Ely Isle Causeway Assault 1071
Who Fought
Norman army, probably led by a knight named Belasius, with constructed timber causeway; Hereward the Wake and Morcar with local rebel forces on the Isle of Ely.
History & Significance
The Ely Rebellion was a rebellion in 1069 or 1070 against the Norman occupation of England, named after the Isle of Ely. It is considered one of the earliest English civil wars.
The Danish king Sweyn Estrithson sent a small army to try to establish a camp on the Isle of Ely. Hereward the Wake stormed and sacked Peterborough Abbey in company with local men and Sweyn's Danes. While the Gesta Herewardi says this was after the main battle at Ely, the Peterborough Chronicle says it was before. The historical consensus is that the Chronicle's account is most accurate. His justification is said to have been that he wished to save the Abbey's treasures and relics from the rapacious Normans led by the new Norman abbot who had ousted his uncle Brand. According to the Gesta he returned the treasures looted from the abbey after having a vision of Saint Peter. However, the Peterborough Chronicle says that the treasure was carried off to Denmark.
Hereward was then joined by a small army led by Morcar, the Saxon former Earl of Northumbria who had been ousted by William. William sent an army to deal with the rebels. In 1071, Hereward and Morcar were forced to retreat to their stronghold and made a desperate stand on the Isle of Ely against the Conqueror's rule. Both the Gesta Herewardi and the Liber Eliensis claim that the Normans made a frontal assault, aided by a huge, mile-long timber causeway, but that this sank under the weight of armour and horses. The Normans then tried to intimidate the English with a witch, who cursed them from a wooden tower, but Hereward managed to set a fire that toppled the tower with the witch in it. The Gesta includes other fantastical tales about Hereward's prowess, including disguising himself as a potter to spy on the king and escaping from captivity.
It is said that the Normans, probably led by one of William's knights named Belasius (Belsar), then bribed the monks of the island to reveal a safe route across the marshes, resulting in Ely's capture. An earlier hillfort now known as Belsar's Hill is still extant and sits astride the much older route known as Aldreth's Causeway, which would have been a direct route from the Isle of Ely to Cambridge.
Morcar, it is said, surrendered himself on the assurance that the king would pardon him and receive him as a loyal friend. William, however, committed him to the custody of Roger de Beaumont, who kept him closely imprisoned in Normandy. Hereward is said to have escaped with some of his followers into the wild fenland and to have continued his resistance. This escape is noted in all the earliest surviving sources.
The ground they fought on
The site of Ely Isle Causeway Assault 1071 lies on Lower Greensand Group, bedrock that formed in the Albian. The rock here is sandstone and mudstone.
Both the Gesta Herewardi and the Liber Eliensis describe a dramatic Norman frontal assault across a massive mile-long timber causeway, built to bridge the treacherous marshes surrounding the Isle of Ely, only for the structure to sink under the combined weight of armoured men and horses; the Normans then resorted to stationing a witch in a wooden tower to curse the defenders, but Hereward set fire to it and brought the tower crashing down with the witch inside.
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- Ely Rebellion · Wikipedia
- Hereward the Wake · Wikipedia