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Battle of Lincoln, 1141: the day King Stephen was taken prisoner

The Anarchy · 2 February 1141 · King Stephen vs the Angevin earls · ~9 min read · Updated October 2026

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Hand-colored 1890s print of Lincoln from the southeast: the cathedral and old town on the hill above rows of houses, with a river, a fence and a man sitting in a boat on the near bank

Lincoln, from S.E., photochrom print (1890s), Library of Congress, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain (cropped).

At a glance

King StephenKing Stephen; William of Ypres; Alan of Dinan; Count Waleran of Meulan
vs
Supporters of the Empress MatildaRobert, Earl of Gloucester; Ranulf, Earl of Chester; a large force of Welsh
Date
2 February 1141, the feast of the Purification (Candlemas)
Location
Outside the city of Lincoln, England
War
The Anarchy, the civil war between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda
Armies
The king's army, with Breton and Flemish mercenaries; the earls' larger army, including a large force of Welsh foot soldiers
Losses
Not reliably known; Orderic, citing men who were there, says no more than a hundred soldiers fell and that some put the citizens drowned in the flight at five hundred; Henry of Huntingdon and the Gesta Stephani give no figures
Outcome
Victory for Matilda's party; Stephen captured and taken to Gloucester and then Bristol
Quick answer

What happened at the Battle of Lincoln in 1141?

On 2 February 1141 King Stephen, who was besieging Lincoln Castle, met a relief army under Robert, Earl of Gloucester, and Ranulf, Earl of Chester, supporters of the Empress Matilda. Much of the king's cavalry fled, and Stephen fought on foot until he was surrounded and forced to surrender. He was handed over to Matilda and imprisoned.1

For most of King Stephen's reign England was at war with itself, as his supporters fought those of Matilda, the daughter of Henry I. The first Battle of Lincoln was the moment the war nearly ended, with the king a prisoner of his rival.2

Who won the Battle of Lincoln in 1141 and why?

The Empress Matilda's side won. Her half brother Robert of Gloucester and Ranulf of Chester crossed flooded ground to fight on Candlemas, and the disinherited men in their front line broke the king's cavalry almost at once. Several of Stephen's magnates fled, and the king, left on foot, was surrounded and captured.3

Background: a disputed crown

Henry I had made his barons swear to accept his daughter Matilda as his heir. When he died in December 1135, his nephew Stephen of Blois crossed the Channel and took the crown instead, and the oath became the grievance of her party. In the speech that Henry of Huntingdon puts into his mouth at Lincoln, Matilda's half brother Robert of Gloucester still calls Stephen the king who had broken the oaths he swore to her.4 › The Anarchy, 1135 to 1154

Detail of a medieval illuminated genealogy: a crowned king in a blue robe seated in a large gold-framed roundel, linked by colored lines to three smaller roundels with the heads of his children and inscriptions in French
Henry I enthroned, linked to his children in a 13th-century genealogical roll of the English kings. One roundel names his daughter Maud, the Empress Matilda, whose claim to the crown he had made his barons swear to uphold. Unknown illuminator, genealogical chronicle of the English kings, England, 13th century, British Library, Royal MS 14 B V (detail). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Robert took up arms for his sister, and in 1139 Matilda landed in England and, with Robert, brought much of the West Country under her control.5

Engraved half-length portrait of a bearded king wearing a crown and an ermine-trimmed robe, holding a scepter, in an oval frame
King Stephen as imagined more than five centuries after his reign, in a late 17th-century engraving. No reliable likeness of him survives from his lifetime. Peter Vandrebanc after Edward Luttrell, King Stephen, engraving, about 1680 to 1700, KU Leuven. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Stephen's enemies did not deny his courage. Orderic saw him as condescending and courteous to good and quiet men, and thought that he would have been a generous protector of the country had his treacherous nobles allowed it; Malmesbury says that the king by no means wanted spirit to defend himself even at the end.6

