The church of Saint Nicholas, at Bramber Castle

King William honoured his oath to restore Steyning to Fécamp but not entirely to the satisfaction of the abbey. It was clearly not realistic to allow an important river entry into the country to be defended by monks. The Conqueror placed William de Braose at Bramber, where the new lord built a castle and began a vigorous dispute with his neighbours at Steyning. The boundaries of Fécamp's spiritual and secular powers were never quite reconciled with the Lords of Bramber, who had formidable powers of their own.

The practicalities of power even brought the King himself into dispute with Fécamp Abbey. The monks claimed the same freedoms in the strategic locality of Hastings as King Edward had given them at Steyning. This was more than royal generosity could allow! Technically, the Norman rule of law recognised all land tenure which exisited at the moment of King Edward's death, since King Harold was a usurper. Yet it was during Edward's reign that Harold's father had expelled the Norman monks. Were their claims valid or not? King William turned his back on the problem for nearly twenty years but in 1085 a compromise was finally agreed. The King confirmed the abbey's special position at Steyning but swapped the disputed property at Hastings for land at Bury.

Like every landowner in the realm, William de Braose and the Abbot of Fécamp were called to account by the compilers of the Domesday Book, completed in 1086. The process opened up a can of worms. It was found that William de Braose had built a bridge at Bramber and demanded tolls from ships travelling further along the river to the port at Steyning. The monks challenged Bramber's right to bury its parishioners in the churchyard at Saint Nicholas. This was William de Braose's new church, built to serve the castle but Fécamp demanded the burial fees.

King William had neglected to define the terms of his bargain with God concerning Steyning when he gave Bramber to William de Braose, so much so that the monks produced forged documents to defend their position. The dispute over Hastings had deprived the monks of the King's justice. In 1086 the King called his sons, barons and bishops to court to settle the issues. It took them a full day. The Abbey of Fécamp swayed the court in its favour. William de Braose was ordered to organise a mass exhumation, which must have been an unpleasant and distressing event.

Fécamp's victory meant that Bramber's dead were all moved to the churchyard of Saint Andrew's in Steyning. The tolls at William de Braose's bridge were curtailed. Fécamp also fought him and won over a rabbit warren, a park, eighteen burgage plots, a causeway, a channel to fill his moat and other encroachments onto the abbey's land.

This was a momentous event in English legal history. It was the last time an English king presided personally, with his full court, to decide a matter of law. The word of this legendary monarch might have been expected to settle matters once and for all. Far from it! The port at Steyning silted up and declined but disputes between the lords of Bramber, their own religious establishments and the church of Steyning continued for centuries. The significance of Edward the Confessor's gift and William the Conqueror's oath became lost in the mists of time but the legal muddle and confusion continued.

* From: Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum 1066-1154 Volume I, edited by H W C Davis (Oxford, 1913).

Links:

Victoria County History Sussex: Bramber Rape (Southern Part) .
The Barons de Braose .
The Parish of Beeding and Bramber with Botolphs .
L'Office de Tourisme de Fécamp .
Anglo-Saxons.net .
The Victorian Bayeux Tapestry .