Chapter XXII: Part 22

Within the mediæval or inner ward an excavation shows the position and plan of the chapel, with a nave 40 feet by 16 feet 8 inches broad, and chancel of 12 feet 8 inches by 11 feet 6 inches. A fragment of the font has been preserved. The chapel is, no doubt, of Norman date, and older, therefore, than the castle in its present form. There is also a rude pillar piscina, such as is now and then found in Norman buildings. There are one or two in Glamorganshire. The free chapel in the castle is mentioned in the grant of John of Gaunt. The well also has been discovered at the foot of the mound. It is cylindrical, 7 feet diameter, and lined with ashlar to a depth of 52 feet, below which it is square and lined with timber.

The Roman works at Pevensey have been explored and examined, as already stated, by Mr. Roach Smith. Unfortunately, the mediæval castle has been less fortunate, and has not been accurately described. A short but complete and brilliant description of Pevensey, and a notice of the part it played in the campaign of 1066, will be found in Mr. Freeman’s “Norman Conquest.” It also plays a conspicuous part in his recent life of the Red King.

PICKERING CASTLE, YORKSHIRE.

The castle and town of Pickering stand upon the southern edge of the moors of north-eastern Yorkshire, where the upland subsides into a broad tract of meadow, which, under the names of Carr, Ing, Marisch, and Bottom, extends southwards nearly to Malton, and east and west from near Scarborough to a little short of Helmsley. This is the district known as the Lythe or Vale of Pickering, of which the castle was the chief seat.

One of the principal passes into the Lythe from the north is that now occupied by the Malton and Whitby Railway, and down which flows the Pickering Beck, a tributary (through the Costa Beck) of the Rye and the Derwent. The pass is rather a ravine than a valley, and is deep, rocky, narrow, and winding. The castle occupies a rocky knoll near where the pass opens out into the plain, and stands a few yards east of, and 100 feet or more above, the stream, on either bank of which is built the town, below and under the immediate protection of the castle.

The position is upon a rocky headland, about 70 feet or 80 feet above the town, and jutting out sharply towards the north and west into the valley. Thus two sides, covering nearly half the area, are naturally strong. Towards the south and west the ground rises gently, attaining to the height of 200 feet and even 300 feet, at distances of a quarter of a mile to two miles. On these sides, therefore, the defence is artificial, and composed of a deep and broad ditch, which opens out upon the valley at each of its ends. It is quite dry, and from its position and level was probably always so: a part of it, indeed, carried the way up to the postern.

The area thus defended falls somewhat towards the west. It is pear-shaped, the stalk being towards the south-west. Its cross dimensions are about 500 feet by 350 feet. It is contained within a curtain wall of considerable height and strength towards the town front, and having upon its southern half four towers. Upon the northern half were formerly two, both of which have disappeared. The keep and the inner gatehouse belong to both divisions, being upon the line common to both. Within the general area, and rather near to its north-eastern or larger end, is a conical flat-topped mound, wholly artificial, and surrounded by a circular ditch, of which a part towards the east is quarried out of the rock. Upon this mound stood the keep, and from it, on nearly opposite sides, sprung the cross curtain which traversed the area in almost its greatest diameter, and, with the keep, divided it into two nearly equal wards, to the north and the south. On the outer or the southern front of this wall is a deep and wide ditch, which extends from the ditch of the mound each way towards the _enceinte_, the eastern limb opening into the outer ditch, and the western upon the face of the low cliff. Each of these openings is, however, traversed by the main curtain. Upon the southern and longer limb of the cross-curtain is the inner gateway, leading from one ward to the other, and opposite to the outer gate, which is on the southern front.

The four mural towers already mentioned are all in the southern ward. They are, Mill Tower, Rosamond’s, the Devil’s Tower, and the Gate Tower. Devil’s Tower contains a postern. Besides the keep, Leland mentions three towers in the north ward. Of these the inner gate was one, and the other two probably capped the two angles of that ward. The domestic buildings in Leland’s time were of timber, and are gone. There remains a chapel, desecrated, and of which the existing building is of very doubtful date.

The mound is 76 feet diameter at the flat top, about 70 feet high, and at its base in the bottom of the surrounding ditch about 220 feet diameter.

The keep, which is placed upon its summit, was a shell of masonry, 6 feet to 7 feet thick; within it is circular; and outside, in part at least, polygonal; and was perhaps originally a nonagon, with sides of 24 feet. Of this shell there remain two fragments, on nearly opposite sides of the area, one 35 feet long, and containing two loops, the other 24 feet, and containing a loop and a half. These are at the ground level. They are 6 feet high and of 3 inches opening, dove-tailed at the lower end, and having a short cross member. Each is placed in a round-headed recess of 6 feet opening, and splayed. The fragments are about 18 feet high, and may have been 20 feet to the rampart walk. Outside, the wall rises from a low plain plinth. The wall is of rude, roughly-coursed rubble, with ashlar dressings and quoins at the two angles that remain. There is a ledge or walk of about 2 feet broad outside the wall.

