Editing Surrey (section)

=== Later Medieval Surrey ===

After the [[Battle of Hastings]], the [[Norman people|Norman]] army advanced through Kent into Surrey, where they defeated an English force which attacked them at [[Southwark]] and then burned that suburb. Rather than try to attack London across the river, the Normans continued west through Surrey, crossed the Thames at [[Wallingford, Oxfordshire|Wallingford]] in Berkshire and descended on London from the north-west. As was the case across England, the native ruling class of Surrey was virtually eliminated by Norman seizure of land. Only one significant English landowner, the brother of the last English Abbot of Chertsey, remained by the time the Domesday survey was conducted in 1086.{{#tag:ref|This was Oswald, whose brother Wulfwold, Abbot of Chertsey and Bath, died in 1084. Oswald was one of the small number of English landowners who managed to increase their holdings in the wake of the conquest: his estates, centred on Effingham, were valued at £18 a year in 1066, but the acquisition of additional manors raised this to £35 by 1086. His descendants, the de La Leigh family, relinquished the majority of their Surrey lands in the 12th century, but remained landowners in the county until the early 14th century. One of them, William de La Leigh, served as Sheriff of Surrey in 1267.|group= n}} At that time the largest landholding in Surrey, as in many other parts of the country, was the expanded royal estate, while the next largest holding belonged to [[Richard fitz Gilbert]], founder of the [[de Clare]] family.

[[File:Runnymede-meadow-eghamend.jpg|left|thumb|[[Runnymede]], where [[Magna Carta]] was sealed|alt=wooden gate with field and low hill beyond]]
In 1088, [[William II of England|King William II]] granted [[William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey|William de Warenne]] the title of [[Earl of Surrey]] as a reward for Warenne's loyalty during the [[Rebellion of 1088|rebellion that followed the death of William I]]. When the male line of the Warennes became extinct in the 14th century, the earldom was inherited by the [[Fitzalan]] [[Earls of Arundel]]. The Fitzalan line of Earls of Surrey died out in 1415, but after other short-lived revivals in the 15th century the title was conferred in 1483 on the [[Howard family]], who still hold it. However, Surrey was not a major focus of any of these families' interests.

[[File:Guildford castle 1.jpg|thumb|[[Guildford Castle]]|alt=roofless stone castle keep in parkland]]
[[Guildford Castle]], one of many fortresses originally established by the Normans to help them subdue the country, was rebuilt in stone and developed as a royal palace in the 12th century.{{#tag:ref|Besides the castles built or rebuilt in stone, remains of Norman castles of earth and timber have been identified at Abinger, Cranleigh, Thunderfield, and Walton-on-the-Hill.{{sfn|Brandon|Short|1990|pp=46-48}}|group= n}} [[Farnham Castle]] was built during the 12th century as a residence for the [[Bishop of Winchester]], while other stone castles were constructed in the same period at [[Bletchingley Castle|Bletchingley]] by the de Clares and at [[Reigate Castle|Reigate]] by the Warennes.{{sfn|Brandon|Short|1990|pp=46-48}}

During [[John of England|King John]]'s [[First Barons' War|struggle with the barons]], [[Magna Carta]] was issued in June 1215 at [[Runnymede]] near [[Egham]]. John's efforts to reverse this concession reignited the war, and in 1216 the barons invited [[Louis VIII of France|Prince Louis]] of [[France]] to take the throne. Having landed in Kent and been welcomed in London, he advanced across Surrey to attack John, then at [[Winchester]], occupying Reigate and Guildford castles along the way.

Guildford Castle later became one of the favourite residences of [[Henry III of England|King Henry III]], who considerably expanded the palace there. During the [[Second Barons' War|baronial revolt]] against Henry, in 1264 the rebel army of [[Simon de Montfort]] passed southwards through Surrey on their way to the [[Battle of Lewes]] in Sussex. Although the rebels were victorious, soon after the battle royal forces captured and destroyed Bletchingley Castle, whose owner [[Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Gloucester|Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Hertford and Gloucester]], was de Montfort's most powerful ally.

By the 14th century, castles were of dwindling military importance, but remained a mark of social prestige, leading to the construction of castles at [[Starborough Castle|Starborough]] near [[Lingfield, Surrey|Lingfield]] by [[John de Cobham, 2nd Baron Cobham (of Kent)|Lord Cobham]], and at [[Betchworth Castle|Betchworth]] by [[John Fitzalan, 1st Baron Arundel|John Fitzalan]], whose father had recently inherited the Earldom of Surrey. Though Reigate and Bletchingley remained modest settlements, the role of their castles as local centres for the two leading aristocratic interests in Surrey had enabled them to gain [[Ancient borough|borough]] status by the early 13th century. As a result, they gained representation in [[Parliament of England|Parliament]] when it became established towards the end of that century, alongside the more substantial urban settlements of Guildford and Southwark.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/constituencies/bletchingley |publisher=History of Parliament Trust |title=Bletchingley 1386–1421 |access-date=15 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170517075519/http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/constituencies/bletchingley |archive-date=17 May 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/constituencies/reigate |publisher=History of Parliament Trust |title=Reigate 1386–1421 |access-date=15 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170416125942/http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/constituencies/reigate |archive-date=16 April 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> Surrey's third sizeable town, Kingston, despite its size, borough status and historical association with the monarchy, did not gain parliamentary representation until 1832.

