A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



show up bravely for two centuries, their exploits were mainly performed within a limited area and 

 under special conditions, for royal fleets gathered on a large scale for important operations were made 

 up of levies drawn from the English coast towns generally. The particular value to the crown of 

 the Cinque Ports service was that, although they were entitled by prescription to a warning of 

 40 days when the full number of 57 ships was required, probably a few vessels could always be relied 

 upon at a Tew days' notice for a small employment. When large fleets were collected the Sussex 

 and Kent ships formed only an inconsiderable portion of the whole. 



In April, 1216, the bailiffs of Rye were ordered to send to the Thames all the vessels 

 belonging to the town, together with four of the townsmen to inform the king of all the shipping 

 details of the port. By this time Rye and Winchelsea were clearly outstripping their head port, 

 Hastings, in importance. On the whole, the Cinque Ports had been faithful to John ; but they had 

 wavered in the middle of the reign, and again, at the end, their allegiance was doubtful, for the king 

 found it necessary in 1216 to promise Hastings, Pevensey, Rye, Winchelsea, and Shoreham 

 additional privileges if they would remain true to him. 1 His death terminated such embarrassments 

 and there was no doubt of their loyalty to Henry III, but no Sussex ships are known to have taken 

 part in the decisive battle of August, 1217, in the Straits of Dover, by which any possibility of a 

 French conquest was overthrown. Louis had taken Winchelsea in 1216, but being blockaded from 

 Rye was unable to leave the town by sea ; a French squadron arrived, which enabled him to take 

 the latter place also. 2 The naval history of the reign of Henry III is not important, but the 

 services of the Cinque Ports were in continual request for minor duties. Those duties were no 

 doubt usually made sufficiently profitable ; an early writ of this reign, while thanking the Ports for 

 what they had done, informs them that the king is sending two of his servants to inquire into 

 plunder lately taken and to secure the royal share of it. 3 An order of 1224, to prepare for service 

 at sea, is addressed, independently, to Shoreham, Seaford, Pagham, and Pevensey, as well as to 

 Hastings, Rye, and Winchelsea. 4 Seaford is said to have been a member of Hastings at least as 

 early as 1229-30, and Pevensey at about the same date. 6 The destruction of Hastings Harbour and 

 coast line was proceeding rapidly during the first half of the thirteenth century, and explains the 

 necessity for obtaining external support. Of the 21 Hastings ships 10 now came from Winchelsea 

 and five from Rye ; 6 we know that not much more than a century later the six from Hastings 

 were then made up of three from that town, one from Pevensey, one from Bulverhythe and Little Iham, 

 and one from Bekesbourne in Kent, and probably their assistance dates from that given by Seaford. 7 

 The help obtained from the smaller members, Hidney, Northeye, and Greenech (near Gillingham), 

 was only in money and men ; 8 the position of Seaford was anomalous, for it was sometimes called 

 upon for ships irrespective of its head port, its connexion with which seems to have been ill-defined. 



There is a suggestion of a shipbuilding trade at Rye in an order of 1223 forbidding the export 

 of timber from there, as the king was proposing to build ships and galleys, 9 and in 1231 ship 

 carpenters were ordered to go to Portsmouth from Winchelsea and Shoreham. 10 Between 1237 and 

 1243 the king's galleys were lying at Rye and Winchelsea, and in the last year there were seven 

 laid up at Rye ; n there were also some royal dockyards and storehouses at both towns. 12 Everything 

 points to the conclusion that this was the most flourishing era of Rye and Winchelsea. The fishery 

 must have been pursued on a large scale in view of the heavy supplies required for the royal house- 

 hold, which can have formed only a fraction of the catches, 13 and there is some evidence that the 

 Rye boats were following the cod fishery in the North Sea in the twelfth century. 14 There must 

 have been an oversea trade extending over a far greater radius than is usually supposed, for in 1253 

 both Rye and Winchelsea were required to send vessels to scout off the coast of Castile and Leon, 

 with which power war was threatening, and they were to be manned by men who knew the 

 Spanish coast. 15 In 1235 a council was held at Dover for the discussion of naval affairs, to which 

 Winchelsea sent 1 8 townsmen and Rye 12, but Hastings only six ; 16 it is noticeable that no other 

 of the Cinque Ports sent as many as Winchelsea. Again, in 1253, at a council at Oxford, that 

 town sent more delegates than any of the other ports. 



I Pat. 1 8 John, m. 3. ' Mr. G. J. Turner in Trans. Roy. Hist. See. xviii, 262. 

 8 Pat. i Hen. Ill, m. 4. 4 Ibid. 8 Hen. Ill, m. 8 d. 



6 Jeake, Charters of the Cinque Ports, 122. 6 Ibid. 25. 



7 Ibid. 27. In regard to the Bekesbourne ship there must have been some change in the relation to the 

 crown ; see ante, p. 129, note 2. 



8 In 1 348 Rich. Smelt held the manor of Greenech by service of finding two men with two oars for the 

 Hastings contingent (Close, 22 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 20 J.). 



9 Pat. 7 Hen. Ill, m. 3. 10 Close, 15 Hen. Ill, m. 17. 



II Ibid. 21 Hen. Ill, m. 8 ; 26 Hen. Ill, m. ^d. ; Rot. Liberate, 28 Hen. Ill, m. 19. 



" Rot. Liberate, 38 Hen. Ill, m. I ; Close, 22 Hen. Ill, m. 2 ; ibid. 48 Hen. Ill, m. 4. 

 13 Suss. Arch. Coll. xvii, 118 ; xxiii, 27. '* Ibid, xlii, 79. 



15 Close, 36 Hen. Ill, m. 13 d. w Ibid. 19 Hen. Ill, m. 20 d. 



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