A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



attack from the eastward, having Kent for its objective, would naturally be extended to Sussex ; 

 therefore the appearance of the Jutes in the former county was soon followed by the first recorded 

 maritime invasion of Sussex in 477 by the South Saxons under ,/Elle. If the place of landing 

 Cymenes Ora be correctly assigned to the Selsey district it shows that the Romanized Britons 

 were still able to defend the more desirable ports to the eastward which the Saxons must have 

 passed on their way down the coast. 1 The essential strength of the Germanic attack on Britain 

 lay in a feature which the English, in their turn, felt to their disadvantage when they were exposed 

 to the Norse raids, namely the possession of a movable base in their ships which enabled them to 

 choose time and place of appearance. The coast was easily won, but, weak in numbers, the 

 conquest of the interior was slow and, where natural barriers supervened, did not progress at all. 

 Thus the South Saxons, hemmed in by the Andredsweald to the north and by more powerful tribes 

 to the east and west, mainly settled along the coast-line and lived obscurely and perhaps peaceably while 

 the other and stronger kingdoms were fighting for supremacy. Besides the customary occupation 

 of husbandry the same adventurous spirit that had brought them across the North Sea may have 

 taken them farther afield in the Channel for purposes of commerce or war. The story told by a 

 monk ' that the South Saxons were ignorant of the art of fishing until taught by Bishop Wilfrid 

 in 68 1 is quite incredible in association with a seafaring people who, irrespective of their earlier 

 history, had been living for two centuries on the sea-shore and in a country intersected by rivers. 

 Moreover, there is evidence that boats from the Kentish ports were frequenting the Yarmouth 

 herring fishery long before the Conquest ; to imagine that men of the same race, traditions, and 

 occupations, living in communication within a few miles, should have been dependent on a 

 Northumbrian bishop for their knowledge of sea-fishing requires a devout believer. The utmost 

 that Wilfrid can have done would be to introduce some improvement. 



From the first appearance of the Northmen, close at hand, in Sheppey in 835 to the peace of 

 Wedmore in 878 Sussex is not once mentioned in connexion with them through the long years 

 of murderous struggle during which the Danes were sailing, marching, and fighting for conquest. 

 Their fleets came from the east, from the west, and from France, but passed Sussex by ; to the 

 east, north, and west their armies fought and plundered, but made no attempt to turn, if they could 

 not pass, the Andredsweald. The silence is significant of the poverty and unimportance of such 

 towns as existed in the former South Saxon kingdom, now a part of Wessex. The Danish 

 harrying recommenced in 893, and a raid near Chichester in 895, undertaken merely in passing, 

 was easily repulsed. The next recorded incident affecting the county during these years was the 

 coming ashore in 897 of two battered Danish ships escaping from a defeat in Southampton Water, 

 or Portsmouth Harbour, and unable, it would seem, to round Selsey Bill. Their crews were 

 captured by the country people, taken to Alfred at Winchester, and by him promptly hanged. 

 In 911 Edward, then in Kent, collected a hundred ships or more with which to hold the straits, 

 and Sussex probably supplied some of them. There was a long interval of comparative peace until 

 the struggle recommenced towards the end of the tenth century ; then, in 998, we find that a 

 Danish army wintering in the Isle of Wight was ravaging Sussex for supplies. During this interval 

 of peace and the reign of ^Ethelstan (925-40) mints were working at Hastings and Chichester, and 

 one at Winchelsea a few years later ; this, as a mark of increasing importance, may explain why 

 the raiders now gave more attention to the county. The beginning of the eleventh century showed 

 signs of Danish preparation for complete conquest ; the English were quite unable to meet the 

 Danes at sea, but a determined effort was made to obtain a fleet, and to that end a law of 1008 

 commanded that every 310 hides of land should build and equip a ship. If Sussex was less 

 advanced than its neighbours in maritime strength and practice such a law must have helped to 

 bring it into line with them and tended to a bolder use of the sea than there is any sign of 

 previously. The first essay of the new fleet was not very successful, for 80 ships, sent in chase 

 of an English rebel, were wrecked, possibly on the coast of Sussex. 3 In 1009 the Danes again 

 descended on the county and burnt several towns on the sea-shore, but then the storm of war passed 

 away elsewhere. 4 



During the reign of Edward the Confessor the Sussex, ports begin to come into historical 

 notice ; towards this it is probable that the influence and encouragement of Godwin, the powerful earl 

 of Wessex, who himself often showed his appreciation of the use of sea-power, contributed not a 

 little. In 1049 a strong fleet was collected at Sandwich to act on the coast of Flanders, to which 

 Sussex must have contributed its quota. In the same year both Pevensey and Hastings are 

 mentioned. Forty-two ships put into the former port, and it need hardly be remarked that in 



1 Ingram and Earle identify ' Cymenes Ora ' with Shoreham, but it is generally supposed to be the 

 ' Cumeneshora ' of Cadwalla's charter (Cart. Sax. 64), near Wittering. From the naval standpoint it may be 

 considered certain that the Saxon invaders would not have run along the coast without some attempts, then or 

 formerly, to land before rounding Selsey Bill. 



' Bede, Hist. Ecclei. bk. iv, c. 13. ' Flor. ffigorn. (ed. Thorpe), i, 1 60. ' Ibid. 161. 



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