Bourne Archive: FNQ: Hereward XXXI
http://boar.org.uk/ariwxo3FNQsupXXXI.htm
Latest edit 1 Jul 2010
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De Gestis Herwardi Saxonis.
XXXI.
Quomodo uxor Herwardi 1
habitum sanctimonialem accepit in Cruland.
Interveniente autem tempore,
prædicta uxor Herwardi Turfrida ab eo jam declinare inceperat, eo quod tunc
sæpissime legatos cujusdam præpotentissimæ mulieris opibus susceperat, quæ fuit
uxor Dolfini comitis, ut eam in conjugem acciperet exquisita licentia a rege,
dum hoc solummodo verbis impetrare posset, sicut ab ore regis audierat, si
pacifice vellet et ei fidelitatem facere. Hujus igitur rei gratia et specie
mulieris delectatus Herwardus, assensum præbuit, quod illi formosior nec opibus
pene præclarior. Quapropter missis nunciis ad regem, prædictam mulierem
postulavit, atque apud regiam majestatem se velle reconciliari. Quibus
gratanter susceptis diem illi statuit acceptans quæ proposcerat, subjungens diu
ante se velle illum gratia recipere. Propria vero uxor Herwardi, de qua paulo
ante mentionem fecimus, hac de causa in Cruland discessit 2, et meliorem
vitam elegit velamentum sanctimonialis accipiens. Qua de causa multa incommoda
ei post evenerunt, quod sapientissima erat et in necessitate magni concilii. Postea enim sicut ipse sæpe professus
est, non ei sicut in tempore ejus sic prospere contigerunt multa.
The Exploits of Hereward the
Saxon.
XXXI
How Hereward’s wife 1
assumed the habit of a nun at Crowland.
In the interval the
wife of Hereward before-named, Turfrida, had begun to turn away from him,
because he had at that time very often received messengers from a lady most
powerful from her wealth, (she was the wife of Earl Dolfinus,) asking him to
take her to wife after asking for license [sic] from the King, which he
could obtain for the mere asking, as she had heard from the King’s own mouth,
if he were peaceably disposed and were willing to give him his adherence. For
this purpose, and charmed with the beauty of the lady, Hereward gave his
consent, because there was no one more beautiful or comely in the realm than
she, and hardly any one more eminent in wealth. Wherefore he sent messengers to
the King and demanded the lady aforesaid, declaring that he was willing to be
reconciled with the King’s Majesty. The King received the messengers
graciously, and appointed a day for him, agreeing to what he had demanded, adding
that he had for a long time been wishing to receive him into his favour. But
the real wife of Hereward, about whom we have just above made mention, by
reason of this went to Crowland 2, and
chose the better life, taking the veil of a nun. On this account many evils
happened to him, because she was very wise and helpful in giving advice (?) at an emergency. For afterwards, as he himself often
admitted, many things happened not so fortunately as in the time of his
success.
Sweeting’s Comment
? [Sweeting’s query.
It will arise from the fact that there are two ways of approaching the
translation of Qua de causa multa incommoda ei post evenerunt, quod
sapientissima erat et in necessitate magni concilii. Taking magni
concilii at its face value, the sentence would mean ‘For this reason, many
misfortunes happened to him (Hereward) afterwards, because she (Torfrida) was
very wise and in an emergency (was a member) of the great council’. This
council would presumably, have been a group in which Hereward and his principal
followers discussed strategy and tactics.
If what was meant
was magni consillii, which, in the
mouth of a Norman French speaker, would be phonetically the same, and given the
script used in Robert of Swaffham’s transcription as an example, the change
might easily have been made inadvertently, we would have ‘For this reason, many
misfortunes happened to him (Hereward) afterwards, because she was very wise
and of abundant judgement in an emergency’ (Langenscheidt magnus &
consilium).
The concept of
Turfrida’s contribution to Hereward’s past successes is carried forward into
the last sentence, where eius means
‘her’ rather than ‘his’ (its form does not vary with gender) so that in tempore ejus would be best translated
as ‘in her time’ i.e. when she was still with him as his
wife: ‘For afterwards, as he himself, often admitted, success did not come to
him, as in her time.’]
Commentary.
Reading this chapter with gossip’s frame of mind, it is
possible to detect a sub-plot. No firm conclusion can be drawn from a basis of such
speculation but the monastic writer may be delicately telling us that Turfrida
had reached her menopause.
Possibly, someone in the king’s circle had inferred this and had set about
breaking up Hereward’s party by creating tensions between its members’
loyalties. Having consideration as to Turfrida’s age, it would therefore, be
possible tentatively to date these events to something like the 1080-1090 period.
This is of course, imprecise and based on a degree of speculation which might
be thought wild but it does draw further attention to the episodic nature of
the text and to its protracted time scale. Such a date would be consistent with
the more precise dating derived in Chapter XXXVI
note 1.
2. Unlike
the abbey of the Gilbertine
Order, established about sixty years later at Sempringham, Croyland was a Benedictine abbey
and appears to have housed only men. The present text’s information on this
point needs verifying but may indicate that in the immediate post-Conquest
period there was a house for nuns there too. There is a feminine version
of the Rule from the eleventh or twelfth century. If this story were just
invention, neither the contemporaries of Leofric Deacon nor of Hugh Candidus,
in Bourne or Peterborough would have been so gullible as to have believed that
a woman became a nun in an abbey full of men. Neither would the writer of the Croyland Chronicle,
who accepts this information without demur (Riley p.136). Gilbert had
trouble in getting his idea of the double house accepted in around 1130, even
with a stone wall down the middle of his abbey church. See the history of double monasteries, Abbey of Croyland and Order of Gilbertines on
the New Advent site. When all this is said, in later years, there does appear
to have been an anchoress,
Dame Agnes, associated with the Lady Chapel at the Benedictine Peterborough
Abbey (Gunton pp. 99-100). A vestige of her chapel, in a 13th
century style, remains.