From opposite sides of the mound spring the cross curtains, at a very obtuse angle, so that a trifle more of the base of the mound belongs to the south than to the north ward. These curtains are 7 feet thick, and are built upon the slope and across the ditch of the mound, being at the deepest about 70 feet high. At present they cease at the top edge of the mound, and do not seem to have been any higher, save by a parapet, or to have abutted against the keep. This is what appears at Tickhill and Tamworth. No doubt the parapet was continued against the keep wall, and there may have been a postern, as at Hawarden, where, however, the wall itself abuts upon the keep. The eastern limb is tolerably perfect as far as the counterscarp of the ditch. It is then broken down for some feet, but finally is seen to have abutted upon the outer curtain, close to the Devil’s Tower. The other, or western limb, extends to the inner gate tower. Towards the junction the curtain is somewhat thickened and very lofty. Here a straight flight of steps ascends from the rampart walk to a second rampart higher up, so that there are two rows of loops, the upper being in the battlement. Possibly there was a wooden gallery here to give breadth to the upper rampart.

The gate tower, at which the curtain ends, was not a gatehouse, but a tower by the side of the gateway, but having no communication with it, as at Cardiff and Ogmore. This tower is 21 feet broad by 16 feet deep, and had a basement and two stories. The gateway, of which it formed the eastern side, was probably a mere opening in the curtain. The further side is gone, but the tower side shows no marks of vaulting or portcullis, and has but one rebate for the doors. Here was a drawbridge of 6 feet span, of which the counter-pier remains. From the gateway the cross curtain was continued until it abutted on the west curtain. All this part is gone, or nearly so. In front of the cross curtain is a ditch, crossed by the outer curtain at each end, and running into the ditch of the mound, as has already been mentioned. It is from this ditch that opens internally the postern of the Devil’s Tower. This cross curtain is of rough masonry, and at the least its lower part may very well be Norman work.

Of the towers in the outer ward, the first to be noted is the Mill Tower. This caps the eastern angle of the castle. It is 31 feet 6 inches square, with walls 10 feet thick. It has a basement and two upper stories, all once floored with timber. It is built of excellent ashlar. The basement chamber is at the ward level, but 20 feet or more above the ditch. It is 11 feet 6 inches square, and entered by an acutely-pointed doorway from the inner face. In its outer face is rather a singular loop. A shoulder-headed recess, 4 feet 3 inches broad, and 5 feet deep, converges upon a loop of 4 inches opening, the sides of which are parallel for 5 feet. On the splay of the loop, in the scanty light of it, some prisoner has carved a circle with figures. Outside, in the west wall, is the mouth of a small drain from this chamber, which was evidently a prison. The first floor is at the level of the rampart walk of the outer curtain, and is entered thence by means of an external stone stair, sheltered by a parapet, 6 feet 6 inches high. The doorway has an equilateral head, with deep mouldings, beaded angles, and a passage ribbed transversely. The chamber is 15 feet 6 inches square. In the west wall is a garderobe chamber, 2 feet 6 inches broad by 10 feet long, looped, and with an external shoot, flush with the wall. In the south wall is an equilateral arched recess, with a ribbed barrel-vault and stone seats, and in it a two-light flat-topped window, trefoiled. In the east wall is a plain, square-headed fireplace, and a door, also square-headed, opening into a well-stair, which ascends hence to the battlements and the upper floor. This stair is contained within a triangular projection from the tower. It ends above under a ribbed and domed covering.

Rosamond’s Tower caps the south-west angle of the curtain. It is of ashlar, 22 feet broad by 24 feet deep, and has no internal projection. The floors were of timber. It has a basement about 5 feet above the court level, and a first and second floor. The basement, entered from the ward, is 10 feet by 8 feet, and has a single loop. The gorge wall, at the rampart level, is pierced by a gallery to carry the rampart walk. The gallery descends and rises again 4 feet, the first floor, being so much below the rampart level. This floor seems also to have been entered by an exterior stair built over the lower doorway.

The Devil’s, or Postern Tower, that north-east of the keep, is rectangular and of ashlar, and has exterior projection only. It is 22 feet broad by 27 feet deep. The basement is vaulted, and pierced by a postern passage. The inner door, pointed, opens in the bottom of the ditch of the cross curtain; it is now nearly buried. The outer door is walled up. It is pointed, of 3 feet 6 inches opening, and placed in a square-headed recess, 6 inches deep, 5 feet broad by 10 feet high, intended to lodge the bridge when up. At the foot of this door, outside, in two large stones, are two holes, 6 inches diameter and 18 inches deep, which contained the wooden axle of the drawbridge. Above is a central chain-hole for working the bridge. The chain must have carried a yoke, or sort of splinter-bar, 4 feet or 5 feet long, with lateral chains fastened to the sides of the platform, such as was used at Raglan and is still in use at the castle of Verona. This bridge must have had a special pit, since the way to it, inside and outside, lay along the bottom of the regular ditches. Above the door is a cruciform loop, and above that a plain one. The approach to this postern lay from the meadow north of the castle, up the mouth of the ditch of the place. The first floor of this tower is entered by a round-headed, Decorated door, with exterior steps, through a mural passage, 3 feet broad and 20 feet long, at one end of which is a garderobe. The front floor is 8 feet by 12 feet, with a cruciform loop. The second floor is entered from the rampart. The gorge wall coincides with the curtain, and is pierced to carry the rampart walk. Projecting from the curtain, close south of the tower, is a very handsome chamfered bracket, pierced as the shaft of a garderobe, and worthy of more noble service.

