whom, was the Earl of Lancaster. Both parties now flew to arms,
but Lancaster soon found himself ill supported by his compeers, and
marching northward for reinforcements from the celebrated Bruce, King of
Scotland, the King in the meantime, sent the Earl of Surrey and Kent to
besiege the castle of Pontefract, which surrendered at the first summons.
Lancaster was next closely pursued by the king with great superiority of
numbers. "The earl, endeavouring to rally his troops, was taken prisoner,
with ninety-five barons and knights, and carried to the castle of
Pontefract, where he was imprisoned in a tower which Leland says he had
newly made towards the abbey," This tower was square: its wall of great
strength, being 10-1/2 feet thick; nor was there any other entrance into
the interior than by a hole or trap-door in the floor of the turret: so
that the prisoner must have been let down into this abode of darkness,
from whence there could be no possible mode of escape; the room was
twenty-five feet square. A few days after, the King being at Pontefract
ordered him to be arraigned in the hall of the castle, before a small
number of peers, among whom were the Spencers, his mortal enemies. The
earl was condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered; but the punishment
was changed to decapitation. After sentence was passed, he said, "Shall I
die without answer?" He was not, however, permitted to speak; but a
certain Gascoign took him away, and having put an old hood over his head,
set him on a lean mare without a bridle. Being attended by a Dominican
friar as his confessor, he was carried out of the town amidst the insults
of the people; and there beheaded. Thus fell Thomas, Earl of Lancaster,
the first Prince of the Blood, being uncle to Edward II. who condemned him
to death. Several of his adherents were hanged at Pontefract.

The next royal blood that stained Pontefract castle was that of King
Richard II. who was here murdered or starved to death; though there is a
tradition that it was merely given out that Richard had starved himself to
death, and that he escaped from Pontefract to Mull, whence he shortly
proceeded to the mainland of Scotland, where, for nineteen years, he was
entertained in an honourable but secret captivity.[3] The matter remains
in tragic darkness.[4] In the succeeding reign of Henry IV. Richard
Scroope, archbishop of York, being taken prisoner, was in Pontefract
castle, condemned to death. Next in the cale