The Mystery of Robin Hood's Grave

The sad state of 'Robin Hood's Grave' today.

Along with Sherwood and Barnsdale, it is Kirklees that has one of the strongest links with the Robin Hood legend. It is in the tiny priory that existed in Yorkshire, ballads and legend state that the outlaw was killed and buried.

'I will never eate nor drinke,' Robin Hood said,
'Nor meate will doo me noe good,
Till I have beene att merry Church Lees,
My vaines for to let blood.'

(Robin Hoode his Death c.1500)

We have looked at the history of Kirklees Priory in previous posts and I have been intending to carry on with an investigation of Robin Hood's Grave for quite some time.What I did discover, as I eventually began to try and piece together the existing facts, was an historical nightmare!

A Joan Kyppes was the last prioress of Kirlees and on the 24th November 1539 she surrendered the priory during the Dissolution at the value of £29.8s. 2d.  It had contained eight nuns.

Shortly after the Dissolution the Armytage family came into the possession of the hall at Kirklees, which was constructed with the stone from the original nunnery.

John Leland (1506-52) Antiquary to Henry VIII had spent six years on a tour of England collecting material for his Collectanea (1540) and in 1534 he visited Kirlees. Not only was Leland the first person to describe the outlaw as a noble, but he also describes seeing:

The monastery of Kirkley where the famous noble outlaw Robin Hood is buried.

It was Edward VI's printer, Richard Grafton (1507-73) in c.1562, that first mentioned a 'stone set up over his [Robin Hood's] grave.' He says in his Itinery of Britain:

"......afterwards troubled with siknesse came to a certain nunry in Yorkshire called Birklies [Kirklees] where desyring to be let blood, he was betrayed and bled to death......The prioress of the said place caused him to be buried by the highwayside, where he had used to rob and spoyle those that passed that way. And Vpon his grave the sayd prioress did lay a very fayre stone, where in the names of Robert Hood, Willaim of Goldsborough and others were graven. And the cause why she buried them there was, for that the common passengers and travailers, knowing and seeing him there buryed, might more safely and without feare take their journeys that way, which they durst not do in the life of the sayd outlawes. And at eyther end of the sayd tombe was erected a crosse of stone, which is to be seene there at this present"

A spot by the roadside adjacent to Kirklees Park on the highway bewteen Mirfield and Clifton-upon-Calder, is known as Dumb Steeple, and it is here that some local people say Robin Hood was buried.

In 1584, a gazetteer mentions, the tomb of Robin Hood at Kirkley, a generous robber and very famous on that account. 

The mysterious 'Life of Robin Hood,' an anonymous collection of information, seemingly taken  from extant ballad and plays of about 1600, (known as the Sloan Manuscript) has:

....Being dystemepered with could and age, he had great payne in his lymmes, his blood being corrupted, therefore, to be eased of his payne by letting blood, he repayred to the priores of Kirklesy, which some say was his aunt, a woman very skylful in physique and surgery; who perceyving him to be Robyn Hood and waying how fell an enimy he was to religious persons, toke revenge of him for her owne howse and all others by letting him bleed to death

The tomb is again mentioned by the Westminster School Master and historian William Camden, in his fifth edition of Britannia in 1607 (revised in 1789):

At Kirklees nunnery Robin Hood's tomb with a plain cross on  a flat stone is shown in the cemetery. In the ground at a little distance by two grave stones, one which has the inscription for Elizabeth de Staynton, prioress there.

Grafton describes Robin Hood's grave as being by the road, but Camden places his tomb near to the prioress Elizabeth de Staynton, which was in the priory garden.

Michael Drayton's Poly-Olbion has the lines:

"It chanc'd she in her course on Kirkley cast her eye,
Where merry Robin Hood that honest thief, doth lie."

In 1632 Martin Parker, probably the greatest ballad-monger of them all, produced his True Tale of Robin Hood. Included at the end of his brief touch of the life and death of that renowned outlaw, is the epitaph which the said Prioress of the Monastery of Kirkes Lay in Yorkshire set over Robbin Hood. Which, as is before mentioned, was to be reade within these hundred years, though in olden broken English, much to the same sence and meaning.

