Published 2019

The last of the ‘Early Battle trilogy’ in time order but the second to be published. Keith Foord picks up the story of the Normanisation of eastern Sussex from 1067. This is described from a local historical viewpoint, up to the point that Henry VIII dissolved the abbeys in 1537-39. There are references to periods of kingly rivalry, civil wars, the Black Death, rebellions, the creation of Parliament and the loss of almost all the parts of France that England had once held. It was a time of constant change, with a major influence on how the now-United Kingdom behaves today.

 

 

 

 

 

This book is the 3rd and final book in the ‘Early History Trilogy of Battle and Eastern Sussex’

 

In 1066 eastern Sussex was the beachhead for the successful invasion of England by Duke William II of Normandy. He was crowned William I, King of England, at Christmas 1066 and 1067 was the first year of the Normanisation of England.

 

1538 saw the dissolution of the major monasteries and abbeys including those of Battle and Robertsbridge, and the start of the English Reformation.

 

How did William and his successors, from the houses of Normandy and Blois, via the Angevin and Plantagenet kings, through the Wars of the Roses to the rise of the Tudors change eastern Sussex? Most of the history is hidden away in ancient documents, but some remains visible, in the ruins of old abbeys and castles and in the landscape itself.

 

The ways in which Battle, Bexhill, Pevensey, Robertsbridge, Rye, Winchelsea and all of eastern Sussex evolved between 1067 and 1538 are covered in this book. It also acts as a guide book to further reading about the more complex issues.

 

Author Keith Foord co-wrote the well-regarded 1066 and the Battle of Hastings – Preludes, Events and Postscripts as part of the 950th commemoration of 1066. This book is its sequel.

 

240 pages  Metric Crown Quarto   ISBN 987-1-903099-04-9

 

£15 (25% discount to members of BDHS when bought directly from the Society)

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