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la, Regnum Sussaxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the South Saxons , capital = , era =
Heptarchy The Heptarchy were the seven petty kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England that flourished from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century until they were consolidated in the 8th century into the four kingdoms of Mercia, Northumbria, Wess ...
, status = Vassal of Wessex (686–726, 827–860)
Vassal of Mercia (771–796) , government_type = Monarchy , title_leader = Monarchs (see full list) , leader1 = Ælle , year_leader1 = 477–491 or later , leader2 = Æðelwealh , year_leader2 = ''fl.'' , p1 = Sub-Roman Britain , flag_p1 = Vexilloid of the Roman Empire.svg , border_p1 = no , p2 = Kingdom of Haestingas , flag_p2 = , s1 = Kingdom of England , flag_s1 = Flag of Wessex.svg , image_flag = , image_coat = , flag = , flag_type = , coat_type = , image_map = British kingdoms c 800.svg , image_map_caption = Britain around AD 800 , religion =
Paganism Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. I ...

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...
, common_languages =
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...
,
British Latin British Latin or British Vulgar Latin was the Vulgar Latin spoken in Great Britain in the Roman and sub-Roman periods. While Britain formed part of the Roman Empire, Latin became the principal language of the elite, especially in the more roman ...
, legislature =
Witenagemot The Witan () was the king's council in Anglo-Saxon England from before the seventh century until the 11th century. It was composed of the leading magnates, both ecclesiastic and secular, and meetings of the council were sometimes called the Wi ...
, currency =
Sceat A ( ; ang, sceatt , ) was a small, thick silver coin minted in England, Frisia, and Jutland during the Anglo-Saxon period that normally weighed 0.8–1.3 grams. History Its name derives from Old English ', meaning "wealth", "money", and "co ...
, year_start = , year_end = 860 , event_end = Full integration into crown of Wessex , event1 = Subject to Wessex , date_event1 = to 726 , event2 = Subject to Mercia , date_event2 = 771 to , event3 = Subject to Wessex , date_event3 = From , stat_year1 = 450 , stat_pop1 = 25,000 , stat_year2 = 1100 , stat_pop2 = 35,000 , today =
, demonym=, area_km2=, area_rank=, GDP_PPP=, GDP_PPP_year=, HDI=, HDI_year= The Kingdom of the South Saxons, today referred to as the Kingdom of Sussex (; ang, Sūþseaxna rīce), was one of the seven traditional kingdoms of the
Heptarchy The Heptarchy were the seven petty kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England that flourished from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century until they were consolidated in the 8th century into the four kingdoms of Mercia, Northumbria, Wess ...
of
Anglo-Saxon England Anglo-Saxon England or Early Medieval England, existing from the 5th to the 11th centuries from the end of Roman Britain until the Norman conquest in 1066, consisted of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 927, when it was united as the Kingdom of ...
. On the south coast of the island of
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...
, it was originally a sixth-century
Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
colony and later an independent kingdom. The kingdom remains one of the least known of the Anglo-Saxon polities, with no surviving king-list, several local rulers and less centralisation than other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The South Saxons were ruled by the kings of Sussex until the country was annexed by
Wessex la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...
, probably in 827, in the aftermath of the Battle of Ellendun. The foundation legend of the kingdom of Sussex is that in 477 Ælle and his three sons arrived in three ships, conquering what is now Sussex. Ælle became overlord, or ''
Bretwalda ''Bretwalda'' (also ''brytenwalda'' and ''bretenanwealda'', sometimes capitalised) is an Old English word. The first record comes from the late 9th-century ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''. It is given to some of the rulers of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from ...
'', over the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms south of the Humber. Historians are divided over whether or not Ælle really existed; however archaeological evidence supports the view that a short-lived expansion of South Saxon authority as far as the
Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the In ...
may have taken place in the 5th century. For much of the 7th and 8th centuries, Sussex was engaged in conflict with the kingdom of Wessex to its west. King Æðelwealh formed an alliance with Christian
Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era=Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , y ...
against Wessex, becoming Sussex's first Christian king. With support from St Wilfrid, Sussex became the last major Anglo-Saxon kingdom to become Christian. South Saxon and Mercian forces took control of what are now east Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Cædwalla of Wessex killed Æðelwealh and "ravaged Sussex by fierce slaughter and devastation". The South Saxons forced Cædwalla from Sussex and were able to lead a campaign into
Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, replacing its king. At that time Sussex could have re-emerged into a regional power. Shortly afterwards, Cædwalla returned to Sussex, killing its king and putting its people into what Bede called "a worse state of slavery". The South Saxon clergy were put under the control of West Saxon
Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...
. Only around 715 was Eadberht of Selsey made the first bishop of the South Saxons, after which further invasion attempts from Wessex ensued. Following a period of rule by King Offa of Mercia, Sussex regained its independence but was annexed by Wessex around 827 and was fully absorbed into the kingdom of Wessex in 860.