Decembris quarto, die 1198: anno regni Richardi Primi 9
Robert Earle of Huntingdon
Lies under this little stone
No archer was like him so good:
His wildnesse named him Robbin Hood.
Full thirteen yeares, and something more
These northerne parts he vexed sore
Such out-lawes as he and his men
May England never Know agen.

Some other superstitious words were in it, which I thought fit to leave out.

We can only wonder what 'superstitious words' they were!

Between 1631 and 1831 there appeared 18 different versions of this 'epitaph.'

The drawing of a graveslab that seems to be similar to the one described by Grafton in 1562 and Camden in 1607, was drawn by  Dr Nathanial Johnston a physician to the Armytage family in c.1669.

The graveslab apparently carried the inscription : Here lie Roberd Hude William Goldburgh Thomas....

So the inscription was scarce legible when Johnston drew the graveslab.

Who William Goldborough and Thomas were is yet another mystery? It is believed by some that William Goldborough may have been Will Scarlet's real name.

Between 1697 and 1702 Thomas Gale, Dean of York kept amongst his papers yet another version of the epitaph:

Here undernead dis laitl stean,
Laiz robert earl of huntington,
Near arcir veras hie sa geid,
An pipl kauld im robin heud,
Sick outlawz as hi an iz men,
Vil england nivr si agen.
Obit 24 kal; Dekembris 1247 

How this  bizarre inscription was devised remains a mystery, but may have been an attempt at archaic English. A Roman Kalend (Calend) ended on the first day of December, as Gale, (who was a classical scholar) must have known. Presumably it was added to the epitaph to lend it an ancient ambiance, but it does seem that Gale's verse  may have been borrowed from Parker's ballad, a True Tale of Robin Hood.

Ralph Thoresby the Leeds historian records in his Ducatus Leodiensis in 1715 that:

 ...near unto Kirklees monastery the noted Robin Hood lies buried under a grave-stone that yet remains near the park, but the inscription scarce legible.

In a letter to Thoresby a certain Richard Richardson also describes the inscription's decay:

The inscription upon Robin Hood's grave was never legible in my time; and it is now totally defaced; insomuch that neither the language nor character is to be distinguished; only you may perceive it was written about the verge of the stone. I have heard Dr Armitage say, that he could read upon it Hic jacet Robertus Hood, filius secundus Comitis de Huntingdon, but I must own, tho' he was a person of merit, I give little credit to this report.

Thoresby also included, in the appendix of his book, the 'ye olde Englishe' epitaph found in Thomas Gale's papers.

The 'rough sketch by Joseph Ismay

In about 1750 Sir Samuel Armytage the landowner of Kirklees appointed the  vicar of Mirthfield, Reverend Joseph Ismay, a local historian, as a tutor for his children. Ismay was fascinated by the grave of Robin Hood and produced an illustration of the cross that appeared on his tombstone. He admitted it was only a rough sketch but even, so it bared no resemblance to the drawings of Johnston. Ismay's writing on either side of the cross is very hard to understand, but it seems to say:

Sir George Armytage ordered two stone pillars to be erected by Robin Hood's grave in the park with the inscription found amongst the papers of the learned....[section breaks off but it must be Gale].

On the other side  of the cross, Ismay writes the epitaph that appeared in Gale's papers and would later be added to the grave itself. But he also includes:

...assumed to have been bled to death Dec 24th 1247

Ismay explains the reason why the grave site was enclosed:

Ye sepulchral Monument of Robin Hood near Kirklees which has been lately impaled in ye form of a Standing Hearse in order to preserve the stone from the rude hands of the curious traveller who frequently carried off a small fragment of ye stone, and thereby diminished it's pristine beauty.

Thomas Gent's includes a bizarre tale in his List of Religious Houses:

[Robin Hood's] tombstone, having his effigy thereon was ordered not many years ago, by a certain knight, to be placed as a hearth-stone in his great hall. When it was laid over-night, the next morning it was "surprisingly" removed [on or to] one side; and so three times it was laid and as successively turned aside. The knight, thinking he had done wrong to have bought it thither ordered it should be drawn back again; which was performed by a pair of oxen and four horses, when twice the number could scarcely do it before.