About 12 feet north of the tower, at the junction of the cross and main curtain, is a rectangular turret, about 12 feet square, and pierced for the passage of the rampart walk. Its use seems to be to break the communication between the ramparts of the cross and main curtains.

The outer Gateway Tower, which stands on the south or town front, between Rosamond’s and the Mill Tower, in general construction seems of the date of the inner gate. Strictly speaking, it is not a gatehouse. The curtain is broken and turns outwards, forming two parallel walls, 7 feet thick and 20 feet projection. They are 12 feet apart, and between them lies the entrance. In the line of the curtain this passage is crossed by an acute arch, 2 feet thick, the springing 15 feet high, and above this the curtain rises to 50 feet, forming a sort of screen, giving the appearance of a tower over the gate. The flanking walls, about 20 feet high, form a sort of barbican, and no doubt protected the drawbridge. A door above opened upon these battlements. The work is poor; there is no portcullis or portal vault. The entrance is quite unworthy of the castle.

Returning to the inner ward, no doubt the three towers mentioned by Leland were the inner gate tower, and two upon the two angles of the ward; but these are gone; though probably, if the turf and brambles were removed, the foundations would be seen.

The Norman doorway may have opened into one of these towers. At present it fronts a recess in the curtain 6 feet broad, barrel vaulted; and 6 feet high to the _abacus_ or string which marks the springing. The doorway was flanked by two nook shafts, now gone, standing upon square plinths, and with fluted capitals. The architrave is highly ornate, having a beaded angle with a moulding of pointed arches repeated. This looks like rather late Norman, and is the only bit of work in the castle distinctly referable to that period. The drip, if ever there was one, is gone. There is no rebate or trace of a door. The adjacent curtain is low and ruinous. Here are several corbels, as though to support a lean-to range of buildings. Near this door is a small building, which looks modern, with four old lancets inserted, and a door which seems copied from an older one. This is said to be the chapel of the castle which Leland saw, and which was served by one chantry priest. Grose calls it a small, mean building, with some old pews in it. It is now a potato store.

Pickering Castle represents one great type of Anglo-Norman fortress—that is, a castle of Norman masonry upon an English earthwork, for the present walls, if not Norman, are unquestionably laid upon Norman lines. Here the mound does not, as is more usual, form a part of the _enceinte_, but is concentric, though placed out of centre, like the earthwork at Barwick in Elmete.

No doubt the earthworks were taken possession of and walled, either late in the eleventh or early in the twelfth century, in the Norman period, and the mass of the curtains, with the keep and the Norman door, are probably remains of this work. But the whole fortress was rebuilt in the Decorated period, the mural towers added, the curtains raised, and the place rendered stronger. It is difficult to decide on the age of the gateways. They may be Norman or they may be of the time of Richard II., probably the former.

The domestic buildings are said to have been of timber. They are gone. There is no known well. The castle mill was upon the river a little below the castle. The ditch along the south and west has been nearly filled up; beyond it is a hollow way leading down to the river, which may be old, and intended as a second line of defence.

It is stated in Domesday that, in the time of King Edward, Pickering (Pickeringa) belonged to Earl Morcar. It was then held by the king, with four _berewicks_, or appended manors, and some chapelries or spiritual dependencies of the parish church. The castle and its territory seem never to have been alienated from the Norman crown. The Pipe Roll of 31 Henry I. mentions that Robert de Widville rendered account for the “census rents of the forest of Pickering.” In 31 Henry II. pannage was accounted for from the forest; and in 1 Richard I., rents were accounted for by William Boie and Alan Fitz-Geoffrey, probably the same who occurs in the same year as Alan de Pikering. In 33 Henry II. the men of Pickering were assessed in a _donum_ towards a royal expedition, a tax which was from time to time repeated. In 9 Richard I. mention is made of the wapentake and town of Pickering; and in 11 John, a settlement was ordered of the boundaries between the king’s forest of Pickering and N. de Stuteville’s forest.

King John was here in February, 1201; August, 1208; and March, 1210; each time for a day.

In 45 Henry III. the castle was held by Hugh le Bigod against the king, with Scarborough, which castle he was monished under the Bull of Alexander VI. to surrender.

Henry III. granted Pickering to his son, Edmund Earl of Lancaster, about which time mention is made of the manor, fee, and forestry of Pickering. In 13 Edward I. the earl had confirmation of the manor, castle, and forest. On the execution and attainder of Earl Thomas, Henry Earl of Northumberland had charge of the castle, but on the fall of Edward II., Earl Henry recovered it. When Henry of Lancaster landed at Ravensburn in 1399, he marched on and retook Pickering, then held for the king.

King Richard II. was prisoner here before his removal to Pontefract.

Peck enumerates Pickering among the royal castles, and says there was a steward of the lordship, a constable of the castle, a master of the game, and a rider of the forest.

Pickering was held for the king in the parliamentary struggles, and breached on the west point, and dismantled. It seems never to have been permanently alienated from the royal demesnes. The Crown held it from the Conquest until it was granted by Henry IV. to the Earl of Lancaster, since which its history is that of the estates of the Duchy of Lancaster, of which it still forms a part.

