Kingdom of Sussex

The heavily forested Weald made expansion difficult but also provided some protection from invasion by neighbouring kingdoms. While Sussex's isolation from the rest of Anglo-Saxon England has been emphasised, Roman roads must have remained important communication arteries across the forest of the Weald. The Weald was not the only area of Sussex that was forested in Saxon times—for example, at the western end of Sussex is the Manhood Peninsula, which in the modern era is largely deforested, but the name is probably derived from the Old English meaning "men's wood" or "common wood" indicating that it was once woodland.

The coastline would have looked different from today. Much of the alluvium in the river plains had not yet been deposited and the tidal river estuaries extended much further inland. It is estimated that the coastal plain may have been at least one mile broader than it is today.

The landscape gave rise to some key regional differences within the kingdom. The rich coastal plain continued to be the base for the large estates, ruled by their thegns, some of whom had their boundaries confirmed by charters. The Downs were more deserted. South Saxon impact was greatest in the Weald. Along the north scarp of the Downs runs a series of parishes with land evenly distributed across the different soils to their northern boundaries; the parishes were more or less equal in area, around . In the early mediaeval period, the rivers of Sussex may have acted locally as a major unifier, linking coastal, estuary and riverside communities and providing people in these areas with a sense of identity.

The boundaries of the Kingdom of Sussex probably crystallised around the 6th and 7th centuries. The Domesday Book lists four Mardens on the East Hampshire/ West Sussex border. The Old English for Marden would have been meaning "boundary down", reflecting their position. A tributary of the River Ems rises south of Stoughton and travels north to North Marden, completing the western boundary of the South Saxons. Bede described the western boundary with the Kingdom of Wessex as being opposite the Isle of Wight. To the east at Romney Marsh and the River Limen (now called the River Rother or Kent Ditch), Sussex shared a border with the Kingdom of Kent. North of the Forest Ridge in the Wealden forest lay the sub-kingdom of Surrey, which became a frontier area disputed by various kingdoms until it later became part of Wessex. To the south of Sussex lay the English Channel, beyond which lay Francia, or the Kingdom of the Franks.

By the 680s, when Christianity was being introduced, there is no doubt that the district around Selsey and Chichester had become the political centre of the kingdom, though there is little archaeological evidence for a reoccupation of Chichester itself before the 9th century. By the 11th century the towns were mostly developments of the fortified towns () founded in the reign of Alfred the Great. Different names existed for the swine pastures in different parts of Sussex. In the territory of the in the east, swine pastures were named , in the centre they were referred to as "styes" () and in the west, . At the end of the 4th century there was a decline in the birth rate across Roman Britain; this population decrease would have been exacerbated by the transfer to Continental Europe of three large armies, recruited in Britain in the last 30 years of Roman rule, as well as plague and barbarian attack.

Approximate populations of Sussex towns shortly after the end of the Saxon period in 1086 at the time of the Domesday Book may have been as follows:

{|class="wikitable"

!Rank

!Town

!Population However, there are two cemeteries in West Sussex at Highdown, near Worthing and Apple Down, 11 km (7 mi.) northwest of Chichester. The area between the Ouse and Cuckmere was believed to have been the location for the federate treaty settlement of Anglo-Saxon mercenaries. For example, the excavation of one of the cemeteries, at Rookery Hill at Bishopstone, East Sussex, yielded late Roman or insular Roman metalwork including a Quoit Brooch Style buckle, which would indicate settlement here to the early 5th century.

Subsequent excavations revealed a considerable area of Saxon buildings. Of the 22 buildings excavated, three were sunken huts, 17 are rectangular founded on individual post holes, one is represented by post holes between which are beam slots, and one by eight single large posts. The Patching hoard, as it came to be known, contained a coin as recent as 470. Thus, Highdown cemetery would have been in use by Saxons when the hoard was buried at Patching. The settlement that used Highdown as a burial ground in the 5th century has never been identified, but White speculates that there may have been some link between Patching and Highdown, and Welch has suggested that a Romano-British community was based there and that they controlled a group of Saxon mercenaries.