Geography

The Kingdom of Sussex had its initial focus in a territory based on the former kingdom and Romano-British ''
civitas In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (; plural ), according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the , or citizens, united by law (). It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilities () on th ...
'' of the '' Regni'' and its boundaries coincided in general with those of the later county of
Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...
. For a brief period in the 7th century, the Kingdom of Sussex controlled the
Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Is ...
and the territory of the ''
Meonwara The Meonwara were one of the tribes of Anglo-Saxon Britain. Their territory was a folkland located in the valley of the River Meon in Hampshire that was subsumed by the Kingdom of Wessex in the late seventh century. Etymology In the 8th centu ...
'' in the Meon Valley in east Hampshire. From the late 8th century, Sussex seems to have absorbed the Kingdom of the ''
Haestingas The Haestingas, or Heastingas or Hæstingas, were one of the tribes of Anglo-Saxon Britain. Not very much is known about them. They settled in what became East Sussex sometime before the end of the 8th century. A 12th-century source suggested tha ...
'', after the region was conquered by the Mercian king
Offa Offa (died 29 July 796 AD) was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æth ...
. A large part of its territory was covered by the forest that took its name from the fort of '' Anderitum'' at modern Pevensey, and known to the Romano-British as the Forest of Andred and to the Saxons as or , known today as the Weald. This forest, according to the ''
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of A ...
'', was wide and deep (although probably closer to wide).Seward Sussex. p.76 It was the largest remaining area of woodland and heath in the territories that became England and was inhabited by wolves, boars and possibly bears. It was so dense that ''
Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
'' did not record some of its settlements. The heavily forested Weald made expansion difficult but also provided some protection from invasion by neighbouring kingdoms. Whilst 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 The Manhood Peninsula is the southwest of West Sussex in England. It has the English Channel to its south and Chichester to the north. It is bordered to its west by Chichester Harbour and to its east by Pagham Harbour, its southern headland be ...
, 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.Martin Welch: ''Early Anglo-Saxon Sussex: from Civitas to Shire'', in Brandon (1978), p.14 It is estimated that the coastal plain may have been at least one mile broader than it is today. Before people reclaimed the tidal marshes in the 13th century the coastal plain contained extensive areas of sea water in the form of lagoons, salt marsh, wide inlets, islands and peninsulas. To the South Saxons of the 5th and 6th centuries this coastline must have resembled their original homeland between coastal
Friesland Friesland (, ; official fry, Fryslân ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of ...
,
Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
and
Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...
. 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 Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...
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 Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom ...
described the western boundary with the Kingdom of Wessex as being opposite the Isle of Wight. To the east at
Romney Marsh Romney Marsh is a sparsely populated wetland area in the counties of Kent and East Sussex in the south-east of England. It covers about . The Marsh has been in use for centuries, though its inhabitants commonly suffered from malaria until ...
and the River Limen (now called the River Rother or Kent Ditch), Sussex shared a border with the
Kingdom of Kent la, Regnum Cantuariorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the Kentish , common_name = Kent , era = Heptarchy , status = vassal , status_text = , government_type = Monarchy ...
. 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.
Ditchling Ditchling is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The village is contained within the boundaries of the South Downs National Park; the order confirming the establishment of the park was signed in Ditchling ...
may have been an important regional centre for a large part of central Sussex between the Rivers Adur and Ouse until the founding of
Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of t ...
in the 9th century. By the 11th century the towns were mostly developments of the fortified towns () founded in the reign of Alfred the Great. The ancient
droveway A drovers' road, drove ''roador droveway is a route for droving livestock on foot from one place to another, such as to market or between summer and winter pasture (see transhumance). Many drovers' roads were ancient routes of unknown age; ...
s of Sussex linked coastal and downland communities in the south with summer pasture land in the interior of the Weald. The droveways were used throughout the Saxon era by the South Saxons and probably originated before the Roman occupation of Britain. The droveways formed a road system that clearly suggests that the settlers in the oldest developed parts of Sussex were concerned not so much with east–west connections between neighbouring settlements as with north–south communication between each settlement and its outlying woodland pasture. The droving roads had an enduring effect on the pattern of Sussex settlement. When churches came to be built, an ideal site was where a drove crossed a river. Eventually traders gravitated to churches, founding villages, and in some cases market towns such as Ditchling,
Shermanbury Shermanbury is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the A281 road approximately north of Henfield. The present day village consists mainly of a ribbon development of bungalows on the east sid ...
,
Thakeham Thakeham's History Thakeham is a village and civil parish located north of the South Downs in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. The village is situated approximately 12 miles south-west of Horsham and 11 miles north of the sea-s ...
, Ashurst and Shipley. 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, . These places grew from being sheds for animals and temporary huts for swineherders, to permanent farms, water-mills, churches and market towns. Churches in the High Weald are mostly on isolated ridge-top sites, away from the pioneer farms being established on the valley sides, as at Worth and Itchingfield to this day. Land divisions in the Kingdom of Sussex were sometimes different from other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and regions. By the Late Saxon period, the main administrative unit of Sussex was the district known as the
rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...
. Their origins may be earlier, possibly originating in the Romano-British period. The rapes were sub-divided into hundreds, which served as taxation and administrative districts. In England generally these contained a nominal 100 hides (a measure of taxable value linked to land area) but in Sussex they were generally much smaller. Sussex may also have had eight virgates for every hide; in most of England a hide was usually made up of four virgates.


