Siege of Pontefract Castle

'O Thou Bloody Prison

Background

Pontefract Castle, often referred to as the "Key to the North," was considered one of the strongest Royalist strongholds and faced three significant sieges between 1644 and 1649.

Early in the Civil War, Royalist forces occupied Pontefract Castle, using it as a base for raiding West Yorkshire. However, after the King's defeat at Marston Moor in July of 1644, the castle, along with other Royalist garrisons, became increasingly isolated.

With Knaresborough Castle falling on December 20th, Lord Ferdinando Fairfax was free to focus his efforts on Pontefract, setting in motion the first siege.

Battle

The first siege:

Lord Fairfax is not mentioned at the siege until almost a month after it began, and the Parliamentarian forces were likely led by William Forbes until Fairfax's arrival.

The Royalist garrison inside the castle, led by John Morris and a force of 187 volunteers, was split into four sections and commanded by Colonel Grey, Richard Hutton, John Ramsden, and George Wentworth.

The diary of Nathan Drake, a Royalist garrisoned inside the castle, details what occurred as he recorded no fewer than 1406 artillery rounds fired by four great guns at the castle between Christmas Day and January 28th, 1645.

On December 28th, Parliamentarian forces stormed and took the church of All Saints, which had been incorporated into the castle defenses. Some men who were garrisoned inside the church escaped to the Bell Tower, but were trapped there for five days. Eventually, they cut the bell ropes, scaled along the church roof at night, and scrambled down the ropes, returning to the castle.

Between December 28th and January 15th, things were relatively calm around the castle as the Parliamentarians awaited the arrival of their siege guns from Knaresborough. Though on January 9th, Royalists fired a cannon shot at Newhall, which punched through its wall and splintered in all directions, with one piece hitting William Forbes in the face.

On January 16th, the siege train of six guns finally arrived from Knaresborough. Four of the guns were large enough to fire shots weighing between 24 and 42 pounds. The same day, Lord Fairfax and his son Thomas Fairfax arrived. Thomas was still injured from the shoulder wound he received during the Siege of Helmsley.

The Pipers Tower, in the southwest corner of the castle, was destroyed around 9am on January 19th after sustaining hundreds of cannon shots over two days.

The castle garrison may have been running low on munitions, as Richard Lowther was paying men four pence for every cannonball his men retrieved from the ditch surrounding the castle.

For two months, the siege continued, and the castle garrison, led by Lowther, put up a strong resistance, sending dozens of dead and injured Parliamentarians back to Leeds and Wakefield.

In March, Marmaduke Langdale and the Northern Horse arrived and relieved the castle at the Battle of Chequerfield, forcing the Parliamentarians to withdraw and bringing the first siege to an end. However, this relief was only temporary, as within a fortnight the Parliamentarians regrouped and initiated a second siege.

The second siege:

On March 21st, 1645, Fairfax's forces, aided by Scottish allies, attempted to surround the castle with a system of circumvallation, a system of earthworks, trenches, and small forts which encircled the castle to starve it into submission. The blockade was not as strong as it needed to be, and the castle garrison was able to sally out to get supplies and harass the besiegers, even capturing a herd of cows in mid-April. The garrison spotted a herd of forty-four oxen and milk cows grazing in the fields. Thirty Horse and fifty foot soldiers sallied out of the castle and brought back the cattle with little if any opposition.

By May, Parliamentarians intensified the siege with more regular barrages. By June, conditions worsened to the point that even short forays for simple supplies, like apples, became too risky for the besieged garrison.

The castle garrison received word that King Charles' forces were defeated at the Battle of Naseby in June, and morale began to collapse.

Lowther understood there was little hope of relief, and after uneasy negotiations, an agreement was reached for the garrison to leave Pontefract Castle on July 21st, 1645. They departed with full honors of war, their flags flying, the slow match of their muskets lit, and a musket ball in each musketeer's mouth. The garrison then joined the Royalist forces at Newark Castle, marking the end of the second siege. Pontefract Castle had been held for almost five months.

The third siege:

In June of 1648, John Morris and a small group of men disguised themselves as bed deliverymen, carrying mattresses with hidden weapons, and overpowered the Parliamentarian forces at Pontefract Castle, restoring it to Royalist hands.

During this third siege, Parliamentarian forces again attacked the castle, which held out for almost nine months, even as Royalist armies elsewhere were defeated.

In November 1648, Oliver Cromwell arrived to take command of the ongoing siege, describing Pontefract as one of the kingdom's most formidable inland garrisons.

On January 30th, 1649, King Charles I was executed in London. The castle garrison held out for another three weeks despite starvation setting in.

On March 24th, 1649, John Morris surrendered Pontefract Castle to John Lambert.

Aftermath

In response to appeals from both local townsfolk and John Lambert, Parliament ordered Pontefract Castle to be "totally demolished and leveled to the ground" on March 27th.

The castle was never restored, and little survives of what was once one of the most impressive castles in Yorkshire.

John Morris was later executed for treason.