Pontefract Castle - December - Pontefract & Sandal Castles

Date	Event
1/12/1135	In December 1135, William Maltravers was murdered at Pontefract by a knight called Paganus, one of Pontefract estate’s retinue. Maltravers had succeeded Hugh de Laval in 1131 to the fief of Pontefract and Clitheroe, even marrying his widow. Robert de Lacy (son and heir of Pontefract Castle’s founder) had forfeited the Honour of Pontefract in 1108 due to his support of Robert Curthose, exiled and imprisoned elder brother of Henry I. Robert de Lacy’s (died 1129) son, Ilbert, was granted Maltraver’s share of the Honour of Pontefract and also received a royal pardon by King Stephen for his men’s role in Maltravers’ death. Ilbert gained the possession of 40 knights’ fees out of 60 which comprised the estate with Laval’s son, Guy, inheriting the remainder. On Ilbert’s death in 1141, William de Roumare, Earl of Lincoln, was also holder of the Honour of Pontefract between 1141-46 before it reverted to the de Lacys.
1/12/1450	On 1st December 1450, the Duke of Somerset’s lodgings in Blackfriars were attacked by supporters of Richard, Duke of York, lord of Sandal, and the Duke of Norfolk. York had been at odds with Somerset for some time, having accused him of military incompetence in France, financial corruption and mismanagement and of giving poor advice to Henry VI. Unfortunately for York, Somerset was the Queen’s favourite.
1/12/1459	On 1st December 1459, after Richard, Duke of York’s (lord of Sandal Castle) open rebellion against Henry VI at Ludford Bridge in October, the Master of the King’s Ordnance was ordered to survey the Neville and York castles and towns, ensuring their forts were kept in good repair for royal use. Twenty-six men had been attainted of treason including: York; the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick (and two of their sons); the Earls of March and Rutland. John de la Pole had his dukedom of Suffolk downgraded to earl. One woman was also attainted: Alice, Countess of Salisbury.
1/12/1488	After withdrawing Richard III's Pontefract's Charter on his accession, Henry VII issued a virtually identical one for the town in his capacity as Duke of Lancaster on 1st December 1488. He confirmed to the comburgesses the right to choose the town's mayor.
1/12/1855	In December 1855 the original plaster casts for Irish sculptor, John Edward Carew’s bronze panel, ‘The Death of Nelson’ decorating the pedestal of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square arrived in Pontefract to be erected in the Town Hall after discussions between the MP for Pontefract, Benjamin Oliveria, a friend of Carew, and the town’s mayor. Unfortunately, the bill for transportation and installation was far higher than had been imagined and although paid, Oliveria was not acknowledged on the accompanying plaque.
2/12/1307	On 2nd December 1307, John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey and owner of Sandal Castle, opposed Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall, and court favourite of Edward II, at a tournament at Wallingford. Later, after Gaveston’s execution, Edward II forbade de Warenne to attend tournaments at Newmarket on the 17th January 1313 and Brackley on the 16th September that same year.
2/12/1450	On 2nd December 1450, Richard, Duke of York (lord of Sandal Castle), and John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, assembled their forces in London and rounded up looters following the chaos ensuing the list of ‘improper persons’ the Commons wanted removed from Henry VI’s presence and court. Prominent amongst these persons were, the Duke of Somerset, Alice Chaucer, dowager Duchess of Suffolk, Sir Thomas Hoo, Chancellor of Normandy and Alice’s henchman Thomas Tuddenham. York and Norfolk issued proclamations against robbery and beheaded one thief on the Strand as a warning. Henry VI saw York’s actions as a usurpation of royal authority and suspected his responsibility for the unrest in the first place!
2/12/1536	On 2nd December 1536 (to 4th December), a Pilgrims’ Council was convened at Pontefract (probably at the Priory) to draw up articles to lay before Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, to resolve the demands of the Pilgrims of Grace. These included a return to papal obedience and the summoning of a parliament free from royal influence. Norfolk was to make vague promises to the rebels and offer a full pardon on 6th December.
2/12/1644	On 2nd December 1644, Parliamentarian Lord Fairfax wrote that although he was being urged to put pressure on Newark, all his resources were being deployed to contain the garrisons of Pontefract and Knaresborough. It is noteworthy that four days later, the (Parliamentary) Committee of Both Kingdoms recommended the foundation of an army of 22,000 men under a central commander, comprising eleven regiments of horse, each 600 strong, one regiment of dragoons, 1,000 strong and twelve regiments of foot 1,200 strong. This was to be the New Model Army.
3/12/1293	On 3rd December 1293, Sir Henry de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, was granted more markets and fairs and the rights of free warren (exemption from penalties for killing game within ‘royal’ areas) in many of his demesne lands including Knottingley, Ouston, Campsall, Thorner, Altofts, Seacroft, Shadwell and Roundhay.