Christianisation and loss of independence (600–860)

After 491 the written history of Sussex goes blank until 607, when the annals report that Ceolwulf of Wessex fought against the South Saxons. Threatened by Wessex, the South Saxons sought to secure their independence by alliance with Mercia. To the South Saxons, the more distant influence and control of a king from Mercia is likely to have been preferable to that of the West Saxons. Æðelwealh also married Eabe, a princess of the Hwicce, a Mercian satellite province.

thumb|16th-century Barnardi picture of Cædwalla granting lands to Wilfrid.

In 681, the exiled St Wilfrid of Northumbria arrived in the kingdom of the South Saxons and remained there for five years evangelising and baptising the people.

Shortly after the arrival of St Wilfrid, the kingdom was ravaged with "fierce slaughter and devastation" and Æðelwealh was slain by an exiled West Saxon prince Cædwalla. The latter was eventually expelled, by Æðelwealh's successors, two Ealdormen named Berhthun and Andhun. There is a theory that Watt may have been a sub-king who ruled over a tribe of people centred around modern day Hastings, known as the Haestingas and Nunna is described, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, as the kinsman of Ine of Wessex who fought with him against Geraint, King of the Britons, in 710. According to Bede, Sussex was subject to Ine for a number of years and like Cædwalla, Ine also oppressed the people of Sussex in the same harsh way for many years.

In 710 Sussex was still under West Saxon domination when King Nothhelm of Sussex is recorded as having campaigned with Ine in the west against Dumnonia. Sussex evidently broke away from West Saxon domination some time before 722 when Ine is recorded as invading Sussex, which he repeated three years later, killing a West Saxon exile named Ealdberht who had fled to the Weald of Sussex and Surrey and appears to have attempted to find support in Sussex.

There is another charter, that is thought to be genuine, that records a series of transactions of a piece of land near modern-day Burpham in the Arun Valley.

It starts off with a grant of land, at Peppering, by Nunna to Berhfrith probably for the foundation of a minster.

Berhfrith transferred the land to Eolla, who in turn sold it to Wulfhere. The land then went to Beoba who passed it on to Beorra and Ecca. The other witnesses who followed Osric were Eadberht and Eolla, both who can be identified as ecclesiastics. is witnessed by a King Æðelstan.

A little later, Æðelberht was King of Sussex, but he is known only from charters. The dates of Æðelberht's reign are unknown beyond the fact that he was a contemporary of Sigeferth, Bishop of Selsey from 733, as Sigeferth witnessed an undated charter of Æðelberht in which Æðelberht is styled Ethelbertus rex Sussaxonum.

After this we hear nothing more until about 765, when a grant of land is made by a king named Ealdwulf, with two other kings, Ælfwald and Oslac, as witnesses.

In 765 and 770 grants are made by a King Osmund, the latter one was later confirmed by Offa of Mercia.

The independent existence of the Kingdom of Sussex came to an end in the early 770s. Offa also confirmed two charters of Æðelberht, and in 772 he grants land himself in Sussex, with Oswald, dux Suðsax, as a witness. It is probable that about this time Offa annexed the kingdom of Sussex, as several persons, Osmund, Ælfwald and Oslac, who had previously used the royal title, now sign with that of dux.

Offa may not have been able to maintain control in the period 776–785 but he appears to have re-established control afterwards. the South Saxons submitted to Ecgberht of Wessex, and from this time they remained subject to the West Saxon dynasty. According to Heather Edwards in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, it is probable that Sussex was not annexed by Wessex until 827. The earldom of Sussex seems later to have been sometimes combined with that of Kent. Æthelberht of Wessex was ruling Sussex and the other south-eastern kingdoms by 855, and succeeded to the kingship of Wessex on the death of his brother, King Æthelbald, thus bringing Sussex fully under the crown of Wessex.

Ealdormanry and shire (860–1066)

From 895 Sussex suffered from constant raids by the Danes, until the accession of Canute, after which arose the two great forces of the house of Godwine and of the Normans. Godwine was probably a native of Sussex, and by the end of Edward the Confessor's reign a third part of the county was in the hands of his family.

