Pontefract Castle - murder and seige.

Another castle, another ruin – or ‘pile of rubble’ as my step-son, accurately and probably quite feelingly, describes similar sites. There’s something reassuringly northern about Pontefract.  It means 'broken bridge' which doesn’t have quite the same ring though.  Shakespeare and others called the place Pomfret, a name which resonates through the Medieval and Tudor periods.

Pontefract Castle

Before visiting, the only thing I knew about Pontefract was cakes, horse racing and that it was close to the M62.  Pontefract cakes are slightly smaller than a two pence piece and are made from liquorice.  Liquorice grows well up here, so does rhubarb.  We are, after all, on the outer edge of the rhubarb triangle where all the best rhubarb in Yorkshire comes from.  I only know about the races because I remember it being mentioned on the radio when I was a child. I liked the sound of the name even then.  As for the M62, well, most places in Yorkshire seem to be within striking distance of either the M1, the M62 or the A1 but that's probably my imagination.

Back to business.  William the Conqueror granted the lands around here to Ilbert de Lacy and he promptly built a castle.  Over the centuries the castle saw more than its fair share of bloodshed.  Edward II ordered the execution of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster after he came second at the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322.  Edward II wasn’t the most savoury of monarchs and his treatment of Lancaster was a reminder; a) not to revolt against the king and b) in the event of ignoring (a)  to not lose battles.

Seventy eight years later, Richard II was murdered in Pontefract Castle.  He was the son of the Black Prince and became king at the age of ten.  The Middle Ages were not a good time to be a monarch who was a minor nor was it good for the aforementioned brat's personality to believe that he was in charge by Divine Right- or put another way, he was king because God said so. 

He showed great bravery during the Peasants Revolt when he faced down an army of rebels, bided his time and then took his opportunity to get his own back against anyone who had tried to curtail his power with numerous executions.  Henry of Bolingbroke recognising that Richard was none too popular seized the throne for himself - I'm not going into his family tree, needless to say it was convoluted and links directly to the Wars of the Roses. Richard found himself hustled north to Pontefract where he died in mysterious circumstances.  Early theories suggested that he had a nasty accident with an axe.  More recent hypothesis, based on an examination of his skeleton, suggests that he was starved to death.

Another Richard, the III, took note of the way in which Pontefract Castle seemed to provide solutions to unpalatable problems and arranged for Earl Rivers and Sir Richard Grey to pay a terminal visit when he seized the throne from his own young nephew. 

In 1536, during the Pilgrimage of Grace,  Lord Darcy handed the castle over to Robert Aske and the revolting northerners who wanted a return to the old ways.  He claimed that he had insufficient provisions for a siege.  Henry VIII was not amused and had Darcy executed.  He was even less amused when it was alleged that Katherine Howard (wife number five) began a fling here with one of her many suitors during a state visit.

It is perhaps not surprising that Divine Right, a king and a rebellion have much to do with the state that Pontefract finds itself in today.  In 1648 the first English Civil War was over.  Parliament was in charge.  Theatres were closed and Christmas was banned.  

Groups of Royalists rose up against the new order and the Second English Civil War began.   John Morris decided to capture the castle at Pontefract.  Bearing in mind this was one of the great castles of the north and supposedly impregnable he was obviously a man of vision and considerable cunning.  His first attempt involved bribing a sentry and some very long ladders.  Unfortunately the sentry got drunk and his replacement wasn’t quite so amenable to the idea of Morris and his men taking the castle in the name of the king.

Not deterred Morris went off for a think and returned with several carts of household goods on the pretext of getting the castle ready for extra troops.  The guards went to buy ale in town- who’d try to gain control of a castle with a few mattresses? No one would believe it if they saw this in a movie.  The Parliamentarian governor was ushered into the dungeons and Morris took over the castle which had just become the last Royalist stronghold in the country.  He soon found himself under siege.  He made good use of the provisions thoughtfully gathered by the Parliamentarians.

Then in January 1649 Charles I was executed at Whitehall.  Morris made the best of it.  Pontefract saw the first coins minted in the name of Charles II but time wasn’t on Morris’s side. Provisions were running low and there were lots of angry Parliamentarians outside its walls.  The Parliamentarians offered honourable conditions for surrender with a couple of exceptions which they weren’t prepared to name until the surrender was a done deal. 

Morris was one of the exceptions which seems a shame to me and not in the least bit gallant of the Roundheads who clearly didn’t have much of a sense of humour.  Another victim was Pontefract Castle.  Cromwell told the town council to apply to have it demolished.  From being one of the greatest castles in the kingdom it really did become rubble all except for the gatehouse which served as the town's prison.   And so Pomfret Castle like Thomas of Lancaster became a footnote in history.

View of motte and bailey today