POLITICAL HISTORY It was, however, mainly on the gentry of Sussex that the burden of military service fell, and each of the numerous lists of summonses to join the royal armies contains names of the leading families of the county. Besides the nobility and baronage the representatives of the landed interest were called upon to take up arms, or else purchase exemption ; thus in I 278 all persons holding land to the value of twenty pounds were ordered to serve, and the return for Sussex shows that there were thirty members of this class,' many of whom are noted on the Assize Roll ' of that year as holding knights' fees, but not being knights. The castles of Hastings and Pevensey were in the King's hands, though the Count of Eu claimed the former in 1290 on the ground that it had been demised by his ancestress the Countess Alice to Henry III. only during the continuation of war with France ; it was, however, shown that the castle afterwards escheated to the Crown as ' lands of the Normans,' and the Count's claim was therefore rejected.^ Besides local castles and forces, troops were sometimes called in from neighbouring districts to assist in the defence, and in 1299 ^^e citizens of London, who had marched into Kent and Sussex to resist an invasion of the French, procured the King's letters patent that this service should not be drawn into a precedent.* Under Edward II. the war with Scotland dragged on its slow disastrous course, and in August 1 3 1 2 Nicholas Aucher was commis- sioned to raise in Kent and Sussex five hundred infantry,^ a number increased in September to a thousand"; commissions to array the county forces for service against the Scots were also granted in September i 3 i 5 to William de Northoo and John de Hydeneye,^ and in the following March to John de Ratingdene and Alan de Boxhull.* Again, in 1322, Henry Hussey and Nicholas Gentil were ordered to levy a force of five hundred men from Sussex and Surrey, excepting the city of Chichester, and take them to Newcastle.' In the same year, parliament having granted that every township in the kingdom should provide one man for the army, Peter fitz-Reynold and John de Ifeld were deputed to select suitable men in Sussex" ; the armed footmen supplied by the boroughs on this occasion were — Arundel 2, Bramber and Steyning 2, Horsham i, Lewes 4, and Midhurst i." Commission of array for 300 archers was shortly afterwards given to Robert de Echingham,'^ and next year Thomas Tregoz was ordered to array all able men in the county between the ages of sixteen and sixty. The conclusion of a truce for thirteen years with Robert Bruce in 1323 put an end to this drain upon the population and resources of the ston (6) ; Lewes,— Aldrington (4), Brighton (4), Rottingdean (4), Newhaven (Mechingg) (6) ; Pevensey, — Seaford (4), Cuckmere (2), Eastbourne with Pevensey (12); Hastings,— Coding (6), Bexhill(4), Bulver- hythe (4), Hastings (4), ' Clyveshend ' and Winchelsea (6). ' Pari. Writs, i. 216. 2 Assize R. 921. 3 Rot. Pari. (Rec. Com.), i. 23.
- Rymer, Fcedera (Rolls ed.), i. 903. e Pat. 6 Edw. H. pi. m. 21.
6 Ibid. m. 16. ' Pat. 9 Edw. H. p. i, m. 22. 8 Ibid. p. 2, m. 19. 8 Pat. IS Edw. n. p. 2, m. 20. "> Ibid. m. 11. ■' Ibid. m. 9. M Ibid. m. 8. '3 Pat. 16 Edw. I. p. i, m. 18. 507
