The castle continued to be used as a jail , increasingly for local felons , and a location for political executions . By the 16th century it had become traditional to execute traitors by hanging them from the top of Clifford 's Tower , rather than killing them at Micklegate Bar , the usual previous location for capital punishment in York . In 1536 , for example , the political leader Robert Aske was executed at York Castle on the orders of Henry VIII , following the failure of Aske 's Pilgrimage of Grace protest against the Dissolution of the Monasteries . For most of the period the sheriffs of Yorkshire remained in control of the castle , although there were some notable exceptions such as the appointment of the royal favourite Sir Robert Ryther by Edward IV in 1478 . At the end of the 16th century , however , the Clifford family ( Earls of Cumberland ) , became the hereditary constables of the castle , and Clifford 's Tower took its name from the family at around this time
Pilgrimage of Grace
Pilgrimage of Grace
York Castle