Hereward

Hereward, commonly called HEREWARD THE WAKE, was an English yeoman or squire who held the Isle of Ely against William the Conqueror in 1070-71. When William had succeeded in encompassing the English patriots and penetrating to their camp of refuge, Hereward, scorning to yield, cut his way through to the fastnesses of the swampy fens northwards. It is probable that he subsequently became reconciled to William. He held property in Warwickshire and probably also in Worcestershire. The noble lineage assigned to Hereward in Charles Kingsley's romance of Hereward the Wake (1866) has been shown by Freeman (Norman Conquest, vol. iv.) to be destitute of historic foundation.