Qualla: Siege of Lincoln

Siege of Lincoln: Introduction

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rodhullandemu, CC BY-SA 3.0. Heavy rain in early May 1644 nearly saved Lincoln for the Royalists. The Earl of Manchester's Parliamentary army had stormed into the lower town on the third of May, pushed the defenders back up the limestone scarp to the upper city, and was preparing to assault the walls when the weather closed in. The slopes around Lincoln Castle turned to mud. The attack was suspended for a day. By the morning of the sixth, the rain had eased enough that Manchester's men could try again — and on the night of 6 May, despite scaling ladders that proved too short for the castle walls, the Parliamentarians scrambled over, the Royalists asked for quarter, and Lincoln changed hands for what was neither the first nor the last time in its history.

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Image: Rodhullandemu | CC BY-SA 3.0

Siege of Lincoln: How Lincoln became a prize

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen (Life time: 1593-1661), Public domain. The First English Civil War was in its second year and Lincolnshire had become a contested middle ground. In March 1644, Prince Rupert relieved the Royalist garrison of Newark-on-Trent twenty miles to the west, and Royalist horse promptly rode east to occupy Lincoln — finding 2,0...

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Image: Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen (Life time: 1593-1661) | Public domain

Siege of Lincoln: Up the hill, under fire

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lee Haywood from Wollaton, Nottingham, England, CC BY-SA 2.0. The defenders did not try to hold the lower town. They withdrew to the upper city, the medieval walled enclosure that contained both Lincoln Castle and Lincoln Cathedral on the high limestone ridge — a defensive position that had held against assault before. Manchester's infantry...

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Image: Lee Haywood from Wollaton, Nottingham, England | CC BY-SA 2.0

Siege of Lincoln: The night assault

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lee Haywood from Wollaton, Nottingham, England, CC BY-SA 2.0. On the night of 6 May the Parliamentarians went over the walls. The scaling ladders proved too short for the castle ramparts — they were always slightly too short, in seventeenth-century sieges — but Manchester's men climbed anyway, finding handholds, hauling each other up. The R...

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Image: Lee Haywood from Wollaton, Nottingham, England | CC BY-SA 2.0

Siege of Lincoln: What it meant

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lee Haywood from Wollaton, Nottingham, England, CC BY-SA 2.0. Lincoln was strategically modest in itself, but the siege fitted into a larger campaign. Manchester used the captured city as a base, sent Cromwell across the Trent with 3,000 horse to harass Lord Goring's force, then began preparations to move north and join the Parliamentary-Sc...

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Image: Lee Haywood from Wollaton, Nottingham, England | CC BY-SA 2.0