Population

The population of Britain as a whole is likely to have declined sharply around the 4th century from around 2–4 million in AD 200 to less than 1 million in AD 300. There would have been a similarly sharp decline in the population of Sussex during this period. 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 Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...
and barbarian attack. Sussex's population around 450 is estimated to have been no more than about 25,000, rising gradually to around 35,000 by 1100. At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, Sussex had some of the highest population densities in England. Approximate populations of Sussex towns shortly after the end of the Saxon period in 1086 at the time of the
Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
may have been as follows:


History


Foundation story

The account of Ælle and his three sons landing at appears in the ''
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of A ...
'', a collection of seven vernacular manuscripts, commissioned in the 9th century, some 400 years or more after the events at . The account describes how on landing Ælle slew the local defenders and drove the remainder into the Forest of Andred. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle goes on to describe Ælle's battle with the British in 485 near the bank of '' Mercredesburne'', and his siege of the
Saxon Shore The Saxon Shore ( la, litus Saxonicum) was a military command of the late Roman Empire, consisting of a series of fortifications on both sides of the Channel. It was established in the late 3rd century and was led by the " Count of the Saxon Sh ...
fort at '' Andredadsceaster'' (modern day Pevensey) in 491 after which the inhabitants were massacred. The legendary foundation of Saxon Sussex, by Ælle, is likely to have originated in an oral tradition before being recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. According to legend, various places took their names from Ælle's sons. Cissa is supposed to have given his name to
Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ...
, Cymen to ''Cymenshore'' and Wlencing to Lancing. is traditionally thought to have been located at what is now known as the Owers Rocks, south of Selsey, however there is no archaeological evidence to support the existence of Ælle and his three sons in the Selsey area. From 491 until the arrival of Christianity in the 7th century, there was a dearth of contemporary written material.Because of the lack of written history before the 7th century it has made it difficult for historians to produce a definitive story. The preservation of Ælle's sons in Old English place names is unusual. The names of the founders, in other origin legends, seem to have British and/ or Latin roots not Old English. It is likely that the foundation stories were known before the 9th century, but the annalists manipulated them to provide a common origin for the new regime. These myths proport that the British were defeated and replaced by invading Anglo-Saxons arriving in small ships. These origin stories were largely believed right up to the 19th century.


Early period ( – 600)

