A Visit to Lewes.

 A Visit to Lewes.

 A few weeks ago, I visited the market town of Lewes in Sussex, best known to me as the site of the crucial defeat of King Henry III and his son, the Lord Edward, in May 1264.

My only other visit to the town was back in the late 1990s, when I was the "Medieval Weapons Expert" in a TV episode about a skull (see below) that had been found at the medieval hospital site in Lewes and was thought to be a casualty of the battle. 

In fact, when carbon dated some years later, the skull was found to be from 200 years before the Battle of Lewes and contemporary with the Battle of Hastings. For more on this take a look at this article.

Anyway back to my recent visit, the first place I went to was Lewes Castle, a rarity amongst English castles as it was built with two mottes and the bailey between them. It was first built by William de Warenne in 1068, early in the Norman Conquest. At first, it was constructed of timber and had a single motte. By 1100, the timber palisade had been replaced by stone and the shell keep that still survives had been built.

 

 

The 12th century gatehouse to the left and the much larger 14th century barbican to the right.

 

Looking at the surviving shell keep from by the gatehouse.

 

Two views of the remaining shell keep wall and tower from different angles (complete with obligatory historic site scaffolding). 

 

The clump of trees indicated is where the castle's second motte was with the bailey lying in between them.

This picture looks north from the remaining shell keep towards the site of the battle in 1264.

Sadly, I didn't have time to get up to the battlefield site but hopefully I will be back in this area again next year and I'll try to fit it in.

This model gives an idea of how the castle site looked around the time of the battle.

 

Opposite the castle is the Barbican House Museum which houses the town's archaeology and local history exhibitions.

Some 13th century floor tiles on display in the museum. I particularly like the knight on the left and the king on the right who may be Edward I. Apologies for the reflections; it was a very sunny day.

 

I also had a quick look at Lewes Priory as most of its remains are in a public park. 

 

Lewes Priory was founded by William de Warenne and his wife Gundrada around 1081 on the site of an earlier Saxon timber church.  It was a community of Cluniac monks, the first in Britain.  The priory was dedicated to St. Pancreas. The Priory's church was huge, bigger than some cathedrals, echoing the church at the order's founding house of "Reformed Benedictines" at Cluny in France. For more information about the Priory, take a look at the website of the Lewes Priory Trust.

  

Part of the monks' dormitory.

In 1264, before riding out to the Battle of Lewes on the 14^th May, King Henry III stayed in the priory. After losing the battle, Henry retreated, with many of his remaining troops, back into the Priory precinct. Simon de Montfort attacked the priory and forced over Henry to surrender.

 

The Priory's toilet block (probably heavily used on that morning in May).

It was in the priory, shortly after the battle, that Henry signed the “Mise of Lewes” stating that he would accept the rulings of the Barons effectively making Simon de Monfort the "de facto" ruler of the kingdom.

 

Also in the park, there is a memorial to those who fought and died in the Battle of Lewes in 1264 that was unveiled on the 700th anniversary.  Sir Tufton Beamish MP wrote "Battle Royale", one of the better books (although now slightly outdated) on Simon de Montfort's rebellion.

The Battle of Evesham 2023 - a brief After Action Report.

The Battle of Evesham 2023

- a brief After Action Report.

Last weekend (4-6^th August), I had the pleasure of taking part in the Battle of Evesham event for the first time. This is the biggest 13th century re-enactment in Britain and possibly in Europe (or even the world according to the local newspaper) with around 35 groups taking part. One group of three men camped next to us had are members of Pisa Ghibellina and had come over from Italy!  Mick Hurst, the organiser, has told me that there were 622 re-enactors and 20 horses at the event. Due to the bad weather, the visitor figures were slightly down on last year but still numbered over 25,000.

The event was very well organised and things were quickly adapted through the day to take the rather wet but changeable weather into account.  Those key things for re-enactors in the authentic camp, firewood & water were well supplied and easy to access.  So my thanks to the team that run the event for making life easy.

