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the King's army; hence the discomfiture was reproachfully termed Lewis-fair. Each royalist wore a white cross on his breast, on account of the battle being fought in the Whitsun week. It began at two o'clock, and ended at nine, "So expeditious," says Matthew Paris, " were the merchants in transacting the business at this fair." This battle, fought on the 4th of June, A. D. 1218, was the ruin of the Dauphin's cause in England, as well as that of the barons; and at the same time evinced the folly of the latter in accepting the aid of a French power to enable them to oppose their legal sovereign. Speed says, that in the fiftieth of Henry the Third, A. D. 1266, the city of Lincoln was sacked.

The castle and bail of Lincoln appear to have continued in the crown till the time of Edward the First, when Henry de Lacy died seized of them, and they passed, with other parts of his inheritance, to the Earl of Lincoln, and so became annexed to the duchy of Lancaster. John of Gaunt, Duke of that palatinate, greatly improved the castle, and made it his summer residence; having, according to a tradition of the place, built himself a winter palace below the hill, in the southern suburbs.

In the time of King Edward the First, A. D. 1301, a parliament was held here, to consult about an answer to the Pope's letters, in which he had prohibited the King from waging war against the Scots, who had previously resigned their kingdom to that monarch. In this the King and Nobles resolved, that, as the King's quarrel with the Scots was founded upon his just title to the crown of Scotland, no foreign power had a right to interfere; and a spirited remonstrance to that effect was transmitted to Rome: upon which the Pope relinquishing his prohibitory plan, the war was continued. Four years after this, the King kept his court here a whole winter, and held another parliament, in which he confirmed Magna Charta*, and obtained a subsidy. A parliament

* A fine and perfect copy of this important national deed, is still preserved among the archives of the cathedral. This has been carefully copied, under the direction of Mr. William Illingworth, and is now engraving for the "Parliamentary Reports on the Public Records of Great Britain."

A parliament was assembled at Lincoln, by Edward the Second, to consider of the best means to be adopted for opposing the outrages of the Scots; and another was also holden at this place in the first year of the succeeding reign.

The contracted spirit of corporate monopoly so far prevailed here, against the acts of parliament passed in the years 1335 and 1337, and the King's resolutions to foster the woollen manufactures, that the weavers of Lincoln obtained a grant from Edward the Third, A. D. 1348, of what they considered and called their liberties. By this charter they were invested with the power of depriving any weaver not of their guild, of the privilege of working at his trade within twelve leagues of the city. This, and some other similar monopolies, were abolished in the year 1351, by an act called the Statute of Cloths. In the twenty-sixth year of this reign, A. D. 1352, the staple of wool was removed from Flanders to England; and the staple towns appointed on that occasion, were Westminster, Chichester, Canterbury, Bristol, Hull, and Lincoln. The latter was also made a staple for leather, lead, and various other articles. This proved highly beneficial to the place, for it thereby recovered from the losses it had sustained by military ravages, and was soon in a very flourishing condition. John of Gaunt being a widower, while resident at Lincoln, married, A. D. 1396, the Lady Catharine Swinford, then a widow. This apparently unequal match excited much surprise. But Sir John Hayward observes, that he "therein obeyed the remorse of a Christian conscience, without respect to his own unequal greatness; for having had several children by her in his former wife's time, he made her and them the only sufficient amends which the laws of God and man require." And further, in a parliament held the year following, the Duke procured an act to legitimate his children, and give them the surname of Beaufort.

Richard the Second visited Lincoln in the year 1386, and granted to the mayor (John Sutton), and his successors, the privilege of having a sword carried before them in their pro cessions.

Henry

Henry the Sixth came here in the year 1446, and then held his court in the episcopal palace.

