- Pontefract Castle 12th Century
- 1199 - On 23rd September 1199, Roger de Lacy, nominal lord of Pontefract, was made castellan of Chinon on King John’s campaign to France to hold onto his Angevin lands. Chinon was of major strategic importance to the king’s Angevin empire, commanding the borders of Anjou and Poitou and overlooking Touraine. Pontefract Castle was subsequently released back to Roger by the king albeit his eldest son, John, was held hostage by the king as surety for his loyalty.
- Pontefract Castle 13th Century
- 1217 - On 23rd September 1217, John de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, was ordered to oversee the restoration of Carlisle Castle by Alexander II, king of Scotland, and later on the 6th November accompany Alexander to meet Henry III.
- Pontefract Castle 14th Century
- 1371 - On 23rd September 1371, John of Gaunt, lord of Pontefract, having spent a year trying to restore the ruinous state of Aquitaine’s government and with over half of the Black Prince’s army having deserted due to lack of payment, formally resigned the post of Lieutenant of Aquitaine. He returned to England with less than half of his eight hundred men who had come with him.
- Pontefract Castle 15th Century
- 1483 - On 23rd September 1483, whilst at Pontefract Castle, Richard III, hearing news of southern discontent, seized all the possessions of Lionel, Bishop of Salisbury, one of Elizabeth Woodville’s brothers.