The French landed at Sandwich, retook Rochester Castle, and compelled John to flee. John, crossing over the Wash, in his march from Lynn in Norfolk into Lincolnshire, suffered great loss through the return of the tide swamping the rear of his army, all his money, and stores. He himself escaped to Swineshead Abbey, in the Lincolnshire Fens, where a monk is said to have administered poison to him. With great difficulty and exhaustion the monarch arrived at Newark, where he died in the October of the year 1216.
From this time onward the city enjoyed comparative peace, and exercised the privileges granted by Edgar, Edward the Confessor, and William the Conqueror.
Till the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Henry VIII. the royal franchise of Ely, in several statutes, was recognised as the county palatine of Ely. Henry, by Act of Parliament, remodelled the privileges, and ordered the justices of oyer and terminer, and gaol delivery, and justices of the peace for the Isle of Ely, to be appointed by letters patent under the Great Seal. The dissolution of the monasteries also was the means of converting the conventual church into a cathedral—much more appropriate to the dignity of the Bishop, whose title had been granted, as we have seen, by Henry I. in 1107. This ecclesiastical building, first a conventual and then a cathedral church, was commenced in 1081, and entirely completed in 1534. The dedication to St. Peter and St. Ethelreda was changed to "The Holy Trinity."
It is a magnificent cruciform structure, displaying the many changes that took place in ecclesiastical architecture from the early years of the Norman Conquest down to the latest period of English style.
The main feature is the extraordinary variety of arches built according to successive styles. Though this peculiar treatment suggests an unfinished appearance, it cannot rob the church of its wonderful beauty. There is a departure from the general plan of other cathedrals. The nave is continued through an extended range of twelve arches. It belongs to the Late Norman period, and its completion probably dates from about the middle of the twelfth century. From 1174 to 1189 the western tower and the transepts were built by Bishop Ridall. Bishop Eustace, between 1198 and 1215, erected the Galilee or western porch, a noble Early English structure. Much at the same time a curious coincident is noticeable. Bishop Pudsey was busy at Durham building the Galilee or Western Chapel, which is such a noble adjunct to that city's cathedral.
Ely's choir was originally Early Norman, and terminated in an apse. Unfortunately this Norman apse was destroyed. In restoration the church was extended eastward by six more arches under the guidance of Bishop Northwold, about the middle of the thirteenth century. His addition is Early English. The carving is very rich and elaborate.