A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



been destroyed by the defeat of the Norman fleet which had attempted 

 to put to land and raise the siege, that Odo surrendered/ 



Rebellion again broke out when Henry I. came to the throne, and 

 the expectation that Robert of Normandy would attempt to land at 

 Pevensey led to the King's assembling an army at that spot ; but the 

 preparations were rendered vain by the Norman fleet directing its course 

 to Portsmouth/ When Robert of Bellesme, son of Roger of Mont- 

 gomery and lord of western Sussex, took up arms against his king in 

 iioi, Arundel Castle was one of his three chief strongholds, and was 

 the first attacked by Henry, who blockaded it and raised a fort to 

 command it while he marched against Bridgenorth/ Robert being de- 

 feated and banished, his Sussex lands came into the hands of the King ; 

 William Count of Mortain, son of Robert, being also concerned in this 

 rebellion, forfeited his estate of Pevensey. Three of the six Sussex rapes 

 thus fell into the King's hands, and he jealously kept for himself Arundel 

 with its ' honour' throughout his reign, though at his death it passed to 

 his Queen Adelais, on whom he had settled it in dower.* Part at least 

 of the rape of Pevensey was granted to Richer de Laigle, who was in 

 possession in 1130,° and from whose descendants it became known as 

 'the Honour of the Eagle.' 



The two castles thus forfeited — Arundel and Pevensey — were the 

 only two places in Sussex which played any notable part in the civil 

 war of Stephen's reign. At Arundel the Empress Maud landed in the 

 autumn of 11 39, and there she was hospitably entertained by William 

 d'Albini, who had married the Queen Dowager Adelais, while the Earl 

 of Gloucester rode to Bristol to raise forces in her name. Stephen, out 

 of courtesy to the Queen dowager, or as the result of treacherous advice, 

 allowed Maud to pass unharmed to Bristol instead of besieging Arundel 

 as he had first intended." 



Gilbert Earl of Pembroke acquired possession of the Castle and 

 rape of Pevensey,^ and in 1147 when Stephen marched against the 

 fortress, he found it so strong with its formidable keep and powerful 

 walls, washed on one side by the sea and difficult of access even by 

 land, that he abandoned all idea of storming it, and left a force of ships 

 and soldiers to blockade it." After it had fallen into his hands he granted 

 it first to his son Eustace, and on his death to his other son William, 

 Count of Mortain and Earl of Warenne,* who had already acquired by 

 his marriage the adjoining rape of Lewes, but who on the accession of 

 Henry H. surrendered Pevensey with his other castles to the King." 



When John succeeded to the throne he was in Normandy, and the 



» Freeman, William Rufus, i. 72-6. ^ Ibid. ii. 404. 



3 Matt. Paris, Chron. Majora (Rolls Ser.), ii. 123. « Ibid. 170. 



s Pipe Roll, 31 Hen. I. 

 » Chron. of Stephen, etc. (Rolls Ser.), iii. 56. 



7 Round, Studies on the Red Book of the Exchequer, p. 7. 



8 Chron. of Stephen, etc. (Rolls Ser.), iii. 129. 



6 Round, Ancient Charters (Pipe Roll Soc), 152 ; Peerage Studies, 169. 

 «> Matt. Paris, Chron. Majora (Rolls Ser.), ii. 214. 

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