The Tower of London is famous as a prison for political detainees, and Pontefract Castle at various times held Thomas of Lancaster (1322), Richard II (1400), Earl Rivers (1483), Scrope, Archbishop of York (1405), James I of Scotland (1405–1424) and Charles, Duke of Orléans (1417–1430).
With Francis Thorpe, he tried John Morris, governor of Pontefract Castle, at York assizes for high treason in August of the same year.
In February 1645, Langdale led a raid into Yorkshire, defeating Major-General John Lambert at battle of Wentbridge and relieving Pontefract Castle.
The embossed stamp was originally a stylised image of Pontefract Castle with a raven on the top bar, which is thought to have been in use for almost 400 years.
In 1541, during a royal tour of the provinces, it was alleged that King Henry's fifth wife, Queen Catherine Howard, committed her first act of adultery with Sir Thomas Culpeper at Pontefract Castle, a crime for which she was apprehended and executed without trial.
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Robert de Lacy failed to support King Henry I during his power struggle with his brother and the king confiscated the castle from the family during the 12th century.
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In 1536, the castle's guardian, Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Darcy handed over the castle to the leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace, a Catholic rebellion from northern England against the rule of King Henry VIII.
The History of the Ancient Borough of Pontefract by B Boothroyd, printed by and for the author, 1807 details Sir Richard Hutton, the younger's involvement in the sieges of Pontefract Castle during the English Civil War and his death at the battle of Sherburn-in-Elmet
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