Hereward and the Siege of Ely

While Hereward – which literally means ‘warden of the army’ – sounds like a nom de guerre, it was actually his given name. He was born circa 1036 into the Anglo-Saxon minor nobility of Lincolnshire. His ethnic background included Danish and Breton blood as well as Anglo-Saxon.

Timelines of Hereward’s life and career are somewhat ambiguous, but individual well-documented incidents provide anchor points that enable the reconstruction of a fairly accurate picture. According to the Gesta Herewardi, an early twelfth-century text written at Peterborough Abbey, he was exiled in 1054 at age seventeen or eighteen for habitually violent and disruptive behaviour. Following his instincts, the “stout but agile” youth spent the next decade as a mercenary, first in Cornwall and Ireland, then in Flanders. Throughout much of this time he was accompanied by two cousins (or nephews), Siward the Blond and Siward the Red, as well as one of his father’s retainers, Martin Lightfoot.

The spends considerable time on Hereward’s service in Flanders, where he arrived in the early 1060s and achieved considerable renown as a warrior, both on campaign and through tournament duels. He seems to have first served Bishop Lietbert of Cambrai; a document dated to 1065 attests to nine men-at-arms including a “miles Herivvardi” as the prelate’s bodyguard. Subsequently, he served Baldwin V, count of Flanders, as a mercenary and training officer. Among other places, he was stationed in the town of Saint Omer, where he married Turfrida,