- Pontefract Castle 13th Century
- 1230 - On Ist July 1230, John de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, left Nantes and accompanied Henry III on his way to Poitou. Henry’s original intentions of conquest morphed into a promenade through the country as many towns were ostensibly loyal to Louis IX of France and Henry could not rely on the loyalty of the Poitevin barons.
- Pontefract Castle 14th Century
- 1300 - On 1st July 1300, Sir Henry de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, was made Commander of the 1st Division of the King’s Army by Edward I on his Scottish campaign. This position had been similarly conferred on Henry in June 1298.
- 1345 - On 1st July 1345, Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster, brother of the executed’ traitor’ Thomas, Earl of Lancaster and lord of Pontefract, was appointed a member of the advisory council to aid the Keeper of the Realm whilst Edward III went abroad. At this time, he was also appointed as an adviser to Edward III’s six-years-old son Lionel of Antwerp, his grandson-in-law and great-great-nephew.
- 1370 - On 1st July 1370, the Black Prince in discussions with John of Gaunt, lord of Pontefract, and Edward III rejected a policy of punishment towards French towns that had gone over to Charles V of France and now wanted to return to English allegiance. This decision also gave his brother, Gaunt, overall authority in the conduct of military operations but any decision on the fate of Limoges’ citizens would have to be agreed by both men.
- Pontefract Castle 17th Century
- 1645 - On 1st July 1645, the besieged Royalist garrison saw the Parliamentarians carrying faggots and scaling ladders down to the church which raised their suspicion of an intended assault. The guards were then doubled and at about 12 o'clock most of the troops were under arms, ready to receive any attack made by the Parliamentary forces. However the opposition remained in their works during the night. The number and strength of the besiegers rendered any sally by the garrison more dangerous to themselves than to the Parliamentary forces and from this period the besieged made no sallies against the enemy's works. On the other hand, Parliament's Colonel General Poyntz did not wish to expose his men to danger and so each party watched the other rather than carry on any vigorous enterprises.
- Pontefract Castle 19th Century
- 1879 - On 1st July 1879, public passenger train services began at Baghill railway station (on the Sheffield to York line) greatly increasing access to Pontefract town and castle for Victorian visitors. The castle, by this time, was often viewed as a romantic ruin and pleasure garden with tennis courts and ornamental rose gardens. Tanshelf railway station near the centre of the town had opened eight years earlier giving easy access to Pontefract Racecourse. This station had closed in 1967 but was opened on 11th May 1992 when the line between Wakefield Kirkgate and Pontefract Monkhill was re-opened. Pontefract’s other railway station, Monkhill was opened by the Wakefield, Pontefract and Goole Railway in April 1848.
- 1893 - On 1st July 1893, ‘The Spectator’ magazine reported: ‘Lord Randolph Churchill, speaking at Pontefract on Saturday last, made a very happy point by saying that Mr. Gladstone’s new financial resolutions would condemn Ireland to penal,—he meant, he said, “ financial,”—servitude for six years. This is, indeed, precisely what the Parnellites think of the step taken. They have issued an address to their Irish friends in the United States, imploring their support to resist and defeat this withdrawal of all financial power from the Irish Legislature for this long period, which they regard as fatal to any genuine kind of Home-rule……….
The Pontefract by-election ended in the return of the Gladstonian by the narrow majority of 32, Mr. T. W. Nussey receiving 1,191 votes, against 1,159 given for Mr. Elliott Lees, the Conservative.’
- Sandal Castle 15th Century
- 1495 - In July 1495, Henry VII commissioned a Nottingham tradesman, Walter Hylton, to erect an unpretentious alabaster tomb for Richard III (lord of Sandal) over the ex-king’s grave near the altar in Leicester Grey Friars. Payment of £50 (£48,000 today) was paid in two instalments with a separate fee of £10 (£9600 today) issued to James Keyley two months later for additional work on the tomb. This edifice remained in situ until about 1538 when the friary was suppressed. Despite Richard’s reputation suffering Tudor ridicule (and more), Henry saw an opportunity to lessen any animosity towards him for Richard’s quick, ‘unseemly’ burial and remind any Yorkist supporters that transferring their loyalties to Perkin Warbeck would ignore Richard’s own delegitimization of Edward IV’s sons.