Hereward the Wake – A Short Biography

Hereward the Wake – A Short Biography

Hereward the Wake (c. 1035 – ????), known in his own times as Hereward the Outlaw or Hereward the Exile, was an 11th-century leader of local resistance to the Norman conquest of England.

Hereward's base was in the Isle of Ely, and according to legend he roamed The Fens, covering North Cambridgeshire, Southern Lincolnshire and West Norfolk. The title "the Wake" (meaning "watcher") was popularly assigned to him many years after his death.

He has entered folklaw as a great English hero but Hereward was, according to new research, a high-ranking Dane.

Popular tradition has maintained that Hereward was the son of an Anglo-Saxon nobleman, Earl Leofric. This nobleman, so the story goes, was married to Lady Godiva, who rode naked through the streets of Coventry to make her husband lower taxes.

But Hereward was able to enlist military support from Denmark itself and in 1069 the Danish royal family and the Danish church sent a small army across the North Sea with Hereward. This, it has been suggested, supports the theory that Hereward was the son of a prominent Anglo-Danish magnate called Asketil.

Ever since the late ninth-century Viking raids, parts of eastern England had often come under Danish control - and for some of the 11th century the whole of England became part of a vast Danish empire, which also included Norway, southern Sweden. England became the subject of a geopolitical tug-of-war between the Scandinavians and the Normans. The half-Norman English king Edward the Confessor was intensely pro-Norman, while his half-Danish successor Harold was supported by the Anglo-Danish community.

Hereward was a known malcontent during the reign of Edward the Confessor. He was exiled at the age of eighteen for disobedience to his father and disruptive behaviour, and he was declared an outlaw by Edward. 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, Baldwin V, and that he then returned to England.

Legend holds that he was brought back to England by the news that the Normans had seized his father’s estates. On his return he found that the new Norman owners had not only taken the land, but also slain his brother, whose head was set above the door of the house. Next day 14 Norman heads had replaced that of his brother above the door. News of Hereward’s exploits spread and he became the leader of a mixed band of English and Danish warriors, who flocked to join him at his new base at the great Abbey of Ely.

In 1069 the Danish king Sweyn Estrithson sent a small army to try to establish a camp on the Isle of Ely. Ely was admirably suited for defense; sea-going vessels could reach it via the Wash and River Ouse, but landwards it was cut off by swamps and a network of hidden waterways.

Estrithson arrived in the mouth of the Humber, and was expected to make a bid for the crown. He despatched a body of housecarls under Jarl Asbjorn and Bishop Christian of Aarhus to the Isle of Ely.

Their first act was to storm and sack Peterborough Abbey in 1070, in company with local men. Herewards justification is said to have been that he wished to save the Abbey's treasures and relics from the Normans.

Ely now became a notorious refuge for anti-Norman dissidents, including, among the better known, Earl Morcar of Northumbria, Bishop Æthelwine of Durham, and Siward Bearn, a substantial Midlands landowner. Popular rumor even suggested that Earl Eadwine, in fact now dead, and Archbishop Stigand, in fact now in prison, also sought shelter there.

At last William himself led an expedition against Ely. He bottled up the defenders, placing a naval blockade on the seaward side and then constructing a lengthy causeway to allow his land forces to advance through the swamps. Eventually the defenders surrendered to William who "did with them what he wanted." Some he imprisoned, others he let go free, having cut off their hands or put out their eyes.

Hereward was not found and is believed to have escaped.

The legends that surround him are vast and rambling but, in general, Hereward is made to follow the traditional route of the fictional exile... Through the peripheral regions of Britain combating a monstrous bear in Northumberland, rescuing a princess in distress in Cornwall, and fighting in Ireland, before passing on to Flanders, the common resort of refugees from England at this time.

In the course of all this, the personality of the future guerrilla-fighter is anticipated: courageous, quick-witted, adept at disguise and watchful -- sleeping not in but to one side of his bed for fear of night-time attacks. After a lengthy sojourn in Flanders, full of incident reminiscent of Harold Godwinson's period in Normandy, the hero is said to return to England.

There are conflicting accounts about Hereward's life after the fall of Ely. The 12th century Gesta Herewardi, says Hereward was eventually pardoned by William and lived the rest of his life in relative peace. Geoffrey Gaimar, in his Estoire des Engleis, says instead that Hereward lived for some time as an outlaw in the Fens, but as he was on the verge of making peace with William, he was set upon and killed by a group of Norman knights.

The other possibility is Hereward received no such pardon and went into exile never to be heard from again. As this was the fate of a lot of prominent English men after the Conquest it is a distinct possibility.

Why 'the Wake'? There are two main theories as to the origin of the tag. Popular legend interprets it as meaning "the watchful", and supposes that Hereward acquired it when, with the help of his servant Martin Lightfoot, he foiled an assassination attempt during a hunting party by a group of knights jealous of his popularity. However, it appears more likely that the name was given to him by the Wake family, the Norman landowners who gained Hereward's land in Bourne (Lincolnshire) after his death, in order to imply a family connection and therefore legitimise their claim to the land.

Songs were being sung about Hereward in taverns a hundred years after his death; and in the thirteenth century people still visited a ruined wooden castle in the Fens which was known as Hereward’s Castle. But later he was supplanted by another outlaw-hero as a symbol of resistance to oppression, Robin Hood.

Regards

tREV

The Rather English Viking