This Coming Week In History

This week in history

Date	Event
25/10/1154	On 25th October 1154 , King Stephen died and, when the reign of Henry Plantagenet,  Henry II, began on 19th December 1154, Henry allowed William of Blois, 4th Earl of Surrey and owner of Sandal castle, to retain the earldom of Surrey in right of his wife Isabel de Warenne. Many historical records (and indeed on this site) note the confusion around whether there were seven or  eight earls of Surrey who owned Sandal Castle. The answer is in fact seven, as both William of Blois and Hamelin de Plantagenet were both classed as the fourth earls due to their marriages to Isabel de Warenne, the 4th Countess of Surrey. On this date, William also succeeded as Count of Mortain, north-western France (jure patris, by right of his father).
25/10/1265	On 25th October 1265, the Duchy of Lancaster, of which Pontefract Castle is now a part, was formally created. The inheritance was created in this year by Henry III for his youngest son, Edmund. The original grant was made from lands forfeited by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester (1265) and those forfeited by Robert Ferrers, Earl of Derby were later added in 1266 (arising from the Barons’ War). These lands are still held by the Duchy of Lancaster today. In 1267 further lands were added to the inheritance namely the Honour and County of Lancaster, and Edmund was created as the first Earl of Lancaster. The inheritance became known as the Duchy of Lancaster. Although the Duchy of Lancaster name itself stems from 1267, the inheritance of lands go back to 1265. Pontefract Castle was incorporated into the Duchy on the death of Henry de Lacy in 1311.
25/10/1415	On 25th Oct 1415, Henry V defeated the French armies at the Battle of Agincourt. Following the battle, many of the defeated French nobles were brought to England in captivity, including the Duke of Orleans who was imprisoned at Pontefract Castle. Charles, Duke of Orleans, nephew of the French King Charles VI who was absent from the battlefield, was only twenty years old with no military experience and had arrived at Agincourt only the previous day. The duke was found beneath a pile of French dead. Estimates of the French dead were between 3,000 and 12,000 whilst English mortalities varied between 20 and 1,600 with only two of Henry V’s nobles killed: the Duke of York and Earl of Suffolk. Thomas Halliday, of Pontefract, commanded five hundred archers in Sir John Shirley's division of the English army at this battle.
25/10/1460	On 25th October 1460, the Act of Accord came into force following the Yorkist success at the battle of Northampton where King Henry VI was once again placed under Yorkist control. Through the Act of Accord, Parliament recognized Richard Duke of York's position (he had a strong claim to the throne and was King Edward III's great-grandson) and stipulated that, on the death of Henry VI, the crown would not pass to his son Edward but to the Duke of York and his heirs. This act would prove the catalyst for the great battles that would follow in the following months at Wakefield, St Albans, Mortimers Cross and Towton.
26/10/1326	On 26th October 1326, Henry of Lancaster, brother of the executed Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, and later to be lord of Pontefract, was made Constable of Abergavenny Castle in Monmouthshire, Wales by Edward II. Edward had been hoping to mobilise forces in Wales against the invading forces of Roger Mortimer, his wife Queen Isabella and his son Prince Edward (later Edward III).
26/10/1396	On 26th October 1396, Richard II met Charles VI of France near Ardres, outside Calais regarding his proposed marriage to Charles’ six-years-old daughter, Isabella of Valois; Richard was twenty-nine. John of Gaunt, lord of Pontefract, and the Duke of Gloucester escorted Charles’ brother, the Duke of Orleans and uncle, the Duke of Berry. After formal meetings on the following two days, Charles handed over Isabella to Richard on the 30th and she was escorted to the English camp by Gaunt’s and Gloucester’s duchesses, Katherine Swynford and Eleanor de Bohun.
27/10/1307	On 27th October 1307, after the funeral of Edward I, preparations were made for Sir Henry de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, to travel to France to oversee preparations for Edward II’s marriage to Isabella of France.
27/10/1326	On 27th October 1326, Hugh Despenser the Elder was hauled before a tribunal at Bristol including Roger Mortimer (Edward II’s wife’s lover), Henry of Lancaster, brother of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster (lord of Pontefract) and the king’s half-brothers, Kent and Norfolk. Despenser had been charged with holding Bristol to thwart Queen Isabella’s advance against her husband’s (EdwardII) forces; the siege lasted eight days. Despenser was not allowed to speak in his defence and was hanged, beheaded and his body fed to the dogs.
