Runnymede and Lincoln Fair: A Story of the Great Charter

by John G. Edgar

  CHAPTER XLVIII

  LINCOLN

  Lincoln is situated on the summit and side of a hill that slopes with adeep descent to the margin of the river Witham, which here bends itscourse eastward, and, being divided into three small channels, washesthe lower part of the city.

  Viewed from the London road, on the south, in the month of May, theaspect of Lincoln is particularly beautiful. Before you is the Witham’ssilver stream flowing on the east, the open country on the west, and infront the ancient city itself stretching from the level ground up ahill, studded with houses and embowered in trees, its eminence crownedwith the keep of the dilapidated castle, and the still magnificentcathedral.

  Far different, no doubt, was the appearance of Lincoln in the days whenthe third Henry was king, and the great Earl of Pembroke protector. Itis difficult, indeed, mentally to annihilate the rich and varied scenepresented from the spot referred to, and to substitute the ancientprospect in its stead. But if to the gazer’s view, “by some strangeparallax,” the mediæval Lincoln were suddenly presented, with its noblecastle and grand cathedral; its palace, its churches, and wealthyreligious house keeping the flames of piety and learning still burning;its hospital for the sick, and its hospital for decayed priests; itsnarrow streets, with their projecting houses, tenanted by burgher andchapman; its Jewry, with its strange inhabitants with outlandishgarments and olive complexions, trembling for their lives during everycommotion, yet too covetous not to be cruel and harsh when Christianswere at their mercy in times of peace; its Roman arches, and its strongwalls, with gates, and towers, and turrets--all unlike as such a scenemight be to the present, save in its hill, and vale, and silvery stream,he would still confess that it was more picturesque and not less fairthan that which now lies so beautiful before the arrested eye.

  From an historical point of view, Lincoln is one of the most interestingof English cities. It still boasts monuments of its importance whenEngland was Britain, and when Britain was in the hands of the Romans;and at the time of the Norman Conquest, when six centuries had rolledover, it was one of the richest and most populous places in the kingdom.Moreover, the citizens were chiefly men of Danish origin, and thereforeto be dreaded; and the Conqueror, on taking Lincoln, resolved to build astrong castle, not only to keep the inhabitants in awe, but to guardagainst any attempt made by them, in concert with their kinsmen theDanish sea-kings, to throw off the Norman yoke; and having demolishedabout two hundred and seventy houses to make room for the edifice, theConqueror crowned the hill with a stronghold, which frowned sullen onthe city over which it looked, and awed all malcontents, whether Dane orSaxon. The Empress Maude added to the fortifications while strugglingwith Stephen; and Lincoln was the scene of important events and a greatbattle during that war which, after tearing England to pieces, resultedin the peaceful accession of Henry Plantagenet.

  But Lincoln, as time passed over, was exposed to other horrors thanthose of war. In 1180, an earthquake shook the city to its foundations,and almost rent the cathedral in twain. But the citizens repaired theirdwellings, and Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln--since celebrated in history asSt. Hugh of Burgundy--rebuilt the cathedral and restored all its formersplendour.

  Before the era of the Great Charter, however, Bishop Hugh had beencarried to his last resting-place on the shoulders of King John and thetwo sub-kings of Scotland and Wales, and the place which he had filledwith so much honour was occupied by Henry Welles, a prelate whoresolutely espoused the cause of the Anglo-Norman barons and their “goodLord Louis.” Nevertheless, the royal cause was well supported inLincoln, and its adherents were headed by a dame somewhat like thewidowed Countess Albemarle, whom the chronicler describes as “a womanalmost a man, being deficient in nothing masculine but manhood.”

  It seems that, in the reign of Richard Cœur-de-Lion, Gerard deCamville held the castle of Lincoln, “the custody whereof was known tobelong to the inheritance of Nichola, the wife of the same Gerard, butunder the king.” However, when Richard was absent in the East, on hisway to the Holy Land, and when a feud broke out between Prince John andthe Bishop of Ely, who was chancellor and regent of the kingdom, Gerardtook part with John, and, in his absence, the castle of Lincoln wasbesieged by the chancellor-bishop. “But,” says the chronicler, “Nichola,proposing to herself nothing effeminate, defended the castle like aman.” In fact, she held out till the siege was raised.

