surprised the Norwegians; but William was too wary to be thus caught unprepared, and the intended attack was deferred till the subsequent day. On the 14th of October, at day break, the two armies came to a general engagement, on the spot afterwards called Battle. From morn to night-fall, the conflict continued with various success. The rival commanders, distinguished themselves amongst their respective troops, as well by their personal valour, as in the vigilant duties of the general. William is said to have had "three horses killed under him, but undaunted by peril, he was every where the foremost. Such was the general enthusiasm, that they who were exhausted by loss of blood and strength, still fought on, leaning on their supporting shields. The more disabled, by their voice and gestures, strove to animate their friends'." Harold displayed his characteristic heroism, combating on foot with the bravest soldiers, and directing with coolness the movements of the army. During the former part of the conflict, the English appeared to have the advantage, but the unfortunate death of the king, who was pierced by an arrow, turned the tide of conquest, and gave victory to the invaders. Thus perished the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings: a monarch beloved by the people, and endeared even to the nobility-one whose courage was superior to his prudence, and whose exertions to further the well-being of his subjects, will, notwithstanding his misfortunes, hallow his memory to posterity. The battle gave a kingdom to William: and though he did not rule in the hearts of the people he had subdued, his power was too vast to be resisted. For the mild government of the Anglo Saxons, was introduced the oppressive rule of a Norman tyrant, whose rigorous exactions reduced the English nobility to a state of extreme indigence and misery, and whose arbitrary will degraded the common people to a state of abject and hopeless vassalage. 'Turner's History of the Anglo Saxons, vol. iii. p. 374. CHAPTER VI. STATE OF LEWES IN THE TIME OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. The arbitrary measures of William the Conqueror-his grants of the possessions of the English to his Norman followers.—Cruel treatment of the English.-Division of Sussex among sixteen Normans.— Domesday Book.-Hundreds of Sussex in the time of William the Conqueror.—Table of the Hundreds of the Lewes Rape in three distant periods.-The account of Lewes in Domesday.-Tenements in Lewes held by neighbouring manors.-Probable number of the Population of Lewes in the time of the Conqueror.-Trade of the Town.-Meaning of Haga. THE death of Harold leaving the English without any person to whom they could look as a leader, but few and weak efforts were made to withstand the victorious arms of the Norman invader: a consternation seemed to have seized those who might have been expected to revenge the insult put upon the English nation, by the proceedings of the Conqueror; and the people, whether dreading the renewal of the horrors of war, in the ravages of a fierce enemy, or despairing of being able to repair the heavy loss they had sustained, seemed more disposed to forget their injuries, and to yield their power, than to fight for their rights and liberties. By the moderation and prudence of his conduct, William for some time endeavoured to conciliate the minds of his new subjects: he visited various parts of the kingdom, and by his affability, and attention to the interests of the people, induced them to regard him with esteem, and to honour him as a just and impartial sovereign. But whilst he was thus insinuating himself into the good graces of his subjects, he was at the same time adopting the means of keeping them in complete subjection, by erecting fortresses in the principal cities of England, and garrisoning them with his Norman followers. The real character of the Conqueror was gradually developed. developed. As his crown became secure, his virtues vanished; his moderation was changed into rigour; his impartiality into favouritism, his affability and kindness into insult and oppression. Many of the native nobility were compelled to seek refuge from the king's resentment in Scotland; the people were disarmed to prevent rebellion; and the establishment of the Curfew completed the slavery into which the English were reduced by the foreign despot1. The attempts made by the suffering and pillaged people to resist the aggressions of the avaricious monarch, only tended to augment the evils imposed upon them, and afforded William an opportunity of satisfying the cupidity of his Norman dependants, who benefited by the confiscations that took place. The estates of all those who had perished in