#WarsoftheRoses OTD in 1483 - #RichardIII’s progress reached Pontefract. The King had written to local gentry on 18 August stating his intention to arrive on 27 August, but it’s possible he may actually have arrived a day or two earlier due to the relatively short distance between Nottingham & Pontefract, & the gap in the surviving documents between 23 & 27 August. Pontefract was a significant location in the life of Richard III for other reasons. It was the execution site of Anthony Woodville, Lord Rivers & Sir Richard Grey on 25 June 1483, following the power struggle between Elizabeth Woodville & Richard, while still Duke of Gloucester, in the weeks following #EdwardIV’s death. (Some accounts include Sir Thomas Vaughan in this list, but others do not, so I have kept him separate here as his exact fate is unclear.) It has also been suggested that Pontefract became the secret residence of Richard’s deposed nephew #EdwardV (the elder of the Princes in the Tower) during Richard’s reign. This stems from an intriguing account by the envoy Nicolas von Popplau who visited Richard’s court in Yorkshire in early May 1484 & had multiple private discussions with the King. According to von Popplau: ‘ten miles from Doncaster, en route to York, there is also a castle stronghold. Inside are held in safekeeping the king's treasure & all great lords, such as the king's children & sons of princes, that are kept just as close as if in captivity. And the said castle is named in Latin pons fractus [Pontefract|, as I was later given to understand from the mouth of the king himself.’ Who were ‘the king’s children & sons of princes’ referenced by von Popplau? Richard’s only legitimate child, Edward of Middleham had died in April 1484. Von Popplau could have meant Richard’s illegitimate offspring, John & Katherine of Gloucester. However, Katherine married William Herbert, Earl of Huntingdon in May 1484 & accompanied her husband to Wales. Alternative candidates are Clarence’s children, Edward Earl of Warwick & his sister Margaret, or Edward IV’s daughters with Elizabeth Woodville who had left sanctuary at Westminster Abbey following their mother’s reconciliation with Richard in April 1484. Or most intriguingly of all von Popolau might have meant Edward V &/or his younger brother Richard, Duke of York. This final interpretation is lent further weight by an assertion elsewhere in Von Popplau’s work that although some claim ‘King Richard, who reigns now, had put to death the sons of King Edward, so that not they but he was crowned. But many say (and I count myself amongst them) they still live & are kept in a very dark cellar.’ Was this at Pontefract? 📷@GenealogyBeech