A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



process. Castle-guard, 86 rendered either in person or by a money payment at 

 the castles of Pevensey, Arundel, Bramber, and Hastings, was probably the 

 most prevalent form of military service in the county. Early in the 

 thirteenth century the lord of the manor of Tilton owed half a mark for 

 castle -guafd at Pevensey, 'that being the amount due for a knight's fee,' 87 

 and the tenants who held by knight service of the count of Eu did ward of 

 Hastings Castle every month by fifteen knights, and made the bridges of the 

 castle, though they were bound to no other service within the rape unless it 

 were at the earl's expense. 88 



These, however, were considerable landowners who might be expected 

 to hold by military service. There are other cases in which a contribution 

 was owed by much smaller men, as in the case of the tenants of Duddington, 

 who contributed ^d. towards the 3^. owed by their lord about the year I2OO, 89 

 or of a tenant of Wartling manor who held a messuage and 17 acres for 

 homage, castle-ward, and suit of court in the fourteenth century. 40 It is such 

 men as these whose forefathers may have acquired freedom by honourable 

 service, and the same is probably true of a certain Walter ' Francigena ' who 

 held 6 acres of the count of Eu in the thirteenth century by the serjeanty 

 of making summonses throughout the rape of Hastings, and of Harold le Velu 

 who held 18 acres 'per servitium colligendi halimotum de Burhes' and on 

 condition that when the count was in the vill he should dwell in the same house 

 with him and do what he was bidden. 41 The latter cases forcibly recall the 

 summoner of Dengemarsh and Benedict the Seneschal on the Battle Abbey 

 lands, and are of a much humbler and more utilitarian character than some of 

 the great serjeanties of the county, such as that of John de Hastings, who 

 held the manor of Woolbeding by the service of carrying the king's 

 standard before the foot-soldiers in time of war, from the bridge ' which 

 is called Wolfardesbridge to the bridge called Stretebridge,' 42 and the merely 

 nominal obligations of the tenant in Tarring who held certain property of two 

 different lords, one moiety by the service of finding a cap of peacock's 

 feathers or i %d. yearly, and the other moiety for a sore sparrow hawk. 43 



That there were other equally important forces making for freedom at 

 this period is clear, though for lack of intermediate documents it is unfortu- 

 nately not easy to say what they were. One fact, however, becomes evident, 

 namely, that by the dawn of the fourteenth century the original significance of 

 distinctions of status had become obscured and rested chiefly on legal formularies 

 and local custom. Consequently the line which separated the villein and the 

 freeman became indistinct, and it was possible in 1304 for as many as eleven 

 free tenants of Wartling manor to hold villein lands, 44 while throughout the 

 century villeins were attempting, and even contriving, to acquire free land, 45 

 and in one case land which had been customary land, after its escheat, was 

 re-granted on a free tenure. 46 The free tenements themselves were, in a 



36 Cal. Inf. p.m. Hen. Ill, 69, 79, 279 ; and Chan. Inq. p.m. 13 Edw. Ill (2nd nos.) 57. 

 " L. F. Salzmann, Hist, of Hailsham, 1 76 ; according to Mr. Round's calculation this would pay the 

 wages of one knight for ten days. (Arch. Journ. lix, 147 and 151.) 



38 Red Bk. of the Exch. (Rolls Ser.), 623. L. F. Salzmann, Hist, of Haibham, 176. 



40 Add. Ct. R. 3 2 6 3 4 ; for other instances of very small castle-ward service, seeibid.326i5and3z63O. 



"Red. Bk. of the Exch. (Rolls Ser.), 555 and 624. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. 18 Edw. II, 83 ; and Assize R. 909, m. 2O< 



" Ibid. C. Edw. I, file 14 (10). " Add. Ct. R. 32611. 



* Ibid. 31242, 31244, 31260, 32630. * Ibid. 32639. 



174 



