POLITICAL HISTORY 



rights as the rest of his barony in Kent ; and very wide powers were 

 appurtenant to the abbey of Battle, the proceedings against whom are 

 also wanting ; the manors of each of these formed a peculiar jurisdiction 

 possessing its own courts ; prisoners taken on the archbishop's lands 

 were sent to Maidstone gaol, though this removal to another county 

 was subsequently considered to be contrary to the laws of the realm,' 

 while the Abbot had his own gaol at Battle, and the justices in eyre had 

 to come to Battle to try cases touching men of the Abbot's liberty/ 

 There was also the peculiar jurisdiction of the Cinque Ports and their 

 members, with the court of Shipweye. In the case of Pevensey, which 

 was a member of Hastings, this led to much confusion, the barons 

 claiming that the franchises of the Cinque Ports extended to all living 

 within the Lowey — a district roughly including all the land within 

 three miles of Pevensey castle — while the royal and county officers 

 wished to limit them to the actual town and port. There was the 

 further complication that Pevensey was the seat of the baronial court 

 of the honor of Aquila, which was held at the castle gate for all tenants 

 of the honor. The castle of Pevensey was the only place in the county 

 where felons might be imprisoned for more than three days^ ; at Lewes 

 the Earl had the right to keep them in the castle for three days, but 

 must then send them to the castle of Guildford, which was the county 

 gaol for Sussex and Surrey ; and the same applied to Arundel castle, 

 though in this latter case all felons arrested within the honor had to be 

 brought to Arundel and delivered to the constable of the castle, who should 

 then, after three days, send them on to Guildford. The Hundred Rolls 

 mention that the constables of Petworth and Midhurst were fined for 

 neglecting this custom and sending prisoners direct to Guildford. The 

 absence of a gaol within the county was a cause of great inconvenience 

 and expense and led not unfrequently to the escape of prisoners ; an 

 instance in which the sheriff was assaulted and a woman in his charge 

 rescued — or abducted — is recorded. Similar cases appear to have been 

 not unfrequent, the dense woods affording at once opportunity of escape 

 and refuge for the fugitive, so that the borders of Sussex and Surrey 

 were long infested with outlaws and robbers. It was not, however, 

 until 1487 that the constant requests of the county were granted and 

 a gaol established at Lewes.* 



The jurisdiction exercised by the lords of the great honors was 

 almost royal in its far-reaching extent. In several cases the rights of 

 the lesser lords had been encroached upon by the greater ; Peter of 

 Savoy, when he held the honor of Aquila, established a monopoly of 

 warren throughout a tract of country extending from Pevensey to the 

 Ouse and from Glynde to the sea, and Earl Warenne had done the same 

 for his whole barony, claiming warren in seventy vills and keeping 

 armed retainers to prevent Robert Aguillon and other of his neighbours 

 from hunting, and not even allowing his poor tenants to drive the wild 



• Assize R. 921, m. 8. = Ibid. m. id. 3 Ibid. m. 25. 



* Rot. Pari. (Rec. Com.), vi. 388. 



503 