With Pickering Castle should be mentioned a very curious, though nameless and but little known earthwork in its immediate neighbourhood. This is not even laid down as an earthwork in the Ordnance Map, usually so accurate, though marked as the site of a station. It is placed upon the highest part of a round, grassy hill, with easy slopes, which rises upon the western or right bank of the Beck or river of Pickering, about 200 feet above the water, and opposite to, and a little lower down than, the castle. The position is good, it is clear of the ravine which opens out just above the town and castle, and from it is a rich and extensive view, especially to the south and west, over Rysdale and towards Helmsley. The labour bestowed upon the work is light compared with that expended upon the earthworks of the castle, though the mound is the leading feature of both, and attests their common Saxon or early English origin.

A central mound, 90 feet in diameter at the top and 20 feet high, is girt by a ditch, out of which it rises, and upon the outer edge of which is a low bank. The summit of the mound is level, but is surrounded by a light, circular bank, which probably was heaped up to cover the lower edge of the timber defence or residence, which no doubt was here placed. The entrance seems to have been on the south-east side, where are marks of a way across the outer bank, and perhaps of a causeway over the ditch. The hill is enclosed, and part of it under the plough, so that no traces of any exterior or appended enclosures are visible. The work, though its general outline is to be traced with certainty, is much lowered, and its details weakened and rendered obscure by time and weather. It is, however, an earthwork of the same general class with Laughton, Barwick, Castleton, and others similar to them in Yorkshire and elsewhere, and, with them, it deserves attention. Possibly it is earlier than the castle mound of Pickering, and probably was abandoned when that was thrown up; perhaps when the wealth and power of the owner enabled him to found the lythe or lordship of Pickering.

THE CASTLE OF PONTEFRACT, YORKSHIRE.

“Our histories,” says Swift, “are full of Pomfret Castle;” and although this has long ceased to be the case, and Pomfret be now famous but for cakes and the cultivation of the root employed in the soothing of catarrh and the adulteration of railway coffee, it was once a very famous, and is still a very interesting, place.

Whence came the name of Pontefract, and when and where its bridge was broken down, are questions over which antiquaries have long stumbled, seeing that the Aire, the only stream of the district needing to be traversed by a bridge, is two miles from the town and quite out of its girth.

It appears from Norman charters that the name of the place was Kirkby, a name, no doubt, bestowed upon it when church and hamlet were founded as a Christian settlement, in the old days when King Oswald of Northumbria embraced the new faith, an event probably commemorated by the cross which gave name to the wapentake still known of Oswald’s or Osgod’s Cross. Kirkby, however, is not named in Domesday, though probably even then a burgh. It is evidently included in the manor of Tateshall, or Tanshelf, which belonged to the king, and appended to which was the soke of Manesthorp, Barnebi, and Silchestone. Tateshall formed, and still forms, a part of the town of Pontefract.

No doubt this is the “Taddenes Scylf,” where, in 947, King Eadred received the fealty of Archbishop Wulfstan and the Northumbrian Witan, as recorded, with their speedy breach of it, in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle. The place must even then have been of importance, and there can be but little doubt that the Witan met on the site of the later castle. Also it continued to be an important place, for at the Conquest it was a demesne of the Crown, and is recorded in Domesday as rated at £20., having three mills, and containing a hospital for the poor. Domesday, no doubt, means Pontefract Castle, when it records that, “Omnis tornour sedet infra metam castelli Ilberti secundum primam mensuram et secundum novissimam mensuram sedet extra.” _Meta_ is here clearly the castle garth or boundary of its immediate lands, not the military _enceinte_ or curtain about the position, with respect to which no measurement could be in error, nor is it the Castelry, which was a much larger area.

The parish of Pontefract, which is large, is composed of six townships, of which one is Pontefract proper. The parish is one of twenty composing the wapentake or hundred.

Leland, who calls the fortress “Snorre Castle,” says that before the Conquest it belonged to Richard Aschenald, and then to Ailric, Sweine, and Adam, his son, grandson, and great grandson. This last had two daughters, married to Alex. de Crevequer and Adam de Montbegon. Dodsworth calls Aschenald, Aske, still a great Yorkshire name, and points out, what indeed is still very evident, that the Norman works stood in part on an artificial hill, on which no doubt stood the house of the English lord, dispossessed by the Conqueror.

Ailric is a real person, and a Domesday landowner, and before the Conquest held many manors. Sweine was his son, and inherited, and gave a church and chapel to the monks of St. John’s Church at Pontefract. Ailric held his lands, much reduced, under the Norman grantee, as did Sweine, and his son Adam Fitz Sweine, who founded Bretton Priory, and died about 1158, having been a very considerable person. Charters by both Sweine and Adam are found in the Pontefract cartulary.

William I. was at Castleford on the Aire in the winter of 1069, and as he stayed there three weeks he probably found the means of inspecting so strong a place as the English House at Kirkby, and when he granted the district to Ilbert de Lacy it may reasonably be supposed that he followed his usual practice of directing a castle to be built.

Mr. Freeman suggests that the name of Pontefract may have arisen from some incident connected with this passage of the Aire; others have thought that, like Richmond and Montgomery, it was an imported name. Ordericus, however, as Mr. Freeman remarks, refers to it as _Fractus-Pons_, not _Pons-Fractus_, “Rex ... præpeditur ad fracti pontis vada,” as though the words were in a state of transition from a description to a proper name. The change of name certainly was adopted slowly, for while an early charter by Robert de Lacy, the second lord, has the passage, “de dominio suo de Kirkbi,” a later one has “Deo et Sᵗⁱ Johanni et Monachis meis de Pontefract,” while Hugh de Lanval, the intrusive lord, at least as late as 1120, employs the older name. Robert of Castleford, a good local authority, writing about a century after the event, says the name commemorates the escape of a multitude of people from drowning, when a bridge broke down beneath them. There is, however, no river within two miles of Pontefract capable of drowning a multitude.