Archaeology gives a different settlement picture to that indicated by the South Saxon foundation story. Germanic tribes probably first arrived in Sussex earlier in the 5th century than AD 477. The archaeological evidence that we do have indicates the area of settlement by the location of cemeteries of the period. The origins of the settlers can be derived by comparing the design of grave goods and pottery with the designs of similar items in the German homelands. The principal area of settlement in the 5th century has been identified as between the lower
Ouse Ouse may refer to: Places Rivers in England * River Ouse, Yorkshire * River Ouse, Sussex * River Great Ouse, Northamptonshire and East Anglia ** River Little Ouse, a tributary of the River Great Ouse Other places * Ouse, Tasmania, a town in Aus ...
and
Cuckmere The River Cuckmere rises near Heathfield in East Sussex, England on the southern slopes of the Weald. The name of the river probably comes from an Old English word meaning "fast-flowing", since it descends over 100 m (328 ft) in it ...
rivers in East Sussex, based on the number of Anglo-Saxon cemeteries there.Martin Welch. Early Anglo-Saxon Sussex ''in'' Peter Brandon's. The South Saxons. pp. 23–25. 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. Whatever the original settlement pattern of the early Germanic settlers, their culture came to rapidly dominate the whole of Sussex. There is some evidence to support the treaty hypothesis, based on the grave finds of the period.Martin Welch, ''Early Anglo-Saxon Sussex'', pp. 25–26 For example, the excavation of one of the cemeteries, at Rookery Hill at
Bishopstone, East Sussex Bishopstone Village is a rural hamlet located in the South Downs National Park. Bishopstone Village has a population of about 200 people, including the nearby hamlet of Norton. It is located on a no-through country lane west of the town of Se ...
, yielded late Roman or insular Roman metalwork including a Quoit Brooch Style buckle, which would indicate settlement here to the early 5th century.Martin Bell: ''Saxon Settlements and buildings in Sussex'', in Brandon (1978), pp. 39-40 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. Highdown is the only 5th-century Saxon cemetery found outside the Ouse/Cuckmere area, and is 2 km from a hoard of Roman gold and silver that was found in 1997.Sally White. Early Saxon Sussex c.410-c.650 ''in'' Leslies. An Historical Atlas of Sussex. pp. 28–29 The Patching hoard, as it came to be known, contained a coin as recent as AD 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. Despite the difficulties presented by the large forest tract of the Weald that separated Sussex from Surrey, similarities in the archaeological record from this period between Sussex and Surrey help to substantiate the claim of Ælle of Sussex to be the first ''
Bretwalda ''Bretwalda'' (also ''brytenwalda'' and ''bretenanwealda'', sometimes capitalised) is an Old English word. The first record comes from the late 9th-century ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''. It is given to some of the rulers of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from ...
'' in the Thames Valley. Such unified regional commands were probably not long-lasting. J. N. L. Myres posits that archaeological evidence, in the form of distinctive Saxon saucer brooches, suggests that Ælle's forces penetrated north as far as modern day Oxfordshire and
Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of ...
to the west.
H. R. Loyn Henry Royston Loyn (16 June 1922 – 9 October 2000), FBA, was a British historian specialising in the history of Anglo-Saxon England. His eminence in his field made him a natural candidate to run the Sylloge of the Coins of the British Isles, w ...
suggests that this initial regional hegemony may have ended after the Battle of
Mount Badon The Battle of Badon /ˈbeɪdən/ also known as the Battle of Mons Badonicus ( la, obsessio isBadonici montis, "Blockade/Siege of the Badonic Hill"; ''Bellum in monte Badonis'', "Battle on Badon Hill"; ''Bellum Badonis'', "Battle of Badon"; Old W ...
.


