This Coming Week In History

This week in history

Date	Event
12/4/1471	On 12th April 1471, the exiled Edward IV held a council of war at Baynard’s Castle with Richard, Duke of Gloucester and lord of Sandal, and his brother, George, Duke of Clarence. Many Yorkist supporters emerged from sanctuary (Commyns stated 2,000) to help Edward in his conflict with the Earl of Warwick and Queen Margaret of Anjou (then in France with her son, Prince Edward). The Battle of Barnet was two days away.
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.
14/4/1361	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.
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.
15/4/1296	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.
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.
15/4/1588	On 15th April 1588, the Earl of Huntingdon, Lord-President of the North, wrote to the Justices of the Peace of the West Riding assembled at Pontefract regarding the expected Spanish invasion, requesting the provision of arms and erection of beacons.
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.
15/4/1896	On 15th April 1896, the ‘Victoria Daily Times’, British Columbia, reported the death of the last of the pot-wallopers Richard Atkinson, at Pontefract at the age of ninety-seven. ‘The Antiquary’ noted in May that year: ‘A break with the past of a curious kind is announced from Pontefract in Yorkshire. It is the death of the last “ pot-walloper” in that town a short time ago. A “pot-walloper” was another name for a pot-boiler, and signified a person who was entitled to the Parliamentary franchise by virtue of owning a free-hold hearth on which to “ wallop” or boil his pot. The “pot-wallopers” were a numerous class before the passing of the Reform Act of 1832. They claimed to vote for a member of Parliament because they had boiled their own pot in the parish for six months. The Doncaster Chronicle supplements this information with further particulars. “ ‘The pot’,” we are told, “was an iron pan with three legs, and it was suspended by a chain from an iron bar fastened in the chimney. The pot was familiar enough twenty or thirty years ago in remote parts of Yorkshire, where the ‘ pot-walloper’ and his vote would suggest the idea that, in days gone by, it was considered an accomplishment for a man to have a knowledge of the culinary art, since the contents of the pot consisted of  huge pieces of beef and bacon, with carrots, turnips, potatoes, onions, and the now almost forgotten dumpling, but erstwhile a favourite dish in Yorkshire.” The “ pot-walloper,” however, was not confined to the North of England, but existed in varying numbers all over the country. The race has now become extinct by the recent death of the last of them at Pontefract..’
16/4/1247	In April 1247, John de Warenne, son of William de Warenne, (who had succeeded to his father's estates in 1240), married Alice de Lusignan, King Henry III's half sister. This marriage created resentment among the English nobility who did not like seeing a rich earl married to a penniless foreigner. John was the most warlike of all the Warenne earls and was largely responsible for the design of Sandal Castle in it's finished state.
16/4/1537	On 16th April 1537, Lord Darcy, Constable of Pontefract Castle during the previous year’s Pilgrimage of Grace, was examined at the Lord Chancellor’s house regarding accusations of treason for his (in)actions in the rebellion at Pontefract. His opening remarks to his examiners were defiant:’ I am here now at your pleasure; ye may do your pleasure with me. I have read that men that have been in cases like with their prince as ye be now have come at the last to the same end that ye would now bring me unto. And so may ye come to the same.’ He accused Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey and, most probably his father, the Duke of Norfolk, but directed his most bitter challenge to Thomas Cromwell, Lord Privy Seal : “ Cromwell, it is thou that art the very original and chief causer of all this rebellion and mischief, and art likewise causer of the apprehension of us that be noble men and dost daily earnestly travail to bring us to our end and to strike off our heads, and I trust that or thou die, though thou wouldst procure all the noblemen’s heads within the realm to be stricken off, yet shall there one head remain that shall strike off thy head”.
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.
16/4/1939	On 16th April 1939, before the outbreak of World War II, six thousand people attended a National Service Rally in Pontefract Castle grounds. The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer reported that this “rendered conscription unnecessary”.
17/4/1194	On 17th April 1194, Hamelin de Plantagenet - 4th Earl of Surrey and owner of Sandal Castle - carried one of the three swords at the second coronation of Richard I at Winchester Cathedral, on Richard's return from Germany.
17/4/1239	On 17th April 1239, William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey and lord of Sandal, was with, amongst others, John de Lacy, the Earls of Derby, Hereford and Essex, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishops of Bath, Exeter, Ely, Lincoln, Worcester and Carlisle at the opening of Parliament when a charter was confirmed granting Amaury de Montfort’s transfer to his younger brother Simon of the rights and earldom of Leicester. This was to become a foundation for Simon’s later ‘parliamentary forays’ against Henry III.
17/4/1264	On 17th April 1264, John de Warenne , lord of Sandal, was garrison commander at Rochester castle, supporting Henry III in the Second Barons' War. At the start of the troubles in 1258, John had supported the King but later in 1261 changed sides to support Simon de Montfort, then two years later changed back to supporting the King at the Battle of Lewes in May 1264.
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.
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.
18/4/1803	On 18th April 1803, 42 magistrates at Pontefract in Session passed the following resolution:’ not to apprentice parish children to the owners of cotton mills where they had to engage in night work, or work for an unreasonable number of hours a day.’

