was persuaded by the Earl of Winchester to send a relief force to the castle. When they arrived, de Blondeville and the Royalist force were gone. In fact, they had headed to Lincoln to deal with a French force besieging the castle there. William Marshal with his main army at Northampton also made for the city, and at Lincoln a battle was fought between the Royalists headed by William Marshal and de Blondeville and the French forces and their allies. The battle went in favour of the Royalists, and they captured forty-six Barons and the Earls of Winchester and Hereford and the Earl of Lincoln, recently created by Louis the French King. Following the battle in recognition of his support, Ranulf was created Earl of Lincoln by King Henry III of England on 23 May 1217. Fifth Crusade In 1218, de Blondeville decided to honour the crusading vow he had made three years previously, and he journeyed eastwards. He met up with the counts of Nevers and La Marche in Genoa, accompanied by the earls of Derby, Arundel and Winchester. They then sailed on towards Egypt and the Nile. An icy winter in camp was followed by a burning summer which affected the morale of the crusaders greatly. During September 1219, the Sultan, wary of the conflict outside Damietta, offered the crusaders a startling bargain—Bethlehem, Nazareth, Jerusalem and central Palestine and Galilee, so long as the Crusaders gave up their war in Egypt. Earl Ranulph was one of many voices in support of taking the offer, and was supported by his English peers. However, Bishop Pelagius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem and the military orders would have none of it. They finally refused the offer and on 5 November they found the walls of Damietta poorly manned, so they attacked and secured the city. When winter came the army was smouldering with discontent. Earl Ranulf left Damietta in September 1220, with his fellow English earls, leaving behind an indecisive force under the command of Bishop Pelagius and the Military Orders. Upon the crusade's failure, he returned to England to find his rival, William Marshal dead and the government in the hands of Hubert de Burgh. Final years From 1220 to 1224, tensions grew between government officials and old loyalists of King John. This flared into open conflict in the winter of 1223–4 when Ranulf among others briefly tried to resist de