Camden derives the name from the breaking down of a bridge or causeway that traversed the marshy valley still called the Wash, the springs of which rise close north-west of the castle and cross its approach from Knottingley, at Bubwith Houses, where, in the time of Edward II., John Bubwith held lands _juxta veterem pontem de Pontefract_, about a quarter of a mile from the castle, which, indeed, proves the existence of a bridge, though not of a broken one. How water came to be here collected will be explained when the defences of the castle are treated of. Perhaps the real truth of the matter may lie in the suggestion of Hopkinson, that the castle was called after a place of that name belonging to De Lacy in Normandy.

A few marks of Roman occupation have been discovered here, and but few. Legeolium, the station of the district, seems to have been at Castleford, three miles distant.

But whatever may have been the origin of the fortress, or of its evidently pre-Norman earthworks, its recorded history commences with Ilbert de Lacy, to whom William granted Knottingley, a large portion of the wapentake, and other lands, including about 150 manors, chiefly in the West Riding,—where they fill seven pages of Domesday-book,—Nottingham, and Lincoln, of which those in Yorkshire were erected into an Honour, whereof Pontefract, the strongest and most important place, became naturally the chief seat. Ilbert, though no doubt of near kin to the Herefordshire Lord of Ewyas and Holm-Lacy, was a different person. He is thought to have built Pontefract Castle before 1080, commencing it probably in consequence of the visit of the Conqueror, in 1069. If Sir H. Ellis be right, and the castle then built be that alluded to by the Domesday entry, it was speedily completed. Ilbert also endowed the chapel of St. Clement within the castle, which, in some form or other, long survived. He lived into the reign of Rufus, from whom he had a confirmation of his grants. By his wife, Hawise, he left Robert and Hugh.

Robert de Lacy, called, from his birthplace, “of Pontefract,” claims to have built Clitheroe, which has, indeed, been attributed to his second son. He also had a confirmation from Rufus. By Maud, his wife, he had Ilbert, who, with his father, on the death of Rufus, joined Curthose against Henry I., and fought at Tenchbrai. Both were banished, and Robert was disseized of Pontefract in favour of William Transversus, and then of Hugh de la Val, or Lanval, who held it to the reign of Stephen. Robert finally regained the Honour, but King Henry claimed 2,000 marcs, and de la Val had £150. for the demesne lands, and 20 knights’ fees, which are entered in the Liber Niger in 1165 as held “de veteri feodo Pontisfracti.” Robert confirmed some of de la Val’s grants to Nostel, and founded the Cluniac Priory of Pontefract.

Ilbert de Lacy, next Lord of the Honour, fought at Northallerton, and was a zealous supporter of Stephen, on whose death he adhered to Henry II. He married Alice, daughter of Gilbert de Gant, but died childless.

Henry de Lacy, next brother, succeeded. To him is attributed the later Norman work in the castle. He appears in the Liber Niger as holding 60 fees. Henry II. confirmed him in the Honour of Pontefract, and the other English and the Norman possessions of his family. 12 Henry II. he was assessed upon 79½ fees. He was a considerable church benefactor, and gave St. John’s Church and St. Nicholas’s Hospital, both in Pontefract, to the priory there. He founded Kirkstall.

Robert de Lacy, his son, and successor to the Honour, was present at the coronation of Richard I. He died childless in 1193.

The heir, according to Dugdale, and in violation of an accepted rule of inheritance, was Albreda de Lizures, Robert’s uterine sister. Mr. Hunter, however, in his preface to the Pipe-roll of 31 Henry I. has shown that in all probability Albreda was the daughter of Robert de Lizures by a sister of Ilbert de Lacy, second of this name, and therefore Robert’s cousin, and heir of the full blood. This point is important as setting aside what has been regarded as a singular exception to an accepted law. Albreda married Richard FitzEustace, Constable of Chester.

John, their son, who died before his mother, Lord of Pontefract and Constable of Chester, abandoned his House of Halton, took the name and arms of de Lacy, and died 1179, having married Alice de Vere.

Roger de Lacy, son and heir. 5 Richard I. he received from his grandmother the Lacy lands. He visited the Holy Land with his father in King Richard’s train. 7 Richard I. he paid 2,000 marcs to have livery of the Honour of Pontefract, excepting the castle, which the king retained in his own hands, and to which he paid at least ten visits between 1205 and 1216. 1 John, he reopened the question of the de la Val 20 fees, for livery of which he paid 500 marcs; and 4 John, 1203, the king addressed a letter to the tenants directing them to acknowledge Roger de Lacy as their lord. Though John continued to hold the Castle, he employed Roger in various important offices, and made him governor of the strong fortress of Château-Gaillard, on the Seine, in which he stood a very famous siege, only giving way when short of food, and deserted by the king. 13 John he paid scutage upon 47¾ fees of his own land, besides others which he held in wardship. He seems to have been the baron who, in the absence of regular soldiers, led the Chester minstrels to the relief of Earl Ranulph, when surrounded by the Welsh. He was a great soldier, and an openhanded benefactor to the church, and deserved the line with which the monks of Hanlau began his epitaph:—

“Hic sepelitur Heros generosus in orbe Rogerus.”

