Edward II and Robin Hood

Above is a picture of the tomb of King Edward II in Gloucester Cathedral in England. In the Geste of Robyn Hode, one of the earliest surviving ballads of Robin Hood, ‘comly’ King Edward hearing of the death of the Sheriff and that his deer in his forest have been killed, visits Sherwood disguised as an abbot. Eventually Robin recognises the king and asks for mercy for himself and his followers. But the king will only grant them a pardon on condition that they leave the forest and come to court.

In the ground breaking discoveries of Joseph Hunter which were first published in his book The Great Hero of the Ancient Minstrelsy of England, Robin Hood his Period etc. Investigated and Perhaps Ascertained in 1852, he proposed that the king was Edward II ( 1307-1327).

A day book surviving from Edward's Royal Chamber between 14th April to 7th July 1323 mentions on 27th June a Robyn Hode received wages as porter of the king’s chamber from 5th till 18th June. In the fragment of the Account book, £6 is paid out to thirty four, including Robyn Hod, Simon Hod, Wat Cowherd and Robin Dyer.

In P.R.O. E101/380/4 there are payments of 3d a day starting on the 25th April 1324 to ‘Henri Lawe, Colle de Ashruge, Will de Shene, Joh. Petimari, Grete Hobbe, Litell Colle, Joh. Edrich, Robyn Hod, Simon Hod, Robert Trasshe.......... (And nineteen others).’

On May 17th 1324: ‘ To Robert Hod and thirty one other porters for wages from the 22nd April to May 12th, less five days for Robert Hod when he was absent.’

On June 10th 1324: ‘To Robyn Hod twenty seven days wage less one day absence deducted for absence.’

On June 30th 1324: 'Twenty Six porters received their wages but Robyn Hod received nothing.'

On July 22nd 1324: ‘To Robert Hood and six other valets being with the king at Fulham by his command from the 9th day of June arrears of wages at 3d a day for twenty one day’s pay.'

August 21st 1324: ‘Robin Hod had eight days pay deducted for non-attendance.'

October 6th 1324: ‘Robyn Hod received full pay.'

October 21st 1324: No pay to Robyn Hod, absent altogether.

From October 21st to November 24th 1324 the Clerk of the Chamber paid Robyn Hod for 35 days, but deducted seven days because of absence.

November 22nd 1324: ‘To Robyn Hod formerly one of the porters, because he can no longer work, five shillings as a gift by commandment.'

Edward II (1307-1327)

In the Geste Robin has spent all his money on entertaining and on gifts to knights and squires. Only two of his men, Little John and Scathelock, are left with him. Robin longs to go back to the greenwood, and begs leave of the king to go on a pilgrimage to a little chapel in Barnsdale that he had built.

We know now that this Robert Hood/Robin Hood was already in the King’s service before his visit to Nottingham; perhaps he was given the five shillings because he was too old and sick to work. But whatever way you look at it, this is indeed a remarkable coincidence between ballad and historical fact. 

To read more about Joseph Hunter's discoveries, please click here.

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 In Sherwood Stood

On this blog over the past few years we have looked at some of the earliest ballads of Robin Hood. These survive from the early fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. But apart from the ballads, there are also place-names, proverbs, dramatic records and tantalizing references to ‘rymes’ about the allusive outlaw. The most famous reference is in William Langland’s Piers Plowman (1377), where Sloth, the lazy priest confesses that:

‘I can nouЗte perfitly my paternoster as the prest it syngeth,

But I can rymes of Robyn Hood and Randolf erle of Chestre.’

A page from Langland's Piers Plowman

Sadly none of these ‘rymes’ survive before the fifteenth century. The earliest existing poem comes from Andrew of Wyntoun’s Orygynale Cronykil, which was compiled about 1420. In short rhymed couplets it has:

Litil Iohun and Robert Hude

Waythmen war commendir gud;

In Ingilwode and Bernnysdaile

Thai oyssit al this time that trawale.

Little John and Robert Hood

Were well praised as forest outlaws

In Inglewood and Barnsdale

They practised their labour all the time.

One of the most interesting ‘rhymes’ for me is the fragment discovered in Lincoln Cathedral Library in the 1940’s by George E Morris. I am indebted to Adele Treskillard and Trish Bazallgette for their invaluable help. Adele managed to locate an image of the scribbled two rhymed couplets from the manuscript and Trish has helped me obtain information on how and when it was discovered.

