POLITICAL HISTORY 



sent at the same time to garrison Winchelsea during the absence of its 

 fleet at Sandwich.' In the same month John Fitz-Alan, Robert St. 

 John and others were ordered to come with horses and arms to assist the 

 younger Simon de Montfort in besieging the castle.^ Simon was in 

 command of this enterprise in November 1264/ when a payment of 

 seven hundred marks was ordered to be made to him for the expenses of 

 the siege.* By the success of the royaHsts in bringing reinforcements of 

 men and munitions by sea, the siege was prolonged/ and Simon was still 

 occupied at Pevensey when orders were issued in the following March to 

 summon Peter of Savoy at Pevensey, John de Warenne at Lewes, and 

 Hugh Bigot at Bosham to attend the forthcoming parliament" — the 

 historic parliament in which the cities and boroughs were to be 

 represented for the first time ; and it was probably at Pevensey that in 

 April 1265 he received his father's commands to cause John Fitz-Alan 

 to surrender either his young son or his castle of Arundel as security for his 

 good faith.' The siege was fruitless, but one mark of it is still visible in 

 the gap which exists in the southern wall which was thrown down at 

 this time.^ When the royalist cause began to recover its strength 

 Montfort decided that his countess, who had been in residence at 

 Porchester castle, would be safer at Dover; accordingly in June 1265 

 she passed through Chichester to Bramber, and thence to Wilmington, 

 where, at the priory, her son Simon appears to have met her and escorted 

 her through Battle to Winchelsea and thence to Dover castle, which 

 was under the command of her eldest son Henry, who, however, shortly 

 afterwards left to join his father and fall with him at Evesham.° Simon, 

 also, in July was summoned to his father's aid, and raising the siege of 

 Pevensey marched through Winchester to Kenilworth, where by his 

 most unmilitary slackness he suffered a disastrous defeat which con- 

 tributed largely to the ' debacle ' at Evesham. The Countess of 

 Leicester, who continued to hold Dover, had with her several Sussex 

 men ; there was a contingent of archers from Pevensey under John la 

 Warre, who made himself so obnoxious to the royalists that the terms 

 of composition for his estate were made particularly heavy ; a hundred 

 sailors from Winchelsea, under Richard de Montfort; John de la Haye, 

 who had been appointed constable of Rye and Winchelsea in August 

 1264; Waleran de Monceaux and Matthew de Hastings, the latter of 

 whom seems to have had some share in the surrender of the castle to 

 Prince Edward.'" After the fall of Dover, the Cinque Ports gave up 

 the struggle, with the exception of Winchelsea, which was only taken 

 by the Prince at the cost of much bloodshed.". The pendulum had thus 

 swung back again and the royalists, restored to power, seized and con- 

 fiscated the estates of the fallen party; but by the Diet of Kenilworth 

 the ' rebels ' were permitted to compound for their estates, and this 



• Close, 48 Hen. III. m. 3. 2 Pat. 48 Hen. HI. m. 3d. 



3 Close, 49 Hen. HI. m. 1 2d. * Pat. 49 Hen. III. m. 29. 

 E Ibid. m. 28. 6 Close, 29 Hen. III. m. 11. 



' Pat. 49 Hen. III. m. 17. s Exch. K.R. Accts. 479-15. 



» Blaauw, op. cit. 323-4. »" Ibid. 325-6 " Ibid. 331. 