27/10/1396	On 27th October 1396, a summit of Richard II (Pontefract Castle’s most famous prisoner) and Charles VI of France began on land between Guînes and Ardres in two palisaded encampments each containing 120 pavilions. The midpoint of the two encampments was measured exactly so that neither king would walk a fraction more than the other.
27/10/1399	On 27th October 1399, Parliament met to hear the unanimous judgement by 58 lords on Richard (II) of Bordeaux. Two archbishops, thirteen bishops, seven abbots, Prince Henry, the Duke of York, six earls, twenty-four lords and four knights and Parliament agreed that Richard should be confined in isolation in perpetuity; he died imprisoned at Pontefract Castle.
28/10/1294	On 28th October 1294, Alice de Lacy and Thomas Earl of Lancaster married. Alice was 13 and Thomas about 16. The marriage was not successful and they lived quite separate lives. Whether they divorced or not (possibly in 1318) is debatable. During his lifetime Thomas had control of her inheritance from her father, Henry de Lacy. By the terms of their marriage settlement, the bulk of her great inheritance from her father, which included the earldom of Lincoln and many other estates, was to go to Thomas, with reversion to Thomas's heirs. Her father also came to an agreement with the king that should Alice have no children, her father's Earldom of Lincoln would pass into the royal family on her death.
28/10/1484	On 28th October 1484, Richard III, lord of Sandal, ordered the Earl of Oxford’s transfer from imprisonment in Hammes Castle, in the Calais Pale, to the more secure gaol at the Tower of London. John de Vere, Earl of Oxford, had proven a redoubtable opponent of the Yorkists for some time having escaped to France from the Battle of Barnet in April 1471 and, thereafter, orchestrated raids on Calais and the Essex coast, holding St Michael’s Mount for twenty-two months. Imprisoned in 1474 and attainted the following year, Oxford persuaded his gaoler to change his allegiance to Henry Tudor’s cause, thereby escaping and ultimately commanding part of Tudor’s army at the Battle of Bosworth.
28/10/1536	On 28th October 1536, Lord Darcy and Robert Aske, at Pontefract Castle, proclaimed a truce to the besieging ‘commons’ of the Pilgrimage of Grace and ordered the rebels to return home. Albeit their captains, Lord John Scrope, 8th Baron Scrope of Bolton, Sir Christopher Danby and others were willing to accept the truce, the rebels were reluctant to go home empty-handed but did eventually comply.
28/10/1631	On 28th October 1631, Sir Richard Beaumont died. He had been knighted by James I on 23rd July 1609, had been given a commission to command two hundred soldiers by James in 1613 and in 1618 was a justice of the peace and treasurer in aid of lame soldiers in the West Riding of Yorkshire. In 1625, he was returned as MP for Pontefract and in 1628 created a baronet by Charles I. His estates, including Whitley Beaumont and Sandal Castle were bequeathed to his cousin.
28/10/1648	A letter dated 28th October 1648 from York gave a graphic account of the siege and the Royalist activities at Pontefract Castle: ‘….They are very strong in Pontefract Castle, and go where they list; they are some 500 foot, and 140 horse; some 30 of them ride armed cap-a-pe. They are desperate men, and fall often on our guards; they have wounded Capt. Clayton…they have fallen on Major Ivers, wounded his lieutenant dangerously, killed ten on the place, took both horse and men, fell upon Capt. Greathead….They have since I came from London taken at least 200 head of cattle, above 100 oxen frm grasiers. They sound a parley for a cessation, and make a fair of their horses near the castle, and sell them to Sir Henry Cholmley’s troopers and in the cessation they drink to one another. …..They have and do take much salt, corn, beasts and horses from the country; they prepare for a better siege; ‘or this day Lieut.-General Cromwell is expected to come with forces to block them up…’ The tenet of this letter reflects very much feelings amongst many Parliamentarians that Colonel Cholmley was conducting the siege inadequately albeit his militia forces were mostly raw and untrained, with the castle’s major besieging forces having been re-assigned to assist Cromwell and Lambert in Lancashire.