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 Ceolwulf (died 611) was a King of Wessex. At that early date the West Saxons were called the Gewisse, and in his ''Dictionary of National Biography'' entry he is given the title "king of the Gewisse". According to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' ...
fought against the South Saxons.ASC Parker MS. AD607. 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. The alliance between Mercia and the South Saxons was further sealed by Æðelwealh, king of Sussex, receiving baptism into the Christian church through the Mercian court, with Wulfhere acting as his sponsor, making Æðelwealh Sussex's first Christian king. Wulfhere gave Æðelwealh the
Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Is ...
and the territory of the ''
Meonwara The Meonwara were one of the tribes of Anglo-Saxon Britain. Their territory was a folkland located in the valley of the River Meon in Hampshire that was subsumed by the Kingdom of Wessex in the late seventh century. Etymology In the 8th centu ...
'' (the Meon valley of present-day Hampshire).Bede, book IV, chap. 13, 225. Æðelwealh also married Eabe, a princess of the '' Hwicce'', a Mercian satellite province. 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. There had been a famine in the land of the South Saxons when Wilfrid arrived. Wilfrid taught the locals to fish, and they were impressed with Wilfrid's teachings and agreed to be baptised ''en masse''. On the day of the baptisms the rain fell on the "thirsty earth", so ending the famine. Æðelwealh gave 87 hides (an area of land) and a royal vill to Wilfrid to enable him to found Selsey Abbey. The abbey eventually became the seat of the South Saxon bishopric, where it remained until after the
Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conq ...
, when it was moved to
Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ...
by decree of the Council of London of 1075.Kelly.Chichester Cathedral:The Bishopric of Selsey. p.1 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.Bede, book IV, chap. 15, 230. The latter was eventually expelled, by Æðelwealh's successors, two Ealdormen named Berhthun and Andhun. In 686 the South Saxons attacked Hlothhere, king of
Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, in support of his nephew Eadric, who afterwards became king of Kent. At this time, a new South Saxon hegemony extending from the Isle of Wight into Kent could conceivably have seen Sussex re-emerge as a regional power but the revival of Wessex ended this possibility. Eadric's rule in Kent lasted until Kent was invaded by Cædwalla who had managed to establish himself as ruler of Wessex. With his additional resources, Cædwalla once more invaded Sussex, killing Berhthun. Sussex now became for some years subject to a period of harsh West Saxon domination. According to
Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom ...
, the subjection reduced the kingdom of Sussex to "a worse state of slavery"; it also included placing the South Saxon clergy under the authority of Wessex through the bishops of Winchester. Cædwalla also seized the Isle of Wight where he ruthlessly exterminated its population, including its royal line. According to David Dumville, Cædwalla's savage behaviour towards Sussex and the Isle of Wight can be explained by Sussex's westward expansion with assistance from Mercia at the expense of Wessex and Cædwalla was determined that this should never happen again. Of the later South Saxon kings we have little knowledge except from occasional charters. In 692 a grant is made by a king called Noðhelm (or ''Nunna'') to his sister, which is witnessed by another king called
Watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...
. 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 The Haestingas, or Heastingas or Hæstingas, were one of the tribes of Anglo-Saxon Britain. Not very much is known about them. They settled in what became East Sussex sometime before the end of the 8th century. A 12th-century source suggested tha ...
'' and Nunna is described, in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', as the kinsman of
Ine of Wessex Ine, also rendered Ini or Ina, ( la, Inus; c. AD 670 – after 726) was King of Wessex from 689 to 726. At Ine's accession, his kingdom dominated much of southern England. However, he was unable to retain the territorial gains of his predecess ...
who fought with him against Geraint, King of the Britons, in 710.ASC Parker MS AD 710 According to Bede, Sussex was subject to Ine for a number of yearsBede, book IV, chap. 15, 415. 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. The ''Anglo Saxon Chronicle'' records a further campaign against the South Saxons by the West Saxons in 725. According to a charter dated 775, the former abbot of Selsey, Bishop Eadberht of Selsey ( x?709) – (716 x?), was given a grant of land by King Nunna; the document included King
Watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...
as a witness. However, the charter is now believed to have been a 10th- or early-11th-century forgery. With Professor H.L. Rogers findings on why manuscript is forgery. 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 Burpham is a rural village and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. The village is on an arm of the River Arun slightly less than northeast of Arundel. A slight minority of the population qualifies as within the worki ...
in the Arun Valley.Kelly. Charters of Selsey. p.34 It starts off with a grant of land, at Peppering, by Nunna to Berhfrith probably for the foundation of a minster.Kelly. Charters of Selsey. p.31 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. Finally King Osmund bought the land from his comes Erra and granted it to a religious woman known as Tidburgh. The charter is undated but it has been possible to date the various transactions approximately, by cross referencing people who appear both on this charter and on other charters that ''do'' provide dates. On the transaction, where Eolla has acquired the land from Berhfrith and sells it to Wulfhere x (716x?) Nunna's subscription is followed by a certain Osric who was possibly Nunna's co-ruler.Kelly. Charters of Selsey. p.33 The other witnesses who followed Osric were Eadberht and Eolla, both who can be identified as ecclesiastics. Nunna's last surviving charter, which is dated 714 in error for 717, 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 Óslác is a theophoric Anglo-Saxon given name, cognate to Old Norse ''Ásleikr''/''Áslákr'' (Latinised ''Ansleicus'', modern Scandinavian ''Aslak'') and to Old High German ''Ansleh'' (''Anslech'', ''Ansleccus''). It is composed of '' ós'' "god" ...
, as witnesses. In 765 and 770 grants are made by a King Osmund, the latter one was later confirmed by
Offa of Mercia Offa (died 29 July 796 AD) was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æth ...
. The independent existence of the Kingdom of Sussex came to an end in the early 770s. In 771, King Offa of Mercia conquered the territory of the ''Haestingas''; he may have entered Sussex from the Kingdom of Kent, where he was already dominant. By 772 he apparently controlled the whole of the Kingdom of Sussex. 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 Óslác is a theophoric Anglo-Saxon given name, cognate to Old Norse ''Ásleikr''/''Áslákr'' (Latinised ''Ansleicus'', modern Scandinavian ''Aslak'') and to Old High German ''Ansleh'' (''Anslech'', ''Ansleccus''). It is composed of '' ós'' "god" ...
, 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. Mercian power collapsed in the years following Offa's death in 796, and the South Saxons re-emerged as an independent political entity. After the
Battle of Ellandun The Battle of Ellendun or Battle of Wroughton was fought between Ecgberht of Wessex and Beornwulf of Mercia in September 825. Sir Frank Stenton described it as "one of the most decisive battles of English history". It effectively ended Mercian ...
in 825 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 The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
'', 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 Æthelberht, Aethelbert or Ethelbert is a masculine given name which may refer to: People Æthelberht * Æthelberht of Kent (c. 550–616), King of Kent * Æthelred and Æthelberht (died c. 669), possibly legendary princes of Kent, saints and mar ...
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 Danes ( da, danskere, ) are a North Germanic ethnic group and nationality native to Denmark and a modern nation identified with the country of Denmark. This connection may be ancestral, legal, historical, or cultural. Danes generally regard t ...
, till the accession of
Canute Cnut (; ang, Cnut cyning; non, Knútr inn ríki ; or , no, Knut den mektige, sv, Knut den Store. died 12 November 1035), also known as Cnut the Great and Canute, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway ...
, after which arose the two great forces of the house of Godwine and of the
Normans The Normans ( Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Franks and Gallo-Romans. ...
. Godwine was probably a native of Sussex, and by the end of
Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066. Edward was the son of Æt ...
's reign a third part of the county was in the hands of his family. It is thought that the ''Æellingi'' (the South Saxon royal house) continued to govern Sussex as (earls) under West Saxon sovereignty until the
Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conq ...
in 1066. 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). 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 Harold may refer to: People * Harold (given name), including a list of persons and fictional characters with the name * Harold (surname), surname in the English language * András Arató, known in meme culture as "Hide the Pain Harold" Arts ...
, who had previously been Earl of East Anglia.
Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066. Edward was the son of Æt ...
, 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 Abbey of the Holy Trinity at Fécamp, commonly known as Fécamp Abbey (french: Abbaye de la Trinité de Fécamp), is a Benedictine abbey in Fécamp, Seine-Maritime, Upper Normandy, France. The abbey is known as the first producer of béné ...
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 Bosham is a coastal village and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England, centred about west of Chichester with its clustered developed part west of this. Its land forms a broad peninsula projecting into natural Chic ...
. 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. In 1049 the murder by Sweyn Godwinson of his cousin Beorn after Beorn has been tricked in going to Bosham resulted in the entire Godwine family being banished. It was from Bosham in 1051 that Godwin, Sweyn and
Tostig Tostig Godwinson ( 102925 September 1066) was an Anglo-Saxon Earl of Northumbria and brother of King Harold Godwinson. After being exiled by his brother, Tostig supported the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada's invasion of England, and was killed ...
fled to
Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...
and the court of
Baldwin V, Count of Flanders Baldwin V ( 1012 – 1 September 1067) was Count of Flanders from 1035 until his death. He secured the personal union between the counties of Flanders and Hainaut and maintained close links to the Anglo-Saxon monarchy, which was overthrown by h ...
, a relative of Tostig's wife, Judith of Flanders. When they returned in 1052 to an enthusiastic welcome in the Sussex ports, Edward had to reinstate the Godwine family. In 1064 Harold sailed from Bosham, from where a storm cast him up in Normandy. Here he was apparently tricked into pledging his support for William of Normandy as the next king of England. On 14 October 1066, Harold II, the last Saxon king of England was killed at the
Battle of Hastings The Battle of Hastings nrf, Batâle dé Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, the Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, beginning the Norman Conque ...
and the English army defeated, by
William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 10 ...
and his army.Seward. Sussex. pp. 5-7. 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. At least 353 of the 387 manors, in the county, were taken from their Saxon owners and given to the victorious Normans by the Conqueror, and Saxon power in Sussex was at an end.Horsfield. Sussex. Volume 1. pp. 77-78


