Hereward the wake

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Hereward the Wake with his second wife Alfruda

Hereward the Wake , known in his time as Hereward the Outlaw and Hereward the Exile , was an Anglo-Saxon resistance fighter against the Norman conquest of England in the second half of the 11th century, and is one of the great legendary figures of the English Middle Ages.

According to tradition, Herewards was based on the Isle of Ely , from where he roamed the surrounding Fens , what is now Lincolnshire, and led a popular opposition to William the Conqueror . The nickname the Wake was given to him long after his death, it probably means the vigilant , but could also come from the Wake family, Norman landowners who claimed his property and wanted to legitimize their claims with this nickname.

Life and legend

In the tradition, Hereward is seen as the son of Leofric , Earl of Mercia , without any evidence being known. Modern research sees him as having Anglo-Danish roots, with a Danish father named Asketil. The name Hereward also points in this direction. Regardless of this, he was committed to the regional dispute between Danes and Normans for supremacy in eastern England.

Bourne (Lincolnshire) or the surrounding area is assumed to be the place of birth . He is said to have been a leaseholder of Peterborough Abbey , from which he leased land at Witham-on-the-Hill and Barholme with Stow in the south-west corner of Lincolnshire , as well as Croyland Abbey in Crowland , 15 kilometers east of Market Deeping . Since the abbey's possessions were widespread, the precise location of his court is not possible.

It is also assumed that he was already in the uprising before 1066, at the time of King Edward the Confessor , whom he saw as an ally of the Normans, and that he was ostracized during these years. It is also believed that he was in exile on the continent at the time of the Norman invasion, where he was successfully employed as a mercenary in the service of the Count of Flanders , and that he returned to England shortly after the Normans invaded.

In 1069 or 1070, the Danish king Sven Estridsson is said to have sent an expeditionary force to establish himself on the Isle of Ely. Hereward is said to have joined this group. His first action was the sack of Peterborough Abbey in 1070 - on the grounds that he wanted to bring the abbey's treasures and relics to safety from the Normans.

The following year he was attacked by the Normans on the Isle of Ely and was only saved because the boardwalk that the Normans had laid sank under the weight of soldiers, horses and weapons. The Normans, perhaps under the leadership of a knight named Belasius (Belsar), are said to have bribed a monk from the island to show them a safe route through the marshland through which they wanted to conquer Ely. Hereward, in turn, is said to have escaped to the Fens, from where he continued his resistance.

In the Gesta Herewardi by Ingulf von Croyland , a chronicle from the 15th century, it is reported that Hereward was pardoned by King Wilhelm.

Some of the lore about Hereward was incorporated into later Robin Hood stories .

Literature, other media and miscellaneous about Hereward

  • Charles Kingsley's novel from 1865 is a highly romantic report about Hereward, who is here a son of Leofric of Mercia (see also the web links).
  • Jack Trevor Story wrote an extensive Herewards life story for one of Tom Boardman's yearbooks for boys.
  • Henry Treece : Man With a Sword , Novel 1962
  • In 1965 there was a 16-part television series called Hereward the Wake .
  • Laurence J. Brown: Cold Heart, Cruel Hand: A novel of Hereward the Wake (2004)
  • Mary Lancaster: An Endless Exile (2004), a historical novel about Hereward's life, paperback ISBN 1-84319-272-1 , e-book ISBN 1-84319-125-3
  • The rock bank Pink Floyd refers to Hereward in the piece Let There Be More Light (1968) (text en./dt.)
  • Hereward also appears in the piece Darkness on the Van der Graaf Generator LP The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other (1970).
  • Rebecca Gablé let Hereward appear in a supporting role in her novel The Second Kingdom .
  • He is the protagonist of the play Rebel of the Marshlands by the rock band Forefather in their album Ours is the Kingdom (2005).
  • Hereward the Wake gave the Peterborough radio station its name: Hereward FM .
  • A walking route from Peterborough to Ely is called the Hereward Way .
  • He appears as 'Hereweard pe wocnan' or 'Hereweard of Brune' in the historical novel "Die Tage des Raben" by Dagmar Trodler, which is set around 1071.

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Web links

Commons : Hereward the Wake  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Hereward the wake
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Resistance fighters against the Norman conquest of England
DATE OF BIRTH around 1035
DATE OF DEATH around 1073