On Monday, August 27th, the king went to ("Begehamme") Bayham Abbey, where three pikes were offered him, one from the abbot, two from John de Grovehurst[1] (d). A horse had been hired to bring down from London 600 pears, and 600 large nuts in one day to this abbey, and a lad was paid 8d. wages for accompanying it (c). As only fish and fruit are mentioned, it must be supposed that the king went on for his more substantial meal to Robertsbridge Abbey (f), where the abbot had provided two carcases of oxen (carcas' boum), and 6 cheeses, from the court of Rudham (de curia Rudhami). Rudham cheese may have been then famous — a fair of three days in July was established by Henry III in 1227, in the manor of Rudham, county Norfolk, which belonged to the prior of Cokesford. This priory had been founded in the time of Henry III by William Cheyney (de Querceto), and the manor of Rudham was a gift to it from Hervey Beleth, whose mother was a Cheyney. It is probable therefore that these cheeses had been sent to Bayham through the good offices of the Cheyneys, who held land in Sussex. Here he dated the appointment of Henry de Hanbury as justice of the Common Pleas, and Nicholas Fastolfe as chief justice of the same court, besides granting a safe conduct to James Beauflor (f).
On Tuesday, August 28th, the king came to Battle (la Battaill) (f), and was doubtless welcomed in the abbey with due honour as the descendant of the great founder, after a journey which the hilly nature of the country and the bad roads must have made tedious and difficult.[2] The first duty on his arrival was to attend divine service, with an offering of gratitude. The following is the entry in his officer's accounts:—
"For the offering of our Lord the king at the great altar of the conventual church of Battle, at the great mass celebrated in presence of the said lord king at Battle, 28th day of August, in money 7s., and in the price of one cloth of gold of red silk of Raffat purchased, offered there by the same on the same day, 50s., total 57s." (e).
- ↑ This knight, besides other possessions, held forty acres of land at Horsemonden, in which church a fine effigy of him remains in brass. GDhe inscription records his gift of Leueshotte manor to Bayham Abbey. He died about 1330—40.
- ↑ In King John's expenses the charge of conveyance of goods in Sussex is frequently recorded. Hiring seven carts to carry weapons, &c. from Arundel to Lewes, one day, vs. xd. — one cart with 2 horses from Chichester to Arundel vid. — carts with 5 horses from Odiham to the Abbey of Battle in 6 days, for hay and oats viis. vii½d, — 6 carts with 2 horses each from Lewes to Battle in one day, vs." — Rot. Misse, 14o Joh. in Cole's Documents of 13th and 14th Century, 1844.