Earl Roger died a young man in 1211. He had married Maud de Clare, and by her had John, his successor. In December, 14 John, 1212, the Honour was in the king’s hands, and he seems to have made free with its revenues; for in 1213 he directed 300 marcs from its issues to be spent on the works at Corfe Castle.

John de Lacy had seizin 20 September, 1213, and paid John 7,000 marcs for livery of the Honour, less the castles of Pontefract and Durrington, which the king kept, and for the expenses of keeping which Peter FitzHerbert had an order on the Exchequer. John, who is styled in the writ John de Chester, joined the Barons against King John, and was duly excommunicated by the Pope. He married Margaret, co-heir of Saer de Quincy, Earl of Winchester, by Hawise, Countess of Lincoln and co-heir of Ranulph, Earl of Chester and Lincoln. Early in the reign of Henry III., 1232, on the death of Earl Ranulph, Hawise seems to have made over her earldom to her daughter’s husband, who bore the title till his death, in 1240.

Edmund de Lacy, the son of Earl John and Margaret, was, by the contrivance of Henry III., married to one of his foreign kinsfolk, Alice, daughter of the Marquis de Saluces. He inherited Pontefract, but did not assume the title of Lincoln, as he did not outlive his mother. He died 42 Henry III., 1258, having built the House of the White Friars, near the Barbican, at Pontefract.

Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, his son, was the greatest of his race. He married the heiress of Longspee, and in her right became Earl of Salisbury. He was in ward to the king, and in 1272 was knighted and made Governor of Knaresborough Castle. He walled the town of Denbigh, and commenced the Castle, which he is said to have left unfinished because his only surviving son was drowned in a draw-well in the Red Tower there. His other son had been killed by a fall from a tower at Pontefract.

Having thus no son, Earl Henry surrendered his estates to the king, who regranted them, 28th December, 21 Edward I., to him for life, with remainder to Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, and the heirs of his body. 28 Edward I., Queen Margaret was a visitor at Pontefract Castle, and during a short hunting excursion to Brotherton, was there brought to bed suddenly of Thomas, called from his birthplace. It is said that the house in which she took refuge, with 20 acres of land, was enclosed in a wall and ditched, and granted by the tenure of keeping the wall in repair. Earl Henry died at Lincoln’s Inn, 1310, leaving a daughter, Alice, who married Thomas, eldest son and successor of Edmund Earl of Lancaster.

Thomas Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster, and, either by his wife Alice, or by his father’s grant, Earl of Lincoln, and Lord of Pontefract, succeeded. He was much at the castle, and probably refaced the lower part of the keep, built Swillington Tower, and no doubt some of the structures the bases of which remain in the main ward. He also in 1315 built Dunstanborough, and added Lancaster’s Buildings to Kenilworth. Earl Thomas’s history is well known. From Boroughbridge Field he was taken to Pontefract Castle, then occupied by the weak and vindictive king. He was imprisoned in Swillington Tower, tried and condemned in the great hall, and, in 1322, executed on the hill which still bears his canonised name, a mile to the north-east. He was buried in the Priory. The patent creating Harcla, one of his captors, Earl of Carlisle, was dated from the castle, three days after the earl’s execution.

Countess Alice, whose character was unhappily not so impregnable as her castle, married, secondly, Eubolo L’Estrange, who died 9 Edw. III. Her third husband was Hugh de Fresnes, called Earl of Lincoln. There was a fourth, earlier in the list, whose claims are doubtful. Alice died 1348, but Pontefract and the other possessions had already passed, under the regrant, to her husband’s brother.

Henry Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster, succeeded to his brother’s honour in 1324, and died 1345. Edward III. probably retained the castle. He was here in 1328. By Maud Chaworth Earl Henry had another Henry.

Henry Plantagenet (Tort-col, or of Grismond), Earl of Derby, &c., and, in 1351, Duke of Lancaster. He died 1361. Blanch, his second daughter by Isabel Beaumont, and co-heir, inherited Pontefract Castle and Honour.

John Plantagenet, of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, married the heiress and became Lord of Pontefract. He resided much at Pontefract, and restored the works. When threatened by Richard II. he victualled and put the castle into a state of defence. 12 Richard II. he obtained by charter “jura regalia” within the honour. Parts of the half-covered basements in the main ward appear to be of his time. He died 1399.

Henry Plantagenet, of Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, afterwards Henry IV., son and heir, succeeded, being then in exile. Richard II., by confiscating the estates, provoked reprisals, which led to his own deposition. Pontefract Castle became his first prison, and the scene of his supposed murder. Since that event the castle has been vested in the Crown. Richard Scrope, archbishop of York, was here condemned to death in 1405, and at that time Henry IV. was much here, putting down the Northern insurrections. Many of his instruments are hence dated between 1405 and 1408.

Henry V., much occupied with foreign wars, and having peace at home, had no occasion to make use of Pontefract, which seems to have been neglected in its military capacity; but here Charles, Duke of Orleans, taken at Agincourt, and James I. of Scotland, were long confined, both accomplished men and given to literature.

