# Timeline of Sussex history

This is a timeline of Sussex history. To read about the background to these events, see History of Sussex. See also the list of monarchs of Sussex.

## 1st century

| Year | Event |
| c. 15 | Verica succeeds Eppillus as king of the southern Atrebates (approximately modern Sussex and south-east Hampshire) with a capital at or close to what went on to become the Roman Noviomagus Reginorum (modern Chichester) |
| by 42 | Caratacus, king of the Catuvellauni tribe, conquers the southern Atrebatic kingdom and expels Verica. |
| c.43 | Romans land on Sussex coast as part of the Roman conquest of Britain, perhaps in support of Verica. Under Roman rule the client kingdom of the Regni or Regnenses is created from the southern Atrebatic kingdom for Cogidubnus that includes much of what is to become Sussex. |
| c.75 | The largest Roman residence north of the Alps is built close to what is now Chichester Harbour |
| c.80 | Kingdom of Regni or Regnenses, becomes a Roman canton or civitas with its capital at Noviomagus Reginorum (modern Chichester). |

## 2nd century

| Year | Event |
| 121/122 | A stone statue, perhaps the largest in Roman Britain, is erected at what is now Chichester Harbour |
| c.150 | Ptolemy's Geography mentions several places in what was to become Sussex including Magnus Portus, Noeomagus (Noviomagus Reginorum), Novus Portus and the Flavius Trisantona (River Arun). |
| c.190 | Construction begins on a Romano-British villa just north of the South Downs, close to Stane Street |

## 3rd century

| Year | Date | Event | Reference |
| c.200-250 | | Beachy Head Lady buried at East Dean, the first known person of sub-Saharan origin in Britain. | |
| c.293-300 | | The Romans build the Saxon Shore fort of Anderitum at Pevensey | |

## 5th century

| Year | Event |
| c.410 | Romans leave Britain |
| 460s onwards | Hoard of coins deposited at what is now Patching. |
| c.477 | Aelle arrived at Cymenshore; Aelle goes on to become the first king of Sussex and the first Bretwalda. |
| 485 | Battle of Mercredesburne |
| 491 | Siege of Anderitum in modern Pevensey. |

## 6th century

| Year | Date | Event | Reference |
| c.500 | | The beginning of the Heptarchy, which includes the Kingdom of Sussex. | |

## 7th century

| Year | Event |
| 607 | Ceolwulf of Wessex fights the South Saxons |
| 661 | King Æthelwealh of Sussex becomes Christian and his territory expands westwards to include the Meon Valley and the Isle of Wight. |
| c. 679 | Sussex is affected by famine. |
| 681 | St Wilfrid arrives in Sussex. |
| c.681 | Selsey Abbey founded. |
| 685-686 | Cædwalla of Wessex invades Sussex, killing King Æthelwealh of Sussex. |
| 686 | South Saxons attack Hlothere, king of Kent, in support of Hlothere's nephew Eadric. |
| c.7th century | Sussex appears in the Tribal Hidage. |

## 8th century

| Year | Event |
| c.700 | Parts of Sussex are mentioned in the Ravenna Cosmography including Nouiomago or Nauimago regentium (Chichester) and Anderito (Pevensey). |
| 710 | King Nunna of Sussex and King Ine of Wessex clash with King Geraint of Dumnonia (Devon and Cornwall). |
| c.715 | Eadberht, Abbot of Selsey is consecrated the first bishop of the South Saxons. |
| 771 | King Offa of Mercia defeats the Haestingas and adds their kingdom to the Kingdom of Sussex. |

## 9th century

| Year | Event |
| c.827 | Sussex annexed by Kingdom of Wessex |
| 828 | Historia Brittonum is written, which refers to the "Night of the Long Knives" in which Sussex is ceded by sub-Roman authorities to Saxons. |
| 839 | Æthelstan becomes "King of the Dwellers in Kent, of the East Saxons, of the South Saxons and of Surrey" on the authority of his father, Æthelwulf of Wessex. |
| 858 | Æthelwulf of Wessex buried at Steyning. |
| 860 | Æthelberht of Wessex becomes king of Wessex. Sussex, together with Essex, Kent and Surrey, is fully subsumed as part of this kingdom. |
| 885 | King Alfred meets his biographer, Asser, for the first time at Alfred's royal estate at Dean in Sussex. |

