parliamentary besiegers horse assembled about noon and marched through the Park to Ferrybridge. On seeing this, a party of brave men led by a soldier called Lowder rushed out of Pontefract Castle without a formal commander and assaulted the Parliamentary troops under the command of Sir John Savile. Having killed or wounded as many of the enemy as equalled their own number of men they retreated safely back to the castle. |
| 27/4/1645 | On 27th April 1645, Nathan Drake, Royalist diarist, recorded: ‘ Sunday the beseegers Came againe from the upp’ towne to Baghill about 8 a Clocke, & there Continued all the day, shooting very hard at any they Could see either wthn or about the Castle wth about 100 musketeres, so that we Could not put forth our Cattell to grasse. in the fore no one there Came downe 3 very good hoggs downe at brode lane end, towards the Castle, and our Souldyers seeing them (out of Barbican) went out and fetcht then in wch was a good booty for the Souldyers…’ |
| 28/4/1645 | During the night of 28th April 1645, the Parliamentary besiegers employed at least 300 men on their entrenchments at Baghill. The next morning, the Royalist garrison, hoping to keep some of their cattle alive, put them out to graze but were compelled to drive them back in with the loss of one cow and two horses. The governor of the castle hearing nothing satisfactory of the King's affairs, and seeing the increasing force of the enemy, decided to send four of his officers to Newark to inform his majesty of the state of the garrison and to obtain, if possible, some relief. |
| 28/4/1648 | 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.
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| 29/4/1645 | During the night of 29th April 1645, four Royalist officers departed from the castle, accompanied by twenty musketeers, and attacked the enemy along part of Northgate while their friends pushed forward and cleared the lines. |
| 30/4/1645 | On 30th April 1645, the Parliamentary besiegers of Pontefract Castle relieved the guard at Baghill with at least 150 men and through the day a heavy fire was kept up on both sides. The besieged Royalists had one horse killed in the Barbican and the enemy had several men killed and wounded by the musketry from the Round Tower. During the night, the besiegers burnt two houses; one at Monkhill and a smaller one by the castle walls. |
| 30/4/1646 | On 30th April 1646, it was resolved by the House of Commons that Royalist Sandal Castle should be made untenable as a military garrison having being besieged three times in 1645 by Parliamentary forces. |
On 6th April 1199, King Richard I, the Lionheart, died. During his 10 years’ reign, he stayed only briefly in England. He is more famously known for fighting in both European wars and Crusades to Palestine. Baron Roger De Lacy of Pontefract Castle was one of his military leaders.
When a parliament met in April 1308, a group of magnates led by Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln and lord of Pontefract, produced a series of three articles of shattering constitutional importance. 'Homage and the oath of allegiance are more in respect of the crown than in respect of the King's person' they declared; drawing, for the first time, an explicit distinction between the king and the office he held.
In the first week of April 1645, Parliament's Sir Thomas Fairfax entrusted the siege of Sandal to Sir John Savile of Lupset. While the Parliamentary besiegers were at prayer one day in April, the castle garrison attacked them killing 42 men, taking more than 50 prisoners and capturing many weapons. Sir John was so dejected by this reverse that he lifted the siege and joined the main Parliamentary force in Yorkshire then engaged in the siege of Pontefract Castle. The picture is of Sir Thomas Fairfax in Cassell's Illustrated History of England published 1865, which was taken from an authentic portrait.
On 4th April 1649, days after the surrender of the castle, Parliament issued an order for the castle's immediate demolition. John Harrison was paid £80 (over £14,000 in today's money) to demolish the Round Tower and £34 (£6,000) for demolishing the two skreens from the Gate House to the Round Tower, and thence to the Treasurer Tower. Other payments included: Thomas Thurston £10 (£1800 now) for levelling Neville’s Mount; Thomas Tayler £35 2s 6d (£6300) for taking down the timber in the Constable Tower and the Chapel; Simon Procter £104 5s 6d (£18700) for demolishing The King’s and Queen’s Towers, Edward Harrison thirty shillings (£270) for taking down a screen; George Rennard ten shillings (£90) for pulling crooks out of the walls. The selling of the various materials (lead, wood, iron, glass etc) raised £1779 17s 4d (£320,000) out of which the commissioners paid a total for the demolition of the castle of £777, 4 shilling, 6 pence (nearly £140,000 in today's money). The commissioners handed over £1000 (£180,000) to the Mayor and Corporation for the purposes specified in the petition: St Giles’s Church was repaired and refurbished with a new vicarage and the Government received a balance of £2 12s 10d (£467). Unfortunately for All Saints’ Church, damaged during the sieges of the castle and most probably ‘the place of public worship’ mentioned in the town’s petition, no monies were forthcoming from this process.
On 18th April 1645, Parliamentarian reinforcements of 600 Scottish troops, under the command of Colonel Montgomery, arrived at Pontefract Castle to assist with the ongoing siege. The garrison kept up heavy fire from the castle; several were killed including Captain Hamilton and several officers. The day was market-day and the besiegers drew out a considerable body of cavalry and musketeers on Baghill to protect the butchers and others coming into the town and also to prevent the garrison obtaining a supply of fresh provisions. The besieged Royalists, however, by well-directed fire from the towers dispersed these men who quit their station. The same day, a party of Scots from Monkhill was unsuccessful in driving away a party of musketeers sent from the castle to protect the grazing cattle. The besieged discovered about forty oxen and cows belonging to the enemy, grazing in the fields. A body of men under Captain Beale and Cornet Speight and another infantry under Majors Bland and Dinnis sallied forth, seizing all the cattle and returning to the castle without any loss. The picture is of unknown source but was published in The Story Of Scotland, First Press and Scottish Daily Record Group, 1999-2000.
On 29th April 1892, a display of artefacts and antiquities was opened after the construction of a small museum at Pontefract Castle. A similar collection is now in the castle's visitor centre.
On 3rd April 1957, Pontefract Castle was first scheduled as an ancient monument by the Ministry of Works (later the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission, then English Heritage and now Historic England).