With the civil dissensions that came under Henry VI., the castle became again of importance. The Duke of Exeter, taken from sanctuary after St. Alban’s, was here imprisoned; and in 1460, after the battle of Wakefield, Edward here took post, with his army encamped around. It was under the walls of the castle that Warwick killed his horse before the soldiers, saying, “Let him flee that flee will; I stay by him who stays by me.” It was in accordance with this declaration that the king advanced from Pontefract next day, and defeated the Lancastrians at Towton. Edward’s father, Richard, Duke of York, and his brother, the Earl of Rutland, slain at Wakefield, had been buried at Pontefract. He now added his father’s head to his body, and removed the whole from St. John’s Church to Fotheringay. During Edward’s reverses and absence in Holland, the Lancastrians used Pontefract as a military prison.

In 1463, Edward was again at Pontefract, and in 1478, when he was escorted thither in great state, and remained a week.

The bloody celebrity of Pontefract was increased during the ascendancy of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who sent hither Rivers, Grey, Vaughan, and Hawse, to be executed without form of trial. Soon after his accession he erected the town into a municipal borough.

The castle rose again briefly into notice in 1536, when Aske and the insurgents of the Pilgrimage of Grace appeared before it, and forced its surrender by Lord Darcy and the Archbishop of York, with more than a presumption of treachery. Henry VIII. was here in 1540. Two years later, Sir Henry Savile, as governor, had charge of several Scottish prisoners taken at Solway Moss.

Elizabeth, towards the close of her reign, repaired the castle, and rebuilt the chapel of St. Clement within it. King James was here in 1603, and made the castle and honour a part of the dower of his queen. He repeated his visit in 1616, and viewed the newly-established college of St. Clement, within the castle. King Charles was here in 1625, soon after his accession.

Pontefract was once more to become a place of military importance. Once the centre of the baronage of the north, it was now to appear as the rallying-place of the great aristocracy of Yorkshire, and of the Royal party. In 1642, when Charles lifted his standard at York, Pontefract Castle was garrisoned by a very strong force of local gentry and volunteers, with the gallant Sir William Lowther, of Swillington, as governor. Their courage was soon to be tried. After Marston Moor and the surrender of York, Sir T. Fairfax appeared before the castle, and in December, 1644, commenced its siege. The main attack seems to have been directed upon the north-west angle, where the Pix Tower was battered, and fell, bringing down part of the adjacent curtain with it. The enemy, however, did not storm, and the breach was made good with earth. Mines were then tried, and one was sprung near the King’s Tower, at the south-east angle. These were met by counter mines, for which the ground, a soft rock, was very favourable. Very many shafts were sunk near the walls in the main ward, and, no doubt, are still in existence. Both attack and defence were carried on with great spirit, but at last stores began to fail, and matters looked ill for the garrison. They were reduced to extremity when, on the 1st of March, Sir M. Langdale arrived with 2,000 men from Oxford, and forced Lambert to raise the siege, while he victualled and reinforced the garrison.

The Parliament, however, was now in the ascendant, and in a few days their forces were recruited, and again appeared before the place.

This time regular trenches were opened, batteries thrown up, and a complete line of circumvallation laid out. This was of an oval figure, completely inclosing the castle and its outworks. The contained area, from the head of Micklegate by Knollys’s Hospital on the west, to Monk-hill near New Hall on the east, was 900 yards; and from Baghill on the south, to the middle of the Abbot’s Closes on the north, 700 yards, and about 3,000 yards in girth. Upon this line, which in parts commanded the castle, were thrown up twelve regular places of arms, redans, or batteries, besides flèches and lighter works on the intermediate curtains to beat off the frequent sallies of the garrison. General Sands commanded, and General Overton was governor of the town. New Hall, a large mansion of the Talbots, to the east of the castle and outside the lines, was entrenched, and occupied by Sir John Savile. The garrison held Swillington Tower, the tower of the great church, and Neville’s Mount, a cavalier thrown up by them within the barbican, and carrying a large iron gun. These advanced works were of great service, as they both retarded the siege works and protected the repeated sallies from the garrison.

The trenches were opened in March, but it was the 24th of May before a battery was opened upon the keep. General Poyntz then took the command of the attack. It was, however, late in May before the church-tower was battered down, and the post, therefore, abandoned. Notwithstanding the disastrous news of Naseby, Lowther continued to hold out, and it was not until July 20th, after four months of siege, without further supply of stores or ammunition, and without a chance of relief, that he surrendered upon excellent terms. The fall of Pontefract was followed in three days by that of Sandal Castle, within signal of its towers.

The Parliament spared Pontefract on account of its strength, and put in General Cottrell, with a garrison. The Royalists, however, were still strong in the district, and June 6th, 1648, it was recovered by the treason of Morrice, a renegade, but a man of courage. A garrison was quickly collected, and the castle became once more a Royalist centre.