3/12/1450	On 3rd December 1450, a grand royal procession occurred in London just days after men from the households of Richard, Duke of York, lord of Sandal, and the Duke of Norfolk had attacked the Duke of Somerset causing rioting around Blackfriars. Somerset had been sent to the Tower of London and to all intents and purposes York now seemed to be enforcer of the King’s peace. Benet’s Chronicle stated: ‘On Thursday 3rd December the King, accompanied by his dukes, earls, barons, knights and squires and others, all in full armour and about 1000 in number, marched in solemn procession through London. The Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Devon, with 3000 men, provided the vanguard; the King, the Duke of York, the Earl of Salisbury, the Earl of Arundel, the Earl of Wiltshire, the Earl of Worcester and others with 4000 men followed….’
3/12/1887	On 3rd December 1887, it was reported that the Sandal Local Board had taken in hand the works of laying out Sandal Castle hill to render it an attractive recreation ground for visitors.
4/12/1423	On 4th December 1423, another treaty was agreed for the liberation of James I, King of Scotland, who was imprisoned for a time at Pontefract Castle. Hostages for Thomas, Earl of Moray, Alexander, Earl of Crawford and 19 others were demanded.
4/12/1453	On 4th December 1453, Henry VI’s mental incapacity was officially acknowledged for the first-time allowing Richard, Duke of York (lord of Sandal Castle), and his allies in council more latitude to legitimize York’s ‘agenda’ and authority against Queen Margaret and her allies including Viscount Beaumont and Cardinal Kempe. York’s faction was dominated by the Duke of Norfolk, York’s Neville in-laws (Earls of Salisbury and Warwick), and the Bourchier brothers (Thomas, later Archbishop of Canterbury and Henry, Earl of Essex)
4/12/1648	On 4th December 1648, Major General Lambert was appointed to the chief command of the besieging Parliamentary forces (at Pontefract Castle), which numbered about 5,000 men.
5/12/1503	On 5th December 1503, George Stanley, 9th Baron Strange, died at St Paul’s Wharf, London, allegedly of poison following a banquet. In 1485, he held the offices of Constables of Pontefract and Knaresborough Castles. He was the eldest son of Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby, and his first wife Eleanor, sister of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick; thereby, related maternally to both Anne Neville and Richard III. George Stanley was held as surety by Richard III for his father’s behaviour before/during the Battle of Bosworth and Thomas Stanley is reputed to have exclaimed “I have other sons” and was not of a mind to join the king during the battle. Richard is also claimed to have ordered George Stanley’s murder on the field at Bosworth but relented. By his father’s second marriage to Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond, George became stepbrother to her son, Henry Tudor, later Henry VII, helping him win the effective last battle of the Wars of The Roses at Stoke Field on the 16th June 1487.
5/12/1863	On 5th December 1863, the ‘London Evening Standard’ ran an article stating: ‘How dare the profane public pry into the mysteries of Lincoln’s Inn where Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln (and lord of Pontefract) cultivated nuts and cherries, beans and leeks and roses in his garden in Holborn.’ De Lacy died at Lincoln’s Inn, his City of London townhouse, in February 1311.
6/12/1399	In early December 1399, Richard II arrived at Pontefract Castle as a prisoner. He was sent from Leeds Castle in Kent disguised as a forester. It may not be a coincidence that Richard was sent to Pontefract as Edward II had beheaded his cousin, Thomas of Lancaster, there in March 1322 for a plot against the king. It could have been a reminder that unlike Thomas of Lancaster, Henry IV had won his power struggle against the king and also of the significance of Pontefract as a bastion of Henry's Northern hegemony.
7/12/1419	On 7th December 1419, Charles, Duke of Orleans, a prisoner at Pontefract Castle since June 1417, was given over to the custody of Sir Nicholas Montgomery at Tutbury Castle, Staffordshire.
7/12/1484	On 7th December 1484, Richard III, lord of Sandal, issued a royal proclamation forewarning of an expected invasion by Henry Tudor. This was re-issued in June 1485, instructing citizens to resist such and to array when commanded. Tudor had failed to land forces once already and the build-up of disaffected nobles in exile indicated invasion was imminent. Richard appointed Captains to take charge of various coastal areas with Viscount Lovell responsible for England’s south coast. The Earl of Pembroke and Rhys ap Thomas were to secure South Wales. Sufficient warning of answering a call to array meant that men could plan for the management of their lands or trades in their absence, or death, on campaign and prepare enfeoffments (a deed giving land in exchange for a pledge of service), pay/collect debts, provide for their families and get ready for war.