The death of Eadwine, Ealdorman of Sussex, is recorded in 982, because he was buried at Abingdon Abbey in Berkshire, where one version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was compiled. According to the abbey's records, in which he was called (Eadwine leader of the South Saxons), he bequeathed estates to them in his will, although the document itself has not survived. Earlier in the same year he witnessed a charter of King Ethelred the Unready as . His name was also added to a forged charter dated 956 (possibly an error for 976).

right|thumb|600px|[[Harold Godwinson, the future king of England, shown on the Bayeux Tapestry riding with his knights to Bosham from where he set sail in 1064.]]

In the next generation, Wulfnoth Cild, a Sussex thegn, played a prominent part in English politics. In 1009 his actions resulted in the destruction of the English fleet, and by 1011 Sussex, together with most of South East England, was in the hands of the Danes. In an early example of local government reform, the Anglo-Saxon ealdormanries were abolished by the Danish kings and replaced with a smaller number of larger earldoms. Wulfnoth Cild was the father of Godwin, who was made Earl of Wessex in 1020. His earldom included Sussex. When he died in 1053, Godwin was succeeded as Earl of Wessex (including Sussex) by his son Harold, who had previously been Earl of East Anglia.

Edward the Confessor, who had spent much of his early life in exile in Normandy, was pro-Norman and in Sussex gave to the abbot of Fécamp Abbey the minster church at Steyning, as well as confirming land existing land grants at Hastings, Rye and Winchelsea. To his chaplain, Osborn, later William's Bishop of Exeter, Edward gave the harbour and other land at Bosham. Many of the Saxon nobles grew jealous and from 1049 there was conflict between the disgruntled Saxon nobility, the king and the incoming Normans. Godwine and his second son Harold kept the peace off the Sussex coast by using Bosham and Pevensey to drive away pirates. On 14 October 1066, Harold II, the last Saxon king of England was killed at the Battle of Hastings and the English army defeated, by William the Conqueror and his army. It is likely that all the fighting men of Sussex were at the battle, as the county's thegns were decimated and any that survived had their lands confiscated.

Life and society

Defence and warfare

The earliest recorded Viking raid on Sussex took place in 895 and it was particularly difficult for a scattered farming community to meet these sudden attacks. In 895 the population of Chichester killed many hundreds of Danes who plundered the area. Eadulf, a Saxon noble, was appointed to organise the defence of Sussex but died from the plague before much could be done. The most serious attacks took place in 1009, when a Viking army took up position over the winter period on the Isle of Wight and ravaged Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire.

The rectilinear street plan of Chichester is typical of the towns which developed from the fortified , which had intramural streets running around the town walls; this allowed garrison troops to defend the town and large peripheral blocks that were left as hedged areas () into which fugitives from the countryside could flee. The hoard includes five imported siliquae that had not been clipped, so coin-clipping had probably ceased by then, although the coinage had probably collapsed decades earlier than this, after Roman rule in Britain collapsed. That a cash economy had returned by the 10th century is suggested by the various mints which became increasingly plentiful after King Æthelstan reorganised England's coinage. There were mints at Chichester, Lewes and Steyning. A new mint also seems to have existed on a temporary basis in the Iron Age hillfort at Cissbury, which may have been refortified as a refuge during the Danish invasions in the reign of Æthelred the Unready. By the eve of the Norman conquest, there were further mints at Arundel, Pevensey and Hastings. The River Ouse would have been navigable at least as far north as Lewes. Armstrong argues that while Sussex was separated from much else of mainstream English experience, this should not hide the rich trade that Sussex had with other parts of Europe. By the 1060s Lewes also supported a cattle market. By this time, Sussex had a network of urban centres such that farmers were within 15 km to 30 km of market facilities.

Agriculture seems to have flourished on the Sussex coastal plain and on the Sussex Downs. The fact that the Sussex coast appears to have been relatively densely settled for centuries implies that the land was being more competently farmed than was typical of the standard of the day. Fisheries were also important to the economy of Sussex. Lewes was an important centre of a herring industry and had to pay a rent of 38,500 herrings for its sea fisheries.

