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 POLITICAL HISTORY sent at the same time to garrison Winchelsea during the absence of its fleet at Sandwich.' In the same month John Fitz-Alan, Robert St. John and others were ordered to come with horses and arms to assist the younger Simon de Montfort in besieging the castle.^ Simon was in command of this enterprise in November 1264/ when a payment of seven hundred marks was ordered to be made to him for the expenses of the siege.* By the success of the royaHsts in bringing reinforcements of men and munitions by sea, the siege was prolonged/ and Simon was still occupied at Pevensey when orders were issued in the following March to summon Peter of Savoy at Pevensey, John de Warenne at Lewes, and Hugh Bigot at Bosham to attend the forthcoming parliament" — the historic parliament in which the cities and boroughs were to be represented for the first time ; and it was probably at Pevensey that in April 1265 he received his father's commands to cause John Fitz-Alan to surrender either his young son or his castle of Arundel as security for his good faith.' The siege was fruitless, but one mark of it is still visible in the gap which exists in the southern wall which was thrown down at this time.^ When the royalist cause began to recover its strength Montfort decided that his countess, who had been in residence at Porchester castle, would be safer at Dover; accordingly in June 1265 she passed through Chichester to Bramber, and thence to Wilmington, where, at the priory, her son Simon appears to have met her and escorted her through Battle to Winchelsea and thence to Dover castle, which was under the command of her eldest son Henry, who, however, shortly afterwards left to join his father and fall with him at Evesham.° Simon, also, in July was summoned to his father's aid, and raising the siege of Pevensey marched through Winchester to Kenilworth, where by his most unmilitary slackness he suffered a disastrous defeat which con- tributed largely to the ' debacle ' at Evesham. The Countess of Leicester, who continued to hold Dover, had with her several Sussex men ; there was a contingent of archers from Pevensey under John la Warre, who made himself so obnoxious to the royalists that the terms of composition for his estate were made particularly heavy ; a hundred sailors from Winchelsea, under Richard de Montfort; John de la Haye, who had been appointed constable of Rye and Winchelsea in August 1264; Waleran de Monceaux and Matthew de Hastings, the latter of whom seems to have had some share in the surrender of the castle to Prince Edward.'" After the fall of Dover, the Cinque Ports gave up the struggle, with the exception of Winchelsea, which was only taken by the Prince at the cost of much bloodshed.". The pendulum had thus swung back again and the royalists, restored to power, seized and con- fiscated the estates of the fallen party; but by the Diet of Kenilworth the ' rebels ' were permitted to compound for their estates, and this • Close, 48 Hen. III. m. 3. 2 Pat. 48 Hen. HI. m. 3d. 3 Close, 49 Hen. HI. m. 1 2d. * Pat. 49 Hen. III. m. 29. E Ibid. m. 28. 6 Close, 29 Hen. III. m. 11. ' Pat. 49 Hen. III. m. 17. s Exch. K.R. Accts. 479-15. » Blaauw, op. cit. 323-4. »" Ibid. 325-6 " Ibid. 331.