28/10/1892	On 28th October 1892, ‘The Builder’ reported: ‘MASONIC LODGE FOR PONTEFRACT— Contracts have just been let for the erection of Masonic Lodge buildings in Ropergate, Pontefract. The buildings are to be built of brick, with terra-cotta panels and stone facings. On the upper storey will be a lodge-room, 34 ft. by 2: ft., with ante-rooms adjoining, and downstairs will be a dining-hall, 51 ft. by 21 ft., which may be also used for a ball-room, and will be fitted with movable partitions to make it into three small rooms for other purposes. A caretaker’s house will be attached. Mr. J. H. Greaves, of Pontefract, is the architect. The cost will be £1,000.’
29/10/1399	On 29th October 1399, Richard (II) of Bordeaux was secretly removed from the Tower of London and taken via various castles to Knaresborough and later Pontefract to be guarded by Robert Waterton and Thomas Swynford, trusted friends of Henry IV.
29/10/1536	On 29th October 1536, Henry VIII’s heralds (Chester and Carlisle) saw the last rebels of the Pilgrimage of Grace ‘disparple’ (disperse) at Pontefract Castle and make their way home over Ferrybridge. The heralds returned to Doncaster the same day where the Royalist Earl of Shrewsbury’s army was similarly disbanding.
29/10/1648	On 29th October 1648, Parliamentarian Vice Admiral Thomas Rainsborough died. In October 1648, Rainsborough was sent by his commander, Sir Thomas Fairfax, to the siege at Pontefract Castle. Whilst he was in nearby Doncaster, he was killed by four Royalists during a bungled kidnap attempt. Some historians dispute this, favouring  Cromwellian complicity in his death as, at the time, Rainsborough was at odds with certain sections of Parliament. The site is still marked today by a plaque outside of the House of Fraser. A quote by Rainsborough, which is an excerpt from the Putney Debates of autumn 1647, is in St Mary's Church in Putney  The full quote arguing for universal suffrage states: 'I think that the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live, as the greatest he; and therefore truly, Sir, I think it's clear, that every man that is to live under a government ought first by his own consent to put himself under that government; and I do think that the poorest man in England is not bound in a strict sense to that government that he hath not had a voice to put himself under.' Rainsborough was a Leveller, which was a political movement campaigning for people's equal rights.
30/10/1396	On Monday 30th October 1396, Isabella, daughter of Charles VI of France and wife of Richard II, Pontefract Castle's most famous prisoner, met him for the first time between Guînes and Ardres.
30/10/1711	On 30th October 1711, Pontefract Corporation made an order: ‘That Mr Waterhouse, the present Mayor, do make a warrant to some person who will take and collect the Toll of the boats that pass and repass on the river Aire, betwixt Knottingley and Temple Hurst. And that if any person refuse to pay the same, that the person so nominated and appointed distrain for the same. And that he be indemnified by the town for so doing…….the same shall be granted by lease to such persons in Trust….and that the profits thereof be and go to the public use of the Charity School of Pontefract.’ A set of rules for the management of the school was soon agreed. Initially, the school educated and clothed twenty-four boys and twelve girls.
31/10/1321	On 31st October 1321, John de Warenne - 7th Earl of Surrey and owner of Sandal Castle - was with King Edward II, at the fall of Leeds Castle in Kent. The castle had been besieged following Queen Isabella coming under attack from the battlements when she sought shelter on her pilgrimage to Canterbury. John was now clearly back in the king's favour, but his lands in Yorkshire - including Sandal Castle - which had been given up when he had been forced to come to terms with Thomas Earl of Lancaster in 1319, would for the time being, remain in the king's hands, even after John would be one of the lords that would pass the death sentence on Lancaster in March 1322 at his trial in the Great Hall at Pontefract Castle. John would spend the summers of 1322 and 1323 campaigning in Scotland.
