POLITICAL HISTORY others/ The last-named had a little while previously had a narrow escape from capture by the royalists, who surrounded a number of the rebels near Lewes and took prisoners two nephews of the Count of Nevers, William de Ponte Arche, Robert Savage and many others, ' but Peter Fitz-Herbert did then escape in a marvellous manner, for when the King's soldiers pursued him, his horse creeping up a steep and exceedingly lofty mountain, carried him over its summit, and so he escaped, " sed non in nomine Dei ! " '^ Amongst the barons captured at the battle of Lincoln, which, with the subsequent naval victory over Eustace the monk, decided the struggle in Henry's favour, were several who were more or less identi- fied with Sussex, as William de Fiennes, Geoffrey and Walter St. Leger, Geoffrey de Say and Robert Marmion the younger." Peace having been made with Louis and a general amnesty granted to the barons, orders were issued to Hubert de Burgh in his capacity of Warden of the Cinque Ports to cause those of Louis' followers who had been captured and imprisoned at Dover, Sandwich, Bulverhythe and Hastings to be liberated, either without ransom or at a price not exceeding one hundred marks, so that they might be exchanged for men of the Ports who had been taken prisoners/ After Henry's firm establishment on the throne Sussex ceases for nearly fifty years from playing any notable part in the political history of the nation. Like the other counties it was concerned in the king's policy of favouritism and afforded opportunity for him to enrich his foreign courtiers. Thus the castle and manor of Pevensey were bestowed first on the Poitevin Peter de Rivallis," and then, after being for a while in the hands of the Earl Marshal," on the King's uncle Peter of Savoy*; Hastings was also granted to Peter of Savoy, and afterwards to Peter de Dreux, Duke of Brittany ; and John Mansel, the King's chief counsellor and one of the most unpopular of his party, held land in Wepham, and had licence to fortify his manor of Sedgewick in 1259.* When the feeling against the Poitevins had become so strong that Henry had to submit to their banishment in 1258, William de Valence, by means of bribes, induced Walter de Scotney, the steward of the Earl of Gloucester and a member of an old Sussex family, to administer poison to certain nobles assembled at a banquet in the Bishop of Winchester's palace. As a result of this treacherous action the Earl suffered a severe illness, and his brother William de Clare and some others died, for which Walter de Scotney was executed, and his Sussex estates forfeited.'* ' Pat. I Hen. III. m. lod. 2 Louis had entrusted the counties of Sussex and Hants to the Count of Nevers, who by his tyranny made himself and his master hated {Ann. Mon. iii. 46). a Gerv. of Canterbury (Rolls Ser.), ii. 112. * Ibid. iii. 6 Pat. 2 Hen. III. m. 3. « chart. R. 16 Hen. III. m. 5. ' Granted to him in 1234 (Chart. R. 19 Hen. III. m. 16) ; surrendered 1240 (Chart. R. 24 Hen. III. m. 2). 8 Chart. R. 30 Hen. III. m. 6. 9 Pat. 43 Hen. III. m. 15. In 1263 John Mansel fled to the Continent ' timens pelli suae ' : Gerv. 0I Canterbury (Rolls Ser.), ii. 222. His Sussex property, bestowed on the younger Simon de Montfort, was subsequently recovered by John Savage. ■" Blaauw, The Barons' War (ed. 1 871), 72. 495
