POLITICAL HISTORY 



coast of Sussex was the first spot of English ground on which he set 

 foot as king, for in May 1199 he landed at Seaford/ By 16 June he 

 was at Shoreham, whence a few days later he crossed to Normandy/ 

 His restlessness and the rapidity of his movements, which were the 

 subject of astonishment to his contemporaries, brought him not infre- 

 quently into the county ; thus in April 1206, on his way from Romney 

 to Southampton, he was on successive days at Battle, Mailing, Knepp, 

 and Arundel : in 1208 he was at Aldingbourne, the Bishop of Chi- 

 chester's manor, from 27 to 30 March, and was also there in the 

 following January, and in May 1209, when he went on to Knepp for 

 several days, also visiting Arundel, Bramber and Lewes. John again 

 spent four days at Knepp in April 1 2 1 1 ; and this was evidently his 

 favourite residence in Sussex. It was a manor belonging to William 

 de Braose, containing a small castle, probably used by the lords of 

 Bramber as a hunting seat; when John in 1208 began the quarrel 

 with de Braose, which ended in the latter's flight to France and the 

 death of his wife and son at Windsor, this manor, with others, was 

 seized by the King and was not infrequently visited by him, the last 

 occasion apparently being in January 121 5. 



The complete failure of John's continental campaigns, ending in 

 the conquest of Normandy by Philip of France in 1205, led him to 

 fear an invasion of England. Accordingly he summoned a council of 

 the barons, who decided that an oath to keep the peace and defend the 

 kingdom should be taken throughout the realm by all above the age of 

 twelve ; at the same time it was ordained that head constables should 

 be appointed for every county, and under them a constable for every 

 hundred and borough, in addition to the usual constables of the castles, 

 and that hsts should be made of the armed men under each of the 

 constables, who should be empowered to summon such levies when 

 required for defence.^ In addition to thus providing for infantry and 

 irregulars, it was enacted that every nine knights throughout the 

 country should equip and maintain a tenth knight on penalty of losing 

 their fees.* While it is impossible to estimate even approximately the 

 strength of the local levies in Sussex at this period, we can compute with 

 some degree of accuracy the number of knights furnished by the 

 county.^ The greatest military tenant was the Earl of Arundel, 

 who held the Honour of Arundel under a grant of Henry II, and 

 owed the service of eighty-four and a half knights, of whom the honor 

 of Petworth found twenty-two and a half, that of Halnaker twelve ; 

 Earl Warenne provided sixty knights, the Count of Eu fifty-six, and 

 Gilbert of Laigle thirty-five and a half of ' the honor of Mortain ' (an 

 honor distinguished by its ' small fees,' which were so far privileged 

 that when any tax or aid was assessed upon knight's fees these ' small 



* Gerv. of Canterbury (Rolls Ser.), ii. 92. Matthew Paris and other historians say Shoreham. 



2 Itin. printed in Cal. Rot. Pat. (Rec. Com.), i. 



3 Gerv. of Canterbury (Rolls Ser.), ii. 96, 97. * Pat. 6 John, m. 2d. 



» Red Book of Exch. (Rolls Ser.), passim ; Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 222-4. 

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