31/10/1460	On 31st October 1460, Henry VI took an oath to abide by the Act of Accord (giving Richard, Duke of York, lord of Sandal Castle, and his heirs the crown on Henry’s death). All assembled lords similarly swore to accept Henry as king and York as heir to the realm and York and his sons, the Earls of March and Rutland, promised that they would not do anything ‘to cause or lead to the shortening of the natural life of King Henry VI’. York and his family were protected from claims of treasonable actions and allowed to act in Henry’s stead to ‘repress, subdue and pacify the realm’ against the king’s enemies. Not only was York paid to undertake this role but it effectively permitted him to lead an army against Henry’s wife, Queen Margaret, and her supporters. On this day, the vigils of All Hallows, York removed Henry from Westminster Palace against his will and put him in the Bishop of London’s Palace.
31/10/1903	On 31st October 1903, ‘The Builder’ magazine reported that eight tenders had been received ‘for the erection of a free library, Salter-row for the Corporation of Pontefract with ……….Henry Gundhill’s (of Pontefract) £1744 4s 8d accepted (£217,000 in today’s money)…… £150 (£18,650) allowed for wood block floors not included in the contract’

Last week in history

Date	Event
20/10/1445	On 20th October 1445, Richard, Duke of York (lord of Sandal Castle), returned to England at the end of his five-years’ appointment as Lieutenant-General and Governor of Normandy. Expecting to be re-appointed, York was ‘replaced’ by Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset on 24th December 1446 with York spending most of his time administering his estates on the Welsh border.
20/10/1484	On 20th October 1484, Richard III sent Nicholas Leventhorp a warrant to see that the house of Dame Margaret Moulton 'Anchres of Pountfret' and the chapel adjoining were newly 'redeified' at the king's costs. An annuity of 40s (nearly £1400 in today's money) plus restoration of rights to twenty acres of pasture to the Priory of St John were also made.
21/10/1449	Richard Duke of York's (lord of Sandal Castle)  son, George, Duke of Clarence, was born in Ireland, Tuesday 21st Oct 1449.
21/10/1536	On 21st October 1536, 40,0000 protesters under Robert Aske marched on Pontefract Castle during the Pilgrimage of Grace. On the same day, Sir Thomas Percy, Recorder of Lincoln and a leading figure in the Pilgrimage of Grace, arrived at Pontefract Castle with nearly ten thousand men from the north-east (Percy was also a participant in the Bigod Rebellion the following year and was to be hanged, drawn and quartered as a traitor at Tyburn on 2nd June 1537).  Lord Darcy, who was sheltering the Archbishop of York, Sir Robert Constable and some forty other gentlemen, later surrendered the castle without a fight. He later claimed that there was not enough gunpowder to fill a walnut shell and no firewood for cooking for his men. The Pilgrimage of Grace was a popular uprising that began in Yorkshire in October 1536 (but was pre-dated by a Lincolnshire rebellion), before spreading to other parts of Northern England including Cumberland, Northumberland and north Lancashire, under the leadership of lawyer, Robert Aske. The "most serious of all Tudor rebellions", it was a protest against Henry VIII's break with the Roman Catholic Church, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and the policies of the king's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, as well as other specific political, social and economic grievances. A list of "24 Articles", sometimes called "The Commons' Petition", was given to the Duke of Norfolk at Doncaster on December 6th. The rebels agreed to disband if the king reviewed the demands: a freely elected parliament at York acting on the same, and if the rebels received parliamentary pardon for taking part in the rebellion and for all acts committed during such. Norfolk received the articles with promises to present them to the king. He also promised a parliament at York and a general pardon to the rebels. Robert Aske announced these promises to the Pilgrims, and the rebels disbanded. Aske visited the king in London, but returned to York in January with nothing more than vague promises. In January 1537, rebels under Sir Francis Bigod, who had realized the king had no intention of respecting either the Pilgrims' demands, or the promises made to them, started a new uprising. This gave the king an excuse to violently stamp out the rebellion in the North and to renege on the promises made on his behalf by Norfolk.
22/10/1536	On 22nd October 1536, William Stapleton, a lawyer and compatriot of Robert Aske in the Pilgrimage of Grace, brought his East Riding (Beverley) forces to Pontefract Castle, having taken Hull for the rebels.
23/10/1453	On 23rd October 1453, after Duchess Cecily’s appeal to Queen Margaret to restore her husband, Richard, Duke of York’s (lord of Sandal Castle) to favour, York was sent a letter by nine councillors who were amongst those due to meet in November to resolve, amongst other matters, the possibility of a long minority for the infant Prince Edward. The councillors apologised for the oversight of York’s exclusion from the council and hoped he would join it ‘to set rest and union betwixt the lords of this land’. Margaret’s political involvement in this entreaty is suggested by four of the nine being closely attached to her.
