Combat displays, archery, axe throwing and more at The Battle of Lewes 2025

Organisers said the free event takes place on Saturday and Sunday, May 10-11, at The Convent Field and the Priory.

This year’s show will feature craft stalls, historical re-enactors in costume, archery, axe throwing, mead quaffing, a full medieval camp, combat displays and more.

The Lewes Priority Trust said The Battle of Lewes took place on May 14, 1264 and was one of the two main battles of the Second Barons’ War. The battle was between the forces of King Henry III and the barons led by Simon de Montfort. It ended in the defeat of the king and the signing of the Mise of Lewes.

Jon Gunson, Battle of Lewes resident historian, said: “When the Norman and Angevin kings doled out parcels of land in exchange for military service, they made the wise decision to avoid letting any one knight have too many manors in any part of the country. The last thing one wants is for one’s magnates to build up regional powerbases with which to challenge royal authority – and this, of course, is exactly what they will try to do. Someone should make a board game of this; a cross between Monopoly and Snakes and Ladders. The major pieces in the game are castles, monasteries and farms, and the lesser pieces are mills, markets, fish-weirs and parish churches. The aim is to expand one’s manors and, if possible, join them up to create a large estate, and a big retinue to go with it. The tactics involved include purchase, dynastic marriage, the cultivation of royal favour and – if no-one is looking – the judicious use of theft and murder.

“There is also an echo here of the playground game, grandmother’s footsteps. If the King turns round suddenly and sees what you are doing, the penalty might be exile, disgrace or death. Don’t worry too much about the death bit, though; it is the family that matters, not the individual. Families can bounce back.”

Jon said people should bear this in mind when studying the Battle of Lewes.

He said: “Whether fighting for the King or de Montfort, the combatant knights and barons would be very much aware that they were fighting both against, and beside, people whom they considered as mortal rivals in their long quarrels over land and influence.

“If you doubt this, please note that after Lewes, one of the main reasons that de Montfort’s regime started to fall apart was the disproportionate share of lands and offices he allocated to his family – and, after Evesham, there was a feeding frenzy among the royalists as they competed in the seizure of estates that had belonged to baronial casualties. It actually got so bad that they were even stealing from each other, and the resulting court cases dragged on for years.”

Jon highlighted the case of John de Warenne, calling it ‘instructive’. He said: “His most important landholding – the caput, in technical terms, of the Honour of Warenne – was his home base at Lewes, with its castle, its port, and its great sheep-runs. However, he also held manors throughout England, and this brought him into conflict with other magnates. One of the men who fought beside him in 1264 was Hugh Bigod, brother of the Earl of Norfolk. The Bigod and Warenne families had fought for three generations over the Norfolk town of Thetford. Another was Alan la Zouche, High Sheriff of Northamptonshire. In 1270 there was a case heard at Westminster Hall – in the King’s presence! – to settle a dispute between the two men over the ownership of a manor. When the case seemed to be going la Zouche’s way, Warenne murdered him. This cost Warenne a great deal of money (and he still lost the case)."

Jon said much of the land around Lewes belonged to the Priory of St Pancras or other religious foundations. He explained: “What was left was held by a bewildering variety of tenants: those who held of de Warenne tending to be royalists; others, less so. Some of them have left their names upon the landscape. William de Say held Hamsey – or Hammes Say, as it was then known. Waleran de Monceux held Hurstmonceux, Robert de Pierpoint held Hurstpierpoint, and I imagine you can guess which family held Tarring Neville. Some tenures are less predictable – Justiciar Philip Bassett held Berwick, and Robert de Bruce, grandfather of King Robert I, held the village of Ripe. William Bardolf held Piddinghoe, Plumpton and Portslade, which makes him sound, does it not? Like a local man. However he also held lands in Leicestershire, Norfolk, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. Lots of scope for conflict, there.”