A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



describes the latter as ' a pretty house beside Chichester,' and refers 

 to Cowdray as ' a goodly house of Sir Anthony Brown's where we were 

 marvelously, yea rather excessively banketted.' ' Some idea of the 

 magnificence of Cowdray may be gathered from the details preserved of 

 the entertainment offered Qiieen Elizabeth in 1593/ in which figure 

 many of those quaintly elaborate ' conceits ' so familiar in the pages of 

 ' Kenilworth.' 



But feasting and loyalty are only one side of the picture, and during 

 the troubled year 1 549, when rebellion was rife in Norfolk and Corn- 

 wall, Sussex was evidently disaffected, for Sir John Markham, writing 

 early in August to the Earl of Rutland, refers to ' a general plague of 

 rebelling,' and adds that ' Kent, Sussex, Essex, and all the parts near 

 London have meekly confessed their folly and pray for the King's most 

 gracious pardon.' ' In the following May, however, the sheriffs of Kent 

 and Sussex were warned of a conspiracy of the Commons of those 

 counties to assemble at Heathfield on Whit Monday,^ and in 1551 ' one 

 Flynt of Sussex ' was in the Fleet as ' a seditious stirrer imprisoned for 

 being a doer amongst the rebelles.' ° 



Outside troubles were also rife ; the lord lieutenant of the county 

 had been warned to see that the beacons were watched and the soldiers 

 ready to assemble at an hour's notice, ° and the authorities at Rye were 

 busy fortifying their town, for which they asked leave to use the stone 

 and mortar brought together for Camber Castle/ This latter was one 

 of a series of block-houses erected along the south-east coast about 

 1 540, and its ruins still testify to the low state of military architecture 

 at this date.* It was apparently the only fort on the Sussex coast that 

 was in use at this date ; the castle at Pevensey had so fallen into decay 

 that in June 1548 certain Scots lying at Dieppe considered it would fall 

 an easy prey to any invader, while still strong enough to afford valuable 

 assistance to a force occupying it.^ This design, however, came to 

 nothing, if indeed it had ever been seriously considered. 



The history of Sussex during the reign of Elizabeth is almost 

 entirely military, and resolves itself into a string of orders for the levying 

 of troops, either for defence against invasion, or for warfare in Flanders 

 and the Low Countries. The drain of men for the French wars was as 

 great as in the time of the Edwards and Henries, but in this reign they 

 were often required to assist the French king against the Spaniards. 

 In 1562 the Earl of Arundel was ordered to raise 500 men in the 

 county for foreign service," and next year 2,000 men from Hants and 

 Sussex were sent to Havre." Another 300 were levied in 1577," and 



' Suss. Arch. Coll. X. 201. 2 Ibid. v. 185-7. 



3 Hist. MSS. Com Rep. xii, pt. iv. p. 42. 



* Acts of P.C. iii. 35. 6 Ibid. 383. 



6 Cal. S.P. Dom. Edw. VI. Add. ii. ' Ibid. vii. 20. 



8 In 1540, 1,272 men were employed on the construction of this castle (i. y P. Hen. VIII. xv. 598). 

 William Oxenbridge, as surveyor of the works, was paid ;^3,ooo in 1542, and another ;^4,ooo next year; 

 but in less than a century the place was abandoned and in ruins. 



S.P. Dom. Edw. VI. iv. 13. 



'0 Cal. S.P. Dom. Eliz. xxiv. 35. " Ibid. xxix. 36. " Acts of P.C. ix. 329. 



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