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.
Alfred the Great Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who bo ...
almost certainly inaugurated the building of a series of or forts to be garrisoned at the threat of danger by men drawn from the surrounding population. The development of the burhs across the southern half of England suggests a considerable awareness of a repeated problem The
Burghal Hidage The Burghal Hidage () is an Anglo-Saxon document providing a list of over thirty fortified places (burhs), the majority being in the ancient Kingdom of Wessex, and the taxes (recorded as numbers of hides) assigned for their maintenance.Hill/ Rumb ...
documents five such fortifications in Sussex — at
Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ...
,
Burpham Burpham is a rural village and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. The village is on an arm of the River Arun slightly less than northeast of Arundel. A slight minority of the population qualifies as within the worki ...
, Lewes, Hastings and ''
Eorpeburnan ''Eorpeburnan'' is the first place identified in the Burghal Hidage, a document created in the late 9th or early 10th century, that provides a list of thirty one fortified places in Wessex. It details the location of fortifications designed to d ...
''. In the reign of
Æthelred the Unready Æthelred II ( ang, Æþelræd, ;Different spellings of this king’s name most commonly found in modern texts are "Ethelred" and "Æthelred" (or "Aethelred"), the latter being closer to the original Old English form . Compare the modern diale ...
, the threat of the Danes continued — in 994 and 1000 the ''Anglo Saxon Chronicle'' records burning, plundering and manslaughter on the coast of Sussex and neighbouring counties. 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.


