The First Battle of Middeherst was fought in late 1066 between the Norman nobleman William FitzOsbern and a hastily-assembled Anglo-Saxon fyrd commanded by Aelfric at present-day Midhurst, West Sussex.
With Winchester's fall to the Normans, Hampshire was firmly under William the Conqueror's rule, and he appointed Eustace as Governor. However, the native Anglo-Saxons were tireless in their attempts to foil William's conquest of South East England, launching multi-pronged counterattacks. In Kent, the armies of the Earldom of Kent (based out of London) and Essex ravaged Kent by land and sea, shipping vast armies to Kent to capture unoccupied settlements and lead Duke William on a cat-and-mouse chase across the countryside. The East Saxons even succeeded in assaulting Hastings and taking back the castle before William returned to East Sussex and butchered the garrison, promptly returning to Kent. Meanwhile, in Hampshire, remnants of defeated Saxon armies, small warbands, or hastily-assembled (and undermanned) fyrds slipped past the front line and occupied other unguarded settlements such as Portsmouth and Southampton. The most persistent of these threats was Aelfric, who raised a fyrd at the recently-liberated village of Middeherst (Midhurst) and used it to temporarily recapture several towns in Hampshire and West Sussex before William reoccupied them with his larger army. When Aelfric returned north to recapture Middeherst, William attacked his army once it was trapped in the town. William's assault resulted in the complete destruction of Aelfric's army, enabling him to recapture the rest of Hampshire and cement Normandy's control over the region. This defeat for the Saxons continued to drain their once-vast supply of warriors, and, while FitzOsbern was able to reassert Norman rule in Sussex and Hampshire (killing Leofwine of Ethandun after Leofwine's small force briefly seized Portchester), William the Conqueror focused on defeating the threats to Kent and continuing his drive on London.