Hereward the Wake

England after the Norman Conquest

After his victory at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, Duke William of Normandy knew that he would not be a popular King of England. He had no real claim to the throne other than by force, so he could hardly have expected to be welcomed with open arms.

At first, William did try to win hearts and minds by conciliation and by appointing Anglo-Saxons to important offices of state, but as soon as his back was turned – he went across to Normandy in 1067 to deal with matters back home – large areas of the country rose in revolt.

It was then “no more Mr Nice Guy” as William responded with a show of considerable force. Villages that had risen in opposition were burned to the ground and their inhabitants killed or driven into starvation. Fields were laid waste and rendered unproductive for years to come. Many thousands of people died in the ethnic cleansing that became known as “the harrowing of the north”.

This policy of extreme violence seemed to do the trick, and only a few pockets of resistance remained. One of these was in the fenland around Peterborough in the east of England, led by a mysterious figure who is known to history as Hereward the Wake.

Who was Hereward?

Hereward had been a landowner before the conquest, but he lost his lands to the Normans. Rather than knuckle under to the new regime, Hereward gathered a band of fellow outlaws and retreated to the Fens, an area of swamps and lagoons in which it was easy to get lost if you did not know your way around. Hereward relied on his superior knowledge of the area to outwit the Normans and carry out a series of guerrilla raids on their strongholds.

Hereward’s campaign

Hereward joined forces with local Danish raiders to attack the abbey at Peterborough and plunder its treasure, but then had to go it alone after the Normans bought the Danes off. The sacrilege of attacking an abbey did not endear Hereward to all his fellow Englishmen, but enough stayed loyal to create a formidable guerrilla unit.

William’s response was to hunt Hereward down in the Fens, using enforced labour to build causeways that allowed troops to move in and flush out the rebels. Remains of these earthworks can still be seen to this day.

Although the Normans were able to capture most of Hereward’s men, there is no evidence that they ever found Hereward himself, and what happened to him is a mystery. He may have been betrayed and met a grisly end, or he could simply have withdrawn from combat and lived out his days in peace, possibly with a changed identity.

The legacy of Hereward

It is no surprise that all sorts of stories arose about Hereward’s deeds, most of them probably having little basis in truth. There were so many such stories that a book of them appeared with the title “The Exploits of Hereward the Celebrated Outlaw and Soldier”. He was therefore a latter-day King Arthur and a prototype for Robin Hood - an icon for anyone who wanted a hero-figure to give hope to people under oppression.

The name “Wake” is part of the myth. This was a man who was constantly alert and ready to strike when and where the opportunity arose. The cause of Anglo-Saxon resistance needed a hero who never slept, but it was always going to be a lost cause. The heavy hand of Norman domination was not going to be removed by a few fighters hiding in the Fens, however charismatic their leader.

© John Welford