A castle taken by a trick

In 1140 Ranulf of Gernons, Earl of Chester, and his half brother William of Roumare turned against the king and took Lincoln Castle. Ranulf and William sent their wives to the castle on a friendly visit. While the countesses were laughing and talking with the wife of the knight who held it, Ranulf arrived without his armor, apparently to take his wife home, with three knights. Once inside they seized bars and weapons, threw out the guards and let in William with a force of armed knights, and the brothers held both the castle and the city.7

Steel engraving of a hilltop city: in the foreground a castle tower and wall above a wooded slope, behind it the great cathedral with three towers, and houses running down the hill to the right
Lincoln from the castle, with the cathedral beyond, in a 19th-century engraving. The castle that Ranulf and William of Roumare took by a trick in 1140 stands beside the cathedral on the hilltop. Frederick James Havell after Thomas Allom, Lincoln from the Castle, steel engraving, 19th century (title line cropped), Yale Center for British Art, B1977.14.14904. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

The king's siege

Bishop Alexander and the citizens of Lincoln sent word to the king. After Christmas he marched on the city, was let in by the townsmen and laid siege to the castle.8

Dark locator map of Britain, Ireland and the coast of northern France and the Low Countries, with a gold star in a glowing circle in eastern England, and a small world map inset with the area boxed
Lincoln stands in eastern England, on its hill above the River Witham. The star marks the approximate site of the battle outside the city. Drawn for this article from Natural Earth data, with no modern borders. Location map: © Echoes of Battle (data: Natural Earth, public domain)

Ranulf slipped out of the castle at night and rode for Chester, leaving his wife and brother behind. He appealed to his father-in-law, Robert of Gloucester, and promised his loyalty to Matilda; he also raised the Welsh and men who had lost their lands under Stephen, the "disinherited." Together the two earls marched to relieve the castle.9

The commanders' decisions

Robert of Gloucester treated the relief of Lincoln as the chance to settle the war in one day. Malmesbury says he kept his purpose hidden from all but a very few on the long march from Gloucester, and Kate Norgate, writing in 1887, follows him: most of the host had no idea where it was being led until it came in sight of the enemy.10

Norgate also traced the earls' route. In her reading the two armies probably joined at Claybrook in Leicestershire, where Ranulf's road down from Chester met Robert's from Gloucester, and then followed the Foss Way north-east toward Lincoln.11

When the earls were near, Stephen called a council. Some advised him to leave a strong garrison with the loyal citizens and go to raise a larger army; others urged him to respect the holy day and open talks. He refused both. The Gesta Stephani says he shrank from staining his name by flight; Orderic, that he thought it dishonorable to put off the fight.12

The king also had to guess where the earls would cross the water south and west of the city. He posted a strong body of horse and foot at a ford to stop them, a choice that Norgate reads as proof that he expected them on that road.13

Armies and commanders

Stephen's army was strong in mounted knights. With him were his Flemish and Breton mercenaries under William of Ypres and Alan of Dinan, and a number of great lords, among them Count Waleran of Meulan and William of Warenne. The earls had the larger force. Orderic writes that they outnumbered the king in foot soldiers, with Ranulf's men of Chester, the disinherited and a large body of Welsh; the Lincolnshire record agrees that the two earls had the advantage of numbers. No source gives a total for either army.14

On the other side the earls disputed the honor of the first blow. In Henry of Huntingdon's account Ranulf claimed it, as the man whose quarrel had brought them there, and Robert of Gloucester gave it instead to the disinherited, who had most to win back; Orderic too says Robert ordered the disinherited to strike first. Ranulf dismounted with his foot soldiers from Chester, and the Welsh took their place on the wings.15

Both armies heard speeches before the fight. Henry of Huntingdon gives Robert of Gloucester a long address that reviles the king's lords one by one. Stephen, Henry says, lacked a voice for such occasions, so Baldwin of Clare spoke to the royal troops in his place, and he was still speaking when the shouts and trumpets of the advancing enemy were heard.16