7/12/1536	On 7th December 1536, Robert Aske addressed about three thousand rebels of the Pilgrimage of Grace at the market cross in Pontefract stating that terms had been agreed to their demands and free pardons granted. Unfortunately, later whilst at the Doncaster meeting with the Duke of Norfolk, Aske was informed that Lord Lumley (now in command at Pontefract) warned that the rebels were suspicious of the terms of the agreement and demanded to see the King’s pardon under seal. Aske returned immediately to Pontefract to assure his fellow Pilgrims that the terms were authentic and perfectly satisfactory.
7/12/1628	On 7th December 1628, Sir Patience Warde, later to be MP for Pontefract in 1678 and 1680, was baptized at Pontefract. Warde was Lord Mayor of London in 1681 and his portrait is in the Hall of The Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, London, one of the 110 livery companies of the City of London.
7/12/1642	On 7th December 1642, the Marquess of Newcastle, having routed a Parliamentary force under Lord Fairfax at Tadcaster, occupied Pontefract.
8/12/1536	On 8th December 1536, about three thousand rebels of the Pilgrimage of Grace assembled at St Thomas’s Hill, Pontefract, to hear the King’s pardon, brought by Lancaster Herald, read out, after which they dispersed to their homes and Aske and the other captains of the Pilgrimage rode to Doncaster to the Duke of Norfolk to relate the latest situation. This assembly concluded the following day.
8/12/1658	On 8th December 1658, Nathan Drake, diarist of the sieges of Pontefract Castle during the Civil War, died at Pontefract and was buried in the parish church the following day.
9/12/1460	On 9th December 1460 it is believed that Richard Duke of York, Lord of Sandal, headed north under a 'commission of array' to deal with the insurrection in the north and to bring stability to his own lands. In December of that year, Lancastrian forces were beginning to muster around Hull and eventually Pontefract. Given the terms of the Act of Accord of 25th October 1460, Richard was now heir to the throne of King Henry VI. Therefore, one could argue that Margaret of Anjou - wife of King Henry VI - and her Lancastrian armies were now rebels and traitors and that all subsequent actions against Richard could be declared treasonous as he was now legally fighting on behalf of the King.
9/12/1595	On 9th December 1595, the earliest recorded performance of Shakespeare’s ‘the Tragedie of King Richard the Second’ (Pontefract Castle’s most famous prisoner) was made in Canon Row, London, at the home of Sir Edward Hoby. The play was performed at the Globe on 12th June 1631. Richard’s (dubiously violent) death is described in Act V, Scene V after Exton had presaged his murder on Henry IV’s orders: “And speaking it, he wistly look’d on me, And who should say, ‘I would thou wert the man That would divorce this terror from my heart;’ Meaning the king at Pomfret. Come, let’s go: I am the king’s friend, and will rid his foe.”
9/12/1893	On 9th December 1893, ‘The Builder’ printed the tenders for Pontefract Infirmary and the successful applicants: ‘PONTEFRACT – For the erection of Infirmary, at the Workhouse Union, for the Pontefract Union Board. Mr Jno. Holmes Greaves, architect, Leeds and Pontefract. Quantities by the architect:-……..H Arnold & Son, Doncaster £5820 (accepted)…… Wood Block Flooring Nightingale & Co. Grimsby £311 (accepted) Concrete for Fireproof Floors Frankland, Leeds £509 (accepted) (Architect’s estimate for the whole of work £6850)'
10/12/1297	On 10th December 1297, John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey and owner of Sandal Castle, was made Captain, North of Trent, and against the Scots by Edward I.
11/12/1336	On 11th December 1336, Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster and later lord of Pontefract, was created Joint Commissioner for the Defence of the Realm by Edward III.
12/12/1387	On 12th December 1387, John of Gaunt’s (lord of Pontefract) son, Henry, Earl of Derby (later Henry IV) along with Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham, joined the rebel Lords Appellant at Huntingdon to confront Robert de Vere’s royal army. De Vere had been instructed by Richard II to raise an army in the earldom/county of Cheshire to help defeat the rebel lords: Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester; Richard FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel and Surrey; Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. Derby was not only protecting his father’s interests as Richard had threatened to murder him but probably also feared Gloucester’s latent ambitions for the Crown. The ‘pro-Lancastrian’ Knighton Chronicle gave Derby a prominent role in the resulting campaign.
12/12/2011	On 12th December 2011, The Friends of Pontefract Castle’s analemmatic sundial was set out on the bailey of Pontefract Castle.
13/12/1402	On 13th December 1402, Sir Edmund Mortimer, uncle of the Earl of March, who had been captured by Owen Glendower at the Battle of Bryn Glas and had subsequently married Glendower’s daughter, wrote to his tenants in Radnor and Presteigne that ‘he had joined Glendower in his efforts either to restore the Crown to King Richard, should the king prove still to be alive, or, should Richard be dead, to confer the throne on his honoured nephew Edmund Mortimer, who is the right heir to the said Crown.’ This was said in the febrile atmosphere appertaining at the time that Richard II, who had supposedly ‘died’ at Pontefract Castle in February 1400, was possibly still alive.
