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The First Barons' War (1215–1217) was a combination of a civil war in England between the forces of a number of rebellious barons and King John, and a foreign invasion invited by the barons aimed at toppling him.
Background
King John in June of 1215 was forced to sign Magna Carta by a group of powerful barons who had had enough of John's failed leadership and despotic rulership. "The law of the land" is one of the great watchwords of Magna Carta, standing in opposition to the king's mere will.
Magna Carta of 1215 contained clauses that no medieval king could accept, unless he wished to remain ruler in name only. This included clause 61, the "security clause", that allowed a group of 25 barons to override the king at any time by way of force, a medieval legal process called distraint that was normal in feudal relationships but had never been applied to a king. After a few months of half-hearted attempts to negotiate in the summer of 1215, open warfare broke out between the rebel barons and the king and his supporters.
First Barons' War
Louis invited and welcomed
The war began over Magna Carta but quickly turned into a dynastic war for the throne of England. The rebel barons, faced with a powerful king, turned to Prince Louis, son and heir apparent of King of France Philip Augustus.The Norman invasion had occurred only 150 years before, and the relationship between England and France was not so simply adverserial as it later became. The contemporary document called the annals of Waverley sees no oxymoron in stating that Louis was invited to invade in order to "prevent the realm being pillaged by aliens".
At first, in November of 1215, Louis simply sent the barons a contingent of knights to protect London. But he also agreed to invade England, even though the Pope threatened him with excommunication over it and the King of France argued against it. And invade is just what he did. On May 21 1216, watchmen on the coast of Thanet detected sails on the horizon. The next day, the King of England and his armies saw Louis’s troops disembark on the coast of Kent. John decided to escape to Winchester.
Louis marched on London which he entered with little resistance and where he was openly received by the rebel barons and citizens of London. At St Paul's Cathedral, he was proclaimed and accepted as king (although not actually crowned) with great pomp and celebration in the presence of all of London in May 1216. Many nobles, along with Alexander II of Scotland (1214–49), gathered to give homage to him.
Many of John's supporters, sensing a tide of change, moved to support the barons. Gerald of Wales remarked: "The madness of slavery is over, the time of liberty has been granted, English knecks are free from the yoke."
On June 14 Louis captured Winchester and soon conquered over half of the British kingdom.
Siege of Dover Castle
In the meantime, the King of France had taunted his son for trying to conquer England without first seizing its key: Dover. And he was right. Most of Kent (including Canterbury and Rochester) had already fallen to Louis but when he did move on to Dover Castle on July 25, it was prepared. Its constable, Hubert de Burgh, had successfully defended the castle at Chinon in 1205 and he had a well-supplied garrison of men.The first siege began on 19 July, with Louis taking the high ground to the north of the castle. His men successfully undermined the barbican and attempted to topple the castle gate, but De Burgh's men managed to repulse the invaders, blocking the breach in the walls with giant timbers.
After three months spent besieging the castle, Louis called a truce on 14 October and soon after returned to London. However the Dover garrison repeatedly disrupted his communication with France, and Louis returned to Dover to begin a second siege on 12 May 1217.
On both occasions Dover resisted so gallantly that Louis found an important part of his forces kept from the main theatre of operations.
After the siege the weak northern gate was blocked and tunnels were built in that area, to St John's Tower, and the new Constable's Gate and Fitzwilliam's Gate were built.
In the keep of the castle today (NOT where the actual siege occurred) is the audio-visual 1216 Experience.
- Photos and article
- Goodall, John, "Dover Castle and the Great Siege of 1216", Chateau Gaillard v.19 (2000) (the online version lacks the diagrams of the print version)
Siege of Windsor Castle
Apart from Dover, the only castle to hold out against him was that at Windsor, which also survived a long siege, despite severe damage to the structure of its lower ward (immediately repaired in 1216 by King John's successor Henry III, who further strengthened the defences with the construction of the western curtain wall, much of which survives today). This is possibly down to its having been already besieged by the barons in 1189, less than 30 years earlier.Death of John
On October 18, 1216 John died. The main reason for the fighting died with him. And now Louis seemed much more of a threat to baronial interests than John's nine year old son, Henry. Pierre des Roches (the bishop of Winchester) and a number of barons, rushed to get the young Henry to be crowned as king of England. They could not do it in London, of course, (Prince Louis’ government was there) and so, on October 28, 1216, they brought the boy from the castle at Devizes to an abbey, in Gloucester in front of a small attendance presided by a Papal Legate. There, using as a crown a band of gold made from a necklace, they “crowned” Henry.On November 12, 1216 Magna Carta was reissued in Henry's name with some of the clauses, including clause 61, omitted. The revised charter was signed by the young kings' regent William Marshal. A great deal of the country was loyal to Prince Louis but the southwest of England and the midlands favoured Henry. Marshall was highly respected and he asked the barons not to blame the child Henry for his father's sins. The prevailing sentiment, helped by self interest, disliked the idea of depriving a boy of his inheritance. William also promised that he and the other regents would rule by Magna Carta. And he furthermore managed to get support from the pope who had already excommunicated Louis anyway.
William slowly managed to get most barons to switch sides from Louis to Henry and attack Louis. The two opposing sides fought for about a year. On December 6, 1216 Louis took Hetford Castle but allowed the defending knights to leave with their horses and weapons. He then took Berkhamstead in late December. And again Louis allowed the royal garrison to withdraw honourably with their horses and weapons.
But on May 15 or May 20 1217, with many of Louis' men diverted to the continuing siege of Dover, at the Second Battle of Lincoln at Lincoln Castle Guillaume le Marechaland Falkes de Breaute attacked barons loyal to Louis and inflicted a heavy defeat on them. This event is known as “Lincoln Fair” after the looting that took place afterwards. The citizens were loyal to Louis so Henry’s forces sacked the city. Many women and children perished.
Battle of Sandwich
William Marshall prepared for a siege against London next. But in the meantime, Louis suffered 2 more heavy defeats, this time at sea, at the Battle of Dover and Battle of Sandwich in the Straits of Dover, this time at the hands of Guillaume’s ally and Dover's constable, Hubert de Burgh. Louis’ reinforcement convoy, under Eustace the Monk, was destroyed, making it nearly impossible for Louis to continue fighting.Peace
After a year and a half of war, most of the rebellious barons had defected and so Louis VIII had to give up his claim to be the King of England by signing the Treaty of Lambeth on September 11, 1217. Louis accepted a symbolic sum to relinquish his English dominions and returned home. Though it was not in the treaty, it was often reported that Louis would try to convince the King of France, his father, to give to Henry what he had conquered from his father John.Louis a king of England?
Since other English Kings such as Edward V and Edward VIII were not crowned but only proclaimed, and - more to the point - Louis occupied so much of England and was recognised as king by the barons, there is a good case for including Louis VIII in the list of Kings of England. This case was backed by the 'Monarch' episode of Terry Jones' Medieval Lives.
See also
Barons' Wars | Battles of England | History of England | History of France | Invasions of England | Medieval warfare
"First Barons' War"