Editing Lewes (section)

==History==
===Pre-Saxon===
The immense strategic value of the site, which is able to command traffic between the [[English Channel|Channel]] coast and the Sussex interior, was recognised as early as the [[Iron Age]], when a hill-fort was built on [[Mount Caburn]], the steep-sided hill that overlooks the Ouse (and the modern town of Lewes) from the east.

During the [[Roman Empire|Roman]] period, there was an aristocratic [[Roman villa|villa]] at [[Beddingham]],<ref>Russell, M., 2006: ''Roman Sussex''. Tempus. pp. 166–169.</ref> at the foot of Mount Caburn, and there have been several finds of Roman coins and pottery sherds in Lewes itself. The Victorian historian [[Thomas Walker Horsfield]] therefore reckoned that there must have been a Roman settlement on the site, and he identified it with the otherwise unlocatable town of ''Mutuantonis''.<ref name=gazetteer>{{cite web |url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/descriptions/entry_page.jsp?text_id=739550&word=NULL |title=Descriptive Gazetteer entry for Lewes |access-date=21 September 2008 |last=Wilson |first=John Marius |date=1870{{ndash}}72 |work=Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales |publisher=Great Britain Historical GIS Project |archive-date=24 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024163603/http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/descriptions/entry_page.jsp?text_id=739550&word=NULL |url-status=live }}</ref> Another antiquarian, John Elliot, even suggested that central Lewes's distinctive network of [[Alley#Southern England|twittens]] was based on the layout of a [[castra|Roman legionary fortress]]; however modern historians are rather more cautious about the possibility of a Roman Lewes, as there is as yet no archaeological evidence for a built-up area dating back to the Roman period.<ref>{{cite book |last=Brent |first=Colin |date=2004 |title=Pre-Georgian Lewes: The Emergence of a County Town |pages=3–4}}</ref>

===Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman===
The earliest phase of [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] settlement in Sussex was concentrated between the Rivers Ouse and [[Cuckmere]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Brandon |first=Peter |date=2004 |title=The South Saxons |publisher=Phillimore |pages=23–7}}</ref> and Anglo-Saxon finds begin to appear in Lewes from the sixth century.<ref>{{cite book |last=Brent |first=Colin |date=2004 |title=Pre-Georgian Lewes: The Emergence of a County Town |page=6}}</ref> The town of Lewes was probably founded around this time, and it may have been one of the most important settlements in the [[Kingdom of Sussex]], along with [[Chichester]] and [[Hastings]], though the evidence for this early period is very sketchy.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bassett |first=Steven |date=1989 |title=The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms |publisher=Leicester University Press}}</ref>
[[File:Coa England Family Warren of Surrey.svg|thumb|Arms of the [[Warenne family|de Warenne family]]]]

By the ninth century, the Kingdom of Sussex had been annexed to the [[Kingdom of Wessex]], and in 838 [[Ecgberht, King of Wessex]] donated the estate of Malling, on the opposite side of the Ouse from Lewes, to the [[Ceolnoth|Archbishop of Canterbury]]. As a result, the Parish of Malling became a '[[Royal Peculiar#Non-royal peculiars|peculiar]]', which means that the parish was directly subject to the Archbishop of Canterbury rather than the [[Cynered|Bishop of Chichester]] like every other parish in Sussex. Malling would retain this anomalous status until as late as 1845.<ref>{{cite book |last=Brent |first=Colin |date=2004 |title=Pre-Georgian Lewes: The Emergence of a County Town |page=13}}</ref>

Information about Lewes becomes much more plentiful from the reign of [[Alfred the Great]] onward, as it was one of the towns which he fortified as part of the network of ''[[burh]]s'' he established in response to the [[Viking Age#England|Viking raids]]. The peace and stability brought by Alfred and his successors evidently stimulated economic activity in the area, for in the late Anglo-Saxon period Lewes seems to have been a thriving boom town – during the reign of Alfred's grandson [[Æthelstan]] it was assigned two royal [[moneyer]]s, more than any other [[History of the English penny (1066-1154)|mint]] in Sussex, and according to Domesday Book it generated £26 of revenue for [[the Crown]] in 1065, almost twice the amount of any other town in the county, and comprised 127 households.<ref>{{cite web|title=Open Domesday: Lewes|url=https://opendomesday.org/place/TQ4110/lewes/|access-date=7 December 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Brent |first=Colin |date=2004 |title=Pre-Georgian Lewes: The Emergence of a County Town |pages=21–5}}</ref>

After the [[Norman Conquest]], [[William the Conqueror]] rewarded his retainer [[William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey|William de Warenne]] by making him [[Earl of Surrey]] and granting him the [[Rape of Lewes]], a strip of land stretching along the Ouse valley from the coast to the Surrey boundary. De Warenne constructed [[Lewes Castle]] within the walls of the Saxon ''burh'', while his wife [[Gundred, Countess of Surrey|Gundred]]a founded the [[Lewes Priory|Priory of St Pancras]], a [[Cluniac]] monastic house, in about 1081.