13/12/1419	On 13th December 1419 (St Lucy’s Day), according to Walter Bower’s ‘Scotichronicon’, Richard II died at Stirling Castle. Although supposedly dying at Pontefract Castle nearly twenty years earlier, a self-called Richard II appeared in Scotland in 1402 having been liberated from there, he claimed, and a body-double buried in his place. Some sources claim that he was found in the Western Isles, serving in the kitchen of the Lord of the Isles and recognised by Donald of the Isles’ fool who had served at the English court and/or Margery Bisset who had seen Richard on his Irish campaigns. ‘Richard’ (The ‘Mammet’/puppet) was sent with Montgomery of Ardrossan to King Robert III who placed him in the care of Sir David Fleming of Cumbernauld and then the Duke of Albany, King Robert’s younger brother and effective ruler of Scotland. He was given a small allowance, housed in Stirling Castle and word spread that he would soon invade England to regain his throne. The mastermind behind the so-called Richard II, William Serle, a chamber varlet from Richard II’s court, who had led the murder of the Duke of Gloucester on the king’s orders in 1397, was executed at Tyburn in 1404. He confessed to forging letters with Richard’s personal seal from Scotland to make the ‘Mammet’ seem a more plausible pretender. Acutely conscious of ‘Richard’ being a focus for rebellion and/or invasion, particularly by the Scots, against him, Henry IV named the pretender as Thomas Warde of Trumpington.
14/12/1450	On 14th December 1450, Richard, Duke of York, lord of Sandal, and his brother-in-law Bishop Bourchier were appointed by Henry VI to lead a commission of oyer and terminer (judges of assize inquiring into all treasons, felonies and misdemeanours in specified counties) in Kent and Sussex. This year had seen two revolts (by Thomas Cheyne and Jack Cade) by these communities and Henry VI was anxious to identify the agitators and mete out punishment. This astute move by the king placed York in an invidious position as his failure to fulfil the role would undermine him at court but exacting the full force of the law against riotous perpetrators would lose York significant support in areas which had called for him to be more fully involved in state affairs.
14/12/1648	On 14th December 1648, lines of encirclement were drawn around the castle by the Parliamentary forces and were around 3,300 yards in length. These consisted of two earthen ramparts and a ditch, and there were also 14 redoubts with guards commanding every approach to the castle.
14/12/1894	On 14th December 1894, ‘The Telegraphic Journal and Electrical Review’ reported: ‘Proposed Electric Tramway at Pontefract. In consequence of the poor means of communication between Pontefract and Featherstone, and the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company having no late train, Councillor McGowan the other night, at the Corporation’s meeting, moved that the question of providing an electric tramway between Pontefract and Featherstone be referred to the Markets and Highways Committees. He had made inquiries, and the scheme was quite feasible. The whole question of communication was referred to the committees.’
15/12/1286	On 15th December 1286, William de Warenne, son of John de Warenne - 6th Earl of Surrey and owner of Sandal Castle - was killed at a tournament in Croydon, just 6 months after the birth of his son and heir, John, who would become the seventh and last Earl of Surrey and last of the de Warenne's to own Sandal Castle.
15/12/1461	After the accession of Edward IV, and on succeeding to his father’s possessions, Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, became the Chief Steward and Constable of the Honour of Pontefract on 15th December 1461.
15/12/1527	In December 1527, the Earl of Northumberland wrote to Thomas Wolsey, Lord High Chancellor, after visiting Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Somerset and Richmond, and illegitimate son of Henry VIII, at Pontefract Castle that ‘he was well received that his dulled wit cannot disclose how much he was gratified with the Duke’s good qualities.’
15/12/1642	In December 1642, after Charles I had raised the royal standard at Nottingham on 22nd August that year, effectively starting the English Civil War, Colonel Sir Richard Lowther, a former MP from Ingleton in North Yorkshire, seized Pontefract Castle for the Royalists. This followed Royalist general’s, Marquess of Newcastle, driving out of Parliamentary forces from Tadcaster, less than twenty miles away. Pontefract was a strategic location from which to control the surrounding countryside and Lowther sallied forth during the early stages of the war to attack Leeds and Bradford.
16/12/1570	On 16th December 1570, Francis Mallett, Dean of Lincoln, died at Normanton (6 miles from Pontefract). During Edward VI’s reign, Mallett was principal chaplain and almoner of Princess Mary (from 1544), the future Mary I. To take this position, he had left the employment of Queen Consort, Katherine Parr. He had also been chaplain to Thomas Cranmer in the mid-1530s and to Thomas Cromwell in 1538. He had been Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge in 1536 and 1540 and was appointed to the seventh stall in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle in 1543, holding it until 1570. Mallett was imprisoned in the Tower of London for celebrating Mass for Mary at Beaulieu in May 1551. Mary, as queen, made him Dean of Lincoln in 1554 and also Lord High Almoner.
