We may now pass over matters of minor importance in the history of
Pontefract to the time of Charles I. In the King's contest with his
Parliament, this was the last fortress that held out for the unfortunate
monarch. At Christmas 1644, Sir Thomas Fairfax laid siege to the castle,
and on Jan. 19, following, after an incessant cannonade of three days, a
breach was made: the brave garrison would not surrender; the besiegers
mined, but the besieged counter-mined, and the work of slaughter went on
till the garrison were greatly reduced. At length the Parliamentarians
were attacked and repulsed by a reinforcement of Royalists from Oxford,
and thus ended the first siege of Pontefract. In March, 1645, the enemy
again took possession of the town, and after three months cannonade, the
garrison being reduced almost to a state of famine, surrendered the castle
by an honourable capitulation on June 20. Sir Thomas Fairfax was appointed
governor, and he thinking the royal party to be subdued, appointed a
colonel as his substitute, with a garrison of 100 men. The royalists next
by stratagem recovered Pontefract, of which Sir John Digby was appointed
governor.

The third and final siege of this fine castle commenced in October, 1648.
General Rainsborough was appointed to the command of the army, but he
being previously intercepted at Doncaster, Oliver Cromwell undertook to
conduct the siege. After having remained a month before the fortress,
without making any impression on its massy walls, Cromwell joined the
grand army under Fairfax, and General Lambert being appointed commander in
chief of the forces before the castle, arrived at Pontefract on the 4th of
December.

The ENGRAVING represents the castle precisely at this period. It is copied
from a large print taken from a drawing found in the possession of a