In 447 the Saxons, under Ella and his three sons, built up the kingdom of the South Saxons. (See SUSSEX, KINGDOM OF.) They took the Roman city of Regnum (Chichester) and drove the Brit ish westward, into the forest of Andre. The Roman fortress of Anderida (Pevensey), also fell to the Saxons. According to Bede, Ella was the first Bretwalda. After his time the kingdom of Sussex gradually declined and fell under the dominion of Wessex in 823. Saxon remains are found in numerous ceme teries, and scattered burial places along the south slopes of the Downs. The cemetery on High Down hill, where weapons, orna ments and vessels of various kinds were found, and the Chanc tonbury hoard of coins, are noteworthy. A coin of Offa of Mercia, found at Beddingham, recalls the charter of Archbishop Wilfred in 825, in which Offa's connection with the monastery in that place is recorded. From 895 Sussex suffered from con stant raids by the Danes, till the accession of Canute, after which arose the two great forces of the house of Godwine and of the Normans. Godwine was probably a native of Sussex, and by the end of the Confessor's reign a third part of the county was in the hands of his family. Norman influence was strong in Sussex before the Conquest ; the harbours of Hastings, Rye, Winchelsea and Steyning being in the power of the Norman abbey of Fecamp.
Hastings and Pevensey were important under the Normans, being on the most direct route for Normandy. William secured communication with London by placing the lands in the hands of such men as his half-brother, the count of Mortain, who held Pevensey, and his son-in-law, William de Warenne, who held Lewes. With the exception of lands held by the Church and the Crown, the five rapes of Sussex were held by these and three other Norman tenants-in-chief : William de Braose, the count of Eu, and Roger, earl of Montgomery, who held respectively Bram ber, Hastings and Arundel. The honour of Battle was afterwards made into a rape by the Conqueror, and provides one of the arguments in favour of the theory of the Norman origin of these unique divisions of the county. The county was divided into five (afterwards six) strips, running north and south, and having each a town of military, commercial and maritime importance. These were the rapes, and each had its sheriff, in addition to the sheriff of the whole county. Whether the origin of the rapes, as districts, is to be found in the Icelandic territorial division hreppr (rejected in the New English Dictionary), or in the Saxon rap, a rope, or is of Norman origin, as lordships they owed their existence to the Normans. The holdings—which had been scat tered under the Saxons, so that one man's holding might be in more than one rape—were now determined, not by the manors in which they lay, but by the borders of the rape. Another peculiarity of the division of land in Sussex is that, apparently, each hide of land had eight instead of the usual four virgates.
The county boundary was long and somewhat indeterminate on the north, owing to the dense forest of Andredsweald, which was uninhabited till the 11th century. Evidence of this is seen in Domesday Book by the survey of Worth and Lodsworth under Surrey, and also by the fact that as late as 1834 the present parishes of North and South Amersham in Sussex were part of Hampshire. At the time of Domesday Sussex contained 6o hun dreds, since become 73. These courts were in the hands, either of the Church, or of great lords. The county court was held at Lewes and Shoreham until the Great Inquest, when it was moved to Chichester. After several changes the act of 1504 arranged for it to be held alternately at Lewes and Chichester.
The chief ecclesiastical franchises were those of the archbishop of Canterbury, of the bishop of Chichester, of the Saxon founda tion of Bosham, and of the votive abbey of Battle, founded by the Conqueror. This abbey possessed, besides land in many other counties, the "Lowy of Battle," a district extending for 3 m. round the abbey. The see of Chichester was co-extensive with the county, and has altered little. It is one of the oldest bishoprics, having been founded by Wilfred at Selsey; the seat was removed to Chichester by William I.
Sussex was constantly the scene of invasions and rebellions, Pevensey and Arundel playing a great part in the latter under the early Norman kings. In the barons' wars the county was a centre for the king's forces, Lewes being in the hands of the king's brother-in-law, John de Warenne, earl of Surrey, Pevensey and Hastings in those of his uncle, Peter of Savoy. The forces of the king and of De Montfort met at Lewes, where the famous battle and "Mise of Lewes" took place. Corrupt administration during the 13th and 14th centuries, constant passage of troops for the French wars and the devastating plagues of the 14th cen tury, were the causes of such rebellions as the Peasants' Rising (1381) and Jack Cade's Rebellion (1450). During Elizabeth's reign there was constant levying of troops for Flanders and the Low Countries, and preparations for defence against Spain. The sympathies of the county were divided during the Civil War, Arundel and Chichester being held for the king, Lewes and the Cinque Ports for the parliament. Chichester and Arundel were besieged by Waller, and the Roundheads gained a strong hold on the county, in spite of the loyalty of Sir Edward Ford, sheriff of Sussex. A Royalist gathering in the west of the county in 1645 caused preparations for resistance at Chichester. In the same year the "Clubmen" rose and tried to force terms. During the French Revolution, Sussex produced many volunteers. At the outbreak of war with France (1793) a camp was formed at Brighton and at Eastbourne (1803) when the famous Martello towers were erected.