The battle in phases

Candlemas

The battle came on 2 February, the feast of the Purification of the Virgin, which that year fell on Sexagesima Sunday. The chroniclers remembered the omens. At Mass the candle the king was holding broke: the Gesta Stephani says it went out and broke but was mended and relit, Henry of Huntingdon that it broke as Stephen handed it to Bishop Alexander, and Orderic that it broke and fell three times, as many men witnessed.17

The crossing

The earls' army had to cross water and flooded ground to reach the king. Malmesbury writes that Robert's men swam a river swollen by heavy rain, Robert declaring that he would not flee whatever happened; Henry of Huntingdon has them crossing an almost impassable marsh, and gives Robert a speech warning that there could be no retreat back through it. At the ford the earls' men charged, scattered the king's detachment and went on to attack his main line.18

The cavalry breaks

Stephen drew up his army in three bodies: two of horsemen and one on foot around the royal standard, where he himself dismounted to fight. The disinherited in the earls' van struck the first line of royal cavalry, which Henry of Huntingdon says included Earl Alan, the Earl of Meulan, Hugh of Norfolk, Earl Simon and the Earl of Warenne, and routed it in the twinkling of an eye.19

The second body of horse, under William of Ypres and the Earl of Aumale, charged the Welsh on the flank and drove them off, but the men of Chester attacked in turn and scattered it. William of Ypres, Alan of Dinan, Waleran of Meulan, William of Warenne and other Norman and English knights left the field. Orderic, who had little good to say of these magnates, accuses some of them of bringing only a handful of men to the king while sending their main strength to his enemies.20

The chroniclers judged the deserters differently. Orderic and the Gesta Stephani write of shameful flight, some of it before the two sides had even closed. Henry of Huntingdon is kinder to William of Ypres, a soldier of great experience in his telling, who saw that he could not save the king and kept his strength for better times.21

Turning point: the king taken

Stephen's company on foot was left alone in the midst of the enemy, attacked on all sides as if it were a castle under assault. Stephen fought on. Orderic says he used his sword and a Norse axe that a young man had given him; Henry of Huntingdon that he swung a great battle-axe until it broke and then his sword until that broke too.22

The accounts of his capture differ. Henry has a knight, William of Cahagnes, seize him by the helmet and shout that he had the king; Malmesbury says he was struck down by a stone; Orderic that, worn out and alone, he surrendered to his kinsman Robert of Gloucester. A few loyal knights, among them Baldwin of Clare and Richard fitz Urse, fought beside him to the end and were taken with him.23

Counting the losses

No one counted the dead. Orderic, citing men who had been there, says that apart from the citizens not more than a hundred were killed, and he names a knight called William, nephew of the archbishop of Rouen, among the king's dead. Henry of Huntingdon says the first royal line was partly slain, partly taken and partly put to flight, and that the king's foot were all slain or captured; the Gesta Stephani has the victors killing some and keeping others for ransom.24

The heaviest losses fell on the townsmen. The citizens of Lincoln, who had backed the king, fled toward the river and crowded into boats, which capsized; Orderic reports that some put the drowned at five hundred of the leading citizens. The victors then sacked the city. Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon and the Gesta Stephani all describe the slaughter and plunder.25

Aftermath

The continuator of John of Worcester's chronicle records that Stephen was brought to Gloucester and then taken to Bristol, and that many of his followers were imprisoned with him. Malmesbury and Henry of Huntingdon also have Robert present the king to the empress and send him to Bristol Castle.26

Matilda now seemed on the edge of victory. Henry, bishop of Winchester and the king's own brother, went over to her: Orderic says he received her with honor in the royal city, and the Worcester chronicle describes the bishops, barons and clergy who came out to meet her there. Stephen's queen and a group of loyal lords kept up the fight in his name in Kent.27