Capital

At the time of the South Saxons it is unlikely that they would have had a capital in Sussex. The archaeologist Martin Biddle said that "the evidence we have for the residences and itineraries of English kings before the Norman conquest is all too thin" and according to Frank Stenton "In the eleventh century the conception of a capital city had not yet taken a definite shape anywhere in the west. The centre of government in England was the kings' mobile court. The king was free to hold a council at any point in his realm.." In Roman times Chichester was known as Noviomagus Reginorum and served as the capital of the Civitas Reginorum, a client kingdom ruled by Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus. After the departure of the Romans, Noviomagus appears to have been largely abandoned with the earliest Saxon find, by archaeological excavation, being a small amount of mid-Saxon pottery dated around 8th-9th century.

Before Saxon occupation of Chichester, Sussex had been annexed, by the Kingdom of Wessex, in the middle of the 7th century.It was then ruled by Mercia and after regaining its independence, it was finally annexed and then absorbed, into Wessex, in 860.

The Anglo Saxon Chronicle suggests that Sussex was founded in the Selsey and Chichester area, however the archaeology does not support this. What the archaeology does show is that the initial settlement, of the South Saxons, was in the downland areas, between the River Ouse and River Cuckmere to the east of Sussex. From there the South Saxons migrated to the west of Sussex and by the 680s the area between Chichester and Selsey had become the political and ecclesiastical centre of the kingdom with the kings residence in Orreo Regis (Kingsham), south west of Chichester, and Wilfrid's religious centre in Selsey. According to Martin Welch "After the Romans left there is no evidence for the reoccupation of Chichester till the 9th century", when it was rebuilt and fortified as part of a programme of defence, instigated by Alfred the Great, of Wessex, to protect against Danish raids.

Kingship

The South Saxon kingdom remains one of the most obscure of the Anglo-Saxon polities. Sussex seems to have had a greater degree of decentralisation than other kingdoms.

The Kingdom of Sussex was an independent unit until the reign of Offa of Mercia. Under Offa, who ruled over most of the kingdoms of the heptarchy, local South Saxon rulers were allowed to continue provided that they recognised Offa's overriding authority and some estates seem to have come into his direct possession.

In the 9th century, Sussex was ruled by the West Saxons. It would appear that the ultimate intention of Æthelwulf of Wessex was for the kingdom of Wessex and the eastern regions of Sussex, Surrey, Kent and Essex to become separate kingdoms, with separate but related royal dynasties. It was only the early deaths of Aethelwulf's first two sons that allowed Æthelbert of Wessex, his third son, to reunite Wessex and the eastern regions, including Sussex, into a single kingdom in 860. This occurred only after Athelberht had secured the consent of his younger brothers, Aethelred and Alfred. Though in part due to the careful cultivation of conquered regions, the establishment of an enduring "Greater Wessex" stretching along the southern coast owed much to chance, early deaths, and perhaps, to the growing recognition of the need for unity in the face of an increasing Viking threat. Sussex was never again treated as part of an eastern subkingdom but was not closely integrated with the old West Saxon provinces either. Sussex seems to have had its own ealdorman for much of the 10th century.

Royal tributes and dues were often collected at settlements known as king's tuns, often a separate place from where the royal hall of that the king would stay when in the area. Sussex has several places that are king's tuns including from west to east, Kingston by Ferring, Kingston by Sea, now part of Shoreham-by-Sea, and Kingston near Lewes. King's tuns in Anglo-Saxon England often acted as places of assembly, where the king could settle disputes or hear appeals. According to Æthelstan, the first king of England, his grandmother Ælfthryth had the use of an estate at Æthelingadene (East and West Dean near Chichester). Ælfthryth may have brought up her grandchildren, the sons of Æthelred of Wessex, at Æthelingadene, which may have been one of the estates set aside for the benefit of the royal princes or Æthelings.

Law

Various folkmoots would have been held in Sussex, for instance at Ditchling, There is also a location in Durrington that had the name meaning a moot barrow or meeting barrow, a boundary barrow.

