Editing Lewes (section)

===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"/>