===Battle of Lewes===
{{Main article|Battle of Lewes}}

During the [[Second Barons' War]], [[Henry III of England|King Henry III]] was ambushed at Lewes by a force of rebel barons led by [[Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester|Simon de Montfort]]. Henry marched out to fight de Montfort, leading to a pitched battle on the hills above the town (roughly in the area of modern Landport Bottom). The king's son [[Edward I of England|Prince Edward]], commanding the right wing of the royal army, succeeded in driving off some of the baronial forces, but he got carried away with the pursuit, which took him as far as [[Hamsey|Offham]]. In Edward's absence the remainder of the royal army was attacked by de Montfort and [[Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Gloucester|Gilbert de Clare]] and decisively defeated. The king's brother [[Richard of Cornwall]] was captured, and the king himself was forced to sign the [[Mise of Lewes]], a document which does not survive but was probably aimed at forcing Henry to uphold the [[Provisions of Oxford]]. Despite this uncertainty about its consequences, the battle is often seen as an important milestone in the development of English democracy.
<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-27373398 |title=Battle of Lewes: England's first fight for democracy? |website=BBC News |date=14 May 2014 |access-date=23 January 2021 |archive-date=30 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210130215124/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-27373398 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.military-history.org/articles/simon-de-montfort-lewes-evesham-parliamentary-democracy.htm |title=Simon de Montfort, the Battles of Lewes and Evesham, and the birth of parliamentary democracy |website=Military History Matters |date=15 June 2017 |access-date=23 January 2021 |archive-date=26 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126182129/https://www.military-history.org/articles/simon-de-montfort-lewes-evesham-parliamentary-democracy.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Late Mediaeval and Early Modern===
[[File:FitzAlan arms.svg|thumb|Arms of the [[Fitzalan|Fitzalan family]]]]

The [[Warenne family|de Warenne family]] died out with [[John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey|Earl John]] in 1347, whereupon lordship of the [[Rape of Lewes]] passed to his sororal nephew [[Richard Fitzalan, 4th Earl of Arundel]]. Fitzalan preferred to reside at [[Arundel Castle]] rather than at Lewes, and the town therefore lost the prestige and economic advantages associated with being the seat of an important magnate. This was only the beginning of a series of misfortunes that struck Lewes, for in 1348 the [[Black Death]] arrived in England and later on in the century the [[Hundred Years War]] led to a series of French and [[Crown of Castile|Castilian]] raids on Sussex,<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book |last1=William |first1=Hunt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c0ESAwAAQBAJ&dq=Gravesend+Tovar+Castilian&pg=PA6 |title=The History of England. Volume 4 |last2=Poole |first2=R. L. |last3=Oman |first3=C. |publisher=Рипол Классик |year=1906 |isbn=978-5-87804-823-1 |pages=6 |language=en |access-date=18 May 2022 |archive-date=18 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221018021211/https://books.google.com/books?id=c0ESAwAAQBAJ&dq=Gravesend+Tovar+Castilian&pg=PA6 |url-status=live }}</ref> which badly disrupted trade. On one occasion in 1377 the [[Prior (ecclesiastical)|Prior]] of [[Lewes Priory|St Pancras]], John de Charlieu, was abducted by the raiders and held to ransom. Furthermore, after the main branch of the Fitzalan family died out in 1439, the Rape of Lewes was subsequently partitioned between the three sororal nephews of the [[Thomas Fitzalan, 5th Earl of Arundel|last earl]], namely [[John Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk]], [[Edward Neville, 3rd Baron Bergavenny]], and Edmund Lenthall. As a result of this dismemberment the district became even more neglected by its lords, although feudal politics was starting to become less important anyway due to the centralising reforms of the [[House of York|Yorkist]] and [[House of Tudor|Tudor]] kings.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last=Brent |first=Colin |date=2004 |title=Pre-Georgian Lewes: The Emergence of a County Town |pages=149–159}}</ref>

