- Pontefract Castle 14th Century
- 1356 - On 13th June 1356, Henry, Duke of Lancaster and lord of Pontefract, commanded a small army of 800 archers and 500 men-at-arms which arrived in Normandy pursuing Edward III’s aim of forcing the French to accept the Treaty of Guines of 1354. Henry met up with Sir Robert Knolles’ 500 archers from Brittany and a small force under Philip of Navarre and Godfrey de Harcourt. After destroying Verneuil on 5th-6th July and with no advance from John II’s French army, Lancaster retreated into Normandy. These ‘manoeuvres’ prefaced the Black Prince’s crushing victory at the Battle of Poitiers on 19th September 1356 where France’s King John and his youngest son were captured.
- 1381 - Around four o’clock on 13th June 1381, rebels stormed John of Gaunt’s, lord of Pontefract, Savoy Palace in London, destroying cloth, clothes, beds, books, napery, silverware and jewels. A mock puppet dressed as Gaunt was impaled, ‘arrowed’ and hacked and a fire was started in the great hall whilst a drunken rampage ensued in his wine cellars. Unfortunately, many revellers were trapped as the Savoy Palace was burnt to the ground.
- Pontefract Castle 15th Century
- 1484 - On13th June 1484, Richard III left Pontefract Castle having spent the previous two weeks here as he journeyed southwards again following his northern progress of that year. This stop was part of a prolonged stay in Yorkshire residing in castles at Pontefract, York and Scarborough. It was during this stay that Pontefract was established as a borough.
- Pontefract Castle 17th Century
- 1645 - On 13th June 1645, Nathan Drake, Royalist diarist, recorded: ‘ This day the new generall Poyntes Came from Yorke poaste againe, we supposed it was to draw up all theire horses to be neare together. …we drue down a trench from the lower Castle gate, through Mr Taytomes Orchard, to the Church, for the safeguard of our men thither, wch we almost finished; & made blindes of bowes & soddes, wch the enemy had gott, from the Church to Mr Kellomes, for our men to get gras that way…’
- Sandal Castle 15th Century
- 1483 - On 13th June 1483, Richard, Duke of Gloucester and lord of Sandal, convened a meeting at the Tower of London ostensibly to discuss the impending reign of the young Edward V. The meeting included the Duke of Buckingham, Lord William Hastings, William Catesby, Thomas Rotherham (Edward IV’s former chancellor), John Morton (an executor of Edward IV’s will amongst other roles) and Thomas, Lord Stanley (Edward IV’s household steward). Quite unexpectedly, Richard accused Hastings of plotting with Elizabeth Woodville ‘to destroy me, that am so near of blood unto the king’ and no longer supportive of Richard’s protectorate. Hastings was summarily forced onto Tower Green, shriven by a priest from the Tower chapel of St Peter ad Vincula and beheaded.