In 1217 England was in chaos. Much of the country was under the control of Prince Louis of France, who had invaded and been offered the crown by the nobles who were disaffected with the late King John. A number of strongholds were holding out in the name of Henry III, John’s young son; Louis was in the process of besieging and subduing them. But little did he know that his plans were about to be wrecked because of one remarkable woman.
Nicola de la Haye was the hereditary castellan of Lincoln Castle. By 1217 she was in her mid-sixties, considered elderly at that time. She had been powerless to protect the town when the French fell on it in early 1217, but the castle, with its separate defences and garrison, managed to hold out and there was stalemate. Louis arrived, bringing with him siege machinery, reinforcements and threats. Looking at the situation he decided that his personal presence was not required; he delegated command, returned to London and subsequently headed off to Dover, confident of victory. After all, the castle was being commanded by a little old lady. Victory was assured, right?
Wrong.
The castle was bombarded from the south and east by the siege machinery all through March, April and early May, and during all this time Nicola marshalled her forces and defended the walls. Food became increasingly scarce, hunger and illness common; huge boulders, volleys of smaller stones and burning material were catapulted at the garrison at all hours of the day and night; the confines of the castle precincts would have become claustrophobic. The danger of death or hideous injury from missiles or flying pieces of shattered wall would have been ever-present. Sleep would have been difficult to come by as assaults or fires could have happened at any moment, and the stress must have been unbearable.
During this time Nicola had no contact with the outside world. She would not have known how much of the rest of the country was under Louis’s control, whether any other castles were still holding out, or whether anyone was going to come to their rescue. She was elderly, her husband and son were dead, and she was on her own with her garrison in a sea of French invaders.
It would have been very easy for Nicola to look at the haggard faces around her, the injuries and deaths, the gradual destruction of the walls, and to give in and ask the attackers for terms. But she refused to give up. Week by week, month by month, she rallied her troops. Her continuing defiance served three important purposes: it kept the strategically important castle of Lincoln out of enemy hands; it prolonged the siege, which drained more and more of Louis’s resources, meaning he could not deploy them elsewhere; and it gave the royalists, led by the regent William Marshal, the time to muster their forces.
Nicola’s determination was rewarded on 20 May 1217, when the regent led an army in person to the relief of Lincoln. There was fierce fighting in the narrow streets of the city, the siege machinery was destroyed and the castle liberated. Many of the French and their rebel English allies were captured, and Louis lost half his army. Lincoln turned the tide of the war, the mighty French force stopped in its tracks by one little old lady.
Further reading:
* D.A. Carpenter, The Minority of Henry III (Methuen, 1990)
* J.W.F. Hill, Medieval Lincoln (Cambridge University Press, 1948)
* Louise Wilkinson, Women in Thirteenth-Century Lincolnshire (Boydell, 2007)
* For a more detailed look at Nicola’s life, see http://www.catherinehanley.co.uk/historical-background/nicola-de-la-haye.
C.B. Hanley has a PhD in medieval studies from the University of Sheffield and is the author of The Sins of the Father: A Mediaeval Mystery and The Bloody City: A Mediaeval Mystery.