## 10th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| After 915 | | The Burghal Hidage lists five burhs (fortified towns or forts) in Sussex at Chichester, Burpham, Lewes, Hastings and Eorpeburnan |
| 927 | | Æthelstan styles himself as King of the English, becoming the first king to do so. |
| 930 | 3 April | England-wide Royal Council (Witenagemot) takes place at Lyminster, included King Æthelstan and his councillors. |
| 994 | | Vikings commanded by Olaf Tryggvason and Sweyn Forkbeard raid the coast of Sussex. |

## 11th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1011 | | The last Viking raid on Sussex takes place at Hastings. Later in the same year, Sussex is ruled by the Danes |
| 1049 | | Sweyn Godwinson abducts his cousin Beorn at Bosham and later murders him. |
| 1064 | | Harold Godwinson sets sail for Normandy from Bosham. |
| 1066 | September | William of Normandy lands at Pevensey. |
| 1066 | 14 October | Battle of Hastings at Senlac Hill. |
| 1075 | | The Council of London decrees that the bishopric for Sussex should be moved from Selsey Abbey to a new cathedral at Chichester. |
| 1088 | | Rebellion of 1088: William II captures the rebel leader Odo of Bayeux in a six-week siege at Pevensey Castle. |
| 1090 | | First mention of Church in the wood Hollington, Saint Leonards on Sea |

## 12th century

| Year | Event |
| 1107 | Henry I of England grants Bishop Ralph de Luffa the right to hold a fair in Chichester, which becomes known as the Sloe Fair. |
| 1108 | Chichester Cathedral is consecrated under Bishop Ralph de Luffa. |
| 1139 | Siege of Arundel - part of the events of the Anarchy. |
| 1155 | Earliest known charter of the Cinque Ports, included Hastings and later Rye, Winchelsea and Seaford. |
| 1187 | Fire destroys Chichester Cathedral and much of the city of Chichester. |
| 1194 | While Richard the Lionheart is held captive in France, King John's forces lay siege to Chichester Castle. |
| 1199 | Chichester Cathedral is re-consecrated under Bishop Seffrid II. |

## 13th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1208 | | King John confiscates Bramber Castle from the de Braose family, after suspecting them of treachery. |
| 1215 | 22 January | While King John visits Knepp Castle for 4 days, confederated barons assemble in London to determine how best to check the career of this vicious king. |
| 1216 | | in part of the First Barons' War, Rye and Winchelsea open their gates to Prince Louis of France in an unsuccessful bid to take the crown from the hated King John |
| 1216 | | Chichester Castle is attacked and occupied by Prince Louis of France. |
| 1217 | | A force of Wealdsmen led by William of Cassingham ambushes Prince Louis of France and his men at Lewes, pursuing them to Winchelsea. |
| 1225 | | Chichester Castle is demolished so that it cannot be used again by French forces |
| 1250-1262 | | The Rape of Chichester is created, the last of Sussex's six sub-divisions, known as Rapes. |
| 1262 | | Pope Urban IV canonises St Richard of Chichester, former bishop of Chichester and now Sussex's patron saint. |
| 1264 | 14 May | Battle of Lewes |
| 1287 | February | Old Winchelsea completely destroyed by flood. |

## 14th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1315 | | The Great Famine of 1315–17 brings a relatively large increase in mortality in Sussex and across much of northern Europe. |
| 1336 | | Edward III decides to site the county court for Sussex at Chichester. |
| 1338 | | Start of the English Channel naval campaign, part of the Hundred Years' War, saw the unwalled Hastings burnt to the ground. |
| 1348 | | Over the next 20 years the Black Death kills perhaps half of the population of Sussex. |
| 1350 | 29 August | Battle of Winchelsea |
| 1353 | | Chichester is named as the staple port for Sussex in the Statute of the Staple. |
| 1377 | 10 December | Bishop William Reade receives permission to fortify Amberley Castle. |
| 1381 | | Peasants' Revolt: people from Sussex participate in riots in London; Lewes Castle is sacked; |
| 1385 | | Work begins on Bodiam Castle |