The fragment was found amongst a miscellany of grammatical texts, dating from the thirteenth and fourteen centuries. It appears that a student from the early fifteenth century hastily wrote or scribbled two rhymed couplets from a Robin Hood poem as an exercise in translating English into Latin:

Robyn hod in scherewod stod

Hodud and hathud hosut and schold

Ffour and thuynti arowes he bar in hit hondus.

Robin Hood in Sherwood stood

Hooded and hatted, hosed and shod

Four and twenty arrows

He bore in his hands.

Robyn hod in scherewod stod

Evidence from the dialect locates the poem to the North Midlands of England and the use of the ‘weak preterite verbs’ (hodud, hathud, hosut) give it a date of c.1425.

In the past scholars have assumed that Langland’s ‘rymes of Robyn Hood’ were the long narrative ballads such as Robin Hood and the Monk, but scholars are now having a re-think. The evidence from Wyntoun and the Lincoln manuscript suggests that they were originally easily remembered short lyrics, passed on orally in rhymed couplets. In time, some would then eventually be expanded into what we describe as the Robin Hood ballads.

Sir Richard Foliot and Jordan Castle

Albie’s input on this site regarding the history of Nottinghamshire and in particular Sherwood Forest has been invaluable.  One of the many interesting topics he has raised is the ancient history of the Nottinghamshire village of Wellow. A while ago Albie sent in some great pictures of the May Day celebrations around its unique, permanent maypole by the village children. The tradition still remains to this day that whenever a new pole is needed, it is cut from nearby Sherwood Forest.

And it is the links with Sherwood and the legend of Robin Hood that make the ancient village of Wellow fascinating. In particular is the knight who owned the castle near the village. Today it is known as Jordan Castle, but Wellow Castle, as it was once known, was owned by a local Nottinghamshire knight called Sir Richard Foliot whose conduct had remarkable similarities with Sir Richard at the Lee in one of the oldest ballads of Robin Hood.

In the Geste of Robyn Hode (1495), the knight protects the outlaws in his:

‘....fayre castell

A little within the wood,

Double ditched it was about,

And walled by the road.’

Jordan Castle, as it is known locally, was the inheritance of a Yorkshire knight known as Jordan Foliot who had served in the armies of King John. It came to him in 1225 and later was often visited by Henry III and his retinue when travelling north. Because of his hospitality to the monarch, Jordan was rewarded with deer to stock his park at his nearby lands at Grimstone. After Jordan’s death in 1236 his young son Richard Foliot (d.1299) was allowed to immediately inherit his father’s lands in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, followed in 1252 with a charter of free warren. This gave him the right to control the hunting of the beasts on his estates. In 1268 King Henry III granted Foliot permission to hold a market and fair near his castle at Wellow.

Foliot’s castle did match the description in the Geste of Robyn Hode very closely. It was a ringwork castle of the late 11^th and 12th century and included a ditch, a wall of stone and lime, and a moat. It stood on high ground just outside the boundary of Sherwood and was probably the manorial centre of the nearby village of Grimstone. In March 1264 Foliot was given licence by the king to fortify and crenellate it.

In the Geste Robin is betrayed by the Sheriff of Nottingham after an archery contest. A hue and cry is raised and eventually Little John is wounded in the knee.  They take refuge in the castle of Sir Richard at the Lee, who welcomes them - the castle gates are shut and they feast in safety. But eventually the castle is put under siege by the sheriff.

It appears that Richard Foliot also had connections with outlaws, in particular the notorious Roger Godberd and his partner in crime Walter Devyas. Godberd, a former member of the garrison at Nottingham Castle led a large outlaw band that had poached in Sherwood, murdered and robbed throughout Nottinghamshire between 1266 and 1272.  He is often put forward by scholars as a possible prototype of Robin Hood.

The Sheriff of Nottingham, Reginald de Grey was given £100 by the Royal Council to capture Godberd, which he did ‘manfully’. In October 1271 Foliot was given power of safe conduct and ordered to ‘conduct Walter Deyvas charged with divers trespasses to the king.’

But Richard Foliot refused to do so and was shortly afterwards accused of harbouring both Godberd and Devyas and other wrongdoers. The Sheriff of Yorkshire seized his lands and as he advanced on Fenwick, Foliot surrendered both the castle and his son Edmund as sureties that he would present himself as a prisoner at York on an agreed day. It seems that Godberd, Devyas and the other outlaws, like Robin and his men, must have slipped away.

