Pontefract Castle Pontefract Castle Pontefract (or, Pomfret) Castle is a castle ruin in the town of Pontefract, in West Yorkshire, England. King Richard II is thought to have died there. It was the site of a series of famous sieges during the 17th-century English Civil War. The castle, on a rock to the east of the town above All Saints' Church, was constructed in approximately 1070 by Ilbert de Lacy. on land which had been granted to him by William the Conqueror as a reward for his support during the Norman Conquest. There is, however, evidence of earlier occupation of the site.
Clan Ramsay was claimed by the Douglases who became jealous and William Douglas, Lord of Liddesdale captured Alexander Ramsay with a strong force of men, imprisoning him in Hermitage Castle, where he was starved to death. Alexander's brother, William Ramsay, was captured by the English at the Battle of Neville's Cross but was not killed by them as he lived to tell the tale. In 1400 another Sir Alexander Ramsay held out in Dalhousie Castle against a siege by the English, who were forced to retreat due to Ramsay's resolute resistance. In 1513 during the Anglo-Scottish Wars, Sir Alexander's descendant, another Alexander