## 15th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1406 | | James I of Scotland is imprisoned in Pevensey Castle, where Henry IV of England provided for his education. |
| 1419 | | Joan of Navarre, dowager Queen of England, is imprisoned in Pevensey Castle for the next three years after her step-son Henry V accuses her of planning to destroy the king by sorcery |
| 1450 | June | Rebels involved in Jack Cade's Rebellion assemble outside London. |
| 1450 | 12 July | Jack Cade fatally wounded at Cade Street. |
| 1451 | Easter week | John and William Merfold indicted after publicly inciting the killing of the nobility, clergy, the deposition of King Henry VI and advocating rule by common people. |

## 16th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1504 | | A statute is passed to alternate the court of the High Sheriff of Sussex between Chichester and Lewes. |
| 1538 | 20 December | Shrine of St Richard destroyed following a royal order from Henry VIII. |
| 1545 | 20 July | After the Battle of the Solent, the French Navy landed at Brighton and Newhaven but is repulsed. |
| 1555-1557 | | As part of the Marian Persecutions, a significant number of men are martyred for their Protestant faith, including 17 men burnt alive in Lewes. |
| c.1562 | | First Huguenot community arrived at Rye, arriving at Winchelsea the following year. |
| 1588 | 1 October | Ralph Crockett and Edward James executed in Chichester for being Catholic priests. |

## 17th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1611 | 24 March | The first known reference to cricket being played by adults is recorded at Sidlesham on the Manhood peninsula. |
| 1611 | | First recorded use of the emblem of Sussex in John Speed's Theatrum Imperii Maganae Britanniae |
| 1624 | 10 September | Jasper Vinall becomes the first person recorded to have died as a result of an incident in a game of cricket |
| 1642 | December | English Civil War: Battle of Muster Green in Haywards Heath results in the deaths or fleeing of 200 Royalists |
| 1642 | 22–27 December | English Civil War: Siege of Chichester |
| 1643 | 14 April - 1 May | English Civil War: Siege of Arundel Castle |
| 1643 | 13 December | English Civil War: Battle of Bramber Bridge |
| 1643-1644 | 19 December 1643 – 6 January 1644 | English Civil War: Siege of Arundel |
| 1655 | | George Fox preaches at Ifield and as a result the first weekly Quaker meeting in Sussex is held; the first Quaker Friends meeting house in Sussex is built in 1676. |
| 1690 | 10 July | Battle of Beachy Head. |

## 18th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1743 | 27 August | Henry Pelham, one of the two MPs elected to the county of Sussex constituency, becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain. |
| 1745 | | Sussex Weekly Advertiser first published. |
| 1748 | February | The brutal murders take place of William Galley and Daniel Chater by the Hawkhurst Gang of smugglers. |
| 1749 | 16 January | At a special Assize in Chichester, seven men were convicted of smuggling and their part in murders carried out by the Hawkhurst Gang. |
| 1768 | 19 February | Thomas Paine moves to Lewes, where he develops his political ideas, particularly as part of the Headstrong Club. |
| 1794 | | Sussex Yeomanry founded when there was a threat of invasion in the Napoleonic Wars. |

## 19th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1801 | 27 November | Prince Augustus Frederick becomes Duke of Sussex |
| 1804 | 3 June | Birth of Richard Cobden, statesman and co-founder of the Anti-Corn Law League |
| 1804 | | Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond, gets royal permission for the title 'Sussex' to be transferred from the 25th Regiment of Foot to the 35th (Royal Sussex) Regiment of Foot. This regiment was replaced by the Royal Sussex Regiment 180 years later in 1881. |
| 1813 | | Ashburnham blast furnace is closed, the last in the Weald as iron production is produced more cheaply in the Midlands and the north of England using coke. |
| 1822 | | Gideon Mantell discovers dinosaur teeth in Tilgate Forest that he later names as a new genus of dinosaur found 'iguanadon', the second named genus of dinosaur. |
| 1823 | | Sussex's first pier, the Chain Pier, is built in Brighton. |
| 1828 | 11 June | Sussex County Hospital (now Royal Sussex County Hospital) opens in Brighton |
| 1830 | | Captain Swing riots take place across Sussex and England. |
| 1832 | | The Petworth Emigration Scheme is set up by the Earl of Egremont. Over the next five years around 1,800 working-class people from Sussex and neighbouring counties emigrate to Upper Canada to escape poverty. |
| 1835 | | John Sparshott is hanged in Horsham, becoming the second to last person in England to be put to death for homosexuality |
| 1836 | 27 December | Lewes avalanche kills 8 people. |
| 1837 | 27 March | Death of Maria Fitzherbert, longtime companion of the future King George IV of the United Kingdom at her home in Steine House, Brighton. |
| 1839 | 1 March | Sussex County Cricket Club formed, the first county cricket club. |
| 1840 | 11 May | The first railway line in Sussex, from Brighton to Shoreham opens. |
| 1853 | | Lewes Prison, the local prison for male prisoners in Sussex, is opened. |
| 1861 | 25 August | Clayton Tunnel rail crash results in 23 deaths. |
| 1864 | 25 July | Ebernoe Horn Fair is revived after a long lapse. |
| 1865 | | The County of Sussex Act 1865 confirms the sub-division of Sussex into east and west areas for purposes of administration. |
| 1884 | | Skeleton Army riots in Worthing |
| 1889 | | County Councils were established for Sussex's eastern and western divisions. |
| 1893 | | An outbreak of typhoid fever in Worthing results in 188 fatalities. |
| 1894 | | Administration of the south of Tunbridge Wells and south of Lamberhurst is transferred to Kent County Council |
| 1896 | | The National Trust acquires its first property, Alfriston Clergy House in Alfriston. |