When Foliot appeared before the king at Westminster, he was able to give the names of twelve barons as guarantors for his behaviour. With that he appeared in the Court of the King’s Bench on the 13^th October and the king instructed the sheriff to return his lands to him.

Jordan Farm near the site of the castle.

Trying to identify  the ballad heroes and events in the Robin Hood legend is impossible. But there are some interesting parallels here between the historical evidence and the Geste of Robyn Hode. What is also intriguing is the location of the Foliot lands, first pointed out by Professor J. C. Holt in his ‘Robin Hood’.  Apart from his properties on the eastern side of Sherwood at Wellow and Grimston, Sir Richard Foliot also held lands near another area with strong connections to the Robin Hood legend - Wentbridge. These places were in the valley of the Went at Norton, Stubbs and Fenwick. Barnsdale, Robin’s other traditional haunt; lay just five miles from Fenwick.  This link between the Foliot lands near Sherwood and Barnsdale could explain how the legend was transmitted between his various households and the locations of the ballad hero were conflated. Holt put it rather romantically when he described how Sir Richard Foliot, ‘from his castle at Fenwick, on a spring evening, would see the sun go down over Barnsdale, no more than five miles away.’

Castles of Nottinghamshire... James Wright (2008)

On The Trail of Robin Hood...Richard de Vries (1988)

Robin Hood...J.C. Holt (1982 and 1989)

Robin Hood and the Lords of Wellow... Tony Molyneux-Smith (1998)

Robin Hood...David Baldwin (2010)



Richard the Lionheart in Sherwood Forest

Because of several projects that I am currently working on, (including a novel) my blog has been slightly neglected over the past few months. But I am desperately trying to catch up with some of the fascinating information sent to me by some of my readers.

Albie has sent some wonderful facts about the history of Sherwood over the last few years and there are still more for me to upload. But this post was kindly sent in by Trish about the early boundaries of the Royal Forest of Sherwood. She was inspired to write this because of a small anecdote in Manwood’s Treatise of the Forest Laws (1598) that mentioned Richard the Lionheart hunting in Sherwood Forest:

“I have seen many ancient records in the tower of Nottingham Castle very badly kept, and scarce legible; in which Castle the Court is usually kept for Peverill-Fee: Amongst which it appears, that in the year 1194, King Richard being hunting in Sherwood Forest, did chase a hart out of the forest into Barnsdale into Yorkshire; and because he could not recover him, he made a proclamation at Tickhill in Yorkshire, and at several other places thereabout, that no person should kill, hurt or chase the said Hart; and this was afterwards called a Hart-Royal Proclaim’d.”

( John Manwood d.1610)

The Royal Forest of Sherwood

I was intrigued by this because the first official description of the boundary of the Royal Forest was completed in 1218 and showed that at its most northern point, Sherwood stretched 20 miles from Nottingham as far as the River Meden. Barnsdale of course is in Yorkshire a great deal further and quite a jaunt on horseback even for Richard the Lionheart! But Trish has completed some detailed research about Sherwood’s earlier size and below is her interesting and important discoveries about the original ‘Forest of Nottingham.’

Here is Trish's post:

'Some weeks ago you mentioned the anecdote from Manwood’s Forest Laws about how Richard I hunted a hart from Sherwood to Barnesdale, and wondered at the distance he covered.  This got me thinking about the forest boundaries, for it is generally accepted that the northern boundary of medieval Sherwood was the river Meden.

This boundary was formally established in the perambulations and inquisitionsarising from the 1217 Charter of the Forest. But where was the boundary before then?

During the reign of Henry I, the eastern boundary of the forest (known then as the ‘old forest’ or ‘the forest of Nottingham’) ran from the place where the Doverbeck joins the Trent, and followed the douerbek, thence to cuningeswað and then north to bikeresdik, near the Yorkshire border.  This includes the region north of the Meden known as Hatfield.  This boundarywas indentified early in the reign of Henry II, when the Archbishop of York requested that his Nottinghamshire lands, almost all of which were east of the Doverbeck, to be exempt from forest law.  He justified his request by claiming that they had not been part of the forest during the reign of Henry I.  (The record of the Inquest is appended in Crook, 1994).