The 'grave' in  c.1870.

In a rare account of a tour around the grounds of Kirklees, a certain John Watson describes Robin Hood's tomb in 1758:

At some distance from this in an inclos'd plantation is Robin Hood's tomb, as it is call'd; which is nothing but a very rude stone not quite two yards along, & narrow in proportion; it has the figure of a cross, cut in a manner not common upon it; but no inscription, nor does there appear ever to have been any letters upon it, notwithstanding Mr Thoresby has publish'd a pretended one found amongst the papers of Dr Gale Dean of York.

Richard Gough's Sepulchral Monuments of Great Britain (1786) contains a drawing of a plain stone with a cross fleuree said to be from the grave of Robin Hood.

Gough's drawing of Robin Hood's grave-stone.

He says:
The figure of the stone over the grave of Robin Hood (in Kirklees Park, being a plain stone with a sort of cross fleuree thereon), now broken and much defaced, the inscription illegible. That printed in Thoresby Ducat. Leod. 576, from Dr Gale's papers, was never on it.

Gough's book also includes the details of a dig at the grave :

The late Sir Samuel Armytage, owner of the premises, caused the ground under to be dug a yard deep, and found it had never been disturbed; so that it was probably brought from some other place, and by vulgur tradition ascribed to Robin Hood.

1 yard (3 ft.) is 0.91 of a metre, so it begs the question why they didn't dig a bit deeper?

During the construction of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in the 1830's pieces of Robin Hood's gravestone was chipped off by the navies because they believed it could be a cure for toothache!

Robin Hood's Grave c.1900

By the 1840's only a small piece of the gravestone remained, so the owner of the land, Sir George II Armytage, enclosed what was left of the grave with an iron railing. Included was a new gravestone with the inscription taken from Thomas Gales writings.

The epitaph built into the wall around the grave.

In conclusion, I would like to use Churchill's quotation, that the site of Robin Hood's Grave is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

To read more about the history of Kirklees Priory and it's naughty nuns, please click here.

Robin Hood's Tomb

As we are in the season for spooky stories and tales of eerie events, I thought it would be appropriate to feature a mysterious account by Thomas Gent (1693-1778) about Robin Hood’s tomb.

Born in Ireland of English parents, Thomas Gent was a member of the Stationer's Company and worked with Samuel Richardson in London before setting up as a printer at York in 1724. From his print shop in York, Thomas Gent produced many editions of Robin Hood Garlands. This story however, appeared in Gent’s 1730 work, ‘Ancient and Modern History of the famous City of York,’ and was also published in Joseph Ritson’s collection on Robin Hood in 1832.

Gent had been told that:

“[Robin Hood’s] tombstone, having his effigy there on was ordered not many years ago, by a certain knight, to be placed as a hearth-stone in his great hall. When it was laid over-night, the next morning it was ‘surprisingly’ removed [on or to] one side; and so three times it was laid and as successively turned aside. The knight, thinking he had done wrong to have bought it thither ordered it should be drawn back again; which was performed by a pair of oxen and four horses, when twice the number could scarcely do it before.”

(Joseph Ritson Robin Hood page xxxix)

Robin Hood’s grave at Kirklees has been the subject of much controversy. The drawing of the gravestone above was made in 1665 and only a small portion of the stone now remains. It is said that a chip of Robin’s tombstone was a cure for toothache and when the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway was being constructed in the early 19th century, the navvies placed pieces of it under their pillows to allay the pain!

For more information on Robin Hood's death and Kirklees, please click here.

Robin Hood's Death at Kirklees

In about 1138 Robert Le Fleming, Lord of the Manor of Wath and Clifton founded the Cistercian Nunnery of Kirklees (near Brighouse, West Yorkshire), within the western end of Wakefield Manor. It was a very small house; the church itself was only c.80 ft long, consisting of a nave and a chancel of about the same width, without aisles or transepts. It was said that Kirklees possessed a Holy Relic, a ‘Singalum’ reputed to be the girdle of the Blessed Virgin Mary. At the Dissolution, Kirlees contained only seven nuns.

