Oh indeed! It may not match Towton for size and sheer bloodiness, but the Battle of Lincoln was a decisive victory that broke the backs of the French and Rebels.

In 1216, the English rebels invited Prince Louis of France to seize the throne by force. King John of England died shortly after Louis' arrival, leaving the prosecution of the war to his regent, William Marshall, the Earl of Pembroke. The Marshal was the most famous knight in Christendom and had been for thirty-odd years, a champion tournament fighter and experienced warrior, but now he was an old man in his early seventies.

In May 1217, the Marshal scraped together an army of 406 knights and 317 crossbowmen and marched to relieve the siege of Lincoln, a strategic town that controlled north-south routes. The combined Franco-rebel army, under the Comte du Perche, had taken the city walls but had failed to take the the castle, which continued to resist.

The Marshal's men found the town walls held against them, but broke in through a bricked-up gatehouse. The loyalist crossbowmen took to the rooftops and worked their way inward, while the old Marshal, perhaps aware that this was his last fight, led his knights through the streets aggressively, killing at least one rebel knight by his own hand and taking several blows on the helmet. The French, under fire from both the castle and the crossbowmen in the rooftops, and being pressed by Marshall's knights, retreated to the central square. The Comte du Perche tried to rally his demoralized men, but either a sword or a lance pierced the eyeslit of his helmet, killing him. The battle became a rout, with the royalists chasing the rebels across the countryside, capturing the knights and lords and slaying the foot soldiers.

Marshall's victory at Lincoln compelled the remaining French and rebels to withdraw to the southeast. In combination with the great naval victory won by Hubert de Burgh at the Battle of Sandwich in August, it ultimately led to the French abandoning the rebels and returning home.