Economy

Deposited around as the kingdom of Sussex was being established, the
Patching Patching is a small village and civil parish that lies amid the fields and woods of the southern slopes of the South Downs in the National Park in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. It has a visible hill-workings history going back t ...
hoard of coins represents the earliest early mediaeval coins found in Britain. 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. In the first quarter of the 8th century the Kingdom of Sussex was among the kingdoms producing coinage, possibly from a mint near Selsey where the finds of coins termed Series G ''
sceatta A ( ; ang, sceatt , ) was a small, thick silver coin minted in England, Frisia, and Jutland during the Anglo-Saxon period that normally weighed 0.8–1.3 grams. History Its name derives from Old English ', meaning "wealth", "money", and "co ...
s'' are concentrated. That a cash economy had returned by the 10th century is suggested by the various mints which became increasingly plentiful after
King Æthelstan King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the ti ...
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 Æthelred II ( ang, Æþelræd, ;Different spellings of this king’s name most commonly found in modern texts are "Ethelred" and "Æthelred" (or "Aethelred"), the latter being closer to the original Old English form . Compare the modern diale ...
. The Cissbury mint seems to have worked in close association with the mint at Chichester rather than replacing it. By the eve of the Norman conquest, there were further mints at Arundel, Pevensey and Hastings. Lewes seems to have prospered with overseas trade; coins from Lewes stamped "LAE URB" travelled as far as Rome. The substantial sea-faring trade of Lewes is indicated by the payment of 20
shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence ...
s for munitions of war payable whenever
Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066. Edward was the son of Æt ...
's fleet put to sea. This is the probable origin of the
Cinque Ports The Confederation of Cinque Ports () is a historic group of coastal towns in south-east England – predominantly in Kent and Sussex, with one outlier ( Brightlingsea) in Essex. The name is Old French, meaning "five harbours", and alludes to t ...
organisation that flourished under the Normans. 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 the end of the Anglo Saxon period and the Domesday Survey by the Normans in 1086, Sussex contained some of the richest and most heavily populated pockets of England on the coastal plain, albeit alongside some of England's most economically underdeveloped areas in the Weald. 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. The Weald was pig-fattening and cattle-grazing country. Drovers would divide their year between their "winter house" in their parent village outside the Weald and their "summer house" in the outlying woodland pasture up to away. Surviving features include a close network of former droveways and surviving fragments of wood pasture, such as the Mens and Ebernoe Common near
Petworth Petworth is a small town and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It is located at the junction of the A272 east–west road from Heathfield to Winchester and the A283 Milford to Shoreham-by-Sea road. Some twe ...
. The Domesday Book records that by the 11th century, the unknown Rameslie in Sussex had 100 salt pans to extract salt from sea water. 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 Sir Frank Merry Stenton, FBA (17 May 1880 – 15 September 1967) was an English historian of Anglo-Saxon England, and president of the Royal Historical Society (1937–1945). The son of Henry Stenton of Southwell, Nottinghamshire, he was edu ...
"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 In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (; plural ), according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the , or citizens, united by law (). It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilities () on th ...
Reginorum'', a client kingdom ruled by Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus. After the departure of the Romans, Noviomagus appears to have been largely abandoned. Before that date, the Kingdom of Wessex had annexed Sussex 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 Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who bo ...
, of Wessex, to protect against Danish raids.


Kingship

The South Saxon kingdom remains one of the most obscure of the Anglo-Saxon polities. A few names of South Saxon kings are recorded, and the history of the kingdom is sometimes illustrated by that of other areas, but information is otherwise limited. Sussex seems to have had a greater degree of decentralisation than other kingdoms. For a period during the 760s there may have been as many as four or five kings based within the territory, perhaps with each ruling over a distinct tribal territory, perhaps on a temporary basis. It seems possible that the people of the ''Haestingas'' may have had their own ruler for a while, and another sub-division may have been along the River Adur. Complex tiers of relationships between kings and kingdoms existed. For instance in the 7th century, when Wulfhere of Mercia was trying to increase his influence over the South Saxons, he ceded control of the provinces of the ''Meonwara'' and Wight to the South Saxon king Æðelwealh. Wight at least had its own ruler, Arvald, who presumably recognised the authority of the South Saxon king, Æðelwealh, and who in turn recognised the overlordship of the Mercian king, Wulfhere. The Kingdom of Sussex was an independent unit until the reign of
Offa of Mercia Offa (died 29 July 796 AD) was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æth ...
. 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 or Kingston by Ferring, is a small civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. It is a combination of a farmed rural interior and the three neighbourhoods of East Kingston, West Kingston and Kingston Gorse. The parish lie ...
,
Kingston by Sea Kingston by Sea, also known as Kingston Buci, Kingston Bucii or simply Kingston, is a small area in the Adur district of West Sussex, England. Although it is now part of a continuous urban area, its origins lay in an ancient village and pari ...
, 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
Ætheling Ætheling (; also spelt aetheling, atheling or etheling) was an Old English term (''æþeling'') used in Anglo-Saxon England to designate princes of the royal dynasty who were eligible for the kingship. The term is an Old English and Old Saxon ...
s.