23/10/1648	In late October 1648, Parliamentarian Captain Greathead was taken prisoner by Captain William Paulden and put in the dungeon (magazine) at Pontefract Castle. Once in captivity, however, he managed to hide the fact that he was an officer. He may well have been from Nottinghamshire and when Colonel Morris ransomed him in January 1649 he was still under the impression that Greathead was still a trooper.
24/10/1252	On 24th October 1252, as evidence of his favourable noble standing, Edmund de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, was awarded a gift of six deer by Henry III from the forest of Rockingham.
25/10/1154	On 25th October 1154 , King Stephen died and, when the reign of Henry Plantagenet,  Henry II, began on 19th December 1154, Henry allowed William of Blois, 4th Earl of Surrey and owner of Sandal castle, to retain the earldom of Surrey in right of his wife Isabel de Warenne. Many historical records (and indeed on this site) note the confusion around whether there were seven or  eight earls of Surrey who owned Sandal Castle. The answer is in fact seven, as both William of Blois and Hamelin de Plantagenet were both classed as the fourth earls due to their marriages to Isabel de Warenne, the 4th Countess of Surrey. On this date, William also succeeded as Count of Mortain, north-western France (jure patris, by right of his father).
25/10/1265	On 25th October 1265, the Duchy of Lancaster, of which Pontefract Castle is now a part, was formally created. The inheritance was created in this year by Henry III for his youngest son, Edmund. The original grant was made from lands forfeited by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester (1265) and those forfeited by Robert Ferrers, Earl of Derby were later added in 1266 (arising from the Barons’ War). These lands are still held by the Duchy of Lancaster today. In 1267 further lands were added to the inheritance namely the Honour and County of Lancaster, and Edmund was created as the first Earl of Lancaster. The inheritance became known as the Duchy of Lancaster. Although the Duchy of Lancaster name itself stems from 1267, the inheritance of lands go back to 1265. Pontefract Castle was incorporated into the Duchy on the death of Henry de Lacy in 1311.
25/10/1415	On 25th Oct 1415, Henry V defeated the French armies at the Battle of Agincourt. Following the battle, many of the defeated French nobles were brought to England in captivity, including the Duke of Orleans who was imprisoned at Pontefract Castle. Charles, Duke of Orleans, nephew of the French King Charles VI who was absent from the battlefield, was only twenty years old with no military experience and had arrived at Agincourt only the previous day. The duke was found beneath a pile of French dead. Estimates of the French dead were between 3,000 and 12,000 whilst English mortalities varied between 20 and 1,600 with only two of Henry V’s nobles killed: the Duke of York and Earl of Suffolk. Thomas Halliday, of Pontefract, commanded five hundred archers in Sir John Shirley's division of the English army at this battle.
25/10/1460	On 25th October 1460, the Act of Accord came into force following the Yorkist success at the battle of Northampton where King Henry VI was once again placed under Yorkist control. Through the Act of Accord, Parliament recognized Richard Duke of York's position (he had a strong claim to the throne and was King Edward III's great-grandson) and stipulated that, on the death of Henry VI, the crown would not pass to his son Edward but to the Duke of York and his heirs. This act would prove the catalyst for the great battles that would follow in the following months at Wakefield, St Albans, Mortimers Cross and Towton.
26/10/1326	On 26th October 1326, Henry of Lancaster, brother of the executed Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, and later to be lord of Pontefract, was made Constable of Abergavenny Castle in Monmouthshire, Wales by Edward II. Edward had been hoping to mobilise forces in Wales against the invading forces of Roger Mortimer, his wife Queen Isabella and his son Prince Edward (later Edward III).
26/10/1396	On 26th October 1396, Richard II met Charles VI of France near Ardres, outside Calais regarding his proposed marriage to Charles’ six-years-old daughter, Isabella of Valois; Richard was twenty-nine. John of Gaunt, lord of Pontefract, and the Duke of Gloucester escorted Charles’ brother, the Duke of Orleans and uncle, the Duke of Berry. After formal meetings on the following two days, Charles handed over Isabella to Richard on the 30th and she was escorted to the English camp by Gaunt’s and Gloucester’s duchesses, Katherine Swynford and Eleanor de Bohun.