It was in this small nunnery, 20 miles from Barnsdale, that Robin Hood is said to have been murdered. In the Geste of Robyn Hode (C.1450), Feeling ill, Robin Hood visits Kirklees to be let blood by his relative, the Prioress.

Syr Roger of Donkestere,
By the pryoresse he lay,
And there they betrayed good Robyn Hode,
Through theyr false playe.

Cryst have mercy on his soule,
That dyed on the rode !
For he was a good outlawe,
And dyde pore men moch god.

Very little documentation survives of the early days of the nunnery, but in 1306 Archbishop Greenfield wrote to the house bidding them to take back Alice Raggid, who several times had been led astray by the temptations of the flesh, she, “deceived by the allurement of frail flesh, in great levity of mind hath gone forth from her house and hath wandered in great peril having long ago put off her religious habit.’

Professor John Bellamy discovered in 1985 that a Roger de Doncaster had been a chaplain in that area and was sent in 1306 by the Archbishop of York to be a priest of Ruddington church near Nottingham. It is about this time that we start to have evidence of the names of the Prioresses of Kirklees. About 1306 Margaret de Clayton was confirmed and from 1307-50 Alice de Scriven remained Prioress.

In 1315 the Archbishop of York wrote to the Prioress saying that public rumour had reached his ears, “that there are scandalous reports in circulation about the nuns at Kirlees and especially about Elizabeth de Hopton, Alice le Raggede and Joan de Heton, and that they admit both clergy and laymen too often into secret places of the monastery and have private talks with them, from which there is suspicion of sin, and great scandal arises; he commands the prioress to admonish the nuns and especially those above named that they are to admit no one, whether religious or secular, clerk or laymen, unless in a public place and in the presence of the Prioress or Sub Prioress or any two other of the ladies. He specially warns a certain Joan de Wakefield to give up the private room, where she persists in inhabiting by herself. He refers also to the fact that these and other nuns were disobedient to the Prioress, ‘like rebels refusing to accept her discipline and punishment.’’’




Joan de Heton was later convicted of incontinence with a Richard de Lathe and Sir Michael ‘called the Scot’ a priest. Alice le Raggede was also convicted of incontinence with a William de Heton of Mirthfield. Later in 1337 a letter from the Archbishop of York to the Prioress states that Margaret de Burton, a nun had sinned and would only be allowed to return to the priory if she would prostrate herself before the gates and undergo the prescribed penance.

At the Dissolution in 1539 Joan Kyppes (Kypac) the last prioress of Kirklees surrendered the nunnery at the value of £29.8s. 6d. Three years later the King’s Antiquary John Leland (1506-52) spent six years on a tour of England collecting material and visited Kirklees describing it thus :

‘Monastrium monialium ubi Ro. Hood nobillis ille exlex sepultus.’

'The monastery where the famous noble outlaw Robin Hood is buried.'

In 1565 the Armytage family took up residence in the Mansion House at Kirklees built from the stones of the plundered Nunnery and a local public house, nearby is named after three of the evicted nuns. The only remaining relic of Kirklees Nunnery is the Oat House, which was re-built on the original site in late medieval times. Although listed, it is in a derelict condition but has interesting ornamental foliated work carved into the beams, including a hound and stag.

The room in which Robin Hood is said to have died

It is in the upper room, which is reached by an outside staircase, where Robin Hood is thought to have breathed his last. Unfortunately the site of Robin’s grave is about 650 yards away, almost twice the longbow range of a skilled archer!

In the very damaged ballad ‘Robin Hoode his Death’ (which was rescued from being thrown on a fire by Thomas Percy) dated from about the mid seventeenth century, we can see more details of the mysterious death of the famous outlaw, which must have been known to the compiler of the ‘Geste’.

The ballad begins:

‘I will never eate nor drinke,’ Robin Hood said,
‘Nor meate will doo me noe good,
Till I have beene att merry Church Lees,
My vaines for to let blood.’

Eileen Power in her book ‘Medieval Nunneries’ notes that in all the ballad and folk song literature of England and Scotland this ballad has remarkably, the only reference to a nun!

