Tag: Cinque Ports Confederation

Grandmother Of Parliaments

By Christopher Davson

Reproduced from a “Rye’s Own” article of 1973

Westminster prides itself on its nickname the “Mother of Parliaments” — not because it was the first democratic assembly (even the Greeks had a word for that!) but because that Parliament which Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, and victor of the battle of Lewes summoned at Westminster in 1265, including elected representatives, has not only continued ever since at Westminster but has formed the pattern for so many assemblies overseas. Continue reading Grandmother Of Parliaments

Evolution of the Sailing Ship Through Seals

The Common seals of the Cinque Ports and a number of other ports are of interest and value in understanding the evolution of European sailing ships in the Middle Ages. Continue reading Evolution of the Sailing Ship Through Seals

Hastings – Cinque Port

The 1840 Sussex Directory claimed that Hastings was the head of the Cinque Ports Confederation before telling us it was a Corporate and Parliamentary Borough, demonstrating the importance still placed in the Cinque Ports heritage at that time, even though the Kent & Sussex fleet’s days of glory were well over by the time of the Spanish Armada, when just twelve vessels from the Cinque Ports were represented in Drake’s fleet. Continue reading Hastings – Cinque Port

The Cinque Ports

CORONATION PRIVILEGES

By Kenneth Clarke

Although the origins of the Cinque Ports are unknown, their individual beginnings preceded the Norman Conquest, for the Domesday Book records that during the reign of Edward the Confessor the burgesses of Dover, Sandwich and Romney were liable to supply to ‘the King, once in the year. Continue reading The Cinque Ports

The Port of Rye

The port was always used for commerce as well as military purposes. The Romans shipped much of their iron exports from it, for even in Roman days the Weald of Kent and Sussex were producing iron. Continue reading The Port of Rye