The early hundreds often lacked the formality of later attempts of local government: frequently they met in the open, at a convenient central spot, perhaps marked by a tree, as at Easebourne. Dill, meaning the boarded meeting place, was one of the few hundreds in Sussex that provided any accommodation. From the 10th century onwards the hundred became important as a court of justice as well as dealing with matters of local administration. The meeting place was often a point within the hundred such as a bridge (as in the bridge over the western River Rother in Rotherbridge hundred) or a notable tree (such as a tree called Tippa's Oak in Tipnoak hundred). when Æthelstan, the first king of the English, and his councillors gathered at Lyminster by the River Arun. Another took place in Sussex in the reign of Æthelstan (924-939), probably at Hamsey, on the River Ouse near Lewes.

A small number of diplomas (documents affirming the grant or tenure of specified land) from Sussex survive from this period.

By the 1060s Lewes may have been Sussex's legal centre. The Saxon pagan culture probably caused a reversal of the spread of Christianity. Wilfrid's biographer records that in the year 666 Wilfrid's ship ran aground on the Sussex coast near Selsey where it was attacked and a pagan priest sought to cast magic spells from a high mound. Bede also refers to a mass suicide committed by groups of 40 or 50 men who jumped from cliffs during a time of famine. It is probable that these suicides represented sacrifices to appease the god Woden. Æðelwealh, Sussex's king, had been baptised. Damianus, a South Saxon, was made Bishop of Rochester in the Kingdom of Kent in the 650s and may indicate earlier missionary work in the first half of the 7th century.

In the late 7th or early 8th century, St. Cuthman, a shepherd who may have been born in Chidham and had been reduced to begging set out from his home with his disabled mother using a one-wheeled cart. According to the hagiography of the 11th century Secgan manuscript, another saint, St Cuthflæd of Lyminster, is buried in or near to Lyminster Priory. In 681, Bede records that an outbreak of the plague had devastated parts of England, including Sussex and the monks at Selsey Abbey fasted and prayed for three days for an end to the outbreak. A young boy with the plague prayed to St Oswald and his prayers were answered, and a vision of St Peter and St Paul was said to have appeared to the boy, telling the boy that he would be the last to die.

The church built at Steyning was one of around 50 minster churches across Sussex and these churches supplied itinerant clergy to surrounding districts. Other examples include churches at Singleton, Lyminster, Findon and Bishopstone. Fisher argues that slavery would have been the fate of many people of Romano-British descent at this time. By the 11th century it has been estimated that the proportion of slaves in Sussex was very low at around 4 per cent, some of the lowest rates in England; this compares with 25 per cent in Gloucestershire, 18 per cent in Hampshire and 10 per cent in Kent.

Culture

There is significant evidence for Frankish cultural influence on the kingdom of Sussex as well as the neighbouring kingdom of Kent; occasional references in Continental works suggest that Frankish kings may at one point have thought of the people of Sussex and other south eastern kingdoms as their political dependants.

According to Gabor Thomas, there are clear cultural differences between how wealth and status were expressed in South Saxon society compared with Anglo Saxon kingdoms to the north. In the kingdom of Sussex and the neighbouring kingdom of Kent the range of ornamented dress accessories metalwork is significantly more austere and limited that in kingdoms to the north. However alternative status symbols were used fully in Sussex by those with higher status. Archaeological evidence shows that luxury food items were consumed in Sussex and exuberant architectural displays were constructed, such as a cellared tower excavated at Bishopstone.

Heraldic device

thumb|Depiction of Ælle holding a shield with a design representing Sussex, taken from [[John Speed's 1611 "Saxon Heptarchy"]]

The shield or emblem of Sussex, sometimes referred to as a coat of arms, consists of six gold martlets on a blue field. was attributed to the Kingdom of Sussex later in a work called "Saxon Heptarchy" by John Speed that dates from 1611. The depiction shows Ælle of Sussex, the founder and first king of Sussex, holding the shield over his shoulder.

Notes

References

Works cited