Battle of Lincoln 1217
The second Battle of Lincoln was fought on 20 May 1217 between the barons supporting Prince Louis VIII of France ⓘ and the royalist forces defending the claim of the ten-year-old Henry III of England.1
The city of Lincoln was held by forces loyal to Louis, commanded by the Count of Perche, with approximately 600 knights and several thousand infantry.2 Lincoln Castle, however, remained in royalist hands.
On 12 May, William Marshal ⓘ, 1st Earl of Pembroke marched from Newark toward Lincoln with 407 knights, 317 crossbowmen, and supporting men-at-arms. Arriving on the morning of 20 May, the royalists approached the city from the north.1
Crossbowmen entered the castle through the west gate and took position along the walls, firing down upon the besieging forces gathered between the castle and the cathedral. At the same time, Marshal’s troops attacked the north gate. While Perche’s men concentrated on its defence, royalists cleared rubble blocking a damaged gate in the north-west wall, allowing the main force to enter the city.
Fighting within the streets lasted approximately six hours. The Count of Perche was killed, and many rebel leaders were captured.1
The defeat at Lincoln marked a decisive turning point in the First Barons’ War. Although Louis retained some strongholds, support among the English barons began to shift toward Henry III, and negotiations for peace soon followed.1 Combined with the naval defeat off Sandwich in August 1217, the battle effectively ended French intervention in England.
- 1. a. b. c. d. The Thirteenth Century 1216-1307 The Oxford History Of England The Oxford History Of England Oxford Clarendon Press 1962. p11-12.
- 2. The Greatest Knight London Simon & Schuster 2015. p353.
