Editing Hastings (section)

===Kingdom of Haestingas===
From the 6th century AD until 771, the people of the area around modern-day Hastings, identified the territory as that of the [[Haestingas]] tribe and a kingdom separate from the surrounding kingdoms of [[Kingdom of Sussex|Suth Saxe]] ("South Saxons", i.e. Sussex) and [[Kingdom of Kent|Kent]]. It worked to retain its separate cultural identity until the 11th century.<ref name="historyfiles.co.uk">{{cite web |url=http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsBritain/EnglandSussex.htm |title=Kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons – Sussex |publisher=Historyfiles.co.uk |date=18 September 2011 |access-date=26 March 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130313235645/http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsBritain/EnglandSussex.htm |archive-date=13 March 2013 }}</ref> The kingdom was probably a sub-kingdom, the object of a disputed overlordship by the two powerful neighbouring kingdoms: when King [[Wihtred]] of Kent settled a dispute with King [[Ine of Wessex|Ine]] of Sussex & Wessex in 694, it is probable that he ceded the overlordship of Haestingas to Ine as part of the treaty.<ref name="historyfiles.co.uk"/><ref name=Kirby_124>Kirby, ''Earliest English Kings'', p.&nbsp;124.</ref>

In 771 King [[Offa]] of Mercia invaded Southern England, and over the next decade gradually seized control of Sussex and Kent. [[Symeon of Durham]] records a battle fought at an unidentified location near Hastings in 771, at which Offa defeated the Haestingas [[tribe]], effectively ending its existence as a separate kingdom. By 790, Offa controlled Hastings effectively enough to confirm grants of land in Hastings to the [[Abbey]] of St Denis, in Paris.<ref>{{cite web |title=S 133 |url=http://www.esawyer.org.uk/charter/133.html |publisher=The Electronic Sawyer |year=2014 |access-date=28 January 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203055228/http://www.esawyer.org.uk/charter/133.html |archive-date=3 February 2014 }}</ref> But, the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' for 1011 relates that Vikings overran "all Kent, Sussex, Surrey and Haestingas", indicating the town was still considered a separate 'county' or province to its neighbours 240 years after Offa's conquest.<ref>{{cite web|title=Key events 771 – 1699 |url=http://www.hastingschronicle.net/771-1699.html |publisher=The Hastings Chronicle |year=2012 |access-date=28 January 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017022917/http://www.hastingschronicle.net/771-1699.html |archive-date=17 October 2013 }}</ref>

During his reign, [[Athelstan]] established a royal [[mint (coin)|mint]] in Hastings in AD 928.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Challis |first=Christopher Edgar |author2=I Stewart |author3=NJ Mayhew |author4=GP Dyer |author5=PP Gaspar |title=A New History of the Royal Mint |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zz89AAAAIAAJ |access-date=31 March 2008 |year=1993 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-24026-0 |chapter=The English and Norman Mints, c. 600–1158 |page=40 |archive-date=2 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102094326/http://books.google.com/books?id=Zz89AAAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>