## 20th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1907 | | "Sussex by the Sea", written by William Ward-Higgs from his South Bersted home, is published for the first time. |
| 1910 | | An airfield is established at Shoreham Airport making it one of the world's first airports. |
| 1916 | 24 March | Without warning a German submarine mistakenly torpedoes the SS Sussex, a cross-channel ferry, 13 miles (21 km) south of Dungeness resulting in 80 deaths. |
| 1916 | 30 June | Battle of the Boar's Head, known as "the Day Sussex Died" |
| 1918 | 13 October | At a meeting at Danny House in Hurstpierpoint, the Imperial War Cabinet agrees terms of the armistice to be offered to Germany at the end of World War I. |
| 1925 | | The Administration of Estates Act 1925 abolishes the custom of 'borough English' or ultimogentiture, a practice that prevailed more extensively in Sussex than elsewhere in England. |
| 1926 | 11 May | Angry confrontations known as Battle of Lewes Road take place in Brighton during the 1926 United Kingdom general strike. |
| 1934 | 9 October | Fascists and anti-Fascists clash at the Battle of South Street in Worthing. |
| 1940 | September | Operation Sea Lion planned by Nazi Germany to land on the Sussex coast and part of the coast of Kent and invade the United Kingdom. |
| 1940 | | German air raids on Sussex begin, those in Brighton being known as the Brighton Blitz. |
| 1942 | | Dieppe Raid launched from Newhaven. |
| 1943 | | Deception plan Operation Fortitude launched to convince Nazis that invasion would come from First United States Army Group based in Sussex and Kent to invade the Pas-de-Calais department of northern France. |
| 1944 | | Ports of Shoreham and Newhaven used as embarkation points for the D-Day landings. |
| 1945 | 8 May | VE Day marks the end of the war in Europe. |
| 1945 | 15 August | VJ Day marks the end of World War II. |
| 1946 | 7 September | Teddy Donaldson establishes a new official airspeed world record of 615.78 mph (991.00 km/h; 535.10 kn) in a Gloster Meteor F.4 over Littlehampton. |
| 1946 | | New Towns Act 1946 designates Crawley as the site of a new town. |
| 1953 | 7 September | Neville Duke establishes a new official world air speed record of 727.63 mph (1,171.01 km/h), flying Hunter WB188. |
| 1961 | August | Charter granted to the University of Sussex, the first university in Sussex. |
| 1962 | | Chichester Festival Theatre opens. |
| 1965 | 14 June | Bishop David Cashman is made the first bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Arundel and Brighton. |
| 1966 | | Sussex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty was designated; it was revoked in 2010 upon the establishment of the South Downs National Park. |
| 1967 | | The first Brighton Festival and Brighton Fringe are held |
| 1967 | | The first South of England Show is held at Ardingly. |
| 1967 | 4 November | Iberia Flight 062 crashes into the southern slope of Blackdown killing all 37 people on board |
| 1968 | | Sussex Police is formed. |
| 1970 | | A team at the Institute of Development Studies and the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex publishes the Sussex Manifesto at the request of the United Nations. |
| 1971 | | Chichester Harbour Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is set up by an Act of Parliament. |
| 1972 | July | The South Downs Way is established as Sussex's first National Trail and the UK's first long-distance bridleway. |
| 1972 | October | Sussex Gay Liberation Front holds a demonstration in favour of gay rights, a precursor to the annual Brighton Pride event |
| 1974 | | As part of the Local Government Act 1972 the Lord Lieutenancy of Sussex replaced with one each for East and West Sussex which are made ceremonial counties. |
| 1980 | | Wilton Park is used as a venue for South African leaders including Jacob Zuma and the ruling National Party to meet behind closed doors. |
| 1982 | | At a meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Brighton, delegates vote for a moratorium on commercial whaling. |
| 1983 | 22 October | BBC Radio Brighton is relaunched as BBC Radio Sussex. |
| 1983 | 28 October | High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is confirmed. |
| 1983 | | The Sussex Border Path is devised. The main path is 222 km (138 mi) long and stays close to Sussex's borders with Hampshire, Surrey and Kent, connecting Thorney Island to Rye. |
| 1984 | 12 October | Brighton bombing assassination attempt on Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher |

