BoAr:FNQ:HerewardXXVIII
http://boar.org.uk/ariwxo3FNQsupXXVIII.htm Latest edit 12 Aug 2007
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R.J.PENHEY With thanks to the
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The Bourne Archive
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De Gestis Herwardi Saxonis.
XXVIII.
Qualiter vindicavit se de abbate de Burch.
Postquam ergo prædictus abbas de Burch redemptione triginta M librarum de manu Herwardi liber effectus est ; 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.
Commentary.
* ↑ [Sweeting’s
note] Manifestly some
error.
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 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. 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.
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