[726] Dover had always remained in the King’s hands, but Hythe and Romney belonged to the Archbishop, while Sandwich had been given to Christ Church, Canterbury, and Hastings, Winchelsea, and Rye had been handed over to the Abbey of Fécamp. A few details about the relations of Fécamp to its possessions at Hastings, Winchelsea, and Rye, may be found in Leroux de Lincy’s Abbaye de Fécamp, pp. 289, 294, 300, 327, 331; and a notice of the tax called aletot which was paid by the inhabitants of Rye to Fécamp, p. 299. The two parish churches of Hastings, being part of the alien priory of Fécamp, were never appropriate or belonging either to the College of S. Mary or to the Priory. They were afterwards granted away by Henry the Eighth (Horsfield’s Hastings, i. 448). The Counts of Eu held the Castle with the whole of the rape of Hastings and the manor till their estates were forfeited by rebellion about 1245 and given by Henry the Third to his son Edward. Moss’ Hastings, 3-4, 63.
[727] There was a considerable change in the century that followed the complete political separation of England from the Continent. Henry the Third got back Rye and Winchelsea, and at least the Castle of Hastings if not more; and Edward the First Sandwich; while Hythe and Romney remained with the Archbishop.
[728] For rights possessed in the time of Henry the Second see Hist. MSS. Com. v. 454.
[729] Confirmed by Edward the First, 1293. Rot. Parl. i. 101. There were no coroners in the Cinque Ports except the mayors of the various towns. Lyon’s Dover, ii. 269, 347, 371, 303.
[730] A writ of error lay to the Shepway Court only from any of the Ports; but from the Shepway finally there might be an appeal to the King’s Bench. (Boys’ Sandwich, 697, 771.) A mayor of Sandwich accused of assaulting the sheriff’s bailiff refused to answer except at the Court of Shepway. (Ibid. 661.)
[731] Lyon’s Dover, ii. 304. See Rot. Parl. i. 332. For the charter of Edward the Third see Boys’ Sandwich, 568-9.
[732] Boys, 470-1.
[733] Montagu Burrows’ Cinque Ports, 73-4. The Cinque Ports joined Simon de Montfort against the King. Possibly this revolt was due to the limits fixed to their territory by Henry in 1259-60, for a little later the Barons’ party extended those limits. (Ibid. 107.) It was in this war too that they finally secured freedom from summons before the King’s Justices.
[734] Boys’ Sandwich, 445. “Within the Cinque Ports there is no trial by jury as in other places.” Ibid. 452. For the system of compurgation see p. 465.
[735] Ibid. 468.