A rape is a traditional territorial sub-division of the county of

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, formerly used for various administrative purposes. Their origin is unknown, but they appear to predate 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 Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

of 1066. Historically, the rapes formed the basis of local government in Sussex. There are various theories about their origin. Possibly surviving from the

Romano-British The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, ...

era or perhaps representing the shires of the kingdom of Sussex, the Sussex rapes, like the Kentish lathes, go back to the dawn of English history when their main function would have been to provide food rents and military manpower to the king. The rapes may also derive from the system of fortifications devised by

Alfred the Great Alfred the Great ( ; – 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 both died when Alfr ...

in the late ninth century to defeat the Vikings.Domesdaybook.net: Rape
The Sussex rapes each had a headquarters in the developed south where the

lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the Peerage o ...

's hall, court,

demesne A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land subinfeudation, sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. ...

lands, principal church and peasant holdings were located, whereas to the north there were smaller dependent settlements in the marsh, woodland and heath used for summer pasture. Each rape was split into several

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

Etymology

The

toponymy Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' ( proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for a proper na ...

of the rapes is unclear and debated to this day. First suggested by William Somner in the 17th century, it seems that the derivation of the word from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

(rope) has been made practically certain. The suggestion that ropes were used to mark out territory, was well countered by J. H. Round, asking "do those who advance such views realize the size of the districts they have to deal with?" However, Heinrich Brunner explained the application of "rope" to an administrative district by the old German custom of defining the limits of the "

peace Peace is a state of harmony in the absence of hostility and violence, and everything that discusses achieving human welfare through justice and peaceful conditions. In a societal sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (suc ...

" of popular open-air courts by stakes and ropes, the ropes then giving a name first to the court and then afterwards to the area of its jurisdiction, and produced a case where ''reep'', the Dutch cognate of , is applied to such a judicial area. The parish of

Rope A rope is a group of yarns, Plying, plies, fibres, or strands that are plying, twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have high tensile strength and can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger ...

, in

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

is one place name in England derived from the word ''rāp''. The Saxon origin has been questioned, as the Normans showed little interest in learning the English language, and thus it seems unlikely that they would have adopted a local word. It has been suggested that the term comes from the old French , meaning to seize or take by force. One suggested

etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

of the word, from Edward Lye in the 18th century, is in the

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

ic territorial division , meaning 'district or tract of land'. However, this is rejected in the ''New English Dictionary'', and according to the English Place-Name Society is "phonologically impossible".

History

Origins

The origin of the rapes is not known. It is possible that the rapes represent the

shire Shire () is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries. It is generally synonymous with county (such as Cheshire and Worcestershire). British counties are among the oldes ...

s of the ancient

kingdom of Sussex The Kingdom of the South Saxons, today referred to as the Kingdom of Sussex (; from , in turn from or , meaning "(land or people of/Kingdom of) the South Saxons"), was one of the seven traditional kingdoms of the Heptarchy of Anglo-Saxon Englan ...

, especially as in the 12th century they had sheriffs of their own. According to John Morris the boundary between the Rapes of Lewes and Pevensey, which cuts through the middle of Lewes, probably pre-dates the founding of Lewes in the late 9th or early 10th century. If one boundary had existed so early then it is quite possible that other boundaries also existed. Sussex's rapes may have been a similar division to the six or seven lathes of neighbouring

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

which were undoubtedly early administrative units. Another possibility is that the rapes may derive from the system of fortifications, or '' burhs'' (boroughs) devised by Alfred the Great in the late ninth century to defeat the Vikings. The Rapes, or similar predecessors may have been created for the purpose of maintaining these early boroughs, or they may have re-used earlier divisions for this purpose. In Sussex, the fortifications in the Burghal Hidage were recorded as being at '' Eorpeburnan'' on the Sussex-Kent border, Hastings, Lewes, Burpham and Chichester. The "Burghal Hidage" lists boroughs in geographical order. Burpham was the predecessor of Arundel and ''Eorpeburnan'' or ''Heorpeburnan'' should be the predecessor of Rye. Pevensey and Steyning were not included. It looks as if the lands of Steyning served Lewes and those of Pevensey served Hastings, while the eastern portion of the later Hastings rape was attached to the Rye area. It is possible that these divisions might be rapes as four of them (taking Burpham as equivalent to neighbouring Arundel) had the same centres as later rapes. If this is the case then the rapes must have been completely reorganised in the next century and a half. Since the system of fortifications introduced by Alfred the Great extended into

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

and

Wessex The Kingdom of the West Saxons, also known as the Kingdom of Wessex, was an Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from around 519 until Alfred the Great declared himself as King of the Anglo-Saxons in 886. The Anglo-Sa ...

as well, but neither of these regions have rapes or any similar sub-divisions. It is also possible that the " rape of Arundel" that is twice mentioned in 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 was the later rape of Arundel and not the whole "rape of Earl Roger (of Montgomery)", which included the later rape of Chichester. The Normans are not likely to have created rapes and then to have at once thrown two of them into one. The existence of the rapes before the Norman Conquest provides the most natural explanation of the fact that the two later rapes of Chichester and Arundel are represented in the Domesday Book of the single "rape of Earl Roger",

William the Conqueror William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...

's most important grantee in Sussex. William might of course have created five rapes only, one of which, out of all proportion to the others in size, was afterwards divided, but for this there is no evidence.

Norman castleries

At the time of the Norman Conquest there were four rapes: Arundel,

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. The town is the administrative centre of the wider Lewes (district), district of the same name. It lies on the River Ouse, Sussex, River Ouse at the point where the river cuts through the Sou ...

, Pevensey and

Hastings Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...

