The first documented lord of the manor was ealdorman Byrhtnoth, who was killed at the Battle of Maldon in 991, when Anglo-Saxon forces tried to repel Viking invaders. Ealdorman was the highest rank of noble and just before his death he was the most senior ealdorman in the country to King Æthelred I. Byrhtnoth and his wife had no children, and "so he bequeathed his many lands to churches or religious institutions around the country". Hadleigh received its market charter in 1252 and had a grammar school by 1275. The manor of Hadleigh, along with those of Lawling in Essex and Monks Eleigh in Suffolk, were among those given to the Priory Church of Canterbury Cathedral. It made Hadleigh an "archiepiscopal peculiar" – under the direct control of the Archbishop of Canterbury.