The Isle of Ely was the last major centre of English resistance to the Norman Conquest. Hereward the Wake, with Danish allies under King Swein, had raided Peterborough in 1070. When the Danes withdrew, Hereward continued resistance from the Fen island. William I built a causeway across the Fens and stormed the island. The rebels surrendered; the senior English leaders — including Earl Morcar — were imprisoned. Hereward escaped and his subsequent fate is unknown. The siege marks the effective end of organised English resistance to the Conquest.
Norman: William I with full royal army and siege engineering. English: Hereward with fenland irregulars and some Danish allies
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in Britain — drawing on Domesday records, scheduled monuments, Victorian OS maps, geological data and archaeological archives to tell the full story of a place.
Research a location near Cambridgeshire