Hereward, The Saxon Patriot : A History Of His Life And Character, With A Record Of His Ancestors And Descendants, A.D. 445 To A.D. 1896

Preface - THE story of the lives of our national heroes cannot fail to excite the sympathy interest of Englishmen, few are more entitled to the respect honour of tdeir countrymen than Hereward. Hitherto the memory of this mzghty man has been too much rEisregarded in these pages an attempt has been made to recall the history, olzk. in, 6. lineage of a brave hero, who tried to do his duty to. his country in troubZous disastrous days, to whom failure despair were unknown, 6. the record of whose z nrivalded deeds may be traced i7t every subsequent efirt which Englishtu en have made to wzaintain extetzd their freedonz by patriotic sacrz ce for their countrys wedfare. To rescue from oblivion the wzevjzory of Hereward is otdr enaeavozir. We shall examine the scanty records of mediceval Aistovy, carefuZZy nnaGyze the statements of subsepueat commentators. The novel of the Rev. Charles Kingsley is the best known of our modern authorities, but the work is fuN of inaccziracies, of which the title-page is a standing witness, wherein the aztthor sumanzes Herezuard the Wake, calls him the last of the English. The history of Hereward under vi Preface. the Da ishna me of Harold Lez ricKson, publisheda t Copenhagen, is a far truer record but the traditions of this hero are scanty, the modern authorities out which they are based cannot be accepted without hesitation. But we shall endeavour to ccorda ll that can be ascertained with probabidity. His place in history is in or nt. That Herewards patriotic action insured the respect of the Norman Conquwor is proved by the restitutiott of many of his famidy estates, whatever amelioration of their condition the Engltik obtained from their Norman conquerors was due to the energy patriotism of Hereward His character, too, is remarkable, in it we nd the germ of that sev-reliant courage to which are due the greatness fkedom of our country. We have endeavowed also to dekrtnit ew hat fanzilies have a rzght to trace their descent from Hereward, 9 that branch of our inquiry is not without some personal interest, as we ourselves claim hizn as our illustrious a zcestor Attollens hunter0 fa namque fah n otum. l In cotzclusiotz, we tvust that these records may he to elz cidak some obscure facts iin the history of the times of Hereward, to preserve the memory of otte c oho wrought m2hty deeds for England in the brave days of old, was the forerzbnner of many illustrious heroes who have lived c 9 died for t h i r countrys-weal, have proved themselves worthy of the name of Englishme. l Eneid, viii. 7 3 I. Table of Contents and qnopsis. CHAPTER I. I zfroducfion.-An ill-used hero-Apology for authorship-Incompleteness of material-Confusion of facts in histories of the Middle Ages-A word in deprecation of criticism I CHAPTER 11. Herewards ancestral record-Remote origin of the family-Early settlements in Britain-System of Saxon colonization-A Saxon town-Domestic life in the sixth century-Intermarriage with Christianized Danes-Herewald, Bishop of Sherburne, 690 A. D...