Surrey had little political or economic significance in the Middle Ages. Its agricultural wealth was limited by the infertility of most of its soils, and it was not the main power-base of any important aristocratic family, nor the seat of a bishopric.<ref>Brandon and Short, ''The South East from AD 1000'', pp. 8–10, 62–64, 127–131.</ref> The London suburb of Southwark was a major urban settlement, and the proximity of the capital boosted the wealth and population of the surrounding area, but urban development elsewhere was sapped by the overshadowing predominance of London and by the lack of direct access to the sea. Population pressure in the 12th and 13th centuries initiated the gradual clearing of the [[Weald]], the forest spanning the borders of Surrey, Sussex and Kent, which had hitherto been left undeveloped due to the difficulty of farming on its heavy clay soil.{{sfn|Brandon|1998|pp=15-18}}{{sfn|Brandon|1998|pp=37-42}}

Surrey's most significant source of prosperity in the later Middle Ages was the production of woollen cloth, which emerged during that period as England's main export industry. The county was an early centre of English textile manufacturing, benefiting from the presence of deposits of [[fuller's earth]], the rare mineral composite important in the process of finishing cloth, around Reigate and [[Nutfield, Surrey|Nutfield]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/constituencies/Reigate |publisher=History of Parliament Trust |title=Reigate 1386–1421 |access-date=15 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170416125942/http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/constituencies/reigate |archive-date=16 April 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> The industry in Surrey was focused on Guildford, which gave its name to a variety of cloth, ''gilforte'', which was exported widely across Europe and the Middle East and imitated by manufacturers elsewhere in Europe.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/constituencies/Guildford |publisher=History of Parliament Trust |title=Guildford 1386–1421 |access-date=15 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170416125804/http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/constituencies/guildford |archive-date=16 April 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> However, as the English cloth industry expanded, Surrey was outstripped by other growing regions of production.

[[File:Waverleyabbeydormitory.jpg|thumb|left|Ruins of the monks' dormitory at [[Waverley Abbey]]|alt=grey stone walls leading to an end wall with three tall window openings]]
Though Surrey was not the scene of serious fighting in the various rebellions and civil wars of the period, armies from Kent heading for London via Southwark passed through what were then the extreme north-eastern fringes of Surrey during the [[Peasants' Revolt]] of 1381 and [[Cade's Rebellion]] in 1450, and at various stages of the [[Wars of the Roses]] in 1460, 1469 and 1471. The upheaval of 1381 also involved widespread local unrest in Surrey, as was the case all across south-eastern England, and some recruits from Surrey joined the Kentish rebel army.

In 1082 a [[Cluniac]] abbey was founded at [[Bermondsey Abbey|Bermondsey]] by Alwine, a wealthy English citizen of London. [[Waverley Abbey]] near Farnham, founded in 1128, was the first [[Cistercian]] monastery in England. Over the next quarter-century monks spread out from here to found new houses, creating a network of twelve monasteries descended from Waverley across southern and central England. The 12th and early 13th centuries also saw the establishment of [[Augustinian Order|Augustinian]] priories at [[Merton Priory|Merton]], [[Newark Priory|Newark]], [[Tandridge Priory|Tandridge]], [[Southwark Cathedral|Southwark]] and Reigate. A [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] friary was established at [[Guildford Black Friary|Guildford]] by Henry III's widow [[Eleanor of Provence]], in memory of her grandson who had died at Guildford in 1274. In the 15th century a [[Carthusian]] priory was founded by [[King Henry V]] at [[Sheen Priory|Sheen]]. These would all perish, along with the still important [[Benedictine]] abbey of [[Chertsey Abbey|Chertsey]], in the 16th-century [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]].

Now fallen into disuse, some English counties had nicknames for those raised there such as a [[Yorkshire|'tyke' from Yorkshire]], or a [[Yellowbelly (Lincolnshire)|'yellowbelly']] from [[Lincolnshire]]. In the case of Surrey, the term was a 'Surrey capon', from Surrey's role in the later Middle Ages as the county where chickens were fattened up for the London meat markets.{{cn|date=July 2024}}