A third siege thus became necessary, and such was the strength of the place that, even discouraged as the Royalists were, it promised to be a troublesome one. General Rainsborough, who was appointed, met his death before taking the command, which fell at first to Sir H. Cholmley. Cromwell himself was present for a time, and a work on the north front bore his name. He left Lambert in command. Meantime, the king’s death had broken up the party; and ultimate success being impossible, the governor, Morrice, listened to terms. He himself and some others were excepted by name. The difficulty thus created was ingeniously evaded. The excepted persons being reduced to three, they were walled up in one of the subterranean chambers, well provided with food and air, and Lambert was made to believe that they had escaped. The place was then surrendered, Lambert entered March 24th, 1649, and as he did not retain the place, the three culprits got away safely. Parliament now ordered the castle to be demolished, and the only record of the details of its parts is that preserved in the schedule of its destruction. The materials—timber, lead, glass, and iron, sold for £1,779. 17s. 4d., of which £777. 4s. 6d. was the cost of demolition, £1,000 was paid to the town, and the balance of £2. 12s. 10d. went to the Commonwealth. This last creditor, however, received afterwards some arrears amounting to £145. 11s. 7d., and so, in an account of profit and loss, was wound up the history of one of the strongest and greatest fortresses in the North.

DESCRIPTION.

The position and dimensions of the castle were worthy of the great barons by whom it was constructed, and far too noble for the events with which its name is associated. North-east of, and one-third of a mile from, the market-cross of Pontefract, there is seen a very remarkable table of rock, oval in form, the sides of which are in part a steep slope and in part a cliff of from 30 feet to 40 feet high, rising out of a talus, which, on the north, south, and eastern faces, descends into two deep natural valleys, which unite on the north-eastern front. At the south-west end is also a natural depression dividing the rock from the town, and which has been deepened somewhat by art, as has the cliff been scarped and, where necessary, revetted, so that the general result was the production of an almost impregnable stronghold. This description, however, requires, as regards the east front, some little addition. Here, immediately beyond the wall, is a ditch nearly all artificial, and beyond it a nearly level area, beyond which, again, is the natural valley. As it was necessary to cover the ground, it was walled and converted into what was called the barbican, but was really a double ward outside the castle, covering its main entrance. The castle was thus composed of the main ward, occupying the table-rock, and the outer and inner barbicans covering its south-east front and entrance.

The main ward occupies the whole summit of the rock. It is in plan an irregular oval, 150 yards north-east and south-west, and 103 yards in its cross diameter. Of this area a segment at the south-west end, 37 yards deep or on the “sagitta,” is occupied by a raised platform containing the keep and remains of various buildings, and a smaller segment at the north-east end is occupied by the bases of other buildings, including the chapel. If the arrangement be likened to the deck of a ship, the keep end will be the poop, &c., the other end the forecastle, and the large intermediate space the waist.

The present appearance of the north-eastern platform is a bank of earth, irregular, and about 20 feet above the area level. In plan it is rather semilunar, and is evidently composed of the basements and ruins of buildings, the soft red sandstone of which readily becomes converted into soil. The face towards the ward, standing from 2 feet to 6 feet high, shows the base mouldings and plinth of a range of buildings that rose from the main ward level, and seems to have included a polygonal tower or turret. All that is visible is of excellent ashlar, with stones of large size, and the workmanship is mainly in the Perpendicular style. In the rear, along the edge of a cliff, is the curtain-wall, part of which is a revetment filling up the irregularities of the rock. This platform is returned a few yards along the east front against the curtain, and there is seen the basement of St. Clement’s Chapel, more than once rebuilt since its first Norman foundation.

The curtain along the crest, where the cliff is high, seems to have been a mere parapet. On the north-east point, where there is only a slope, the curtain is very lofty, and of prodigious thickness; much is broken away, but what remains shows it to have been 15 feet thick, at its base and 11 feet at 24 feet high. The main gate was in the curtain near the south end. It seems, from the drawings, to have been covered by a small square tower, the exterior and interior portals not being opposite.

The main interest of the castle attaches to its south-western platform. This is about 20 feet above the main ward, and at its southern angle there is raised upon it a conical mound, flat-topped, and rising about as high again.

Towards the main ward this platform is supported by a revetment wall from 12 feet to 14 feet high, of good rough ashlar, of large stones, having a base of 4 feet, and above this a plinth of about 4 feet more, the two offsets being plain chamfers. This, no doubt, carried a curtain wall. In the wall, near its centre, is a broad-arched recess, called “the King’s Seat,” probably from a tradition that Richard II. sat there, which is probable enough. At the north end the platform is returned about 25 yards along the west curtain. Various indications show that this platform was covered with buildings, most of which, like the retaining wall, were of Norman date, and of which the basements remain, though much covered up. Of the _enceinte_, or curtain-wall that supports the outer face of this platform, only the lower 30 feet, or revetment, remains. This commences some way down the slope, and is prodigiously strong, and built against the rock. At the south-west angle was the Treasurer’s or Pix Tower, the ruins of which still encumber the slope. Passing southward, the wall rises and becomes more perfect. In its exterior base, about 30 feet below the rampart, is a Norman postern, very perfect, and which probably was in the base of the old Red Tower. Then, behind, and on the level with the top of the wall, are remains of early buildings. One presents the end of a round-headed vault of about 16 feet span, of rude rubble, but springing from good ashlar walls, and having a later-inserted window. This is called “King Richard’s Prison.” Near this is a rectangular shaft, 8 feet by 4 feet, but which, a few feet down, is increased to eight feet square, a round-headed arch supporting the upper half. It is now about 40 feet deep, and dry. It is called a well, but is more probably the shaft of a garderobe.