- Pontefract Castle 14th Century
- 1381 - On 12th June 1381, from Blackheath in London, the rebel leaders of the Peasants’ Revolt sent a petition to Richard II demanding the heads of men they considered traitors. John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and lord of Pontefract Castle, was at the top of the list.
- Pontefract Castle 15th Century
- 1475 - On 12th June 1475, Richard, brother of Edward IV, Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III) and steward of the Duchy of Lancaster north of Trent with official residence at Pontefract Castle, was granted the lordships and manors of Skipton and Marton, previously owned by Lord Clifford who had reputedly killed Edmund, Earl of Rutland (Richard’s elder brother) after the Battle of Wakefield and had died fighting for Henry VI at Ferrybridge in 1461.
- Pontefract Castle 17th Century
- 1645 -
On 12th June 1645, Parliament's Lord Fairfax and Colonel General Poyntz came from York with a guard of four troops of horse but returned back to York in the evening. The besieged Royalists kept possession of the Low Church, regularly relieving the guard. The next day, Colonel General Poyntz came to Pontefract again and took command. The besieged Royalists, in order to relieve their guards at the Low Church without danger, began a trench from the East gate and continued it down the churchyard. They also made blinds of boughs and sods from the church to Mr Kelham's house to the south of the church. Under cover of this, they cut grass for their cattle bringing in a hundred burdens into the castle. The besiegers relieved their guard at the New Hall the next day with three hundred and twenty men from the town. Poyntz would eventually accept the garrison's surrender. - Pontefract Castle 20th Century
- 1924 - On 12th June 1924, a fete organised by local tradesmen was held in the grounds of Pontefract Castle on behalf of the building fund of the Pontefract Infirmary and Dispensary.
- Sandal Castle 13th Century
- 1261 - On 12th June 1261, John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey and lord of Sandal, joined Simon de Montfort, the Earls of Gloucester and Norfolk, Norfolk’s brother Hugh Bigod and Hugh Despenser in uniting against Henry III’s rejection of the Provisions of Oxford. Henry had sought Pope Alexander IV’s support in invalidating the Provisions (demanding Henry’s powers be subject to a Council of Fifteen) as an oath that had been forced upon the king ‘by a kind of compulsion’. Henry had published the papal letters on this day in his great hall at Winchester, the feast of Whitsun, one of the three feast days during the year (the others being Easter and Christmas) when the kings of England traditionally summoned their nobles for assembly and feasting.
- Sandal Castle 14th Century
- 1334 - On 12th June 1334, John de Warenne - 7th and last Earl of Surrey and owner of Sandal Castle - was in Newcastle, to witness his cousin, Edward Balliol, cede much of Scotland south of the Firth of Forth, to King Edward III. It was in 1334 that John finally recovered ownership of Sandal Castle from royal hands. He would continue in ownership of Sandal Castle until his death in June 1347.
- Sandal Castle 15th Century
- 1482 - On 12th June 1482, Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III), lord of Sandal, was made commander of the English army invading Scotland. This act followed a treaty signed at Fotheringhay the previous day in which the Duke of Albany, Alexander Stewart, declared himself to be King of Scotland and pledged his loyalty to Edward IV, hoping to overturn the rule of Albany’s brother, James III, in Scotland. With Gloucester, Albany marched at the head of one of the largest English armies assembled (20,000 men). Berwick was seized (the last time it would change hands between England and Scotland) and Edinburgh besieged but Gloucester quit the latter on 11th August. Albany became acting Lieutenant-General of the realm but died in a duel in France in 1485.
- Sandal Castle 19th Century
- 1887 - On 12th June 1887, a cannon ball weighing 10lb 2oz was discovered on Sandal Castle hill.
