Pontefract Beseiged
STUART, Siege money. Pontefract. 1648-1649. AR Shilling (38mm, 7.54 g, 10h). In the name of Charles I. Type I. Dated 1648. DVM : SPIRO : SPERO, crowned C·R / Castle gateway with flag; OBS to left, P C above, hand holding sword to right, I648 below. Brooker 1228-1230; North 2646; SCBC 3148. Toned. Good VF. Rare. Well struck on an exceptionally broad flan, about 1g heavier than any other example on CoinArchives.
Ex Dr. Irving Schneider Collection; Horace Hird Collection (Glendining/Spink, 6 March 1974), lot 271.
Built during the Norman period, Pontefract Castle in Yorkshire was famous as the location of the murder of Richard II in 1400. During the English Civil War, Pontefract became a royalist stronghold, and, according to Oliver Cromwell, it was "[...] one of the strongest inland garrisons in the kingdom." Pontefract underwent three Parliamentarian sieges. When the third siege ended on 24 March 1649, the inhabitants surrounding the castle, fearing the possibility of another siege, petitioned Parliament for the castle to be demolished. On 5 April 1649, demolition began, and although efforts were for the most part successful, ruins of the castle remain visible today.
