The Battle of Lincoln 1217

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss The Battle of Lincoln on 20th May 1217, when two armies fought to keep, or to win, the English crown. This was a struggle between the Angevin and Capetian dynasties, one that followed Capetian successes over the Angevins in France. The forces of the new boy-king, Henry III, attacked those of Louis of France, the claimant backed by rebel Barons. Henry’s regent, William Marshal, was almost seventy when he led the charge on Lincoln that day, and his victory confirmed his reputation as England’s greatest knight. Louis sent to France for reinforcements but in August these, too, were defeated at sea, at the Battle of Sandwich. As part of the peace deal, Henry reissued Magna Carta, which King John had granted in 1215 but soon withdrawn, and Louis went home, leaving England’s Anglo-French rulers more Anglo and less French than he had planned.

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Louise Wilkinson 3 episodes
  Professor of Medieval History at Canterbury Christ Church University
• Stephen Church No other episodes
  Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia
• Thomas Asbridge No other episodes
  Reader in Medieval History at Queen Mary, University of London

Reading list

• The Greatest Knight: The Remarkable Life of William Marshal, the Power behind Five English Thrones
  Thomas Asbridge (Simon & Schuster, 2015) Google Books →
• The Minority of Henry III
  David Carpenter (Methuen, 1990) Google Books →
• Magna Carta
  David Carpenter (trans.) (Penguin Classics, 2015) Google Books →
• King John: England, Magna Carta and the Making of a Tyrant
  Stephen Church (Macmillan, 2015) Google Books →
• Henry III: A Simple and God-Fearing King
  Stephen Church (Allen Lane, 2017)
• Blanche of Castile, Queen of France
  Lindy Grant (Yale University Press, 2016) Google Books →
• Medieval Lincoln
  Francis Hill (Cambridge University Press, 2008) Google Books →
• Blood Cries Afar: The Forgotten Invasion of England of 1216
  Sean McGlynn (The History Press, 2013) Google Books →
• Women in Thirteenth-Century Lincolnshire
  Louise Wilkinson (Boydell Press for the Royal Historical Society, 2015) Google Books →

Related episodes

• The Battle of Stamford Bridge
  
  2 Jun, 2011 940 History of Europe
• The Battle of Bosworth Field
  
  26 Apr, 2012 940 History of Europe
• The Anarchy
  
  1 Nov, 2012 940 History of Europe
• Agincourt
  
  16 Sep, 2004 940 History of Europe
• The Battle of Crécy
  
  13 Apr, 2023 940 History of Europe
• The Second Barons’ War
  
  6 May, 2021 940 History of Europe
• Alfred and the Battle of Edington
  
  7 Apr, 2005 940 History of Europe
• The Tudor State
  
  26 Oct, 2000 940 History of Europe
• The Norman Yoke
  
  10 Apr, 2008 940 History of Europe
• Thomas Becket
  
  14 Dec, 2017 270 History of Christianity

Experimental. For more related episodes, visit the visual explorer.

---

Programme ID: b08njv60

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08njv60

Auto-category: 940.1 (Medieval history of Europe)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello. On the 20th of May, 1217, two armies fought at Lincoln to keep or to win the English crown.