Upon reaching Church Lees, (Kirklees) Robin gives the Prioress twenty pounds in gold and promises her more if she needs it.

And downe then came dame prioresse,
Downe she came in that ilke,
With a pair off blood irons [lancing knives] in her hands
Were wrapped all in silke.

‘Sett a chaffing-dish to the fyer,’ said dame prioresse,
‘And strpp thou up thy sleeve:’
I hold him but an unwise man
That wil noe warning leeve [believe].’

Shee laid the blood irons to Robin Hoods vaine,
Alacke, the more pitye!
And pearct the vaine, and let out the bloode,
That full red was to see.

And first it bled, the thicke, thicke bloode,
And afterwards the thinne,
And well then wist good Robin Hoode
Treason there was within.

The manuscript is badly damaged, but after a fight with ‘Red Roger’ Robin tries to escape from Kirklees, through a ‘shot window.’ Little John asks Robin’s permission to burn the nunnery to the ground but:

‘That I reade not,’ said Robin Hoode then,
'Litle John, for it may not be;
If I shold doe any widow hurt, at my latter end,
God,’ he said, ‘wold blame me;

‘But take me upon thy backe, Litle John,
And beare me to yonder streete,
And there make me a full fayre grave,
Of gravell and of greete [grit].

‘And sett my bright sword at my head,
Mine arrows at my feete,
And lay my vew-bow [yew-bow] by my side,
My met-yard [measuring rod] wi ………………………


(Half a page is missing)

Richard Grafton (1511-1572), King’s Printer to Edward VI wrote in his chronicle that, ‘the sayd Robert Hood, being afterwards troubled with siknesse came to a certain nunry in Yorkshire called Birklies [Kirklees] where desyryng to be let blood, he was betrayed and bled to death..........The prioress of the same place caused him to be buried by the highway side, where he had used to rob and spoyle those that paused that way. And Upon his grave the sayd prioress did lay a very fayre stone, where in the names of Robert Hood, William of Goldsborough and others were graven. And the cause why she buried him there was, for that the common passengers and travailers, knowing and seeing him there buryed, might more safely and without feare take their journeys that way, which they durst not do in the life of the sayd outlawes. And at either ende of the sayd tombe was erected a crosse of stone, which is to be seene at theis present.’

I will include more details of Robin’s tomb in a later post, but in 1706 the gravestone of a prioress of Kirklees was discovered. On the gravestone was carved the figure of a cross of Calvary and around the margin the following inscription in Norman-French in Lombardic letters:

‘DOVCE : JHV : DE: NAZARETH : FUS : DIEV: AYEZ: MERCI : A : ELIZABETH : STAINTON : PRIORES DE CEST MAISON’

'Sweet Jesus of Nazareth Son of God, take mercy on Elizabeth Stainton, Prioress of this house.'

Unfortunately there was no date on the stone. It lies about eighteen yards from the east end of the priory church. As it is the only grave discovered other than the traditional site of Robin’s, it probably led to the belief that she was the prioress who bled the outlaw to death.

From the style of the grave cross and its monastic lettering it has been dated to the fourteenth century and it is believed that Elizabeth was one of four daughters of a John de Staynton who lived at Woolley, near Wakefield in Yorkshire.

In about 1631, probably the greatest ballad-monger, Mathew Parker (c.1600-56) produced ‘The True Tale of Robin Hood.’ It was entered to Francis Grove at Stationers Hall on the 29th February 1632. Parker included at the end of the ballad:

‘the epitaph which the said Prioress of the monastery of Kirkes Lay in Yorkshire set over Robbin Hood, which, as is before mentioned, was to bee reade within these hundred years, though in old broken English, much to the same sence and meaning:

Decembris quarto die 1198 anno regni Richardi Primi 9
Robert Earle of Huntington
Lies under this stone
No archer was like him so good:
His wildnesse named him Robbin Hood
Full thirteen years, and something more,
These northerne parts he vexed sore
Such outlawes as he and his men
May England never know again.'

I will continue on the subject of Robin Hood’s Grave Stone very soon.