## 21st century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 2000 | | Brighton and Hove is granted city status, becoming Sussex's second city |
| 2000 | | Sir Charles Burrell, 10th Baronet begins the process of rewilding land at what went on to become Knepp Wildland, the first lowland rewilding project in England |
| 2002 | 7 October | Piers Sellers becomes the first native of Sussex to journey into outer space. |
| 2003 | | Thousands of Chagossians settle in Crawley following their earlier forced eviction by the UK Government from Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean |
| 2005 | 5 December | The first civil partnership formed under the Civil Partnership Act 2004 takes place between Matthew Roche and Christopher Cramp at St Barnabas Hospice, Worthing |
| 2007 | 16 June | Sussex Day, Sussex's county day is celebrated for the first time. |
| 2009 | 14 March | Finance ministers and central bankers of the G20 meet at South Lodge Hotel in Lower Beeding in advance of the 2009 G20 London summit. |
| 2011 | 1 April | South Downs National Park becomes fully operational. |
| 2011 | 20 May | Flag of Sussex registered by Flag Institute. |
| 2012 | 21 November | Katy Bourne is elected as the first Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner |
| 2013 | Summer | Protests against fracking take place in Balcombe |
| 2013 | 21 November | Beachy Head West, Kingmere and Pagham Harbour are made the first Marine Conservation Zones in Sussex waters. |
| 2014 | | UNESCO designates land between the Rivers Adur and Ouse to be the Brighton and Lewes Downs Biosphere Reserve, Sussex's first UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. |
| 2015 | 22 August | A Hawker Hunter T7 military aircraft participating in the Shoreham Airshow crashes onto the A27 dual carriageway outside of Shoreham Airport, killing 11 people and injuring 16 others. |
| 2015 | 15 December | Timothy Peake becomes the first British European Space Agency astronaut as well as the first person from Sussex to board the International Space Station. |
| 2016 | May | The South Downs National Park is granted International Dark Sky Reserve status, to restrict artificial light pollution above the park; it is the second such area in England and the 11th in the world. |
| 2016 | 23 June | The people of Sussex vote to leave the EU by a margin of 50.23% to 49.77% or 4,413 votes in the referendum on UK membership of the EU. |
| 2018 | | The Rampion Wind Farm becomes operational, a wind farm that lies off the Sussex coast between Worthing and Seaford. |
| 2018 | 3 October | Prince Harry and Meghan Markle make their first official visit to Sussex as Duke and Duchess of Sussex |
| 2019 | 31 May | DEFRA designate "Selsey Bill and the Hounds" as a Marine Conservation Zone. The zone is an inshore site which covers an area of approximately 16 square kilometres (6.2 sq mi) and is located by the town of Selsey. The site adjoins the Bracklesham Bay Site of Special Scientific Interest. |
| 2020 | 6 February | The first case in Sussex of COVID-19 was reported when a man who returned from Singapore and France to the Brighton on 28 January |
| 2021 | March | DEFRA announces a bylaw first proposed by the Sussex IFCA to prevent trawling on 304 square kilometres (117 sq mi) of sea bed off the coast of Sussex. The law should help the rewilding and regeneration of the Sussex kelp forest. |