Unfortunately, due to the weather on Saturday and then being busy with the visitors on Sunday, I only managed to take a few photos done myself, mainly quick shots of my kit and little miner’s set up.  Happily, there are many people who came and took shots of the camps and the battles and they have generously posted the on the event’s Facebook group with permission for re-enactors to use their pictures on our blogs & web sites.

The damp march through the town and commemoration at the memorial.

 

The Fitzalan contingent (Photograph by Pat Patrick)

On the Saturday morning, the Festival started with a march through the town. Although it was raining fairly heavily on and off, I was impressed by the number of townsfolk & visitors who lined the route under their umbrellas. It’s nice to be appreciated .

(photographer not known)

We returned to the memorial where we heard a quick account of the battle and the speeches were made by the town’s Mayor & the Bishop of Dudley before a wreath was laid in memory of all who died in the battle.

 

The main Battle display.

This took place in the afternoon on both days and the rain gods relented to let us do it in the dry both times!

 

Lord Fitzalan and some of his gallant retainers head to the battlefield to take their places in the Lord Edward’s centre division which took the brunt of the enemy attacks.          (Photograph possibly by Pat Patrick but not sure)

The Heroic Lord Edward. (Photo by Louise Hussey)

The Dastardly Simon de Montfort on his horse which was apparently named “King” – Irony intended?  (Photo by Louise Hussey)

  

Fitzalan’s little force engaged in hard fighting in the middle of the battle. One of the many pictures of our best side – the backs of our heads. (Photograph by Greg Phaedra)

 

Our inevitable victory as God was, of course, on OUR side. (photo by Pat Patrick)

That being so, the youngest of our contingent did get to kill the Montfortian Bishop as the crowd cheered. Chess puns allowed.  The Bishop ran away in the second battle so I had to make do killing with a Knight-Hospitaller who had strayed from the righteous path to support de Montfort.

 

Of the many groups there, the two groups we had the most contact with (one quite literally) during the event need a quick mention:

  

(photgraph by Corporate-Motion Film Production)

The House of the Twin Tailed Lion (Facebook page here & web site here):

Our main opponents during the battle display as they formed the centre of the rebel line. They are based in Evesham itself. They re-enact as troops from the De Montfort household.

Nice chaps, it was a pleasure to slaughter them mercilessly as the battle ended in their defeat.

 and 

 

The Corbett Household (Facebook page here):

Despite the long and often violent relationship between the historical Fitzalans and Corbetts, we managed not to stab each other in the back while we both held the left flank of the Lord Edward’s centre division during the battle display. I still swear that the 40 Corbett cattle followed me home from the tavern that night and we only borrowed them.

There was also a display based on the Battle of Lewes (1264), which the Royalists lost, in the morning on the Sunday. Sadly, I missed this one as I was busy sorting out my mining kit as I couldn’t get it done on Saturday due to the rain.

 

What did I do when I wasn’t fighting?

On the Saturday, I largely sheltered from the rain and played board games, Tallfwrdd and Alquerque being the main ones. Dressed as Welshman, I had a very quick part in the civilian fashion parade and then kitted up for battle.

On Sunday, I got dressed in my new kit (over the 15 year or so gap in medieval re-enactment, the moths had found several pieces of my old kit) and swiftly constructed my little mantlet as part of my new siege mining set up.  There was quite a bit of interest amongst the Public and fellow re-enactors, mainly in the tools I had laid out.  I ended up having two nice long chats with a retired South African mining engineer and someone from the Forest of Dean who actually knew where the places that I was talking about were.

Myself and my wife in our new (and very Maciejowski / Morgan bible inspired)  kit.

 

My new Siege mining set up.

This was the first outing for this and more quickly but together than I would have liked.  The little shelter is supposed to be a temporary siege mantlet with a “raw” cow hide over it which they used for fireproofing against those hot arrows. Not too bad for a first try but I have several improvements in mind for next time.

  

My small display.

My miner’s tool kit.

I enjoyed the event very much, once again thanks to the hard work put in by the team that run it, and all the re-enactors who make it fun.

I will definitely be going back next year!