Bourne Archive: FNQ: Hereward XVII

http://boar.org.uk/ariwxo3FNQsupXVII.htm Latest edit 25 Apr 2010.

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FNQ

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De Gestis Herwardi Saxonis.

XVII.

Quomodo a quodam requisitus ut eum accideret, quem postea iccirco interfecit.

Reversus autem ad suos, audivit quendam Fredericum multum in plurimis locis eum quæsisse, qui frater erat veteris comitis Willelmi de Warrene¹, ut ipsum pro facto, quod paulo ante inseruimus, ad regis præsentiam conduceret, pœnis traditurus, aut caput ipsius amputaturus et in trivio universalis viæ illud positurus ad signum, sicut capita eorum, qui hæreditatem ejus acceperant et fratrem suum occiderant, ad ostensionem super portam suæ domus constituerat, et insuper omnes qui adhuc ipsi favebant, vel illi aliquid auxilii conferebant, exules faceret vel membris obnoxios. Quem Herwardus cum suis prævenire statim congressus est, simili modo cum illo facturus, si fortuitu postea illi incumberet. Audierat enim eum in Norfolc una cum militari manu esse, ut scitote aliquid comperto de eo illuc agmine militari vallatus tenderet. A quo nempe quod illi decreverat sibi factum contigit quodam vespertino tempore, dum de nece Herwardi tractaret, ipse eum morte prævenit.

XVII.

How he was sought out by a certain man who desired to kill him, and how Hereward slew him.

Returning to his own people he heard that a certain Frederic had been extensively enquiring for him in many places, (he was the brother of the old Earl William de Warrenne,¹) that he might take him in person into the king’s presence, as we have mentioned above, to hand him over to punishment ; or else that he might cut of his head, and set it up in he most public thoroughfare for a sign, as Hereward had exhibited over the gate of his house the heads of those men who had taken his inheritance and slain his brother ; and further that he might drive into exile or maim all who still were on Hereward’s side, or brought him any assistance. But Hereward with his men at once set about anticipating him, designing to treat him in the same way, if by chance they could meet with him. For Hereward had heard that he was in Norfolk with a band of soldiers, so that when anything was heard of Hereward he might make his way to the spot protected by a considerable force.* But what Frederic had intended for Hereward happened to himself one evening ; while he was plotting for the death of Hereward, the latter fell upon him and killed him.

Commentary.

* [Sweeting’s note] Translation very free. Meaning uncertain.

1 William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey was an adult in 1052, when he was fighting in support of William in Normandy. He died in 1088 of an arrow wound in his leg, so that the reference to the ‘old Earl William de Warrenne’ would tend to confirm the assumption that Leofric Deacon was writing after this date, had we not been told in Chapter I, that Leofric’s work extended only to Hereward’s return to Bourne and the discovery of his brother’s death. That is, to halfway through Chapter XIV. What we have here is the collective memory of the people of the district, about a hundred years after Frederic’s demise.

William de Warenne’s wife, Gundrada, was a daughter of a noble Fleming, Gerbod. She had brothers Gerbod and Frederic. After the Conquest, William was lord of large estates centred on Lewis in Sussex, Conisburgh in Yorkshire and the place relevant to this story, Castle Acre in Norfolk. The Norfolk property was held by Frederic but fell into the control William, as it was inherited by Gundrada on Frederic’s death. According to DNB 2007, (Hereward) quoting the Hyde chronicle, Frederick was her brother, therefore, William de Warenne’s brother-in-law. Frederic will certainly have known of Hereward as he was a joint witness with the Count of Flanders, of a charter of the Abbey of St Riquier in 1067, when Hereward was in Flanders and Zeeland. Whether this count was Baldwin V or VI is not made clear. The principal signatory of the document was Guy de Ponthieu, who features in the earlier part of the Bayeux Tapestry and in whose territory Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme lay. (DNB 2007 Warenne, Gundrada de). According to this reference, Frederic was killed in 1070 but the writer may have assumed that, as the Ely rebellion was going on in 1070, Frederic died in that year. Late 1068 or early 1069 would suit the story’s chronology better. This would give Hereward time for his exploits in Flanders and for being back in England in time for the manoeuvres leading to the Ely operation.

Contents Chapter XVIII