Hereward and the Siege of Ely

In the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings, Duke William of Normandy was able to take the English throne. However, English chronicles do document a number of resistance movements following the Norman conquest. One of these was led by Hereward, who waged a successful guerrilla campaign based out of the Fenlands.

By Sidney E. Dean

While Hereward – which literally means ‘warden of the army’ – sounds like a nom de guerre, it was actually his given name. He was born circa 1036 into the Anglo-Saxon minor nobility of Lincolnshire. His ethnic background included Danish and Breton blood as well as Anglo-Saxon. Timelines of Hereward’s life and career are somewhat ambiguous, but individual well-documented incidents provide anchor points that enable the reconstruction of a fairly accurate picture. According to the Gesta Herewardi, an early twelfth-century text written at Peterborough Abbey, he was exiled in 1054 at age seventeen or eighteen for habitually violent and disruptive behaviour. Following his instincts, the “stout but agile” youth spent the next decade as a mercenary, first in Cornwall and Ireland, then in Flanders. Throughout much of this time he was…

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Medieval Warfare (Digital) - 1 Issue, MW X1.4

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