17/12/1399	On 17th December 1399 ringleaders of a plot to kill Henry IV at Windsor during New Year celebrations and restore former king Richard II (held prisoner at Pontefract Castle) to the throne, met at Abbey House in Westminster. The plotters included: the Earls of Salisbury, Huntingdon, Kent, Rutland; Barons Despenser and Lumley; possibly Edward of Norwich, ex-Duke of Aumale; and Sir Thomas Blount and Sir Bernard Brocas.
17/12/1587	On 17th December 1587, Nathan Drake, Royalist diarist of Pontefract Castle’s first two sieges, was baptised at Halifax.
17/12/1955	On 17th December 1955, the ‘Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer’ reported: ‘Tenders are invited for the supply and erection of 500 yards of hardwood fencing to the grounds of Sandal Castle.’
18/12/1484	On 18th December 1484, a message from Thomas Wrangwysh, Mayor of York, addressed to the Earl of Lincoln, Lord President of the Council of the North, arrived at Sandal Castle. John Stafford and his son, Richard had been arrested (and confessed) on charges of counterfeiting French crowns and ‘uttering’ (passing) them within the city. Under a statute of Edward III, false coining was high treason punishable by a gruesome death. Wrangwysh requested the Earl ‘to show your commandment by our servant this bearer how I shall deal with the said John and with his son’. Lincoln requested Stafford to be sent to him to be examined with his son kept at York. However, York’s city council baulked at its authority being questioned and requested Stafford, ‘after your high pleasure and wisdom’ to be remitted to York ‘to be punished after his demerits, according to the rights of the said city’. Albeit Stafford’s (and son’s) fate is not known, it is likely his defence of finding coining irons in Derbyshire and counterfeiting foreign coins and not English ones was not a felony and would not become so until the reign of Henry VII!
19/12/1483	On 19th December 1483, Richard III, lord of Sandal, issued orders relating to the Duchess of Buckingham. After going into hiding with some of her children when her husband’s revolt against the king had failed and he had been executed, she was discovered at Weobley by Christopher Wellesbourne. Richard ordered Wellesbourne to convey her and her children to London but with no attainder (forfeiture of land and civil rights), stripping of her title or any reprisals at all for her husband’s treason. This leniency contrasts markedly with the treatment of men who dared to cross a medieval monarch.
20/12/1312	On 20th December 1312, a ‘treaty of peace’ was cobbled together, under the auspices of envoys from the pope and French court, between Edward II and the earls responsible for the death of Piers Gaveston. The Earls of Lancaster (lord of Pontefract) and Warwick were to submit to the king’s grace and return to him jewels and horses seized by Lancaster when Edward and Gaveston fled Newcastle. Edward would reciprocate by setting aside his bitterness at Gaveston’s demise.
20/12/1648	The third siege of Pontefract Castle progressed slowly but, on 20th December 1648, £2,000 (£351,000 in today's money) was ordered to be raised 'for the relief of the forces of Pontefract and Scarborough'. On January 2nd 1649, £2,500 (£449,000 in today's money) was especially ordered to be levied 'upon the county of Lincoln, for the relief of the forces before Pontefract'.
21/12/1460	Between 21st -24th December 1460, Richard Duke of York arrived at his castle at Sandal with an army of approximately 5,000 men. Richard had initially intended to confront the Lancastrian armies based at Pontefract but, on realising he would be significantly outnumbered (the Lancastrians had approx. 15,000 troops), Richard decided he would have to spend Christmas at Sandal awaiting reinforcements from his son Edward Earl of March (later Edward IV); Edward had headed to the Welsh Marches to suppress a Lancastrian uprising in that area. Some contemporaries have the issue of the ravaging of the Yorkist properties in Yorkshire, especially by the Earls of Northumberland and Clifford, as the reason why York travelled north from London. However, what should not be forgotten is that it was the recovery of the Lancastrian strongholds such as Pontefract Castle that were key reasons for York's venture. Disappointingly, for York, he found Sandal Castle poorly provisioned with only £4 6s 7d (just over £4700 in today's money) spent on the household during the feasting period between Christmas and the beginning of January.
21/12/1648	On 21st December 1648, an Order by the Committees of the Ridings recorded on behalf of Parliament: ‘Petition of Captain Francis Wilsford and eight others serving under him to the gentlemen of the Committees of the several ridings of co. York. That petitioners have been in this service before Pontefract (Castle) ever since 24 June last, and are now disbanded. Pray that they may receive a fortnight’s pay according to the last establishment, and that they will accept the same in full for their whole pay since this service.’
