Bourne Archive: FNQ: Hereward XXVIII
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De Gestis Herwardi Saxonis.
XXVIII.
Qualiter vindicavit se de abbate de Burch1.
Postquam ergo
prædictus abbas de Burch redemptione triginta M librarum de manu Herwardi liber effectus est2 ; et nepos ejusdem abbatis atque alii
omnes quos acceperant, per quendam cognatum Herwardi, Siwardum Album nomine, quem dudum
hospitio honorifice susceperat, ob reverentiam ejusdem abbatis dimissi essent ; sui fœderis non recordantes nec beneficii recompensationem addiderunt iterum debellare Herwardum et suos. Pro quo memoratus abbas plures ecclesiæ
suæ possessiones multas militibus erogavit ut haberent præsto militare auxilium ad expugnandum Herwardum, ex quibus ei statim ipse
abbas infestabatur, ac illos eum
pro servitio terræ persequi constituit. Ut autem audivit Herwardus sermones istos, et imminere sibi supplicium
pro beneficio, non diu demoratus sed nocte
eadem vindicantes se cum
suis in Burch secessit, ac totam villam
igne devastans omnem thesaurum ecclesiæ deprædavit, atque abbatem persequutus
est licet latitando cum
suis evaserit.
The Exploits of
Hereward the Saxon.
XXVIII
How
Hereward took vengeance upon the Abbot of Burgh1.
After the aforesaid abbot of Burgh by a ransom of thirty
thousand pounds* had been delivered from the hand of
Hereward2, and the nephew of the same Abbot
and all the others whom they had captured had been dismissed by one of
Hereward’s kinsmen, Siward the White by name, (whom
he had lately treated with great hospitality,) out of respect for the Abbot ;
remembering neither their covenant nor the benefit received, they recompensed
Hereward by making war upon him and his men. For which purpose the Abbot spoken
of granted many of the possessions of the church to soldiers on condition that
they supplied forthwith military assistance to subdue Hereward, in respect to
the trouble the abbot experienced through him ; and he
arranged that they should attack Hereward as service for their lands3. But when Hereward heard those reports, and that
a penalty was hanging over him for his kindness, he did not long delay, but the
same night, to avenge themselves, went with his men to Burgh, and laid waste
the whole town with fire, plundered all the treasure of the church, and
overtook the Abbot, although he with his men would have escaped by hiding
themselves.
* ↑ [Sweeting’s note] Manifestly
some error.
Commentary.
This account is a little at
variance with that of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (ASC 1070). In its sequence and
apparent timing, it is here placed after the siege of Ely. There it immediately
preceded the siege. As was noted in the commentary on Chapter I (note 3), this is not
a history; there is no particular reason why its events should be presented in
chronological order.
In the ASC version, William
permitted the plundering of all monasteries in
Following Swein’s
comming to terms with William, the Danes abandoned
their would-be allies in the fens and the booty was dispersed between
As to the reason for Herward’s dispute with the abbot, the ASC account glosses
over any dealings about the ransom. In effect, Hereward objected to the new,
Norman abbot.
1.
2. It
is easy to see why Sweeting made the above note*.
In the 1070s £30,000 was a huge sum. For example, the Domesday survey of 1086
valued all the holdings in Bourne, including outlying property in another
parish, at a total of £14 16s. The ransom was hence, 2,027 times the assessed
annual income from the whole of Bourne. However, it begins to look just a
little more realistic when it is set against the assessed value of Peterborough
Abbey’s property. It was 416 times the assessed value of all that in
3. To
a modern mind, this may give an impression that the land was a bribe. Indeed,
that may be what Leofric wished to imply but it is the way that the feudal
system worked: the abbot was their lord and in return for the use of land in
his charge, they provided military service. See Enfeoffment
and Fiefdom.
It is interesting to observe that
though Odger the Breton is listed in Domesday, as the
principal owner of Bourne in 1086, his successor, Hugh d’Envermeu
was a knight of the Abbot of Peterborough. Hugh’s wife is believed to have been
Hereward’s daughter. She shared her mother’s name, Torfrida.
We thus have a glimpse of the way in which Hereward’s ancestral lands may have
been restored to his family as a result of the accord reached in Chapter XXXVI. However,
since the inheritance was in a female line, the family name connection was soon
lost, though the Wake Family into which it
subsequently passed, seems to have been happy to associate Hereward with their
name. Hereward is still used as a forename in that family.
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