Henry of Huntingdon writes that the empress was elated with insufferable pride and alienated most men, and that she was driven out of London; the Lincolnshire record speaks of her arrogance and demands for money. Later in 1141 the queen's army routed Matilda's forces at Winchester and captured Robert of Gloucester, and the king was released in exchange for him. The battle that seemed to have settled the war had not ended it.28

Legacy and memory

The capture of a crowned king in battle left a deep mark on the chroniclers of the time. The Gesta Stephani, whose author was close to the king, read the broken and relit candle as a sign that he would lose his kingdom for his sins and win it back again; Orderic praised his courage and blamed the treachery of his magnates. Henry of Huntingdon gave both sides long speeches before the fight and lingered over the king's last stand with axe and sword.29

Modern historians still build their accounts on these same chroniclers. Norgate set the earls' route along the Foss Way and their crossing at a ford near the junction of the Witham and the Foss Dyke west of the city, while the Lincolnshire record leaves the exact site of the fighting unmapped.30

Notes

A number in the text points to a note; each note names the works that paragraph draws on, listed in full under Sources.

  1. Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer, “MLI89083, The first battle of Lincoln (1141AD)”; Orderic Vitalis, “The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, vol. 4”; Henry of Huntingdon, “The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon”; Kate Norgate, “England under the Angevin Kings”. ↩
  2. Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer, “MLI89083, The first battle of Lincoln (1141AD)”; Kate Norgate, “England under the Angevin Kings”; Henry of Huntingdon, “The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon”. ↩
  3. Henry of Huntingdon, “The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon”; William of Malmesbury, “William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England”; Orderic Vitalis, “The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, vol. 4”; Kate Norgate, “England under the Angevin Kings”. ↩
  4. Henry of Huntingdon, “The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon”; The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester with the Two Continuations, “The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester”; Kate Norgate, “England under the Angevin Kings”. ↩
  5. Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer, “MLI89083, The first battle of Lincoln (1141AD)”; Kate Norgate, “England under the Angevin Kings”. ↩
  6. Orderic Vitalis, “The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, vol. 4”; William of Malmesbury, “William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England”. ↩
  7. Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer, “MLI89083, The first battle of Lincoln (1141AD)”; Orderic Vitalis, “The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, vol. 4”; Kate Norgate, “England under the Angevin Kings”. ↩
  8. Orderic Vitalis, “The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, vol. 4”; Kate Norgate, “England under the Angevin Kings”; Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer, “MLI89083, The first battle of Lincoln (1141AD)”. ↩
  9. Orderic Vitalis, “The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, vol. 4”; William of Malmesbury, “William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England”; Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer, “MLI89083, The first battle of Lincoln (1141AD)”; Kate Norgate, “England under the Angevin Kings”. ↩
  10. William of Malmesbury, “William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England”; Kate Norgate, “England under the Angevin Kings”. ↩
  11. Kate Norgate, “England under the Angevin Kings”. ↩
  12. Orderic Vitalis, “The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, vol. 4”; The Acts of King Stephen, “The Acts of King Stephen”; Kate Norgate, “England under the Angevin Kings”. ↩
  13. The Acts of King Stephen, “The Acts of King Stephen”; Kate Norgate, “England under the Angevin Kings”; Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer, “MLI89083, The first battle of Lincoln (1141AD)”. ↩
  14. Orderic Vitalis, “The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, vol. 4”; Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer, “MLI89083, The first battle of Lincoln (1141AD)”; Henry of Huntingdon, “The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon”; Kate Norgate, “England under the Angevin Kings”. ↩
  15. Henry of Huntingdon, “The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon”; Orderic Vitalis, “The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, vol. 4”; Kate Norgate, “England under the Angevin Kings”. ↩
  16. Henry of Huntingdon, “The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon”; Kate Norgate, “England under the Angevin Kings”. ↩
  17. Orderic Vitalis, “The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, vol. 4”; The Acts of King Stephen, “The Acts of King Stephen”; Henry of Huntingdon, “The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon”; The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester with the Two Continuations, “The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester”. ↩
  18. William of Malmesbury, “William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England”; Henry of Huntingdon, “The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon”; The Acts of King Stephen, “The Acts of King Stephen”; Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer, “MLI89083, The first battle of Lincoln (1141AD)”. ↩
  19. Henry of Huntingdon, “The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon”; William of Malmesbury, “William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England”; Orderic Vitalis, “The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, vol. 4”; Kate Norgate, “England under the Angevin Kings”. ↩
  20. Henry of Huntingdon, “The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon”; Orderic Vitalis, “The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, vol. 4”; Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer, “MLI89083, The first battle of Lincoln (1141AD)”; Kate Norgate, “England under the Angevin Kings”. ↩
  21. Orderic Vitalis, “The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, vol. 4”; The Acts of King Stephen, “The Acts of King Stephen”; Henry of Huntingdon, “The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon”. ↩
  22. Henry of Huntingdon, “The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon”; Orderic Vitalis, “The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, vol. 4”; Kate Norgate, “England under the Angevin Kings”. ↩
  23. Henry of Huntingdon, “The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon”; William of Malmesbury, “William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England”; Orderic Vitalis, “The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, vol. 4”. ↩
  24. Orderic Vitalis, “The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, vol. 4”; Henry of Huntingdon, “The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon”; The Acts of King Stephen, “The Acts of King Stephen”. ↩
  25. Orderic Vitalis, “The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, vol. 4”; Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer, “MLI89083, The first battle of Lincoln (1141AD)”; William of Malmesbury, “William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England”; Henry of Huntingdon, “The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon”; The Acts of King Stephen, “The Acts of King Stephen”. ↩
  26. The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester with the Two Continuations, “The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester”; William of Malmesbury, “William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England”; Henry of Huntingdon, “The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon”; Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer, “MLI89083, The first battle of Lincoln (1141AD)”. ↩
  27. The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester with the Two Continuations, “The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester”; Orderic Vitalis, “The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, vol. 4”; Henry of Huntingdon, “The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon”. ↩
  28. Henry of Huntingdon, “The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon”; Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer, “MLI89083, The first battle of Lincoln (1141AD)”; Kate Norgate, “England under the Angevin Kings”. ↩
  29. The Acts of King Stephen, “The Acts of King Stephen”; Orderic Vitalis, “The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, vol. 4”; Henry of Huntingdon, “The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon”. ↩
  30. Kate Norgate, “England under the Angevin Kings”; Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer, “MLI89083, The first battle of Lincoln (1141AD)”. ↩

