Battle of Lincoln (1217)
Depiction of the Battle of Lincoln from the Chronica majora of Matthew Paris, 13th century.
| date | May 20, 1217 |
|---|---|
| place | Lincoln / Lincolnshire |
| output | Royal victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
loyal barons under Henry III. |
rebellious barons and French under Louis VIII. |
| Commander | |
|
|
|
| Troop strength | |
| 400 knights 347 archers |
611 French and English knights approx. 1,000 infantrymen |
| losses | |
|
unknown |
† 3 knights, |
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Coordinates: 53 ° 14 ′ 0 ″ N , 0 ° 32 ′ 19.2 ″ W.
The Battle of Lincoln was a military clash in high medieval England in the 13th century. It took place on the morning of May 20, 1217 in the city of Lincoln , Lincolnshire . It represents the military climax of the so-called First War of the Barons .
background
On June 15, 1215, King John of England was compelled by a fronde consisting of twenty-five powerful English barons in Runnymede to sign the Magna Carta . In it, the barons were guaranteed extensive freedoms and a political say on the part of the English crown. King John, however, sought a revision of the Magna Charta with papal support , which led him into a civil war against his barons. The barons went so far as to declare the kingship of John ended to instead invite the French Crown Prince Louis VIII to become the new King of England. Prince Ludwig was married to Blanka of Castile , who was a niece of Johann and thus could assert claims to the English throne.
Prince Ludwig landed on the coast of England in 1216 with an army of French knights and entered London unhindered , where he received the oath of allegiance from the barons in St. Paul's Cathedral, although there was no coronation on this occasion. In the weeks that followed, Ludwig subjugated most of the English east, and his triumphant advance seemed unstoppable. But then King John died on October 26, 1216 in his hiding place in Newark, which led to a decisive change in the situation. Because the famous knight William Marshal , who was one of the last faithful to Johanns, immediately let his underage son, Heinrich III. to be crowned the new king. The present papal legate presented Henry III. under the protection of the Roman Church and pronounced the excommunication on the rebellious barons and Prince Ludwig. Several supporters of the prince then switched to the side of Henry III, as their opposition had primarily been directed against the person of Johann and the new child king turned out to be a more favorable alternative to Prince Ludwig for them. The Pope's support for Henry III. was justified in preventing the threatened unification of England with France and thus preventing the formation of a superior power in Western Europe, which could also be dangerous for the Church.
In order to force the decision in the battle for England, Prince Ludwig decided in spring 1217 to split his army. While he himself wanted to take the strategically important seaport of Dover , Count Thomas von Le Perche was to move with the other part to the north.
The battle
On his way, Le Perche was able to take several castles and cities, which he succeeded in doing for Prince Ludwig, especially because of the partisanship of the common people and the city populations. So also in Lincoln, where he could move in without a fight with the support of the citizens. The castle's crew remained loyal to the king and holed up behind its walls, whereupon Le Perche took up their siege, which turned out to be protracted.
This gave the aged William Marshal the time necessary to gather an army of loyal knights and barons unnoticed at Stow, ten miles north of Lincoln. In the early hours of May 20, 1217, he began his march to Lincoln, which he reached at dawn. Before the fight started, Marshal sent a delegation of parliament, including his nephew John Marshal , to the enemies in Lincoln in the hope of being able to obtain their withdrawal without a fight. But the delegation was attacked by some French knights before they could start negotiations. The fight became so inevitable. Le Perche intended to concentrate his main power on the siege of the castle, while he only assigned smaller forces to barricade the west and north gates of the city. On the other side, Marshal divided his army into four divisions. He also gave the commanding officer of his archers, Falkes de Bréauté , the instruction to shoot only at the horses of the opponents, in order to give them the chance to escape, as many of their own relatives were among them.
Marshal and his division attacked Lincoln's west gate, which was closest to the castle. He managed to break into the city through the enemy's defense. There he involved the surprised Le Perche troops in street fighting. Fawkes de Bréauté was able to move into the castle with some of his archers and fire at the enemy from its walls. At the same time, Ranulph de Blondeville, 4th Earl of Chester , successfully attacked the north gate with his detachment, whereupon the supporters of Ludwig in the city were cornered. The decision went hand in hand with the death of the Count of Le Perche after the splinters of the broken lance of his opponent pierced his head through the slits of his helmet in a knightly duel. The Anglo-French allies then withdrew through the south gate over the Witham bridge to the suburb of Wigford, from where they were able to flee to London. Several rebel barons were captured by Marshals, including the leader of the 1215 rebellion, Robert FitzWalter , and the Earls of Winchester, Hertford and Hereford.
The victorious royal knights then spiraled out of control and stormed and sacked Lincoln Cathedral , where the people had taken shelter from the fighting.
consequences
The defeat of Lincoln followed for Prince Ludwig in August 1217 the sinking of his fleet in the battle of Sandwich by Hubert de Burgh . As a result, the prince not only lost his supply connection to France, but also important reinforcement troops for his army, which was now severely isolated in England. Since Henry III. enjoyed the protection of the Pope, Ludwig could no longer hope for support from his father, King Philip II . On September 11, 1217, Ludwig finally gave up his ambitions for the English throne, which in turn was saved for the Plantagenets thanks to their faithful William Marshal and the support of the Church. In the Peace of Lambeth , Ludwig was freed from the ban and reimbursed for the costs incurred; in return, he renounced any claim to the throne in England on behalf of his wife.
Despite their defeat, the rebellious barons of England faced little consequence. They submitted to Heinrich III. and kept their lands for it. Several years later, the provisions of the Magna Carta were made by King Henry III. recognized and declared binding. Nevertheless, under his rule there were further constitutional conflicts with the barons, which erupted in the “Second Baron's War” (1258–1265).
literature
- David Crouch: William Marshal: knighthood, war and chivalry, 1147-1219 (2002)
- JF Verbruggen: The art of warface in Western Europe during the Middle Ages: from the eighth century to 1340 (Boydell & Brewer, 2002)
swell
- The story of William Marshal ( L'Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal )
- Roger von Wendover , Flores Historiarum , ed. by JA Giles: Roger of Wendower's Flowers of History (1849), Vol. 2, pp. 391–398 (description of the battle in English )
- Matthäus Paris , Chronica Majora , ed. by Henry Richards Luard in: Rolls Series 57 (1876), Vol. 3, pp. 17-25