Last week in history

Date	Event
6/4/1199	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.
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.
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.
7/4/1270	The only part of Sandal Castle that can be dated exactly is the Barbican Tower, which was outside the main defensive keep but inside the defended courtyard. In the financial accounts of the local officials for the year 1270-71, it is mentioned that there is a supply of timber for building and scaffolding at the barbican. The Barbican Tower formed a stepping stone between the courtyard and the keep. Any attackers had to cross a drawbridge to reach it, then pass through its first gate that was protected by a portcullis, then turn through a right-angled passage, before having to deal with at least one other portcullis-protected gate within the tower. They would then have to cross a second drawbridge to reach the drum towers at the base of the keep. Finally, they would then have to ascend a stone staircase up the motte before reaching the keep, whilst being attacked from above.
7/4/1317	In April 1317,  John de Warenne, owner of Sandal Castle, had a bitter quarrel with his neighbour at Pontefract, Thomas Earl of Lancaster. A squire in John de Warenne's service abducted Alice de Lacy, the wife of Thomas, from her manor at Canford in Dorset, to John's castle at Reigate in Surrey. Questions were raised by contemporary chroniclers over the degree to which Alice may have been complicit in the kidnap. The disreputable Warenne is thought to have carried out the abduction in order to humiliate Thomas, who had helped block de Warenne's divorce. In the summer of 1317, Thomas took his revenge by capturing Sandal and Conisbrough Castles and occupied their lands.  The castle would remain in Thomas' hands until his defeat at the Battle of Boroughbridge on 16th March 1322. John regained the castle in 1326 but it was only granted to him until his death, when it reverted to the Crown. John  died in 1347, and the castle passed to the king.
7/4/1537	On 7th April 1537, Lord Darcy, Constable of Pontefract Castle during the previous year’s Pilgrimage of Grace, was committed to the Tower of London, accused of treason.
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.
8/4/1435	On 8th April 1435, Lord John Clifford, 9th Baron Clifford, was born. He was the son of Thomas Clifford, the 8th baron, who was killed by the army of Richard Duke of York at the 1st Battle of St Albans. Clifford would have his revenge by the slaying of the second son of Richard, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, on Chantry Bridge, Wakefield, following the Yorkist defeat at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460. Clifford would be labelled a ‘tyrant and no gentleman’.
8/4/1483	On 8th April 1483, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, lord of Sandal, had oaths of loyalty taken by various nobles to Edward V after his father’s death (Edward IV) earlier that month. Although reports have been made that Edward died on the 9th April, it is unclear exactly on which date this occurred as, reputedly, news reached the Mayor of York on the 6th of this event with a requiem mass in York on the 8th.
8/4/1537	On 8th April 1537, Henry VIII ordered the Duke of Norfolk to seize the lands and papers of Lord Darcy, Constable of Pontefract Castle during the previous year’s Pilgrimage of Grace.
9/4/1139	On 9th April 1139, the Treaty of Durham (Peace of Carlisle) was concluded between King Stephen of England and David I of Scotland. David and his son Henry were handed Carlisle, Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire north of the Ribble except the castles of Bamburgh and Newcastle with Henry made Earl of Northumberland. This treaty, agreed by Stephen to avoid fighting on two fronts against Empress Matilda’s invasion, unfortunately could not avert the impending civil war later to be called The Anarchy. As part of ‘the deal’, Prince Henry of Scotland was given the hand in marriage of Ada, daughter of William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey and lord of Sandal Castle. Their issue included two kings of Scotland: Malcolm IV and William I (The Lion).
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.’
9/4/1445	On 9th April 1445, Richard, Duke of York, lord of Sandal, and Lieutenant-General and Governor of Normandy, arrived at Honfleur from Rouen accompanying Margaret of Anjou on her journey to be married to Henry VI on 23rd April.
9/4/1484	On 9th April 1484, Richard III’s son, Edward, died. He was about ten years old and his death threw Richard and his Queen, Anne Neville,  into a state of near madness. As a usurper of the throne, Richard needed an heir to guarantee the security of the succession. Richard had fathered many illegitimate sons including one John of Pontefract, but Edward was the only one who could be accepted as the heir to the crown. His death was therefore catastrophic for Richard. Following his death and realising the danger to his  future succession, Richard had Edward 17th Earl of Warwick and the son of his elder brother George Duke of Clarence ( who had been executed in 1478) and Isabel Neville, sent to his residence at Sheriff Hutton. John de la Pole,  Earl of Lincoln, Richard's nephew and son of his elder sister, Elizabeth, would be preferred to Edward and would be chosen to supersede Edward’s position in the north and he would rule on the king's behalf from Sandal Castle, which had been chosen as the headquarters of the  Council of the North.
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.
10/4/1308	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.
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.
10/4/2015	On 10th April 2015, an episode of 'Flog It' was broadcast on BBC1, which showed British antiques dealer and presenter, Paul Martin, visiting Pontefract Castle
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.
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).
12/4/1471	On 12th April 1471, the exiled Edward IV held a council of war at Baynard’s Castle with Richard, Duke of Gloucester and lord of Sandal, and his brother, George, Duke of Clarence. Many Yorkist supporters emerged from sanctuary (Commyns stated 2,000) to help Edward in his conflict with the Earl of Warwick and Queen Margaret of Anjou (then in France with her son, Prince Edward). The Battle of Barnet was two days away.
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.

