Battle of Lincoln (1217): William Marshal Saves Henry III

The Battle of Lincoln, fought on 20 May 1217, was the decisive land battle of the First Barons’ War in England. A royalist army led by the elderly regent William Marshal broke into the city of Lincoln, relieved its besieged castle and destroyed a combined force of French knights and rebel English barons. The victory saved the throne of the nine-year-old Henry III and ended the real threat that Prince Louis of France would become king of England.

Background: a French prince in England

The war grew out of the failure of Magna Carta. King John repudiated the charter within weeks, and a group of rebel barons offered the English crown to Louis, the eldest son of King Philip II of France, who had already humbled John at the Battle of Bouvines. Louis landed in Kent in May 1216, entered London and soon controlled much of the south-east.

John died at Newark in October 1216, and his son was crowned at Gloucester as Henry III on 28 October. Government passed to William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, with the support of the papal legate Guala Bicchieri. The regency reissued a revised Magna Carta in November 1216, a move that persuaded some rebels that the boy king, not the French prince, was the better guarantee of their liberties.

The siege of Lincoln Castle

Lincoln Castle held out for the Crown under Nicola de la Haye, its hereditary castellan and the sheriff of Lincolnshire. The rebels and their French allies occupied the city, which lay on a steep hill crowned by the castle and the cathedral, and besieged the castle with siege engines.

In spring 1217 Louis divided his forces. While he besieged Dover, a large army under Thomas, Count of Perche, with leading rebels such as Saer de Quincy, Earl of Winchester, and Robert FitzWalter, went north and pressed the siege of Lincoln. Marshal saw a chance to strike at part of the enemy force and gathered the royalist barons at Newark.

The battle in the streets

Marshal approached Lincoln from the north-west on 20 May, so that his army did not have to cross the River Witham below the city. The besiegers misjudged his strength and stayed inside the walls instead of meeting him in the open.

Royalist crossbowmen under Falkes de Breauté entered the castle through its west gate and shot down on the enemy from the walls. Meanwhile Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, scouted the defences and found an old blocked gate in the city wall that could be cleared. The royalist knights forced their way in through this and the north gate and charged into the streets between the castle and the cathedral.

The fighting was confused and close. The Count of Perche refused to surrender and was killed near the cathedral, reportedly by a thrust through the eye-slit of his helmet. His death broke the resistance. The rebels fled down the steep streets towards the lower town and the southern gate, where many were trapped and captured. Roger of Wendover tells the story that a cow stuck in the gate slowed their escape.

Key people

• William Marshal (c. 1146–1219): Earl of Pembroke and regent, famed as the greatest knight of his age. He led the attack in person at about 70.
• Henry III (1207–1272): the boy king, who stayed at Nottingham during the battle.
• Nicola de la Haye (died 1230): castellan of Lincoln who held the castle through the siege.
• Falkes de Breauté: a mercenary captain whose crossbowmen played a key part.
• Thomas, Count of Perche: commander of the French and rebel army, killed in the fighting.

By the numbers

The figures come from medieval writers and should be treated as approximate. Medieval knights were valuable as prisoners for ransom, which is one reason casualties were low compared with the number captured.

Consequences

The victory destroyed the rebel army in the Midlands and stripped Louis of many of his English supporters. Victorious troops sacked the city, including churches, an episode remembered as the “Fair of Lincoln”. Many barons began to seek terms with the regency.

Louis’s last hope was reinforcements from France. On 24 August 1217 an English fleet under Hubert de Burgh defeated the French convoy off Sandwich in the Battle of Dover, or Sandwich. In September Louis agreed to the Treaty of Lambeth, received a payment of 10,000 marks and left England. In November 1217 the regency issued Magna Carta again together with the new Charter of the Forest.

Legacy

Lincoln secured the Plantagenet dynasty and helped turn Magna Carta from a failed peace treaty into a lasting part of English law. It also crowned the career of William Marshal, who died in May 1219 and was buried in the Temple Church in London. His deeds are known in detail from a long verse biography written soon after his death.

England’s later political history, including the baronial reform movement of Simon de Montfort, unfolded during the long reign that this battle made possible.

Timeline

• 1215, June: King John agrees to Magna Carta at Runnymede; civil war follows within months.
• 1216, May: Prince Louis of France lands in Kent.
• 1216, October: John dies; Henry III is crowned at Gloucester on 28 October.
• 1216, November: The regency reissues Magna Carta.
• 1217, 20 May: Royalists win the Battle of Lincoln.
• 1217, 24 August: A French fleet is defeated off Sandwich.
• 1217, September: Treaty of Lambeth; Louis leaves England.
• 1219, 14 May: William Marshal dies.

Why it matters

In a single morning of street fighting, the Battle of Lincoln decided who would rule England. It kept a nine-year-old on the throne, ended the prospect of a French king of England and gave the regency the breathing space to rebuild royal government around Magna Carta.