Pontefract Castle II was captured by Henry Bolingbroke's supporters in August 1399 and initially imprisoned in the Tower of London. Sometime before Christmas that year he was moved to Pontefract Castle (via Knaresborough) where he remained under guard until his death, perhaps on 14 February 1400. William Shakespeare's play Richard III mentions this incident: Various chroniclers suggest that Richard was starved to death by his captors, and others suggest he starved himself. A contemporary French chronicler suggested that Richard II had been hacked to death, but this is, according to the ODNB, "almost certainly fictitious". In 1536, the castle's guardian, Thomas Darcy,
John Wittlebury John Wittlebury John Wittlebury or Whittlebury (1333 – 21 April 1400) was an English Member of Parliament. He was the third son and heir of Aubrey Wittlebury (1306–1349) of Whissendine, Rutland, a member of one of the leading families of the county. He inherited his father's estates in Rutland and Northamptonshire after his eldest brother had died young and his other brother had entered Peterborough Abbey. He served on the bench as a Justice of the Peace for Rutland from 1368 to 1399 and was appointed High Sheriff of Rutland for 1372–1374 (2 years), 1377–1378, 1381–1382, 1388 and from 1399