  Nichola de Camville was now a widow, and could not have been young. Butneither her courage nor her energy had departed; and though Gilbert deGant, whom Prince Louis had rewarded with an earldom before heconquered, had been exerting himself strenuously to take Lincoln, hisefforts had been in vain; the royal standard still waved over the townand castle when the Count de Perche and Robert Fitzwalter brought theirarmy to the besiegers’ aid.

  The arrival of a force so formidable, however, soon changed the face ofmatters, and the town surrendered. But the castle showed no signs ofbeing likely to yield; and De Perche and his Anglo-Norman allies werefain to commence a very systematic siege, bringing into play theirengines of war, battering the walls with huge stones, and hurling othermissiles against the garrison. However, they had great confidence intheir numbers and in their warlike engines; and they were pressing thesiege on the morning of Saturday, the 20th of May, with high hopes of aspeedy success, when informed by their scouts that the English wereapproaching in hostile array with banners displayed.

  The Count de Perche at first treated the intelligence with somethinglike indifference, and continued to direct the soldiers, who werehurling missiles from the “mangonels” to destroy the walls of thecastle. But Robert Fitzwalter and the Earl of Winchester did not takethe matter so coolly. Mounting their horses forthwith, the two baronsrode out to survey Pembroke’s army, and returned somewhat flurried,elate with the idea of their own superiority as regarded numbers.

  “Our enemies come against us in good order,” said they to De Perche,“but we are much more numerous than they are; therefore our advice is tosally forth to the ascent of the hill and meet them, for if we do so weshall catch them like larks.”

  It appears to have been sound advice, and such as the count ought tohave adopted, for his superiority in cavalry would have given him agreat advantage in the country; but the very fact of its coming fromFitzwalter and Winchester made it distasteful to the French.

  “No,” replied De Perche, who, like all Prince Louis’s captains, treatedhis Anglo-Norman allies cavalierly; “you have reckoned them according toyour own judgment and given your opinion; but I must go forth and countthem in the French fashion. Besides, I hardly deem the English would bemad enough to attack us in a walled town.”

  “No more than stags would dream of attacking lions,” added the Marshalof France, jeeringly.

  “Their fate would be sealed,” said the Castellan of Arras.

  However, that they might judge for themselves as to the extent of thedanger to which they were exposed, the count and his French knights andthe marshal and the castellan rode forth and surveyed Pembroke’s army ashorsemen and footmen came dauntlessly on, the sun shining on theirweapons and their armour. Indeed, the spectacle was not calculated toincrease De Perche’s confidence of conquering. Mistaking the baggage andthe standards carried by the men who guarded it for a second army, heformed a very erroneous notion of the numbers coming against him, andspurred back to the city a sadder if not a wiser man than he had leftit.

  And now the French and Anglo-Normans held a hurried council of war, andit was proposed to divide their forces, so that while one party wasdefending the gates and walls to prevent the English entering the city,the other party should continue to besiege the castle and keep thegarrison in check. The count’s friends took different views as to thepolicy of such a course. Some approved of the plan; others condemned itas not suited to the emergency. But there was no time left for argument,and the proposal was hastily adopted as the best thing that could bedone under the circumstances.

  And having in this manner decided on the
course to be followed, theleaders repaired each to the post assigned to him and prepared foraction--one party to guard the gates and walls, the other to directtheir efforts against the castle. But scarcely had they taken theirplaces and encouraged their men by word and gesture to do their dutyboldly, when both from French and Anglo-Normans rose a loud yell,followed by a long wail, as of men in mortal agony, and ere this diedaway Pembroke’s trumpets were sounding and his men were thundering atthe gates, and the conflict which was to render that May Saturdaymemorable had begun in earnest, the fate of England trembling in thebalance.