Battle of Rottingdean 1377
Who Fought
French: 300 horsemen (part of a fleet of 120 ships under Jean de Vienne). English: approximately 500 men led by the Prior of Lewes.
History & Significance
Rottingdean is a village in the city of Brighton and Hove, on the south coast of England. It borders the villages Saltdean, Ovingdean and Woodingdean, and has a historic centre.
The name Rottingdean is normally interpreted as the valley of the people associated with Rōta (a male personal name). Rota was probably the leader of a band of Saxons who invaded the region in 450–500 AD and replaced the existing Romano-British inhabitants. The first recorded mention is Rotingeden, in the Domesday Book of 1086. Other variations to be found in ancient charters include Ruttingedene (1272), Rottyngden (1315) and Rottendeane (1673).
The name was contrasted unflatteringly with Goodwood (another place in Sussex) in a national 1970s advertising campaign for wood-preserver.
Rottingdean is in a dry valley whose sides in the upper reaches are quite steep, and this valley comes right down to the English Channel coast.
The parish became part of county borough of Brighton in 1928. In 1996 it regained an independent parish council, the only one in what is now the city of Brighton and Hove. Within the parish lies the deserted hamlet of Balsdean. The adjacent village of Woodingdean was formerly (until 1933) part of Rottingdean parish. Also formerly in the parish were most of the district of what is now Saltdean; Roedean School, an independent school for girls; and the Blind Veterans UK Centre, a rehabilitation centre for blinded ex-Service personnel.
The first settled inhabitants of Rottingdean were the Neolithic people, arriving around 2500 BC. They would have hacked down trees and scrub to make fields for the growing of cereals such as barley. Through the ages, from Neolithic to Bronze to Iron Age, from Roman to Anglo-Saxon the same fields were probably worked. A Bronze Age barrow and pottery fragments were found when houses were being built in the area now known as Rottingdean Heights, east of the village centre. On the other side of the village, an Iron Age burial site was uncovered in 1863 on Beacon Hill.
The Celtic Iron Age mode of life probably continued much unchanged after the arrival of the Romans in 43 AD, but, from the middle of the third century, people living near the coast were terrorised by Saxon raiders. Some panic-stricken wealthy Romano-Britons took their money from their villas and buried it in pots on remote downland sites. One such hoard was unearthed at Balsdean and contained over a thousand coins dating from the years 275–287. After the Romans withdrew from Britain, Saxons started to settle in Sussex, the name Sussex being derived from the land of the South Saxons. In the sixth century, the South Saxons settled in Rottingdean, with their leader probably giving rise to the name of the village (see above).
The ground they fought on
The site of Battle of Rottingdean 1377 lies on White Chalk Subgroup, bedrock that formed in the Maastrichtian. The rock here is chalk.
The French, observing the Prior of Lewes advancing with 500 men, set a carefully prepared ambush using 300 horsemen, turning the English relief force's march into a disaster; at least 100 English were killed, the Prior himself was captured alongside two knights and an esquire, and the village was plundered, burned, and its crops destroyed, with tradition holding that villagers who took refuge in the church perished when the French set it alight.
- English: at least 100 killed; the Prior of Lewes, Sir John Falvesley, Sir Thomas Cheyne, and John Brocas captured. John Brocas died, probably of wounds. French casualties described as sufficient to deter an attack on Lewes.
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