ABSTRACT
After Lancaster Herald had left Pontefract, Robert Aske and Sir Robert Constable held musters on St Thomas’ hill near Pontefract where they “tried out the men.” “No man there but was willing to do his best and prepare for battle.” News came that the Earl of Shrewsbury had mustered his army on Blythe Law. Blythe, where Shrewsbury mustered, is close to Scrooby in Nottinghamshire about twelve miles south of Doncaster and at least twenty-five, as the crow flies, from Pontefract. On Sunday 22 October at nine o’clock in the morning William Stapleton brought to Pontefract the host of Beverley which had been besieging Hull. They had set out for York on Saturday morning, leaving a garrison in Hull. Besides bands from different parts of the shire, all the country round Pontefract was taking up arms. News of the surrender of Pontefract Castle came to Wakefield no one there was in any doubt as to which side he would take.
