- Pontefract Castle 14th Century
- 1309 - The Chronicle of Lanercost records that on 29th September 1309: ‘Howbeit, after the feast of S. Michael some kind of peace and agreement was patched up between the King of England and his people, on condition that the king should do nothing important without the advice and consent of the Earl of Lincoln (Henry de Lacy, lord of Pontefract); but from day to day the king, by gifts and promises, drew to his side some of the earls and barons.’
- 1314 - The household book of Thomas Earl of Lancaster, preserved in the record of Pontefract, shows the amount of disbursements for domestic expenses for one year from Michaelmas (9th Sept) 1314 to 29th September 1315. Thomas had now amassed such great wealth and estates that he was virtually the most powerful man in England. An indication of his wealth can be seen from a year's expenses totalling £7,957 13s. 4 1/2 d (£8.7 million in today's money). This compared to King Edward II's expenses for one year of £8,310 9s (£9.04 million in today's money).
- 1316 - The Chronicle of Lanercost records that: ‘After the feast of S. Michael on the 29th September 1316, the Earl of Lancaster (lord of Pontefract) with his adherents marched toward Scotland as far as Newcastle in compliance with the king's behest; but the king declined to follow him as they had agreed upon together, wherefore the earl marched back again at once ; for neither of them put any trust in the other.’
- 1370 - On 29th September 1370, five-years-old Edward, eldest son of the Black Prince, died of plague at Angouleme and all authority was passed to John of Gaunt, lord of Pontefract. Gaunt was accepted as the new Lord (Lieutenant) of Aquitaine by its nobles’ ceremony of homage de bouche (a kiss binding them to help Gaunt in the defence of his lands).
- 1397 - On 29th September 1397, two of John of Gaunt’s, lord of Pontefract, children by his first and third marriages, were given titles by Richard II in a series of mass creations of peerages. Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby, was made Duke of Hereford and John Beaufort, Marquess of Somerset and Marquess of Dorset.
- 1399 - On 29th September 1399, a delegation headed by the Earl of Northumberland, visited Richard II in the Tower of London, for the second time, seeking the king’s resignation; Richard having deliberated over a copy of his resignation overnight. Richard was later to become Pontefract Castle’s most famous prisoner. Later that day Henry Bolingbroke (at Richard’s request) visited Richard and informed him he must resign simply and without conditions except for being able to retain the lands he had acquired in order to endow an anniversary for his soul in Westminster Abbey.
- Pontefract Castle 17th Century
- 1644 - For 29th December 1644, Nathan Drake, diarist, recorded: ‘those 11 men & boyes having been 5 daies in the steeple without meat or drinke (both being left in the Church by the beseegers suddeyne approach) they Came all down the west end of the Church by a roape at wch time Joshua Walker (their Captin) was shott into the thigh (but since recovered) and one other of them killed in the Churchyeard. All the rest escaped without any hurt at all….’