POLITICAL HISTORY 



Bright that the castle surrendered, on 1 1 August." While Manchester was at Doncaster, Colonel 

 John Lilburne, by Cromwell's orders, quartered with four troops of dragoons in Tickhill. The 

 castle here was held for the king by Colonel Monckton, but the garrison were in a state of mutiny ; 

 and informed Lilburne that they would make no resistance to an assault, and the governor hiniself 

 expressed his willingness to surrender if summoned. Manchester forbade Lilburne to take any action, 

 and was angry when he found that, by Ireton's advice, he had summoned the castle and received its 

 surrender." In August Lord Fairfax invested Knaresborough, Scarborough, and Pontefract, and 

 detached a strong force under Sir Thomas to operate against Helmsley Castle." During the 

 siege of Helmsley, which was gallantly defended by Sir Jordan Crosland, Sir Thomas Fairfax was 

 severely wounded by a musket ball,^° while just about the same time, on 1 8 September, his gallant 

 cousin, Sir William Fairfax, was mortally wounded in action at Montgomery.^' Helmsley 

 surrendered on 22 November, and Knaresborough shortly afterwards. On the other hand Sir John 

 Maney with some 2,000 horse came out of Lancashire on lo September, and turning southwards from 

 Skipton surprised a newly-raised troop of Parliamentary horse at Bradford and relieved Pontefract, 

 driving off the investing force under Colonel Sands with considerable loss." 



For some time Lord Fairfax had been complaining of a lack of funds ; on 20 September he had 

 to warn the Committee that his army would break up and disband if money were not soon forth- 

 coming." In November he requested Lord Montgomery not to quarter his troops round North- 

 allerton and Thirsk, as that district had had to bear the charges of the force employed against 

 Helmsley,^' and about the same time he wrote to the Committee suggesting that three regiments of 

 Scottish horse, whose presence in Cleveland was causing great expense, should be used against 

 Newark, the only considerable garrison remaining in the north. He also proposed to reduce the 

 Yorkshire horse by 2,000, ' the charge of them being insupportable to this almost ruined country.' ^ 



So far as Yorkshire was concerned interest now centred round Pontefract and Scarborough. 

 On Christmas Day 1644 Fairfax's troops occupied the town of Pontefract and began the siege of the 

 castle, a place of great strength, ably defended by Sir Richard Lowther.^^ Colonel Forbes was in 

 charge of the siege operations, and after a heavy cannonade succeeded in battering down the Piper 

 tower and effecting a breach in the walls ; but the breach not proving sufficiently open, and efforts to 

 mine the walls being met by vigorous countermining, nothing was effected. In February 1 645 Sir 

 Thomas Fairfax was ordered up to London to assume the command of the New Model Army, the 

 great force destined in his hands to place the supremacy of the Parliament beyond question, and his 

 place in Yorkshire was taken by Colonel Lambert, who himself took charge of the operations at 

 Pontefract. Early in February a small body of men, including Mr. Corker, a clergyman, got safely 

 away from the castle, and as a result of Mr. Corker's representations Sir Marmaduke Langdale was 

 dispatched to relieve the castle. On the last day of February news arrived of Langdale's approach ; 

 the siege was raised and the Parliamentary forces fell back to Ferrybridge, where a sharp engage- 

 ment ensued next day in which Langdale, with the help of the garrison, gained a decisive victory, 

 taking a number of prisoners and a quantity of arms. Sir John Savile, who had been besieging 

 Sandal Castle and had received orders to march to Ferrybridge too late to be of use, fell back on 

 Bradford, cutting up some Royalist horse under Colonel Carnaby at Houghton on his way.^^ The 

 check to the Parliamentary cause was slight. On 21 March the siege of Pontefract was recom- 

 menced. The cavaliers defended the castle gallantly, and were not content to remain on the 

 defensive, but inflicted heavy losses on the besiegers by constant vigorous sallies. They also contrived 

 to keep up communications with the beleaguered garrison of Sandal, and on 27 May a party of fifty 

 horse from Sandal actually made their way through the Parliamentary lines and brought nearly a 

 hundred head of cattle into the castle.^' A few days previous to this the Royalist garrison of 

 Scarborough had scored a still greater success, a sally in force inflicting heavy losses in men and guns 

 on the Parliamentary troops, Sir John Meldrum, who was in command of the siege operations, receiving 

 wounds from which he died shortly afterwards.^ From the beginning of June, when General 

 Poyntz took control of the siege operations at Pontefract, the garrison there began to feel their 

 enemy's grip tightening. The complete defeat of the king at Naseby on 14 June deprived them 

 of all chance of relief, and although they kept up their spirits by disseminating reports of imaginary 



" Cal. S.P. Dom. 1644, p. 423. 



" Ibid. 1644-5, pp. 148-9, 152. " Ibid. 1644, p. 447. 



'* Markham, op. cit. 183. '* Ibid. 184. 



" Slingsby, Diary, 131 ; Cal. S.P. Dom. 1644, p. 520 



" Cal. S.P. Dom. 1644, p. 524. " Hisi. MSS. Com. Rep. x, App. i, 54. 



^ Cal. S.P. Dom. 1644-5,?. 104. 



*' The sieges of Pontefract Castle are given in great detail from the journals of Nathan Drake and other 

 contemporary sources in Surt. Soc. Publ. no. 37. 



^ Drake, Siege of Pontefract Castle (Suit. Soc. 37), 17. 



^ Ibid. 47. " Cal. S.P. Dom. 1644-5, pp. 523, 527. 



427 



