A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



the growth of interest in our national past, it may be possible to procure 

 more precise and satisfactory evidence at no distant date. 



The present survey of Anglo-Saxon discoveries in the county 

 includes little but burials of an early date, some doubtless of pagan 

 Saxons, others probably of Christian converts who died before the 

 middle of the eighth century, when, by order of the Church, burial was 

 no longer permitted in the open country, but confined to the consecrated 

 ground of the churchyard. By that time also the practice of depositing 

 ornaments and weapons in the grave was given up ; and the church- 

 yards, even if disturbed, would yield but Httle evidence of service to 

 archaeology. 



The first entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle relating to Sussex has 

 certain suspicious features, but may well indicate the date at which the 

 occupation began. It is under the year 477, and runs as follows : 

 ' This year Aella and his three sons, Cymen, Wlencing and Cissa, came 

 to the land of Britain with three ships at a place called Cymenesore, 

 and there slew many Welsh, and some they drove in flight into the 

 wood called Andredslea.' ^ Thirty-seven years later the West Saxons 

 are said to have arrived in three ships at Cerdicsore, and in that same 

 year Aella is said to have died. Much however seems to have happened 

 in the course of his long reign, and a notable battle, which no doubt 

 marked an important stage in the conquest but cannot now be located, 

 is reported at the river called Mercroedsburn in 485. Another six years 

 dealt what was apparently the final blow to British independence in 

 this region, and the fall of Anderida (perhaps Pevensey) has often been 

 quoted as proof of the ruthless methods of the invading Saxon. This 

 record however stands alone, and the fact that ' Aella and Cissa slew all 

 that dwelt in Andredsceaster so that not a single Briton was there left ' 

 may first have been recorded on account of its exceptional character. 

 It had taken fourteen years to conquer what to-day is the southern half 

 of Sussex, and according to Bede," Aella was something more than King 

 of Sussex, and was the first to hold the title of Bretwalda, which is 

 generally translated Wielder of Britain. Whether this implied dominion 

 over the native British population beyond the borders of Sussex is open 

 to question ; but if the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is to be trusted on such a 

 point, the conquest of Kent had begun more than forty years before the 

 siege of Anderida, and the predominance of Aella must be ascribed to 

 his own exceptional prowess, as Ethelbert of Kent only came third in 

 the list. 



The rehearsal of these few scraps of history or tradition is a neces- 

 sary preliminary to the investigation of the relics that undoubtedly 

 belong to a Teutonic people or group of settlers from beyond the seas, 

 during a period but vaguely defined but quite in accordance with the 

 dates already mentioned. Further deductions as to race or chronology 

 must be reserved till the discoveries have been presented ; and as the 

 relative dates of the Saxon cemeteries of Sussex cannot at present be 



» Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i. 22. 2 Bede, Eccl. Hist. ii. 5 (Plummer), i. 89. 



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