Sources

Frequently asked questions

When was the Battle of Lincoln?

On 2 February 1141, the feast of the Purification of the Virgin, or Candlemas. It is often called the first Battle of Lincoln, to tell it apart from the battle of 1217.

Who fought at the Battle of Lincoln in 1141?

King Stephen against the supporters of the Empress Matilda, led by her half brother Robert, Earl of Gloucester, and Ranulf, Earl of Chester, with a large force of Welsh foot soldiers.

Why was Lincoln Castle besieged?

Ranulf of Chester and his half brother William of Roumare had seized it from the king by a trick in 1140. Stephen came to retake it, and Ranulf escaped to raise a relief army.

How was King Stephen captured?

Much of his cavalry fled, and he was left fighting on foot with a small company. According to Orderic Vitalis he fought with a sword and an axe until he was worn out, and surrendered to Robert of Gloucester; Henry of Huntingdon and William of Malmesbury tell the moment of capture differently.

What happened after the battle?

Lincoln was sacked, Stephen was taken to Gloucester and then Bristol, and Matilda's party gained the upper hand. But the civil war, known as the Anarchy, continued for years.

What were the omens before the Battle of Lincoln?

At Mass on the morning of the battle the candle King Stephen was holding broke. The chroniclers tell it differently, and the Gesta Stephani read the mended candle as a sign that he would lose his kingdom and win it back.

How was Stephen released?

Later in 1141 the queen's forces captured Robert of Gloucester at Winchester, and Matilda had to exchange the king for her brother.

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