Next week in history

Date	Event
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.
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].’
20/4/1483	On 20th April 1483, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, lord of Sandal, set out from Middleham Castle, north-west of York, with only 300 men and accepted an offer from Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, based in his Marcher lordship at Brecon, to meet him en route. Buckingham also apparently had around 300 men. They arranged to meet at Northampton on their way to London after news of the death of Edward IV.
20/4/1484	On 20th April 1484, Richard III, lord of Sandal, and Queen Anne were at Nottingham Castle when news reached them of the death of their son at Middleham, Edward, Prince of Wales. The Crowland Chronicle suggested that his death was not anticipated: ‘this only son….was seized with an illness of but short duration…..you might have seen his father and mother in a state almost bordering on madness, by reason of their sudden grief.’ Richard and Anne reached Middleham on 5th May. In addition to the parents’ grief, the destabilising effect on Richard’s reign and Yorkist dynasty was profound.
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.
21/4/1194	On 21st April 1194, Roger de Lacy, Constable of Chester, legally acquired the lands of Robert de Lacy, viz the honours of Pontefract and Clitheroe, by virtue of an agreement with his grandmother, Albreda (Aubrey) de Lisours.
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?
22/4/1444	Richard Duke of York's (lord of Sandal Castle) daughter, Elizabeth, was born at Rouen on Saturday 22nd April 1444. The photo shows Elizabeth's effigy St Andrew's parish church, Wingfield, Suffolk.
22/4/1472	On 22nd April 1472, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, lord of Sandal, was given papal dispensation to marry Anne Neville as they were related within four degrees: they shared descent from Ralph, Earl of Westmorland, and Joan Beaufort and were both descended from Edmund of Langley.
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.
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.
23/4/1144	On 23rd April 1144, the Castle of Rouen, the Duchy of Normandy’s capital city, garrisoned by William de Warenne, 3rd Earl of Surrey and owner of Sandal castle, surrendered to Count Geoffrey of Anjou, husband of Empress Matilda, after a three months’ siege. Geoffrey was soon invested as Duke of Normandy, ceding Gisors and the Vexin to Louis VII of France in return for his recognising Geoffrey as the new Duke.
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).
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…’
24/4/1483	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.
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…’
24/4/1885	On 24th April 1885, Thomas William Tew JP of Carleton Grange, Pontefract, was installed as Right Worshipful Provincial Grand Master for the West Riding of Yorkshire (for the Most Ancient and Honourable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons of England) at the Albert Hall, Leeds. This was by command of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, its Grand Master on 10th January that year.
25/4/1341	On 25th April 1341, Archbishop Stratford of Canterbury, was refused entry to Edward III’s parliament in the Painted Chamber at Westminster, sparking the so-called ‘Crisis of 1341’. Stratford had lambasted the king for his ‘tyrannical’ behaviour and forbade the payment of clerical taxation; even threatening excommunication. Edward had charged the archbishop with treason and informed the pope that the archbishop’s exile was being considered. John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey and owner of Sandal Castle, bravely smoothed the way for Stratford’s welcome back into the king’s favour by arguing that the parliament as then constituted was illegitimate as some attendees should not be present and some who should be leading proceedings were barred.
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)
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.