. Arundel and Bramber replaced Burpham and Steyning as Rapal centres. The rape of Arundel consisted of the entire area of Sussex west of the River Adur, corresponding to the boundaries of both the western division of the church in Sussex (the forerunner to the archdeaconry of Chichester) and the boundaries of the traditional western area of the Sussex dialect. By the time of the

, William the Conqueror had created the rape of Bramber as an afterthought out of parts of the Arundel and Lewes rapes, so that the Adur estuary could be better defended. Although the origin and original purpose of the Rapes is not known, their function after 1066 is clear. With its own lord and sheriff, each Rape was an administrative and fiscal unit. The organisation of the whole of Sussex apart from royal and church lands into territorial blocks each with a fortress near the sea was exceptional. Situated between Normandy and London, control over Sussex was strategically important to William the Conqueror, who needed to protect his major communication routes. Also as the ancestral home of the last Saxon king of England, Harold Godwinson, William had to be careful to secure Sussex against revolt. William did this by dividing Sussex into territories. Under the Normans each traditional rape was now centred on a

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

: Sir Henry Ellis's observation that the rapes "were military districts for the supply of the castles which existed in each" applied to the Anglo-Norman period The castles formed a network of strongholds which, as well as deterring insurgency and preventing invasion also acted as regional administrative centres. Each rape had a single

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

and ran as a strip, north–south, from the border with

to the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

. The castles of Arundel, Bramber and

were sited on positions overlooking the rivers Arun, Adur and Ouse respectively, while those at

Chichester Chichester ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in the Chichester District, Chichester district of West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher ...

and Pevensey overlooked the coast. In the Domesday survey, five great Norman lords held the rapes into which Sussex was divided, four of them giving their names to four of the five divisions as they were called in Domesday Book; at the accession of King Henry I in 1100 they were Robert of Bellême in Arundel rape, Robert's nephew William, Count of Mortain in Pevensey, William of Warenne in Lewes, the count of Eu in Hastings and, the only fully trustworthy Sussex lord at the time, Philip de Braose in Bramber. These lords had succeeded, not to similar Anglo-Saxon magnates, but to a crowd of lesser landholders: each also held lands in the rapes of others. Between 1250 and 1262, the rape of Chichester was created from the western half of Arundel rape. From this time onwards, Sussex was divided into—from west to east—Chichester, Arundel, Bramber, Lewes, Pevensey and Hastings rapes.

Modern period

The rapal courts continued to meet and stewards for the rapes were recorded into the 18th century. In the 17th century an annual muster took place at the same place in each Rape, such as at Ditchling Common for the Lewes Rape and Berwick Common for the Rape of Pevensey. The muster could take place more frequently at times of perceived danger. Each Rape also had a horse company which would meet at Bury Hill for the Rapes of Arundel, Bramber and Chichester, and at Piltdown for the Rapes of Hastings, Lewes and Pevensey. By 1894 most administrative functions of the rapes had ended. The western rapes (Arundel, Bramber and Chichester) each held responsibility for the repair of bridges, and the Rape of Hastings had a separate coroner, which lasted until 1960. In 2018, flags for each of the six rapes were designed for the Sussex Association by the vexillographer, Brady Ells. Ells had previously campaigned for the flag of Sussex to be registered by the Flag Institute in 2010.

The Sussex Rapes

Rapal castles

File:Arundel Castle - motte and quadrangle, England (18 April 2006).jpg,

Arundel Castle Arundel Castle is a restored and remodelled medieval castle in Arundel, West Sussex, England. It was established by Roger de Montgomery in the 11th century. The castle was damaged in the English Civil War and then restored in the 18th and earl ...

File:Bramber castle.jpg, Bramber Castle File:Chichester Castle remains.jpg, Chichester Castle File:Hastingscastle.jpg, Hastings Castle File:Lewes Castle keep.JPG, Lewes Castle File:Pevensey castle-09.jpg, Pevensey Castle

Geography

Subdivisions

Each Rape was subdivided into several hundreds and half hundreds. The half hundreds arose when the Rape of Bramber was created in the late 11th century where the new Rapal boundary divided a pre-existing hundred in two. This happened at East and West Easwrith, which was divided between the Rapes of Arundel and Bramber, and Fishersgate, which was divided between the Rapes of Bramber and Lewes. By the 19th century the Rapes were each subdivided for administrative purposes into two divisions. Each Rape had an upper division covering the northern, Wealden half of each Rape, and a lower division covering the southern, coastal half of each Rape.

Regional grouping

The Rapes may be grouped in regions, most commonly two geographic divisions within Sussex. The Rapes of Arundel, Bramber and Chichester comprised Sussex's western division; the Rapes of Hastings, Lewes and Pevensey comprised Sussex's eastern division. These divisions formed the basis of the areas administered by East and West Sussex County Councils and the non-metropolitan counties of

East Sussex East Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Kent to the north-east, West Sussex to the west, Surrey to the north-west, and the English Channel to the south. The largest settlement ...

and

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

that were created in 1974 by the

Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...

Symbolism

The six martlets on the Sussex

flag A flag is a piece of textile, fabric (most often rectangular) with distinctive colours and design. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design employed, and fla ...

and

emblem An emblem is an abstract art, abstract or representational pictorial image that represents a concept, like a moral truth, or an allegory, or a person, like a monarch or saint. Emblems vs. symbols Although the words ''emblem'' and ''symbol'' ...

represent the six Rapes, a design which goes back to at least the 17th century.

Explanatory notes

Citations

Cited works

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rape (County Subdivision) Former subdivisions of England History of local government in England History of Sussex Defunct types of subdivision in the United Kingdom