22/12/1403	On 22nd December 1403, William Blyth, who claimed to have visited the ‘dead’ Richard II in Scotland (the king supposedly having died at Pontefract in February 1400) met John Staunton, servant of the Countess of Oxford, at Great Bentley and both were ordered to ride to Ipswich to make preparations for the ex-king to meet them at Northampton. Sermons were preached announcing the return of Richard at Colchester and in the Colne Valley.
22/12/1550	On 22nd December 1550, Richard of Eastwell, possible illegitimate son of Richard III (or Duke of Gloucester at the child’s conception) and half-brother of Richard’s other known illegitimate children, John of Pontefract, and Katherine Plantagenet, was buried at St Mary’s Church, Eastwell in Kent. Parish records note: ‘Rychard Plantagenet was buryed on the 22. daye of December, anno ut supra. Ex registro de Eastwell, sub anno 1550.’ Eastwell was said to have been boarded with a schoolmaster when growing up and visited four times a year by an unknown gentleman who paid for his upkeep. He claimed that on the evening before the Battle of Bosworth he had been taken to Richard III’s tent, informed that he was the king’s son and told to watch the battle from a safe vantage point. The king then told the boy that, if he won, he would acknowledge him as his son. If he lost, he told the boy to conceal his identity permanently. Eastwell was employed by Sir Thomas Moyle, the lord of the manor at Eastwell, as a gardener and bricklayer; in the rest hour, whilst the other workers talked and threw dice, he would sit apart and read a book in Latin. He was given a house on the grounds, a building called "Plantagenet Cottage" which still stands on the site and a well in Eastwell Park still bears his name.
23/12/1252	On 23rd December 1252, Peter of Chester (or Peter of Lascy, illegitimate son of John de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, Constable of Chester and Earl of Lincoln) was called a kinsman of the Earl of Lincoln in a mandate by Pope Innocent IV to the Bishop of London to grant him dispensation to hold benefices (a church appointment for which property and income are provided in respect of pastoral duties) in plurality to the value of £100 a year (£165,000 in today’s money).
23/12/1256	On 23rd December 1256, a covenant was agreed between Sir Edmund de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, and Sir William Longspee, Earl of Salisbury, for a marriage between Henry, Edmund’s heir and Margaret, William’s daughter, with a stipulation that if Henry were to die “before contracting the said marriage, then John, the younger son of Edmund shall be married to her”.
23/12/1313	Edward II’s reaction to Robert the Bruce’s Scottish advances in the winter of 1313 did not have the desired effect. As early as 28th November 1313, he had promised to have an army at Berwick before the following midsummer, and on 23rd December 1313 writs were issued for an assembly there on 10th June 1314. Thomas of Lancaster (lord of Pontefract), and the Earls of Warwick, Arundel, and Surrey (owner of Sandal Castle) refused to serve, since the summons had not been decided on in parliament as the Ordinances (article 9) decreed, and was therefore null and void.
24/12/1358	On 24th December 1358, John of Gaunt, future lord of Pontefract, spent Christmas at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, with his brother Lionel, and Lionel’s wife Elizabeth de Burgh, Countess of Ulster. Geoffrey Chaucer (author of ‘Canterbury Tales’) was employed by Elizabeth, at this time, as a page.
25/12/1249	On Christmas Day 1249 (other dates quoted are 19th December and the following 6th January), Henry de Lacy, the greatest and last of the (male) de Lacy baronial family, was born. He succeeded his father, Edmund, as a minor in 1258, inheriting the titles Baron of Pontefract, Baron of Halton and hereditary Constable of Chester. He became 3rd Earl of Lincoln (from 1266) and 1st Lord of Denbigh (from 1282). As a ward to large estates, he was educated at the court of Henry III. He inherited the title of Earl of Lincoln from his paternal grandmother. He served Edward I as a soldier and diplomat in Wales, Scotland and France becoming commander of the English forces in Gascony in 1296. He was one of the 21 Lords Ordainers appointed in 1311 seeking to curtail the powers of Edward II. His only daughter and heiress, Alice de Lacy, married Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster.
25/12/1277	On 25th December 1277, Sir Henry de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, was with Edward I at Westminster when the defeated Welsh 'rebel' leader, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, paid formal homage to the king.
25/12/1281	Alice de Lacy was born at Denbigh Castle on 25th Dec 1281. She was fourth countess of Lincoln, fifth countess of Salisbury and daughter of Henry de Lacy Baron of Pontefract. Her mother was Margaret Longespée, 4th Countess of Salisbury and the great-granddaughter of an illegitimate son of Henry II of England, William Longespée (Longsword), whose nickname became his surname.
