A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



bishop in later times held his fee, it is of interest to notice that four 

 ' milites ' — Herald, Murdac,' Ansfrid and Lovel — occur as under- 

 tenants at Aldingbourne, but the application of the term ' miles ' to 

 William the subtenant of Henfield, as seemingly equivalent to ' homo ' 

 in the entries suggests caution in attaching a technical meaning to the 

 term. The last entry of this fee is an interesting one, showing the 

 canons of Chichester holding in common i6 hides, of which the situation 

 is not stated. 



Besides the bishopric two other Sussex religious establishments are 

 entered as holding in chief, though the first of these occurs under the 

 name of its possessor the Bishop of Exeter. At Bosham, where Wilfrid, 

 the apostle of the South Saxons, had found the only glimmering of 

 Christianity in the kingdom, in the humble cell of Dicul and his com- 

 panions, there had grown up under the Saxon kings a collegiate church 

 which, thanks to the munificence of benefactors whose memory has 

 perished, was so richly endowed that its estate was rated at i 1 2 hides 

 and estimated to be worth £^'^0. This valuable foundation was granted 

 by the Confessor to his Norman chaplain and favourite Osbern,' who as 

 Bishop of Exeter retained possession of it under the Conqueror and left 

 it to descend to his successors as a peculiar, causing constant friction 

 between the sees of Chichester and Exeter on points of jurisdiction and 

 privilege. The lands of the church, however, at the time of the survey 

 had been diminished by the loss of 47 hides in the neighbourhood of 

 Lewes, of which Ralph de Chesney held 17 hides at Plumpton noted as 

 formerly part of Bosham and as having been held of Earl Godwin by 

 Godwin the priest. The other 30 hides, held by Hugh son of Ranulf, 

 were evidently, as Mr. Round has pointed out,^ at Saddlescombe, as 

 here also the subtenant under Earl Godwin was Godwin the priest, 

 who also occurs as the tenant of the church's manors of Woolavington 

 and Farringdon (Hants), and was most probably the head of the college. 

 It was not to Norman rule, however, that this spoliation was due, but to 

 Earl Godwin's greed.* 



The other Sussex foundation referred to was the Conqueror's 

 great votive abbey of Battle. In accordance with his vow made before 

 the momentous struggle which was to decide the fate of England, 

 William, in gratitude for a victory which had added a kingdom to his 

 Norman duchy, erected to the glory of God and the soldier Saint Martin 

 a great monastery whose church rose where Harold fell. The spot 

 where the battle was fought was wild, little cultivated, hardly inhabited, 

 no village near, perhaps a few little farms and homesteads, but none 

 large enough to give its name to the abbey, which was therefore called 

 ' the Abbey of the Battle.' To this house William gave lands in many 

 counties ; and first of all he gave all the land within a measured circle 

 round the church of three miles radius. This circle constituted the 



' Richard Murdac was one of the bishop's knights in 1166. 



" Round, Feudal England, p. 320. 



3 Suss. Arch. Soc, Coll. xliv. 141. * Ibid. 142. 



374 



