 However, Seaford itself was not one of the seven Cinque Ports, and was summoned to send members to the Parliament of 1298 while they – including the much more important town of Hastings of which Seaford was theoretically a subordinate part – remained unrepresented.Seaford continued to return MPs on an irregular basis for a century, by which time the seven Cinque Ports had also been enfranchised, but ceased to do so after 1399.In 1544, Henry VIII granted the town a charter as a port in its own right, separate from Hastings, but it was another 97 years before its right to elect MPs was restored, by a resolution of the Long Parliament on 4 February 1641.