A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



At last, in 1009, Ethelred was so far roused trom his customary 

 inactivity as to assemble a powerful fleet at Sandwich, but with the 

 perverse folly so characteristic of him he chose this particular moment 

 to banish Wulfnoth ' child,' a South Saxon noble, probably the father 

 of the great Earl Godwine,' on the false accusation of Brihtric, brother 

 of the treacherous Edric. Wulfnoth collecting twenty ships, apparently 

 part of the great fleet prepared against the Danes and possibly the 

 South Saxon contingent, began to harry the coast ; whereupon Brihtric, 

 taking eighty of the assembled ships, set out to capture him, but a great 

 storm arising, his vessels were driven on shore, where they were burnt 

 by Wulfnoth.^ As a result of this disaster the whole fleet dissolved, and 

 nothing was done against the Danes, who in the autumn came against 

 Canterbury, and would have taken it had they not been bought off. 

 They then retired to the island and harried Hampshire and Sussex/ 

 Two years later, in loi i, the district attacked by the Danes included 

 Sussex and Hastings,* which is mentioned separately. The election of 

 Cnut as King of England in 1017 at last gave Sussex rest. 



In the fifty years following the accession of Cnut the history of 

 Sussex is the history of the rise of two great rival powers — the native 

 house of Godwine and the foreign influence of Normandy. How 

 Godwine, who, as we have just seen, was probably a Sussex man 

 by descent, rose to be the first man in the kingdom, holder of a wide 

 earldom which included Sussex, and the father of sons whose earldoms 

 covered the southern half of England, is well known. By the end of 

 the Confessor's reign a third part of the county was in the hands of the 

 house of Godwine, while Bosham was his chief residence. Two events 

 of disastrous import are connected with Bosham, In 1049 Godwine 

 and Harold had sailed in command of a small fleet in search of pirates, 

 and cast anchor at Pevensey, where Harold apparently left the fleet 

 and gave up his ship to his cousin Beorn ; hither, then, came Swegen, 

 God wine's eldest son, hot with anger against Harold and Beorn who had 

 opposed the restoration of his earldom ; dissembling his treacherous 

 intentions, he persuaded Beorn to ride with him to the King at Sandwich, 

 and then changing his direction rode to Bosham, where he caused his 

 cousin to be carried on board one of his vessels lying there, and murdered 

 him. For this dastardly deed he was outlawed and declared ' Nithing ' 

 by the King and his whole army. The men of Hastings pursued him 

 and caught two of his vessels,* but he himself escaped to Flanders, and 

 was next year restored to his earldom. In 1051 he had again to fly 

 from England, when banishment was pronounced against Godwine and 

 all his house.*^ This banishment was of short duration, for in the 

 summer of 1052 Godwine and Harold returned with a powerful fleet, 

 receiving a hearty welcome from the men of Sussex, and especially those 

 of Hastings,' and forced King Edward to restore their honours to them. 



' See Freeman, Norman Conquest, vol. i. app. MM. 



s Ang. Sax. Chron. (RoUs Ser.), ii. 114, 115. ^ Ibid. 115. < Ibid. 117. 



» Freeman, Norman Conquest, ii. 102-5. i^ Ibid. 151. ' Ibid. 322. 



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