The [[English Reformation]] was begun by one of these Tudor monarchs, [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]], and as part of this process the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries|monasteries of England were dissolved]]; [[Lewes Priory]] was consequently demolished in 1538 and its property seized by the Crown. Henry's daughter [[Mary I of England|Mary I]] reversed the religious policy of England, and during the resulting [[Marian Persecutions]] of 1555–1557, Lewes was the site of the execution of seventeen [[Protestant]] [[martyr]]s, most of them actually from the [[Weald]] rather than Lewes itself, who were burned at the stake in front of the Star Inn (now the site of [[Lewes Town Hall]]). Commemoration of the martyrs is one of the main purposes of [[Lewes Bonfire]], and a stone memorial to the martyrs was unveiled on [[Cliffe Hill]] in 1901.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Gordon |first1=Kevin |title=Martyrs remembered in day of speeches |url=http://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/news/nostalgia/kevin-gordon-martyrs-remembered-in-day-of-speeches-1-6154141 |work=Sussex Express |access-date=6 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714164934/http://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/news/nostalgia/kevin-gordon-martyrs-remembered-in-day-of-speeches-1-6154141 |archive-date=14 July 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Lewesian politics was dominated by a strongly [[Puritans|Puritan]] faction in the reign of [[Charles I of England|Charles I]], and during the [[English Civil War]] it was one of the most important [[Roundheads|Parliamentarian]] strongholds in Sussex. As such it became the target of a [[Cavalier|royalist]] attack in December 1642, but the royalist army was intercepted and defeated at the [[Battle of Muster Green]] by Parliamentarian forces commanded by [[Herbert Morley]], one of the two [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Members of Parliament]] (MPs) for Lewes.<ref name="Brent 2004 297-159">{{cite book |last=Brent |first=Colin |date=2004 |title=Pre-Georgian Lewes: The Emergence of a County Town |page=297-159}}</ref>

Lewes recovered relatively quickly after the Civil War, and prospered during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It had always been one of the principal market towns of Sussex, as well as an important port, and by the end of the [[Georgian era]] it also had well-developed textiles, iron, brewing, and shipbuilding industries.
<ref name="Brent 2004 297-159"/>

===Modern===
The severe winter of 1836–7 led to a large build-up of snow on Cliffe Hill, whose sheer western face directly overlooks the town. On Tuesday 27 December 1836 this [[snow cornice]] collapsed, and the resulting [[Lewes avalanche]] was the deadliest ever recorded in Britain. The avalanche struck the cottages on Boulters Row (now part of South Street), burying fifteen people, of whom eight died. A [[public house|pub]] in South Street is named ''The Snowdrop'' in memory of the event.

In 1846, the town became a railway junction, with lines constructed from the north, south and east to two railway stations. The development of [[Newhaven, East Sussex|Newhaven]] ended Lewes's period as a major port.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/sussex/vol7/pp7-19 |title=The borough of Lewes: Introduction and history – British History Online |website=www.british-history.ac.uk |access-date=30 August 2016 |archive-date=3 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160903014601/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/sussex/vol7/pp7-19 |url-status=live}}</ref> During the [[Crimean War]], some 300 Finns who had served in the Russian army during the [[Åland War]] and been captured at [[Battle of Bomarsund|Bomarsund]] were imprisoned in the naval prison at Lewes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bomarsundssallskapet.ax/bomarsund_oolannin_sota.htm |title=Oolannin sota |publisher=Bomarsundssällskapet r.f. |language=fi |access-date=5 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130724095228/http://www.bomarsundssallskapet.ax/bomarsund_oolannin_sota.htm |archive-date=24 July 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Lewes became a [[Municipal borough|borough]] in 1881. Lewes Town Hall opened in 1893 in premises converted from the former Star Inn and in 1913 Council Offices were added in Arts-and-Crafts style.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://lewes-tc.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Town_Hall_History_WEB_VERSION.pdf |title=The Lewes Town Hall Complex a brief history |access-date=7 February 2020 |archive-date=23 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123085247/https://lewes-tc.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Town_Hall_History_WEB_VERSION.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Lewes Victoria Hospital]] opened in 1909 in its current premises, as Victoria Hospital and Infirmary, having previously been on School Hill where it opened as the Lewes Dispensary and Infirmary in 1855.

In October 2000, the town suffered major [[flood]]ing during an intense period of severe weather throughout the United Kingdom. The commercial centre of the town and many residential areas were devastated. In a government report into the nationwide flooding, Lewes was officially noted the most severely affected location.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.private-eye.co.uk/covers.php?showme=1013 |title=The flooded railway station featured on the cover of that week's ''&#91;&#91;Private Eye (magazine){{!}}Private Eye&#93;&#93;'' with the caption "Your Rains Tonight" |access-date=28 April 2007 |archive-date=26 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926234947/http://www.private-eye.co.uk/covers.php?showme=1013 |url-status=live }}</ref> As a result of the devastation, the Lewes Flood Action group formed, to press for better flood protection measures.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lewes-flood-action.org.uk/ |title=Lewes Flood Action Website |publisher=Lewes-flood-action.org.uk |access-date=1 August 2011 |archive-date=7 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007004735/http://www.lewes-flood-action.org.uk/ |url-status=dead}}</ref>