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Hereward the Wake

Encyclopedia : H : HE : HER : Hereward the Wake

Hereward the Wake, known in his own times as Hereward the Outlaw or Hereward the Exile, was an 11th century leader in England who led resistance to the Norman Conquest, and was consequently labelled an outlaw. He was English (probably Anglo-Danish as his name is Danish). According to legend, Hereward's base was the Isle of Ely and he roamed the surrounding fenlands of what is now Lincolnshire, leading popular opposition to William the Conqueror. It is said that the title the Wake was popularly assigned to him many years after his death and is believed to mean the watchful.

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Life and legend

Partly because of the sketchiness of evidence for his existence, his life has become a magnet for speculators and amateur scholars. In legend and story he is described as the son of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, but there is no evidence for this. Some modern research suggests him to have been Anglo-Danish with a Danish father, Asketil. Whatever his lineage, his fight was part of the strategic regional struggle between the Danes and Normans for control of the eastern parts of England.

His place of birth is supposed to be in or near Bourne in Lincolnshire. It is claimed that he was a tenant of Peterborough Abbey, from which he held lands in the parishes of Witham-on-the-Hill and Barholme with Stow in the south-western corner of Lincolnshire, and of Croyland Abbey near Rippingale in the neighbouring fenland. Since the holdings of abbeys could be widely dispersed across parishes, the precise location of his personal holdings are uncertain, but were certainly somewhere in south Lincolnshire.

It is thought that he had already before 1066 rebelled under Edward the Confessor, whom he saw as already aligning England with the Normans, and that he was declared an outlaw as a result. It has been suggested that, at the time of the Norman invasion of England, he was in exile in Europe, working as a successful mercenary for the Count of Flanders, and that he then returned to England to assert an Anglo-Danish vision of its future.

It is claimed that in 1069 or 1070 the Danish king Swein Estrithson sent a small army to try to establish a camp on the Isle of Ely. They were joined by many, including Hereward. His first act was to storm and sack Peterborough Abbey in 1070, in company with local men and Swein's Danes. His justification is said to have been that he wished to save the Abbey's treasures and relics from the Normans.

The next year he and many others made a desperate stand on the Isle of Ely against the Conqueror's rule. Some say that the Normans made a frontal assault, aided by a huge mile-long timber causeway, but that this sank under the weight of armour and horses. It is said that the Normans, probably led by one of William's knights named Belasius (Belsar), then bribed the monks of the island to reveal a safe route across the marshes, resulting in Ely's capture. Hereward is said to have escaped with some of his followers into the wild fenland, and to have continued his resistance.

The 15th century chronicle, Gesta Herewardi, by Ingulf of Croyland, says Hereward was eventually pardoned by William.

Tales and songs based on Hereward

Hereward the Wake gives his name to the Peterborough radio station Hereward FM.

The Hereward Way

There is a long-distance footpath through the Cambridgeshire fenland from Peterborough to Ely, called the Hereward Way.

Hereward's family

Hereward is believed to be the son of Earl Leofric of Mercia and his wife Lady Godiva.

See also

References

Fiction

External links

 

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All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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