the sanguinary field of Hastings, as well as those of the survivors who had borne arms against him, were confiscated: the property of such as had ventured to oppose his wanton oppression and arbitrary acts, was wrested from them, and given to his needy followers, who had tracked his steps from Normandy, to batten on the spoils of carnage. The series of confiscations which took place within a few years after the accession of William, produced a complete revolution in the tenure of English lands. The feudal system which had previously prevailed, in some degree, amongst the Anglo-Saxons, was now generally adopted by the haughty Conquerors, and Norman barons arose to tyrannize over and enslave the dejected people. Lands wrested from their rightful owners by the iron hand of despotism, were conferred by the politic king on his trust-worthy followers, who of course became tenentes in capite, ready to espouse the quarrels of their sovereign, and to march at the head of their vassals to his aid in war. The ceorls were, in many instances, expelled from their homes and reduced to beggary, in order to enrich a foreign favourite; or if they retained possession of their little property, they were compelled to hold it of a superior, on conditions somewhat analogous to those on which he held his possessions of the crown. The vast estate which the unfortunate Harold held in Sussex, was thus seized by the Conqueror, and granted in military tenure to his foreign favourites, amongst whom the Earl of Warren was one of the most distinguished. He had married the daughter of the king, when Duke of Normandy, and had accompanied him in his successful expedition in the double capacity of a near relation 'The Norman customs were then introduced into the country, and the courts were held after the fashion of those of Normandy. The laws were in the Norman tongue, and the judges were Normans. The monks and priests (says Sir H. Chauncy), were the counters and pleaders that managed the trials for the people in those courts. These sergeant Counteurs being clerks, or religious men, were bound by their order to shave their heads; but they were, for decency, allowed to cover their bald pates with a coif, which was a thin linen cover for the head, gathered together in the form of a skull cap or helmet, and by which the sergeants at law are known, who are of the highest degree of our law.-Vide Strutt's Man. and Cust. of the English, vol. iii. pp. 13, 76. and a valiant fellow soldier. To him, therefore, the King was almost unbounded in his liberality. In not less than fourteen counties of England had this nobleman estates, and most of them of very considerable value. To him was granted no mean share of the forfeited possessions of the brave, but unfortunate Harold: the barony of Lewes was given to him, comprising not only the revenue arising from the town, but landed property throughout the rape, to the extent of 43 manors, or 6204 hides of land. For this the earl was charged with sixty knight's fees1. Mr. Hume states, that the whole of De Warren's estates in England, amounted to two hundred and ninety-eight manors, or lordships. The castle of Lewes was the Caput Baroniæ of this favourite earl; for it is to be remembered, that a city or town could not be the head of a Barony; but when included in the baronial possessions, the town was considered as only part of the demesnes, and the castle was called the Caput Honoris, or Baroniæ3. The king retained in his own hands, as chief proprietor, some of the lands in Sussex; but the greater part was held of him in capite. The whole county was assessed in the time of Edward the Confessor at 34793 hides3, but in the grants of the same district made by William, it was assessed at not more than two-thirds of that number. The following numbers apply to the rates of the Confessor. "To make a tenure by knight's service, a de- | was only bound to attend twenty days, and so on terminate quantity of land was necessary, which was called a knight's fee, feodum militare; the measure of which, in 3 Edw. I., was estimated at twelve ploughlands, and its value, though it varied with the times, in the reigns of Edward I. and Edward II. was stated at 201. per annum*. And he who held this proportion of land, (or a whole fee), by knight service, was bound to attend his lord to the wars for forty days in every year, if called upon: which attendance was his reditus, or return, his rent or service for the land he claimed to hold. If he held only half a knight's fee he Mr.Selden contends, that a knight's fee did not consist of land of a fixed extent or value, but was as much as the king was pleased to grant, upon the condition of having the service of one knight. (Tit. of Hon., p. 2., c. 5., s. 17 and 26). This is more probable; besides, it cannot be supposed, that the same quantity of land was every where of the same value. in proportion."