Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It was derived from the merging of the territory of the ancient Kingdom of Lindsey with that controlled by the Danelaw borough Stamford. For some time the entire county was called 'Lindsey', and it is recorded as such in the Domesday Book.

Originally occupied by the Corieltauvi tribe, there have been several small barrows discovered near to Boston and Frampton. The Romans had established permanent government in Lincolnshire by AD 43, but the tyrannical rule of the Roman sub-prætor Ostorius Scapula so inflamed the Coritani and their neighbours in Yorkshire, the Brigantes, that they conducted a simmering low key rebellion lasting well into AD 70.

Incoming groups of Angles settled heavily in the Midland and East Midland. Lincoln became a Danish borough. In the 10th century it became the head of the new shire of Lincolnshire. The Anglo-Saxon nobility of Lincolnshire was destroyed by William the Conqueror, and the lands divided amongst his followers. He constructed Lincoln Castle, and another at Tattershall.

During the civil war, Lincolnshire was part of the Eastern Association, the Parliamentarian alliance. On its western border lay the Royalist strongholds, of Newark on Trent and Belvoir Castle. Lincolnshire was therefore raided and defended by the respective parties. For a time, Crowland, in the south of the county was fortified for the king. Lincolnshire was important to the Parliamentarians as it provided access between the great arsenal of Hull and the south and the Eastern Association's heartland in the east of England. It also offered a potential starting line for an advance across the English Midlands, cutting the north of England off from the west.