Editing Kingdom of Sussex (section)

===Law===
Various [[folkmoot]]s would have been held in Sussex, for instance at [[Ditchling]],<ref name="DitEUS"/> Tinhale (in [[Bersted]]) and [[Madehurst]]. Placename evidence for early assemblies in Sussex comes from Tinhale (from the Old English {{lang|ang|þing}} (thing) meaning hold a meeting, so "meeting-hill") and [[Madehurst]] (from the Old English {{lang|ang|maedel}} meaning assembly, so "assembly wooded hill").<ref>{{harvnb|Semple|2013| p=90}}</ref> There is also a location in [[Durrington, West Sussex|Durrington]] that had the name {{lang|ang|gemot biorh}} meaning a moot barrow or meeting barrow, a boundary barrow.<ref>{{harvnb|Semple|2013| p=162}}</ref>

The early hundreds often lacked the formality of later attempts of local government: frequently they met in the open, at a convenient central spot, perhaps marked by a tree, as at [[Easebourne]]. Dill, meaning the boarded meeting place, was one of the few hundreds in Sussex that provided any accommodation.<ref>{{harvnb|Lowerson|1980| pp=42}}</ref> From the 10th century onwards the hundred became important as a court of justice as well as dealing with matters of local administration.<ref name="Armstrong 1971 39">{{harvnb|Armstrong|1971| pp=39}}</ref> The meeting place was often a point within the hundred such as a bridge (as in the bridge over the [[River Rother, West Sussex|western River Rother]] in Rotherbridge hundred) or a notable tree (such as a tree called Tippa's Oak in Tipnoak hundred).<ref name="Armstrong 1971 39"/>

It is also recorded that an England-wide Royal Council ({{lang|ang|[[Witenagemot]]|nocat=true}}) took place in Sussex on 3 April 930,<ref name="Roach 2013 60–61">{{harvnb|Roach|2013|pp=60–61}}</ref> when [[Æthelstan]], the first king of the English, and his councillors gathered at [[Lyminster]] by the [[River Arun]].<ref>{{harvnb|Keynes|2013| p=36}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Lowerson|1980| p=10}}</ref> Another {{lang|ang|Witenagemot}} took place in Sussex in the reign of Æthelstan (924-939), probably at [[Hamsey]], on the [[River Ouse, Sussex|River Ouse]] near Lewes.<ref name="Roach 2013 60–61"/><ref name="VCH-L">{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=56908|title='The borough of Lewes: Introduction and history', A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 7: The rape of Lewes|year=1940|pages= 7–19|access-date=1 October 2014}}</ref>

A small number of [[diploma]]s (documents affirming the grant or tenure of specified land) from Sussex survive from this period.<ref>{{harvnb|Roach|2013|p=96}}</ref>

By the 1060s Lewes may have been Sussex's legal centre.<ref name="Armstrong 1971 41"/>