-Blackstone's Com. vol. ii. b. ii. c. 5. In Dr. Brady's Introduction to English History, in the glossary, at the end of the book, p. 43, he says, "Possessors of parts, and members of knight's fees there were many, which had court and jurisdiction, and services belonging to them: for these privileges were extended to the eighth part of a fee, and the division of a fee as far as the eighth part, was called a member of a fee: hence so many small manors. Fees were further divided even to a fortieth part, but then, they enjoyed not those privileges."-See Grand Cust. of Norm. c. 33, also Cragens de Feodis f. 72. 2 Madox's Baronia Anglica, b. i. c. i. p. 17. 3" Hida was the valuation of the estate, (in the same proportion as the modern land tax,) and Carucata was the measure of the land: without Of these sixteen individuals, amongst whom the whole county of Sussex was divided, to the exclusion of the former landholders, not less than fourteen were foreigners: Odo and Eldred were probably Saxons, who retained the lands granted to their forefathers before the time of Edward the Confessor, in which they were continued on condition of their performing their accustomed, or similar services1. In order that the king might obtain a more complete knowledge of the property of the kingdom, and that he might accurately know to what extent he might carry the privilege of taxation, and what proportion of impost each of his subjects might be required to pay, in 1080, "Commissioners were sent into each county, and juries summoned and impannelled in each hundred, out of all orders of freemen, from barons down to the lowest farmers, to give in, upon oath, to the commissioners, due information, by verdict, or presentment, for the compilation of a faithful and impartial statement of the whole property and revenue of the kingdom. Those inquisitions, which were compleated in 1086, were sent up to Winchester, and the substance of them afterwards methodized, and formed into the record now called Domesday, but originally, Liber de Wintonia, Rotulus Wintonia, Liber Judiciarius and Judicatorius, and deposited in the Exchequer." this discrimination, the pages of Domesday are | justice. The contents of the book are summed unintelligible. Hida is an uncertain quantity of up in the following verses, copied from Rees' land, worth about twenty Norman shillings, and Cyclopædia. consisted of a valuable number of acres, in proportion to its poverty or fertility; sometimes one hundred and forty acres, but, according to Selden, one hundred and twenty." Dallaway's Western Sussex, p. 35, Prelim. Hist. 'Selden, Not. ad Eadmer, p. 170. Kelham's Domesday Illustrated.-A register of a somewhat similar kind had been formed by King Alfred, entitled Dome-boc, or Liber judicialis, for the general use of the whole kingdom. This was denominated the Book of Winchester, having been long preserved in the cathedral of that city. It is now lost, but was extant in the time of Edward IV. Camden calls the Domesday Book of William, "Gulielmi Librum censualem-King William's Tax Book." The name by which it is now generally known, Domesday, or Doomsday Book, is formed from the Saxon dom, doom, judgment, and day, which has the same force, and was used but to strengthen and confirm the former word; so that Domesday is nothing more than a reduplicate, importing judgment, judgment, or the judicial and decisive record, or book of dooming judgment or Quid deberetur fisco, quæ, quanta tributa, Nomine quid census, quae vectigalia, quantum Quisque teneretur feodali solvere jure, Qui sunt exempti, vel quos angaria damnat, Qui sunt vel glebæ servi, vel conditionis, Quive manumissus patrono jure ligatur." This book is now deposited in the Chapter-house at Westminster. It consists of two volumes: the greater, containing a survey of all the lands in England, except the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Durham, which it is said were never surveyed; and excepting Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, which are comprehended in the lesser volume, that concludes with these words: "Anno millesimo octogesimo sexto ab incarnatione Domini, vigesimo vero regis Wilhelmi facta est ista descriptio non solum per hos tres comitatus, sed etiam alios."-See Rees' Cyclopædia. Jacob's Law Dict. A translation of that part of Domesday Book comprehending the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey, with an Introduction, Notes, and Illustrations, was published in 1799, in 4to., by S. Henshall, Clerk, M.A, and John Wilkinson, M.D. F.R.S. and S.A. |