25/12/1454	On 25th December 1454, Henry VI awoke from his stupor and his senses quickly returned. He was introduced to his son Edward who had been born the previous year, and he quickly began to reverse all of the policies of the Duke of York that had been pursued over the last year. Richard would retire quietly to his castle at Sandal.
25/12/1526	On 25th December 1526, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Somerset and Richmond, and illegitimate son of Henry VIII, was with his household at Pontefract Castle. The Council informed Thomas Wolsey, Lord High Chancellor, that henry had ‘kept a right honourable Christmas…..with numbers of worshipful persons have come to visit him.’
25/12/1644	On 25th December 1644, the first siege of Pontefract Castle began. Nathan Drake, a diarist and gentleman volunteer, wrote: 'Uppon Christmas Day 25th December 1644, Pontefract Castle was besieged and the towne taken that day by the beseegers, and the beseeged played 3 cannon against them.' The Royalist garrison consisted of the remains of 23 reduced/broken regiments. Its governor, Colonel Sir Richard Lowther had the services of seven colonels including four known Yorkshiremen: Sir George Wentworth of Woolley, Sir Richard Hutton of Goldsborough, Sir John Ramsden of Byram Park and Sir Henry Vaughan of Whitwell.
26/12/1292	On 26th December 1292, Sir Henry de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, was at Newcastle with Edward I when John Balliol (now king of Scotland) paid formal homage to Edward as overlord of Scotland.
26/12/1298	On 26th December 1298, Sir Henry de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, headed a commission (in the king’s stead) hearing an appeal brought by Landus Bouacursi against two merchants accused of counterfeiting the king’s great and privy seal (the seal of Prince Edward, the king’s son) and plotting to poison Edward I and the prince.
27/12/1252	On 27th December 1252, Edmund de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, was knighted by Henry III.
27/12/1721	On 27th December 1721, Thomas Fermor KB, 2nd Baron of Lemster (or Leominster) was made Earl of Pomfret. His grandfather, Sir William Fermor had distinguished himself during the Civil War in the Royalist cause and subsequently suffered severe financial hardship albeit Thomas’s father was elevated to the peerage in 1692. In 1727, he was made Master of the Horse to Caroline, queen consort of George II. He was one of the lords of the bedchamber and ranger of the little park at Windsor. He died on 8th July 1753.
28/12/1292	On 28th December 1292, Sir Henry de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, received confirmation of the restoration of the castle, town and honour of Pontefract, earlier surrendered to the Crown as part of the marriage arrangements of his daughter, Alice, to Thomas, Earl of Lancaster.
28/12/1460	On the morning of 28th December 1460, a Lancastrian army of 15,000 set out from Pontefract Castle marching the nine miles south west to fields and woods surrounding Sandal Castle in preparation for the upcoming Battle of Wakefield. The leaders of the Lancastrian force included the Duke of Somerset, Lord Clifford, Earls of Wiltshire and Devon, Lord Roos, Lord Dacre, and the Earl of Northumberland. The centre of the Lancastrian army, led by Duke of Somerset and the Earl of Northumberland, was drawn up on Wakefield Green on the open ground to the north of the Castle between the castle itself and the town of Wakefield. The left wing of the Lancastrian army, under the Earl of Wiltshire and Andrew Trollope, was hidden in the woods to the east, whereas the right wing under Lord Clifford was drawn up resting near the River Calder. The castle could not hold the whole of the Yorkist forces, so those that weren't absent on foraging duties would have taken up a position on the flat ground to the north of the castle.
28/12/1644	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.
28/12/1645	$Pontefract All Saints Church$ On 28th December 1645, the Parliamentarians stormed and took the nearby Church of All Saints, which had been incorporated into Pontefract Castle's defences. Eleven men and boys from the garrison were inside and escaped into the bell tower but were trapped for five days. Eventually, they cut the bell ropes, crept along the church roof at night, scrambled down the wall and escaped back to the castle, but the Parliamentarians spotted them, shooting one Royalist dead and wounding another.
29/12/1277	It is surmised that Edmund of Lancaster and Blanche of Artois’ eldest child, Thomas (later Earl of Lancaster and lord of Pontefract) was born on or around 29th December 1277, his name indicating a reference to Thomas Beckett’s murder on this date, one hundred and seven years before.
29/12/1318	On 29th December 1318, John de Bulmer made the following declaration at Pontefract: ‘ Know all men that I, John de Bulmer of Wrelton, have granted, released, and entirely quitclaimed for myself and my heirs to the noble Thomas, Earl of Lancaster and Leicester, Steward of England, his heirs and assigns, all the right and claim that I have or in anyway could have in the bailiwick and forestership of the forest of Pickering together with the land of Lockton, which Walter Boye, my great-grandfather, once held, that is to say whatever descended or could descend to me by right of inheritance on the death of the said Walter and of Helen his daughter and coheiress, mother of Roger de Wrelton, to have and to hold to the Earl, his heirs and assigns, of the chief Lordships of the fee for ever; with clause of warranty.’
