Bourne Archive: FNQ: Hereward XXXVI

http://boar.org.uk/ariwxo3FNQsupXXXVI.htm   Latest edit 2 Jul 2010

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De Gestis Herwardi Saxonis.

XXXVI.

Quomodo Robertus de Horepol de Herwardo regi bona intimavit.

Prædictus autem Robertus de Horepol dehinc statim ad regis curiam perrexit, innotescens regi per omnia quæ facta fuerant, et quomodo per suos Herwardus liberatus est. Subjunxit etiam in fine mandata ab eo delata, ut mansuetudine regia usus, reminsceretur quomodo sub protectione sua et pace ad curiam suam veniens in carcere et custodia super hoc non recte missus fuerit. Tamen si illa quæ tunc illi promiserat saltem nunc faceret ut domino carissimo modis omnibus serviret, sciens sibi hanc injuriam per eum factam non fuisse, sed persuasione et versutia inimicorum. Quæ verba secum ipse venerabilis rex modicum retractans, non recte in eum fuisse peractum respondit. Qui dum in gratiam regem suscepisse verba agnosceret, multa repente de Herwardo et suis atque prædicanda regi peroravit, subjugens pro parva causa non leviter tantum militem a se et de regno suo expelli non debere, in quem magna fiducia esset sinceritas contigeret [contingeret]. Ipsum enim pro certo assuerit magis antiquis instare opibus, iterum perturbata terra, nisi in oculis ejusdem regis gratiam magis quam servitutem inveniret, terra patris sui ex benignitate regis suscepta. Quam recipere recte debere protinus rex subjunxit, mandans per literas suas etiam hoc Herwardo et provincialibus terram patris sui recipere debere et quiete possidere, ac deinceps pacem velle sectari, non stultitiam, si regis de cætero amicitiam optaret possidere 1.

Herwardus igitur, miles insignis et in multis locis expertus et cognitus, a rege in gratiam susceptus, cum terris et possessionibus patris sui multis postmodum vixit annis, regi Willelmo 2 fideliter serviens ac devote3 compatriotis placens et amicis; ac sic demum quievit in pace, cujus animæ propicietur Deus. Amen.

EXPLICIT VITA HERWARDI INCLITI MILITIS. 4


The Exploits of Hereward the Saxon.

XXXVI

How Robert of Horepol made a good report of Hereward to the King.

Then the aforesaid Robert of Horepol after this immediately went off to the King’s court, signifying to the King everything that had been done, and how Hereward had by his own men been set free. Finally he delivered the message he had brought, that he should avail himself of the King’s kindness, and call to his mind how he had come to his court under his protection and safe conduct, and that he had not rightly after that been put into prison and custody. But yet if he would even now perform what he had then promised him, Hereward would serve his most dear lord in every way, since he knew that this wrong had not been done by him, but through the persuasion and craft of his enemies. After a little reflection on these words the King replied that Hereward had not had right treatment. And when Robert saw that the King had taken his words in good part, he straightway related to the King many things worth the telling about Hereward and his men ; adding that for a little cause such a warrior ought not lightly to be driven from him and his realm, in whom there might be found great fidelity and trust. And he declared for certain that he was rather inclined to rely on his old resources, if a new disturbance arose in the land, unless in the King’s eyes he could meet with favour rather than imprisonment, and should receive from the King’s goodness his father’s land. Thereupon the King declared that he ought by rights to have it, and gave command by his letters to Hereward and the men of his district that he ought to have the land of his father and to retain quiet possession of it; but that from henceforth he must be willing to cultivate peace, not folly, if he wished hereafter to retain the King’s friendship 1.

And so Hereward, the famous warrior, in many places proved and well known, was received into favour by the King, and with his father’s lands and possessions lived afterwards for many years, faithfully serving King William 2, and wholly devoted3 to his neighbours and friends ; and so at last he rested in peace, and upon his soul may God have mercy. Amen.

END OF THE LIFE OF HEREWARD THE RENOWNED KNIGHT. 4


Commentary. This is compiled with the help of suggestions from FWP.

