- Pontefract Castle 14th Century
- 1392 - On 11th May 1392, John of Gaunt’s, lord of Pontefract, party arrived at Calais en route to Gaunt meeting Charles VI of France at Amiens. Negotiations surrounded the Duchy of Aquitaine with agreement that it should contain Agenais, Perigord, Quercy and Rouerge, and Angouleme which had all been re-conquered by Charles V. The French were to retain Poitou and the Limousin. Gaunt would hold the territories as a hereditary appanage (perquisite) with direct homage by him as duke to the King of France thereby obviating the King of England having to perform ‘liege homage’ to another sovereign and so diminishing his authority.
- Pontefract Castle 15th Century
- 1402 - On 11th May 1402, Henry IV wrote to the prior of the Dominicans at Oxford warning him to restrain his preachers from broadcasting that Richard II, who had ‘died’ at Pontefract Castle in February 1400, was still alive.
- Pontefract Castle 17th Century
- 1645 - On 11th May 1645, Nathan Drake, Royalist diarist, recorded: ‘This day being Sunday, we had 2 learned Sermonds, the one by Doctor Bradlay, the other by Mr Oley (as we have everySonday 2)…..allso we had one of our men was looking out of a Porthole on the Round Tower (A wright by trade), & seldome using to Come thether, but he was shott thorow the Arms, and though at a weekes end full of payne yet there is no signe of his death. We had also a boy about 9 yeares of age (as he was getting of greene sawse (a type of sorrel chewed by children and also used medicinally) without Swillington Tower) was dangerously shott in the Belly from their works at Munkhill.’
- Pontefract Castle 21st Century
- 2016 - On 11th May 2016, Wessex Archaeology announced that it would be taking part in the community archaeology project which formed an important part of the Pontefract Castle, 'Key to the North' project. Its aim was to collect finds from a spoil heap deposited during the late 19th century on the area covering the former buildings known as the Royal Apartments (Queen's Tower,King's Tower either side of the Great Hall).
- Sandal Castle 12th Century
- 1138 - On 11th May 1138, William de Warenne, the 2nd Earl of Surrey and owner of Sandal castle, died and was buried in the chapter house of Lewes Priory in Sussex. William had been born circa 1071 and had taken control of the castle in 1088. His father William, the 1st Earl of Surrey, was one of William the Conqueror's most trusted barons, who on his death was either the third or fourth richest magnate in England. It is assumed that the builder of the first Norman castle at Sandal was William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey. The earthenwork defence could well have been finished before his death in 1138.
- Sandal Castle 13th Century
- 1264 - On 11th May 1264, Henry III arrived at Lewes which was in the keeping of his supporter John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey and owner of Sandal Castle, prior to the Battle of Lewes during the Second Barons’ War. The previous month, de Warenne and Roger de Leybourne had been besieged by the 6th Earl of Leicester’s (Simon de Montfort) forces at Rochester Castle.