BattlefieldsGeoffrey de Mandeville Fen Raids 1143
Medieval

Geoffrey de Mandeville Fen Raids 1143

1143
Cambridgeshire, England
Era
Medieval
Battle Type
Pitched Battle
Location
Cambridgeshire, England
Status
Unregistered
The Combatants

Who Fought

Forces
Not recorded in historical accounts
Forces
royalist and monastic communities
VS
Victor
Not recorded in historical accounts
Forces
Geoffrey de Mandeville with mercenary force using Fen bases
Outcome
Fen region devastated; Peterborough and Ramsey sacked; Geoffrey died of wounds in 1144 ending the raids
The Battle

History & Significance

After his arrest and release, Geoffrey de Mandeville conducted some of the most brutal raids of the entire Anarchy from his base in the Fens, sacking Peterborough and Ramsey and terrorising the surrounding countryside. His ravaging of the Fens became synonymous with the worst excesses of the civil war and his death from an arrow wound while besieging a royalist castle in 1144 was seen as divine judgment on the most lawless of the Anarchy's barons.

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