1.       The question which this leaves in one’s mind is that of when this event took place. If it was before 1086, why is Hereward so little mentioned in the Domesday Book?  In Chapter XXV, we were apparently, in the year 1075. There have been ten clear chapters of episodes since, including Chapter XXXV in which we were told of a year-long imprisonment at Bedford. We have already learnt that the overall story is much slower than the succession of exciting events, related to us would lead us to believe. It seems quite possible that this final chapter dates from the very end of William’s reign between the compilation of the Domesday Book and the king’s death. This would make Hereward about fifty years old.

If this pattern of events is the explanation, then these negotiations will have ended late in 1086 or very early in 1087, before William went to Normandy in time to prepare for the campaigning season of 1087, in the Vexin, where Philip I was attempting to wrest territory back from the Duchy of Normandy. The most likely occasion for the formal reconciliation is 1st August, Lammas 1086, when William was putting his affairs in England in order, before heading towards Normandy. He held court in Winchester at Easter, in Westminster at Whitsun, Salisbury at Lammas (ASC 1086). He then went to the Isle of Wight. It was at this stage that he appears to have started making use of the information in the Domesday Survey, by demanding tax payments, before his crossing to Normandy (ASC). However, it was at Salisbury that “his counsellors came to him and all men who were holding land that were of worth from all over England, whosoever’s vassals they were. They all bowed to him and were his vassals and swore to him oaths of loyalty that they would, against all other men, be loyal to him.” (Savage p. 218.)

2.     If this refers to William I, the many years of service mentioned in the translation, call the construction which note 1 placed on events, into question – William was not to live many further years, in which people could serve him. However, there are other ways of viewing the final paragraph when translating it. The differences lie in the concept with which the second multis (the ablative plural form of many) is associated. Sweeting has Hereward living many years with an implication that those years coincided with service to William. Another possibility is that we are considering the many lands and possessions of Leofric, Hereward’s father. Accepting this view, given the word order, with the multis right at the end of the phrase, would rather strain the Latin idiom, so it is suspect. Thirdly, if we read fideliter serviens as ‘having faithfully served’, an interpretation acceptable in Medieval Latin [Sidwell G.20(a)], the many years of Hereward’s life can extend beyond those of William.

Though, in Classical Latin, postmodum means ‘soon after’, in Medieval Latin, as here, it means afterwards. Again, though serviens strictly means ‘serving’, in Medieval Latin, it is used to express ‘having served’.

A suggested translation of the second paragraph is as follows: So Hereward, a famous soldier, tried and approved on many a field (and) having been received into favour by the king, with the lands and possessions of his father (restored to him), afterwards lived for many years, having faithfully served king William (during the king’s lifetime) and always taking care to keep on good terms with his neighbours and friends. And at last he rested in peace: may God have mercy on his soul. Amen [FWP].

If the ‘many’ additional years of Hereward’s life were twenty, he will have died aged about seventy in around 1107. This will have been early enough to have allowed Leofric the Deacon time to write his encomium, in time for it to have been caught in the 1116 fire in the library of Peterborough Abbey. It also means that Leofric the Deacon is not likely to have been old enough during Hereward’s youth, to have been serving in holy orders in Hereward’s father’s household at that stage.

This is the end of the last chapter, so reference to his neighbourliness is closing a circle onto Chapter II, where the youthful Hereward antagonized his father’s neighbours.

3.     (Devote seems to be an example of an adverb formed by adding ‘e’ to the stem of an adjective. Devotus is the past participle of devoveo [Collins]. For our purpose, it means (having been) consecrated/devoted, so stands as an adjective. Collins has it as 1. faithful or 2. accursed and Langenscheidt as 1. devoted or 2. accursed. Devote would therefore mean ‘devotedly’, ‘faithfully’ or ‘with constancy’ but the adverb is not a word readily to be found in dictionaries.)

4.      In principal, miles means soldier and eques means specifically, a mounted soldier. In view of for example, chevalier, the French word, originally for horseman but by extension, for knight we might expect eques to be used in Medieval Latin to mean the same but when meaning knight, Hugh uses miles and eques, apparently indiscriminately, except in Chapter XVI, where he tends to use eques for a knight of feudal, Norman making and miles for one of ecclesiastical, English making. However, this has little bearing on the story.


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