Pontefract Castle

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Pontefract Castle in West Yorkshire in the town of Pontefract, was constructed in approximately 1070 by a knight, Ilbert de Lacy (whose grandson Henry is responsible for the construction of Kirkstall Abbey), on land which had been granted to him by William the Conqueror as a reward for his support during the Norman conquests. There is, however, evidence of earlier occupation of the site and initially the castle was a wooden structure, but this was replaced with stone over time. The de Lacys lived in the castle until the start of the next century, when Robert de Lacy failed to support Henry I of England during his power struggle with his brother and confiscated the castle from the family. It was under the tenure of the de Lacys that the magnificent multilobate donjon was built.

During 1311 the castle became part of the estates of the House of Lancaster. Thomas, Earl of Lancaster (1278–1322) was beheaded outside the castle walls six days after his defeat at the Battle of Boroughbridge, a sentence placed on him by the King himself. This resulted in the earl becoming a martyr with his tomb at Pontefract Priory becoming a shrine. Later John of Gaunt, a son of Edward III of England, was so fond of the castle that he made it his own, spending vast amounts of money improving it. Richard II of England (1367–1399) was also murdered within the castle walls, possibly in the Gascoigne Tower. William Shakespeare's play Richard III mentions this incident:

Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou bloody prison,

Fatal and ominous to noble peers!

Within the guilty closure of thy walls

Richard the second here was hack'd to death;

And, for more slander to thy dismal seat,

We give thee up our guiltless blood to drink.

The castle has been a ruin since 1644 when it held as a Royalist stronghold during the English Civil War and besieged at least three times by Parliamentarian forces, the last of which was responsible for the castle's present dilapidated state and many of its scars. Apparently this last raid had the full support of the surrounding population, who were grateful to destroy the castle and thus stop the fighting in their area. In their view the castle was a magnet for trouble. It is still possible to visit the castle's 11th century cellars which were used to store military equipment during the civil war.

The most remarkable feature of the current site is the remains of the donjon. Very few examples of this multilobed type exist. One is Clifford's Tower in nearby York. An identical example to York can be found at Étampes, France.