HEREWARD THE WAKE (ELY ON-LINE U.K.) (original) (raw)


The Norman Conquest of 1066 was remarkable for its completeness... However, the Isle of Ely became what we have come to term a "pocket of resistance." It was then that the natural defences of the Isle became of prime importance, and were exploited by the Saxon leader, Hereward the Wake..! `Pon his return to the family estates at Bourne in Lincolnshire in 1068, Hereward found that they had been given to a Norman, Ivo de Taillebuis, by William the Conqueror and his brother's decapitated head had been impaled above the entrance... Hereward became possessed, and was not long avenging the death of his brother... That very night, armed with what he could carry he attacked, and did slay 15 Norman Soldiers and mounted their heads in the place of his brother's...

The Norman Conquest of 1066 was remarkable for its completeness... However, the Isle of Ely became what we have come to term a "pocket of resistance." It was then that the natural defences of the Isle became of prime importance, and were exploited by the Saxon leader, Hereward the Wake..! `Pon his return to the family estates at Bourne in Lincolnshire in 1068, Hereward found that they had been given to a Norman, Ivo de Taillebuis, by William the Conqueror and his brother's decapitated head had been impaled above the entrance... Hereward became possessed, and was not long avenging the death of his brother... That very night, armed with what he could carry he attacked, and did slay 15 Norman Soldiers and mounted their heads in the place of his brother's...