Bramble, is significant enough; the termination: of Brambre, and Bremborowe, bears also an equally palpable meaning. Philip de Braose, son of the above William, granted four salt-works at his town of Brembre to the monks of Lewes priory. The great landed possession of this once prosperous family, contributed to interrupt the good fortune which had hitherto attended them, and exposed William de Braose to the persecution of a monarch, not scrupulous in his conduct, when ambition and avarice prompted his actions. He was the son of Philip de Braose, and he married Maud de St. Valarie, or de Haya; his sons were, William, Giles, and Reginald; and of fourdaughters, Maud was married to Griffith, Prince of South Wales. In the year 1208, King John, suspecting the fidelity of his nobles, required hostages for their allegiance; of William de Braose he demanded his sons, whom his wife, Matilda, peremptorily refused to resign. It is stated of this lady, that, in resisting the demands of the king, she avowed her determination not to trust her children with a prince who had so basely murdered his own nephew, whom he was in honour bound to protect. This speech soon reached the monarch's ears, who secretly sent soldiers to seize the whole family; but they, being apprised of his intention, had previously fled to Ireland. Rymer, (fol. 162.) has given us an important; document in Latin, which, if it does not propound the whole truth of this barbarous and tyrannical persecution, at least professes to declare the truth, and shews that a very great sensation throughout the kingdom was the consequence of the violence of King John upon this occasion. His treacherous nature is fully pourtrayed, by the masterly pen of the author of Ivanhoe, at the time when he governed the kingdom in the name of his brother Richard. How much the atrocities of his subsequent life had procured him the hatred and contempt of the barons, is declared in history. He himself published this Latin declaration of the causes for which he seized the barony of William de Braose. He begins by stating that Braose owed him a large arrear on account of great possessions in Ireland granted him by King John; that all payment was avoided, except of one hundred pounds, and that, after a lapse of years, the king seized upon the castles of Braose in England and Wales, but found nothing of sufficient value to liquidate the debt. Whereupon, Braose took up arms, set upon the king's servants who held his castles, and slew several of them; that he went to Limerick, in Ireland, and collected a band of retainers, which obliged John to prepare an armament for reducing him as a rebel; upon the point of embarkation, the king was stayed by the dis sembled submission of Braose, who came to him in person, and agreed to pay a fine of 40,000 marks. The wife of Braose, declaring no such sum could be raised, went to Ireland with William, her eldest son, to raise an armed force; they were there captured by the king's commanders, and transmitted to him; she then promised, if the king would receive her husband's submission at Bristol, that the fine should be collected, which John declares he consented to; but Braose took shipping, and quitted the kingdom, upon which he had him outlawed. Here then is the motive of cupidity acknowledged, and justified by the rebellious act of a feudal baron, seeking to retain his castles by force of arms, when seized for a pecuniary debt; a forcible re-occupation, was, however, a procedure not by any means unusual with the powerful barons. The dispute ended in the total ruin of De Braose; for Matthew of Westminster, anno 1210, 12th John, says, that Maud de Braose, and her eldest son William, were miserably famished at Windsor, whilst in custody; and William de Braose, her husband, escaping beyond sea, died at Paris, an outlaw. The king seized his barony, as appears by the following inquisition : "Willielmus de Brews et antecessores ejus tenuerunt, Rapum de Brembre, in capite de dno Rege, et antecessoribus ejus, ex Conquestu Angliæ, per servitium X milit. Dns Rex habet Rapum de Brembre in manu sua." King John, after thus. seizing Brembre into his own hands, then granted the lordship of Bramber and its Castle to Richard, Earl of Cornwall. A short time before his death John restored a great part of his father's possessions to Reginald de Braose, the surviving son of William. Henry III. restored also to Reginald de Braóse the Castle and honour of Brembre. King John, who had in early life shewn so much opposition to the papal influence, was constrained, by the terrors of a harassed conscience, and the revolt of his chief lords, (who preferred the sway of Lewis the Dauphin, a foreigner, and an enemy to the country, rather than any longer to submit to this tyrant and usurper,) to crouch to the legate Pandolf, and submit himself entirely to the commands of that able churchman. It is probable, therefore, that the restitution of his estate to Reginald de Braose, after it had for many years been enjoyed by the king's son, the Earl of Cornwall, was a matter of conscience insisted upon by his spiritual director, before he would absolve him from the crime he had been guilty of towards his parents, William and Matilda de Braose. * William de Braose, son of Reginald, married Eve, daughter of Walter Mareschal, and had four daughters, of whom, Isabel was married to David, son of Lleweline, Prince of Wales. Knighton says, S that William de Braose was murdered by Llewe→ line, on account of jealousy. Dugdale reports, also, that one of his successors, (though not his own descendant, for he died without male issue,) John de Braiose, married Margaret, daughter of Lleweline, Prince of Wales, and was killed, at Brembre, by a fall from his horse. Bramber came afterwards, by marriage with the heiress of the Braoses, into the possession of the Dukes of Norfolk, of whom mention is elsewhere made. In the 1st Henry VII. the castle and manor of Bramber was granted to Lord de la Warre, on the attainder of the Duke of Norfolk. See Pages 250 and 270. Bramber Castle, within the wall, 10 rood; the outer walls, next the foundation, 9 feet thick; gate walls, from set-off next the ground, 11 feet thick. South-West View of Steyning Church.-See IT has been a disputed question, whether this church was constructed by the Saxons or by the Normans; it may be sufficient to hint that the present structure is of both kinds of architecture, being repaired shortly after the Conquest, but it |