But this inquest was held in the first or second year of Henry II’s reign, which suggests that it was during King Stephen’s time – the Anarchy – that forest laws began to be enforced east of the Doverbeck, in the region known as the Forest of Clay.  This is odd, for it is generally recognised that forest laws were only haphazardly enforced during the Anarchy, and some forest land was simply reclaimed by the inhabitants and landholders (Crook, 1994; Poole, 1955).  Further, shortly after becoming king, Stephen, in a charter of liberties, agreed to disafforest all lands that Henry I had afforested while maintaining those forests created by William I and William II. This suggests either that Stephen wasn’t successful in disafforesting the area of Hatfield, or that the region had already been subject to forest law under William I or II.

Sherwood Forest

And in a writ following the charter of liberties, in which the canons of Southwell were granted exemptions from forest laws, it was stated explicitly that their lands were within the forest  (Crook 1994).  If anything, the size of the forest should have been reduced during Stephen’s reign, but in this case it wasn’t. Perhaps William Peverel was overzealous in enforcing the forest law and took a few liberties?  The interestingthing is that the canons were only granted exemptions – the possibility that their lands were outside the forest was not recognised by the king.

So at the opening of Henry II’s reign, it would appear that the area known as the Forest of Nottingham, as well as at least a portion of the Forest of Clay, were already subject to forest law despite the grumbles of the Archbishop of York.

Further evidence shows that all of Nottinghamshire north of the Trent was subject to forest law during the reigns of Henry II, Richard I and John.  The Pipe Rolls from these reigns (specifically1167-1212) record the penalties imposed on vills in the forest eyres.  (This information comes from an unpublished MA thesis which I would love to get my hands on).   The region subject to forest law included all of Nottinghamshire north of the Trent and possibly some to the southeast, and extended into eastern Derbyshire aswell.

Hunting in the Forest

So, when Richard I chased that hart from Sherwood to Barnesdale, he may not have had all that far to go.  The distance from Blyth to Barnesdale is about 20 or 25 miles – no more than a bracing race for an extraordinary man like Richard the Lionheart. He seems to have been gracious about not catching the beast, at least!

Regards,

Trish '

Crook, David.  “The Archbishop of York and the Extent of the Forest in Nottinghamshire in the Twelfth Century.”  In George Garnet and John Hudson, eds., Law and Government in Medieval England and Normandy: Essays in Honour of Sir James Holt.  Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Liddell, William Hetherington.  “Some Royal Forests North of the Trent, 1066-1307. Unpublished MA Thesis.  University of Nottingham, 1961.

Patrick Barr as Richard the Lionheart

This is groundbreaking research by Trish and I would like to thank her very much for allowing me to post her work.

I wonder what other manuscripts were left decaying in that tower at Nottingham Castle? But at least we do know that after his return from the Holy Land, King Richard did visit Sherwood Forest and also Robin Hood’s other traditional haunt - Barnsdale in Yorkshire.

Hobbehod - The Real Robin Hood?

Still the most tantalising discovery, in the search for a real Robin Hood, was the candidate first put forward by L. V. D. Owen of Nottingham University in 1936.  Owen had previously given consideration to Joseph Hunter’s theories about the Robert Hood of Wakefield, but suggested this historic figure as a contender for the inspiration behind the Geste.  He discovered in the government pipe rolls between the years 1225-1234 that the Sheriff of Yorkshire had accounted for the chattels of a Robert Hood fugitive. Also, under the year 1228 the outlaw’s name is written in its colloquial form as ‘Hobbehod.’

The merit of this identification, argued Owen, was that it allowed Robin to be active during the reigns of Richard I and John, and for him to become a legend by the date of Piers Plowman. Owen also noted that rioters in Yorkshire during the 1230’s, led by Sir Robert Thweng, protesting against foreign clergy, sold grain cheaply and gave some away for the benefit of the poor.

Below is a basic timeline of events that surround the discovery by Owen and the follow-up investigation by Dr David Crook, who also argued that this Robert Hood ‘was the only realistic candidate already in the field.’ Crook investigated further the career of Eustace of Lowdham, the Sheriff of Yorkshire at that time and also his pursuit of Robert of Wetherby.

1224:

Philip Marc, the notorious Sherriff of Nottingham is replaced by Ralph fitz Nicholas. Four months later on the 29^th April 1224 Marc’s deputy known as Eustace of Lowdham became Sheriff of Yorkshire.

