MILITARY HISTORY 



THE warlike operations carried on in the county of Surrey have 

 been described in the Political History. The military organi- 

 zation of this county has not differed from that of others. 

 Everywhere before the Norman Conquest an obligation of uni- 

 versal service for the defence of the country existed, although in practice, 

 except when an invader was actually upon the spot, universal service must 

 have resolved itself into a delegated service of those most willing or most 

 easily compelled to serve. It was notoriously difficult before the Con- 

 quest to interest the English in a war which did not affect them imme- 

 diately in their homes, and added to this local feeling the difficulties of 

 moving and supporting men at any distance naturally tended to limit the 

 services of a county levy. Both in the earlier and later Danish wars the 

 ' fyrd ' of Surrey must have had ample opportunities of fighting on the 

 spot ; we can however bring no certain instance of their co-operation 

 outside their own limits except in the year 853 or 854, when Huda the 

 ealdorman of Surrey, leading his county levy, was killed in an unsuccess- 

 ful attack on the Danes in Thanet.^ It is certain that the county must 

 have furnished a contingent to Harold's army at Hastings, perhaps sending 

 most of its fighting force, for Leofwine, Harold's brother, had since 1065 

 held an earldom which included Surrey," and probably four manors in 

 the county. Harold also held eleven manors, mostly large, and perhaps 

 others.' Leofwine, and probably most of the chief English landowners, 

 died on the field with Harold, as there is no indication that any, except 

 Oswold the thegn, had not been in arms against William.* The ' fyrd ' 

 was not abolished by the Norman kings or their successors, but en- 

 couraged and reorganized, as instanced by Henry the Second's Assize of 

 Arms and Edward the First's Statute of Winchester. The knight- 

 service, furnished in accordance with feudal tenure, was only supple- 

 mentary to the still existing obligation of general military service. 



A complete return of knight-service due from Surrey is apparently 

 irrecoverable. In the Pipe Roll of 11 56 the abbot of Chertsey is 

 assessed for three knights' fees, the prior of Merton for one-third of a 

 knight.^ In 1 159 the Sheriff of Surrey accounted for £/^ as a commu- 



1 Anglo-Saxon Ciron. (Rolls Series), ii. 57. 



2 Freeman, Norman Conquest, ii. p. 419, App. G. p. 568. 



3 Earl Harold held eleven ; Harold, perhaps not always the late king, had held eight more (see 

 V.C.H. Surr. i. 206 seq.) 



« Ibid. i. 281. ' Pipe R. 2 Hen. II. 



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