Next week in history

Date	Event
3/11/1311	On 3rd November 1311, Piers Gaveston, court favourite of Edward II and recently created King’s Lieutenant in Scotland, sailed into exile at the instigation of the Lords Ordainers, foremost amongst them being Thomas of Lancaster, lord of Pontefract. The English nobility’s general detestation of Gaveston was only reflected in one of the forty-one Ordinances they had imposed on Edward II, the rest concerning his public duty as a king. Unfortunately, Edward’s ‘infatuation’ with Gaveston was precipitating civil war.
3/11/1315	On 5th October 1315, Sir John Lilburn, Thomas, Earl of Lancaster’s (lord of Pontefract) retainer, seized Knaresborough Castle, which Roger Damory had held for the king since December 1314. Alton Castle in Staffordshire, also in Damory’s custody, was evidently attacked at the same time, for on 3rd November Lancaster was ordered to deliver both the castles to the sheriffs of the respective counties. Knaresborough was held by the Earl’s men until 29th January 1316, having come under siege from William Roos of Helmsley, John Mowbray, John Marmion, Ralph de Bulmer, John Fauconberg, Simon Ward, and other Yorkshire magnates assembled by the sheriff (an interesting reflection of the opposition to Lancaster among a section of the northern baronage). Lilburn himself was pardoned in March. Once again Lancaster’s power had been demonstrated.
3/11/1318	On 3rd November 1318, King Edward II issued a Parliamentary writ ordering Thomas of Lancaster to cease attacking the Yorkshire Castles of John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey. One personal reason for Lancaster’s vendetta against de Warren had been that, in 1317, his wife Alice had been carried off from Cranford in Dorset, to Reigate by a knight of the Earl of Warenne, “not, however, by way of adultery, but in contempt of the Earl”. The king offered to do justice in the dispute towards Lancaster if he would desist. The chronicle of St. Werburgh's, Chester, records the devastation of all Warenne's lands north of the River Trent at this time.
3/11/1648	On 3rd November 1648, Oliver Cromwell came back to Pontefract (where he had been around the 10th of August) during its third siege, fresh from his victory at Preston (17th-19th August) over Royalist and Scots’ forces commanded by the Duke of Hamilton. His main aim was to prevent any more sallies from the garrison by Royalist forces. He spent about two weeks there before being called south on matters concerning the king’s trial.
4/11/1250	On 4th November 1250, Edmund de Lacy, later lord of Pontefract, was awarded a grant for a weekly market to move from Thursday to Sunday in his Bradford manor and two days later was pardoned for misdemeanours committed in the royal forest.
4/11/1359	On 4th November 1359, Edward III’s army moved out of Calais in three columns to begin torching the countryside of Artois and Picardy. Prince Edward (The Black Prince) and Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster, lord of Pontefract, commanded the other two columns.
4/11/1396	On 4th November 1396, Isabella of Valois became Richard II's second wife. Richard was twenty-nine years old and Isabella was just six years old. John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and lord of Pontefract, oversaw the finalisation of the marriage agreement with the Duke of Burgundy. Later in 1406, after Richard's death, Isabella married her cousin Charles, Duke of Orléans. She was sixteen and he was eleven. Coincidentally, Richard II died at Pontefract Castle and the Duke of Orléans was imprisoned at the castle for many years.
4/11/1461	On 4th November 1461, a nine-years-old Richard, brother of Edward IV, soon to be steward of the Duchy of Lancaster north of Trent with official residence at Pontefract Castle, was created Duke of Gloucester. The title was highly significant because of its association with the youngest sons of previous kings (Edward III’s, Henry IV’s) and, in Edward’s eyes bolstered the legitimacy of his claim to the throne by identifying his father (Richard, Duke of York) as a rightful king.
4/11/1648	On 4th November 1648, during the third siege of Pontefract Castle, Cromwell took up headquarters at Byram Hall at Brotherton. (The hall is now mostly demolished apart from a service wing which is grade II listed)
5/11/1237	In early November 1237, John de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, along with Simon de Montfort, on the authorisation of Henry III, acted as bodyguards to the papal legate, Otto of Tonengo, whilst he presided over the synod at St Paul’s, which adopted reforms in line with the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215. Dissatisfied clerics were wary of their wealth being threatened.