A rebellion breaking out in the time of Edward the Fourth, Sir Robert Wells, son of Lord Wells, out of revenge for the death of his father, whom Edward, after promising safety, had caused to be beheaded, took up arms, and raised a great com motion in the county. Collecting together about 30,000 men at Lincoln, he marched out, and fell upon the King's troops in the vicinity of Stamford, near which place a most sanguinary battle ensued, when Sir Robert, with Sir Thomas Deland being taken, the Lincoln men were so terrified, that casting off their coats, least they should be impeded in their flight, ran away. This conflict is still called "The Battle of Lose-Coat-Field." On this occasion it is said 10,000 were killed, and Sir Robert Wells, with many other persons of distinction, were put to death by the King's command. After the battle of Bosworth Field, King Henry the Seventh was at Lincoln, and here it was he first heard of the escape of the Lord Lovell, who had raised an army against him. After his coronation in the camp, he came to this city, where he spent three days in offering up public prayers and thanksgivings, and in making splendid processions, for the signal victory he had obtained over Richard the Third. In the year 1533, Cromwell, the minister of King Henry the Eighth, obtained an act of Parliament to enforce the reading of the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments, in English. This was not agreeable to the common people, who, instigated by the monks, rose in various parts of the kingdom. A commotion was made by the men of Lincoln and Lincolnshire, under a leader of the feigned name of Captain Cobler. They amounted to nearly 20,000 men, against whom the King prepared to march in person, charging several counties to furnish a certain number of soldiers, properly equipped, to meet him at Ampthill. This being known to the insurgents, they sent to his Majesty a list of articles, or items of their grievances; and an humble request, that he would pardon their having taken up arms against him.

When

When the King had perused it, he pacified them by a courteous speech; and on laying down their arms, they received his most gracious pardon.

On the commencement of the civil war between Charles the First and his parliament*, the King came to Lincoln, where he received, by Charles Dailson, recorder of the city, the assurance of support from the corporation and principal inhabitants; and having convened the nobility, knights, gentry, and freeholders of the county, his Majesty addressed them in an able and appropriate speech justifying his conduct in the measures he had taken; exhorting them to join cordially with him in defence of their liberty and religion, and warning them against the consequences of the spirit of rebellion which had gone forth. This speech, delivered July 15, A. D. 1642, is published in the volume of Reliquæ Sacra, or Works of King Charles the First. In the month of July, the following year, a plot was discovered to deliver up the city, then in the hands of the parliamentarian forces, to the King. For co-operating in this design, 2000 of the Queen's troops were sent from Newark before the walls of Lincoln, expecting, according to agreement, they should be admitted by Serjeant Major Purefoy, and his brother Captain Purefoy, who had, the day before, received about sixty cavaliers in disguise. And though an intimation of the plot was given to the garrison by the Mayor of Hull, on which the two Purefoys were seized, yet the cavaliers sallied into the town, and, before they could be suppressed, did considerable execution.

Soon after

* It is a singular circumstance, that although a very particular account has been given, by several authors, of the unhappy differences which subsisted between the people of England and their ill-fated monarch, at various other cities and towns, yet no mention is made of any events relative to that period at Lincolu, either in Camden, the Magna Britannia, or even in Clarendon's History of the Rebellion. Mr. Gough, in his additions to Camden, edition 1789, merely says, "The lower town having been taken by the parliament's forces, under the Earl of Manchester, the castle was stormed, May, 1644."

after this, Lincoln was in possession of the royalists; for, May 3d,, A. D. 1644, the Earl of Manchester sate down with an army before the city, and, after meeting some little resistance, took the lower part of it, the besieged retreating into the Minster and Castle. These he intended to storm on the night of the 4th, had. not a violent rain prevented him, by making the Castle Hill too slippery for the purpose. On the following day, receiving intelligence that Colonel Goring, with 5 or 6000 horse, was com-, ing to relieve the city, Manchester resolved to carry the castle by storm that afternoon. But again being informed that they could, not come up during the night, he deferred the attack till the next morning. In the mean time, Cromwell was detached, with 2000 horse, to cause a diversion of their rout. The infantry. were ordered to lie among their works, that they might be ready. when a signal for onset should be given. This was about twoo'clock in the morning, when they instantly commenced a most furious attack. In the space of a quarter of an hour they got up, to the works, though the King's troops made a gallant resistance, and soon were enabled to fix their scaling ladders. The garrison, at this time, desisted from firing, and threw down large stones on the assailants, which did much more execution than the shot; but the besiegers getting into the castle, slew about fifty; and the rest, intimidated, demanded quarter, which was immediately granted. Among the prisoners were Sir Francis Fane, the governor, Colonels Middlemore and Baudes, two Lieutenant Colonels, two Majors, twenty Captains, and about seven hundred private soldiers. One hundred horse, and eight pieces of Ordnance were also taken. Of Manchester's party, eight were killed, in which number were Captain Ogleby and Lieutenant Saunders; and about forty were wounded.

The Diocess of Lincoln, after the See was removed from Sidnacester, soon acquired a vast accumulation of territorial jurisdiction and wealth. It took in so many counties, that it was described as ready to sink under the incumbent weight of its own greatness; and though Henry the Second took cut of it the diocess

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