SIEGES OF PONTEFRACT CASTLE 1644-1648

The great Medieval castle of Pontefract in Yorkshire – where Richard II was held and murdered after his deposition – was besieged three times during the English Civil Wars. Held by Royalists and described by Oliver Cromwell no less as ‘one of the strongest inland garrisons of the kingdom’ the castle was slighted and left in ruins after it was finally taken by Parliament after the third and last siege during the second Civil War of 1648. This fine account of the three sieges, out of print since its publication in 1887, fills a much needed gap in studies of the military history of the English Civil Wars.