5/11/1328	On 5th November 1328, Henry, Earl of Lancaster and lord of Pontefract, wrote to the Mayor of London intimating that he knew of the survival of the Earl of Kent’s half-brother, (purportedly murdered) Edward II. The Memoranda Rolls of London noted that after the parliament at Winchester which ended on 31st October that year and at which neither Kent nor Lancaster had attended, Lancaster stated that ‘the earl of Kent had made certain communications to him which he could not put in writing, but which the bearer would report by word of mouth.’
6/11/1450	On 6th November 1450, Henry VI opened his parliament in London, a scene for a bitter contest between his regime and the Commons, coalescing around Richard, Duke of York (lord of Sandal Castle). Allegations of maladministration, corruption and traitorous acts were being bandied around with calls for reform of government; some even pinned to the doors of Westminster Hall and St Paul’s Cathedral. Streams of embittered soldiers and dispossessed refugees from Normandy added to the turmoil. A Bristol lawyer, Thomas Young, petitioned the Commons for York to be nominated Henry’s heir.
7/11/1309	On 7th November 1309, Edward II visited Thomas, Earl of Lancaster’s, manor at Pontefract.
7/11/1448	Richard Duke of York's (lord of Sandal Castle) son, John, was born at Neyte (modern day Knightsbridge)  on Thursday 7th November 1448.
7/11/1485	On 7th November 1485, the first Parliament of Henry VII’s reign began delegitimizing the tenure of Richard III, lord of Sandal, and twenty-eight of his supporters, by attainder. Henry insisted on dating Richard’s attainder to 21st August 1485, the day before the Battle of Bosworth, resulting in all those who had fought Richard’s cause committing treason. Excerpts from the attainder read: ‘….our sovereign lord,…..not oblivious or unmindful of the unnatural, wicked and great perjuries, treasons, homicides and murders, in shedding infants’ blood (our emphasis)…..and abominations against God and man….done by Richard, late Duke of Gloucester, calling and naming himself, by usurpation, King Richard III, ……….within the said county of Leicester…traitorously levied war against our said sovereign lord and his true subjects…..to the overthrow of this realm and its common weal..’
7/11/1648	On 7th November 1648, a Council of War at Pontefract Castle determined: 7th die Novembr’ 1648 By Col: Marris Governor & Presidt., Jo: Dygby Kt., Hugh Cartwright Kt., Col: Washington, Mr Roger Portington, Col: Wheatley, Col: Portington, Lt. Co. : Ashton, Mr Thimelby, Mr Bently, Mr Rearesbie, Capt. Wm Paulden, Capt. Benson, Capt. Wentworth, Capt. Ashbie, Capt. Marris. It was debated whether the Garrison of Newhall bee tenible, or noe, being putt to Vote it was carried in the negative, and it was further Ordered that it bee sett on fire, and made vnserviceable for the enimie and that this night followeing Mr Thimelby stay in the house wth sixteene or twenty souldjers : that Col: Wheatley draw forth the rest to Monke-hill ; and if there bee any app’ache of the enemie that they draw off to this Garrison. THE RULES FOR THE GARRISON. First. That ye Governor wth all other ye Ofiicers, Soldiers. Gentlemen & there servants and all others wthin this Castle haue passes wth free liberty to march away wth there horses pistolls & swords wth Bagg & Baggage to there severall habitations, there to remaine wth protections & freed from all Oaths & Covenants which they shall conceave contrary to their Consciences. 2 That the Governor, Officers, Soldiers, Gentlemen or any others belonging to this Castle shall not bee sued or molested either att ye Common law, Civill or Marti all Law for any Acts or words said or donne vnto any person or persons in relation to these vnhappy differences since the year 1641. 3 That ye Governor, Officers, Soldiers, Gentlemen or others beelonging to this Castle shall not bee sequestred in there lands or goods, and yt if any of them bee sequestred yt ye sequestration bee taken of imiately vpon ye Surrender of this Castle. 4 That ye Governor, Officers, Soldiers, Gentlemen or any others beelonging to this Castle vpon any of there desiers shall haue liberty wth passes to goe beyond the seas, and to take wth them, if yt please, there wifes & children and there owne goods anytime wthin six monethes after the rendeldo' of this Castle. 