ABSTRACT
In the early Middle Ages the patronage of religious houses was one of the preserves of thegreat and powerful. Kings and feudal lords, lay and ecclesiastical, founded monasteries for various reasons. Traditionally, Battle Abbey (Sussex) was said to have been founded after a vow made by Duke William before the Battle of Hastings, as stated in a forged charter of 1154, but in fact the monastery is more likely to have resulted from an arrangement made between the papacy and the king in c. 1070. William was formally recrowned by papal legates, and heavy penalties were imposed on the Normans for the bloodshed of the invasion and the subsequent pacification of England. The name ‘Battle Abbey’ demonstrates well the arrogance and self-confidence of the conquerors. William insisted that the high altar was to be on the spot where Harold was killed. The site, a narrow ridge on open heathland, appalled the monks and involved them in extensive terracing and the construction of massive undercrofts. The plan of the east end of Battle Abbey as it was built in the thirteenth century was derived from Henry III’s rebuilding of Westminster Abbey 1246-59; it was a chevet of five radiating chapels. During the fourteenth century the abbots were the main organizers of the defence of the coast between Romney Marsh and Pevensey Levels. They built the remarkable gatehouse which dominates the place, like a miniature keep, capable of resisting the French raids which plagued the coastal areas of eastern Sussex.