1225:

12^th July: At Winchester the King and Justicar authorized a writ to the barons of the exchequer to allow the Sheriff of Yorkshire 40 shillings spent by him on the royal order, to hire sergeants to ‘seek and take and behead Robert of Wetherby, outlaw and evildoer of our land.’

From the following years account we learn that a further 28 shillings were spent on the operation, and the leader of the sergeants was a man called William the Vintner.

On the 25^th July Robert de Lexington held assizes at York as head of the Royal Justices to hear pleas of ‘novel disseisin’ and ‘mort de ancestor’. When the penalties were put in charge at the Exchequer they included:

“Iden vicecomes debet xxxij.s.et.vjd. de catallis Roberti Hod fugitivi.” [PR Henry III p.274]

“32 shillings and sixpence in the matter of the chattels of Robert Hood fugitive.”

Unfortunately Lexington’s plea roll, which would have given detail of the offence he was accused of has not survived.

On the 27^th November, when Eustace of Lowdham accounted for his shire at the Exchequer, as he had done so often for Philip Marc, he claimed 2 shillings ‘for a chain to hang Robert of Wetherby.’

Nothing is further known of Robert of Wetherby but the purchase of the chain seems to imply that he was no ordinary criminal and hung up and put on display.

1227:

Every Michaelmas the clerks of the Exchequer recorded the sums of money paid into the Royal Treasury by the sheriffs. The name Robert Hood appears in the Yorkshire account in nine successive pipe rolls from 1226 -1234, six times as Robert Hod and once in 1229 as Robert Hood. But also in 1227 and 1228 in its colloquial form as ‘Hobbehod.’

The name ‘Hobbehod’ could be a variant outlaw name to be associated with the recurring figure ‘Hobbe the Robber’ mentioned in PiersPlowman and also the contemporary ‘John Ball Letters’ of the 1381 Peasants Revolt. Its mythological connotations bring us to Robin Goodfellow and Hobgoblins and it has also been suggested that the fugitive might have rode a small horse-a hobby. But it is more likely the scribe used the Middle-English ‘Hob’ as another form of Robert/Robin.

Written in the margin is evidence to show that the debt was due from the Liberty of St. Peter York. St. Peter is inserted in the margin of the roll next to his name and again in 1234 when the name is preceded by a cross. So in effect the fugitive was a tenant of the Archbishop of York or in some way a subject of his jurisdiction. Hood’s chattels were therefore claimed and eventually granted to the Archbishop.

1232: Eustace of Lowdham becomes Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

1227 /1232: Eustace of Lowdham was justice of the gaol delivery for Nottingham.

From all this we have two men sharing the same Christian name, both subjects of the Archbishop of York, hunted in those summer days in Yorkshire possible around Barnsdale in  1225. Pursued by someone who as a former ‘working Sheriff of Nottingham’ could have been known by that title by the people of Yorkshire.

                                                  Barnsdale in Yorkshire

Dr David Crook says that it is ‘conceivable’ that Robert of Wetherby and Robert Hood were one and the same man. ‘Wetherby had been outlawed by July, possibly before, whereas Robert Hood was described merely as a fugitive; that would usually be taken to mean that he was a subject who had fled, but the confiscation of his chattels could have been noted at a time when he had not yet been outlawed.’

The fact that Eustace of Lowdham had been clerk and ‘working’ Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire’ from 1217 till 1224 under the hated sheriff, Philip Marc, could explain the links with Nottingham and Sherwood. Eustace had been an established man of property and man of affairs in his native village of Lowdham, near Sherwood, in Nottinghamshire during the reign of King John.

I am not convinced that Wetherby and Robert Hood were one and the same person. But this is as close as we have come so far in search of an historical outlaw, who fits the early Yorkshire locations mentioned in the ballad, The Geste of Robyn Hode. This Robert Hood owed money to St. Peter’s York which would explain the ballad hero’s hostility to the established church in that area. Some writers have suggested that Robert Hood/Hobbehod might have followed Eustace from Yorkshire to Nottingham to pursue a vendetta against a Sheriff who had seized his property. This would certainly explain the conundrum over the two locations used in the ballads.

Professor J.C. Holt, the leading authority on research into the outlaw, describes Hobbehod as ‘the only possible original of Robin Hood so far discovered, who is known to have been an outlaw.’ What do you think?

