A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



in his shipwreck on the Norman coast ; Lyminster was possibly con- 

 nected with Swegen's downfall/ and Pevensey was the first scene in his 

 murder of Biorn, which was accomplished at Bosham ; and the seizure 

 by Harold of Steyning which the Confessor had granted to the abbey of 

 Fecamp was one of the many excuses put forward by William to justify 

 the invasion of which the tirst act saw the fall of Harold, Gurth and 

 Leofwin on the field of Hastings. Altogether Sussex played a large part 

 in the history of the house of Godwin, and if mainly the scene of their 

 disasters was also the source of much of their wealth and influence. 

 Earl Godwin is shown to have held in his own hands 348 hides in the 

 important manors of Bosham, Singleton, Westbourne, Climping, Hurst- 

 pierpoint, Laughton and Willingdon and elsewhere, besides 178 hides 

 held of him by various tenants ; and some part of another 45 hides which 

 are assigned to ' Godwin ' probably belonged to the earl. Harold^ was, 

 as we should expect, the next largest landowner with 297 hides in 

 Findon, Steyning, Patcham, Rodmell, Ripe, Crowhurst and other 

 manors, and another 41 hides held of him in dilTerent places. Next 

 comes the Countess Gida, Earl Godwin's wife, who held 123I hides 

 including the manors of Harting, Washington, Trotton and Binderton. 

 Earl Leofwin is only given his title in connection with a small holding 

 in ' EUede ' in Hastings rape, but most if not all of the 70 hides attri- 

 buted to ' Lewin ' in Sompting, Lancing, Street and elsewhere may be 

 put to his share. Gurth is also only called Earl in connection with his 

 manor (of 59 hides) of Washington, but also held 8 hides in Merston 

 and 5 in ' Cumbe ' ; and Tostig held 6 hides in Fishbourne and half a 

 hide belonging to Leofwin's manor of Sompting. Altogether the house 

 of Godwin held over 1,100 hides, or more than a third of the county. 

 How much of this was personal property and how much consisted of 

 ' villae comitales ' it is unfortunately impossible to estimate. 



Mr. Round observes that the peculiar distribution of lands in Sussex 

 by the Normans prevents our tracing, as in other counties, the English 

 predecessors of the Domesday tenants by the succession to their lands. 

 Of the lesser English landowners in Sussex Azor stands out prominently,^ 

 his scattered estates ranging from West Dean and Tarring Neville to 

 Greatham, and including such considerable manors as Kingston-Bucy 

 (21 hides), Keymer (14 hides). Cocking and Wiston (12 hides each), 

 and yielding a total of 146 hides. A man of wider fame and more 

 historic importance was Alnod ' cild,' who is elsewhere called Alnod of 

 Kent, and has been shown to be identical with Ethelnoth of Canterbury, 

 one of the hostages whom King William took with him to Normandy 

 in 1067.'' In Sussex he held the fifty-hide manor of Alciston and 



> It is not quite certain whether the abbess whom he abducted belonged to this place or to Leo- 

 minster in Hereford, though the latter is more probable. 



2 Mr. Round points out that the Sussex entries bring out acutely the difficulty caused in Domes- 

 day by the entries both of Godwine and of Harold as holding T.R.E. ; for T.R.E. is taken to mean the 

 time of King Edward's death, and Godwine predeceased the King. It is difficult to understand why 

 Harold is not given as the former holder in all cases if he had succeeded his father. 



3 It is, however, impossible to be certain that there was only one Azor. 

 « V.C.H. Sun. i. 283. 



370 



