The hosts were comprehensively outplayed as the Proteas won inside three days, with this reverse England's first loss under their new red-ball leadership duo of skipper Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum following a run of four successive wins.
It was only England's fourth innings defeat in 128 years of Test matches at Lord's and the first since a South Africa team led by Graeme Smith enjoyed a similar thumping in 2003.
Read Also1st Test: South Africa thrash England by an innings and 12 runsSouth Africa skittled England out for 149 on Friday to win the first Test by an innings and 12 runs inside three days at Lord's and go 1-0 up in the three-match series. "It was an off-game for us, and that's absolutely fine," said Stokes. "It's not something I'm going to be throwing our toys out of the pram over." England were already in dire straits when they started their second innings before lunch on Friday, with the hosts 161 runs behind after South Africa had made 326 in reply to their meagre first-innings 165.
They then collapsed to 149 all out before tea in a match where England batted for just 82.4 overs across both their innings.