5 That all Officers & Soldiers beelonging to this Castle vpon the delivering vp of there armes shall receave a moneths pay to beare there charges home or els to haue free quarter by ye way, and yt noe foote bee compelled to march aboue 8 miles in one day in his iorney. 6 That all wounded or sick person who are not able to march, haue quarters assigned to them, wth allowance for maintenance of free quarter vntil they shalbee able to march and then to have passes wth mony of free quarter in there iorney as in the former Article. 7 That ye Governor's wife wth his children & family, wth all other gent'women, women, children & weak person haue passes to goe to there severall habitations wth there Baggs & Bayggage the day beefore the rendition of the Castle and yt they haue a convoy appointed y'em to secure there passage home. 8 That all prisoners on Pomphrett or els wheare taken since this seege for any thing in relation to this garrison shalbe sett att liberty vpon the rendition thereof and haue the benifitt of these articles. 9 That vpon Complaint made to a major General Lambert hee is to take order that restituition & satisfaction bee made to any person damnified or prediudiced contrary to ye true intent & meang of these Articles. And if ye breach of any Article bee laid vpon the person or persons offending and not imputed to there whole party. 10 That every Townsman of Pontefract or other Gent: or Contriman may haue leave the day before the rendition of ye Castle, to come to, receave there bedding or any other there goods in ye Castle and yt yy may take the same away. 12 That hereupon the Castle of Pomphrett wth all ye Cannon, Armes, Ammunitions together wth all other ye provisions bee delivered to Maior Generall Lambert or to such as ye Parlament or hee shall appoint att or vpon the feast of St John Baptist comonly called Midsomener day next, if in ye meane time wee bee not released by an Army.
8/11/1345	On 8th November 1345, Henry of Grosmont, Earl of Derby, 4th Earl of Lancaster, and lord of Pontefract, oversaw the fall of the crucial fortified town of La Reole on the Garonne in the Hundred Years War. The starving, besieged citadel surrendered in January 1346. Such was the lucrative nature of ransoms paid for captured prisoners, that Grosmont alone was reported to have personally accrued £50,000 (over £74 million in today’s money) from an ‘encounter’ at Auberoche the previous month.
9/11/1215	On 9th November 1215, William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey and owner of Sandal Castle, was Joint Envoy to the Barons and citizens of London concerning King John’s difficulties over Magna Carta.
9/11/1427	On 9th November 1427, Malise Graham, Earl of Menteith (formally Strathern), became one of the hostages (later held at Pontefract Castle) for the payment of the ransom of King James I of Scotland.
9/11/1477	On 9th November 1477, Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III), lord of Sandal, shortly after Edward, Prince of Wales’ seventh birthday, led the other lords of the Council in offering loyalty to the prince. After a dinner hosted in Edward’s honour, Gloucester is said to have ‘gone on both knees…put his hand between the prince’s hands…to do him homage for such lands as he had of him and so kissed him.’ Edward thanked ‘his said uncle that it liked him to do it so humbly.’
9/11/1530	On 9th November 1530, ex-Cardinal Wolsey (but still Archbishop of York) arrived at the Cluniac Priory in Pontefract from Cawood Castle, accompanied by Henry Percy, 6th the Earl of Northumberland. Wolsey had earlier been stripped of his government office and property, and arrested on a charge of high treason. It was probable that he was intended for execution and was on his way to Sheffield to be given into the custody of the Earl of Shrewsbury. Cavendish notes ‘every thoroughfare was blocked up with a living mass of human beings who…craved his blessing as he rode by them’. He reached Sheffield around the 25th and died at Leicester Abbey on the 29th/ 30th November.
9/11/1648	On 9th November 1648, Oliver Cromwell sent a summons to Colonel John Morris, leader of the besieged Royalist forces within Pontefract Castle, to surrender or see the castle stormed: “Being come hither for the reduction of this place, I thought fit to summon you to deliver your garrison to me, for the use of the Parliament. Those gentlemen and soldiers with you may have better terms than if you should hold it to extremity. I expect your answer this day”.