Law

Various folkmoots would have been held in Sussex, for instance at
Ditchling Ditchling is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The village is contained within the boundaries of the South Downs National Park; the order confirming the establishment of the park was signed in Ditchling ...
, Tinhale (in
Bersted Bersted is a civil parish in the Arun district of West Sussex, England. It is made up of two somewhat independent villages, North Bersted and Shripney which contribute to some common amenities. Governance An electoral ward in the same name exi ...
) and
Madehurst Madehurst is a small village and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England on the south slopes of the South Downs in the South Downs National Park. It is three miles (5 km) north-west of Arundel, to the west of the A29 ro ...
. Placename evidence for early assemblies in Sussex comes from Tinhale (from the Old English (thing) meaning hold a meeting, so "meeting-hill") and
Madehurst Madehurst is a small village and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England on the south slopes of the South Downs in the South Downs National Park. It is three miles (5 km) north-west of Arundel, to the west of the A29 ro ...
(from the Old English meaning assembly, so "assembly wooded hill"). There is also a location in Durrington, West Sussex, 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 River Rother, West Sussex, western River Rother in Rotherbridge hundred) or a notable tree (such as a tree called Tippa's Oak in Tipnoak hundred). It is also recorded that an England-wide Royal Council () took place in Sussex on 3 April 930, 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, Sussex, 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.


Religion

After the departure of the Roman army, the Saxons arrived in Sussex in the 5th century and brought with them their polytheistic religion. The Saxon pagan culture probably caused a reversal of the spread of Christianity.Higham The English Conquest. p. 79. 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 became Sussex's first Christian king when he married Eafe, the daughter of Wulfhere, the Christian king of
Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era=Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , y ...
. In 681 AD Saint Wilfrid, the exiled Bishop of York, landed at Selsey and is credited with evangelising the local population and founding the church in Sussex. King Æðelwealh granted land to Wilfrid which became the site of Selsey Abbey. According to
Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom ...
, it was the last area of the country to be converted. Whilst Wilfrid is credited with the conversion of the Kingdom of Sussex to Christianity, it is unlikely that it was wholly heathen when he arrived. Æðelwealh, Sussex's king, had been baptised. Damian (bishop of Rochester), 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. At the time of Wilfrid's mission there was a monastery at
Bosham Bosham is a coastal village and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England, centred about west of Chichester with its clustered developed part west of this. Its land forms a broad peninsula projecting into natural Chic ...
containing a few monks led by an Irish monk named Dicul, which was probably part of the Hiberno-Scottish mission of the time. Wilfrid was a champion of Roman customs and it was these customs that were adopted by the church in Sussex rather than the Celtic Christianity, Celtic customs that had taken root in Scotland and Ireland. Shortly after Æðelwealh granted land to Wilfrid for the church, Æðelwealh was killed by Cædwalla of Wessex, Sussex was conquered by Cædwalla and Christianity in Sussex was put under control of the diocese of Winchester. It was not until that Eadberht of Selsey, Eadberht, Abbot of Selsey was consecrated the first Bishop of Selsey, bishop of the South Saxons. 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. When he reached Steyning he saw a vision and stopped there to build a church. Cuthman was venerated as a saint and his church was in existence by 857 when Æthelwulf of Wessex, King Æthelwulf of Wessex was buried there. Steyning was an important religious centre and St Cuthman's grave became a place of pilgrimage in the 10th and 11th centuries. According to the hagiography of the 11th century Secgan, 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 Oswald of Northumbria, 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 (church), minster churches across Sussex and these churches supplied itinerant clergy to surrounding districts. Other examples include churches at Singleton, West Sussex, Singleton, Lyminster, Findon, West Sussex, Findon and Bishopstone, East Sussex, Bishopstone. The jurisdiction of each minster church in the pre-Viking era seems to match early land divisions that were replaced by Hundred (county subdivision), hundreds in the 10th or 11th centuries. It was not until 200–300 years after its conversion to Christianity in the 680s that a network of local parish churches existed in Sussex.


Slavery

Wilfrid's first act after he was given land at Selsey by King Æðelwealh was to build a monastery to free 250 male and female slaves from slavery who were tied to the estate. These people were probably mainly of Romano-British descent. This is an indication of the very high percentage of slaves in England at this time. 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 Francia, 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, East Sussex, Bishopstone.


Art

From the beginning of the 6th century, Merovingian artefacts were present in Sussex, as they were in Kent and on the Isle of Wight, which is thought to reflect cross-Channel exchanges between Saxon Sussex and Merovingian Gaul. Assemblages such as have been found in Eastbourne show that Merovingian dress fashion had spread along the coastline of what is now Sussex, Kent and Hampshire and northern Gaul. Cemeteries at Alfriston, Highdown and Eastbourne show continuous contacts with Gaul from the first half of the 5th century until the early 7th century.


Heraldic device

The shield or Coat of arms of Sussex, 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


See also

* History of Sussex * Timeline of Sussex history * Sussex in the High Middle Ages * History of Christianity in Sussex * History of local government in Sussex


References


Works cited

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sussex Kingdom of Sussex, 477 establishments 825 disestablishments States and territories established in the 470s States and territories disestablished in the 9th century Former kingdoms Former countries in the British Isles, Sussex