Henry VIII meets Robin Hood

Spring is my favourite time of year and in particular the month of May, when the celebrations begin to welcome the return of warmer weather.

May Day doesn’t appear in the Christian calendar, its origins are steeped in pagan tradition. The celebrations contain elements from the Roman Festival of Flora the Goddess of flowers and Beltane one of four major Celtic festivals. Taken from the god, Bel - the 'bright one', and the Gaelic word 'teine' meaning fire, we get ‘bright fire', representing the first day of Summer and the end of Winter. The thought of those long summer nights and a good harvest, with a plentiful supply of food to come, provided every excuse to celebrate May Day.

It was a tradition for young men and women to go out into the woods before sunrise in order to gather flowers and greenery to decorate their houses and villages with the belief that the vegetation spirits would bring good fortune and make the land fertile. Neighboring villages would compete to see who could bring back the largest piece of wood, which would be used as the maypole. Meanwhile young girls washed their faces with morning dew with the hope they would have radiant beauty for the rest of the year and made May garlands of flowers and foliage.

In 1480 the mayor of Coventry gives us an insight into the custom of ‘bringing in the May.’

“The people of every city – as London and other cities – yearly in Summer do harm to diverse lords and gentles having woods and groves nigh to such cities by taking of boughs and trees; and yet the lords and gentles suffer such deeds oft-times of their good will.”

The rest of the day was given over to various festivities. The villagers would take part in dancing on the village green, plays, archery and contests of strength. The highlight of the day was the crowning of the May Queen later the Maid Marian, the human replica of Flora. By tradition she took no part in the games or dancing, but sat like a queen in her flower-decked chair to watch over the subjects.

Maid Marian and the Friar with various characters from the May celebrations.

 

A shepherdess called Marian and her lover Robin have links with these village plays and pastourelles at a very early medieval period. Eventually the outlaw traditions merged with these games, plays and celebrations and gradually up and down the country Robin Hood and Maid Marian became interchangeable with the Lord and Lady of the May Celebrations.

In surviving churchwarden accounts we have the records of these ‘revels,’ 'sports,’ and ‘plays,’ of Robin Hood.’ In Croscombe, just outside Wells in Somerset, the parish records include ‘Roben Hodes recons,’ for the ‘sport’ or ‘revel’ of Robin Hood. The player of the outlaw paid the amounts regularly. The churchwarden’s accounts for Kingston-on-Thames mention the costumes of ‘Robyn Hode with the mores daunsaies, the frère and mayde Maryan.’ The Friar wore white and Marian was given a green cloth (Kendal) and a satin trimmed cloak.

 

 

Henry VIII and Katherine

 

It was during the early 16th century that the printing presses began producing editions of the ‘Geste of Robyn Hode.’ The popularity of the outlaw was now immense and this fascinating report from Edward Hall’s (c. 1498–1547), ‘Chronicle’ of 1516 shows that even royalty were invited to celebrate May Day with Robin Hood:

 

“The King and Queen [Henry VIII and Queen Katherine] accompanied with many lords and ladies rode to the high ground of Shooters Hill to take the open air; and as they passed by the way, they espied a company of tall yeoman, clothed all in green with green hoods and bows and arrows, to the number of two hundred. Then one of them, which called himself Robyn hood, came to the King, desiring him to see his men shoot, and the king was content. Then he whistled and all the two hundred archers shot and loosed at once, and then he whistled again, and they likewise shot again; their arrows whistled by craft of the head, so that the noise was strange and great, and much pleased the King and Queen and all the company. All of these archers were of the King’s guard and had thus appareled themselves to make solace to the King. The Robyn hood desired the King and the Queen to come into the green wood, and to see how the outlaws live. The King demanded of the Queen and her ladies, if they durst adventure to go into the wood with so many outlaws. Then the Queen said that if it pleased him, she was content. Then the horns blew till they came to the wood under Shooters Hill, and there was an arbour made of boughs, with a hall and a great chamber very well made and covered with flowers and sweet herbs, which the King much praised. Then said Robyn hood, Sir, outlaws breakfast in venison, and therefore you must be content with such fare as we use. Then the King and Queen sat down, and were served with venison and wine by Robyn hood and his men to great contention.”

This account shows that by the Tudor period Robin Hood was not only associated with unruly and often bawdy May celebrations, but had diversified into a genial host and had began to prepare the grounds for later theatrical productions.