29/12/1460	On 29th December 1460, both the Lancastrian and Yorkist forces were in position in readiness for battle (see the Pontefract posting on 28th December). Throughout the whole of the 29th, the Lancastrian forces taunted Richard, Duke of York, who was securely in his castle, trying to draw him from his stronghold as the Lancastrians had no siege equipment with them. The Lancastrians realised that, without any siege equipment, the longer Richard could maintain his position in the castle then the greater would be the likelihood that his forces would be reinforced. Consequently, the Lancastrians were desperate to draw him into battle.
30/12/1387	On 30th December 1387, the Lords Appellant, including John of Gaunt’s (lord of Pontefract) son, Henry, Earl of Derby (later Henry IV), entered the Tower of London with a bodyguard of 500 armed men and confronted Richard II (who was to die at Pontefract Castle just over twelve years later). Probably accusing him of treachery and showing him letters found in Robert de Vere’s baggage appealing for French help, Richard apologised. Different sources suggest it was demanded of Richard that his five key advisers be arrested or that he must attend a meeting at Westminster the next day with failure to do so meaning he would be deposed. After being rebuked for his misrule, the Whalley Abbey Chronicle recorded Richard being deposed for three days but reinstated as Derby and Gloucester could not agree on which of them should replace him.
30/12/1454	On 30th December 1454, with Henry VI regaining his ‘sanity’ and acknowledging his young son, Prince Edward, for the first time, Richard, Duke of York’s regency effectively came to an end and he retired quietly to his castle at Sandal.
30/12/1460	Following the Battle of Wakefield, bonfires were lighted on 30th - 31st December 1460 to enable the conquerors purportedly to bury the bodies of the slain on the field of battle. The battle had been of a relatively short duration fought in the afternoon. A letter written at the time by a son who visited the battlefield in search of the dead body of his father said 'that at midnight the kindly snow fell like a mantle on the dead and covered the rueful faces staring to directly up to heaven'. After the battle, the Lancastrians set off towards York with the intention of reuniting with Margaret of Anjou who had remained in Scotland throughout the whole of the Wakefield campaign to gather further support and an army of mercenaries.
30/12/1460	On 30th December 1460, the Battle of Wakefield was fought on the plain ground between Sandal Castle and the town of Wakefield i.e. to the north of Sandal Castle. This battle has often been overlooked in history mainly due to its short duration (one to two hours) and the number of combatants, about 30,000, when compared against some of the great battles of the era at St Albans, Towton and Barnet. However, this battle changed the course of English history as the Yorkists were routed, losing 2,500 men, and Richard Duke of York, himself, who was killed and his head subsequently displayed on Micklegate Bar in York. There are many theories why Richard engaged the Lancastrians in battle when significantly outnumbered: the Yorkists had approximately 5,000 troops against the Lancastrians' 15,000-22,000 troops. These theories include York's underestimating the Lancastrian force and not realising that the Lancastrians had been split and hidden in woods to the west, east and north of the castle, meaning that when Richard charged down the hill he was quickly surrounded. Also, Lord John Neville, on his long march North, had purportedly got word to Richard that he would raise troops to support his cause and arrive on the battlefield with 8,000 men, but he quickly changed sides, leading to the Yorkist army being encircled by enemy forces. Following the battle, Richard's second son Edmund, Earl of Rutland was captured close to Chantry Bridge by Lord Clifford and subsequently slain. The Earl of Salisbury was captured and taken to Pontefract where on the following day he was executed and his head removed and placed on Micklegate Bar along with Edmund's and his father's.
31/12/1215	On 31st December 1215, King John granted John de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, conducts (effectively safe passage) to last a year from the following 2nd January; the very generous terms probably acknowledging de Lacy’s significance to the rebel cause. De Lacy was to surrender Pontefract to the king two days later after mediation by the Earl of Chester.
31/12/1460	On 31st December 1460, following the Yorkist defeat at Sandal the previous day, prisoners including the Earl of Salisbury, Sir Ralf Stanley, Walter Limbrick, John Harrow, and Captain Hanson were brought to Pontefract Castle. It was originally intended that the Earl of Salisbury was to be spared for a huge ransom; however, he along with other prisoners were probably beheaded by the common people of Pontefract who 'loved him not'.
31/12/1821	On 31st December 1821, Messrs Beal and Ashton ran a competitive foot-race under the auspices of the Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cheshire Pedestrians in footmanship of four miles over Pontefract race course for £100 (over £11,000 in today’s money) a side with the first two miles run in eleven minutes. The race was won by Beal who beat Ashton by about five hundred yards, with his winning time of twenty-one minutes, forty- five seconds.