Robin Hood and me in the 1990's outside the Castle Wall.
Showing posts with label Robin Hood Places. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robin Hood Places. Show all posts
Robin Hood Airport
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| Sean Bean and Brian Blessed |
As regular readers of this blog will know, Robin Hood not only has links with Nottinghamshire but also Yorkshire - both counties continuing to claim him as their own.
In April 2005, when the Peel Group opened their £80 million airport on the former site of RAF Finningley in the borough of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, they provocatively re-named it 'Robin Hood Airport.'
This former long range nuclear bomber base is situated less than 18 miles from the legendary haunts described in one of the oldest tales about the outlaw, A Gest of Robyn Hode printed between 1492-1534.
Robyn stode in Bernesdale,
And lenyd hym to a tre;
And bi hym stode Litell Johnn,
A gode yeman was he.
The 'Barnsdale' referred to in the early ballad - the base for the outlaw's activities - is often identified with a relatively small area in South Yorkshire near The Great North Road, just north of Doncaster. Wentbridge and Saylis also appear in the stories of Robin Hood and the Potter and the Gest respectively. Legend states that his remains are buried at Kirklees Priory near Brighouse, West Yorkshire.So two years after the airport's official opening a10-foot bronze statue of Robin Hood, sculpted by Neale Andrew was unveiled by actors Sean Bean and Brian Blessed on the first floor of the airport. Both actors are Yorkshire born and bred and proud of their roots.
During a press interview after the ceremony Sean Bean confessed that he would, "love to play Robin Hood on the big screen," he said. "It's 16 years [2007] since Kevin Costner did it - now it's my turn."
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| Sean Bean with the statue of Robin Hood |
Sean Bean continued:
"And we all know Robin Hood was definitely a Yorkshireman who was chased into Nottingham. They say he could be from Loxley in Sheffield - thats near where I come from. In fact Robin Hood is possibly my great, great, great, great, great, grandfather."
Brian Blessed, who played Robin Hood's father in the Costner movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, joked that the reason they were both invited was because, " Sean is very talented, but I have the sex appeal."
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| Sean Bean and Brian Blessed |
Blessed said:
"I was born just eight miles away in Mexborough and I lived in Goldthorpe, my dad died about a year ago - he was the oldest surviving coal miner, he was 99 - and he was thrilled to bits with this airport. It's marvellous the way it's revitalised the area. I'm very proud to be part of this."After the airport was re-named in 2005, Nottingham council accused Doncaster of 'jumping on the band-wagon'!
To read about Robin Hood's death at Kirklees please click here. Information about the medieval ballads Robin Hood and the Potter and the Gest of Robyn Hode can be seen here and there are many more links and in the sidebars.
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.
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The 'rough sketch by Joseph Ismay
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.
The Tomb of Maid Marian
Matilda Fitzwalter's tomb c.1782
Occasionally I like to delve into various subjects
linked to the Robin Hood legend and recently I decided to look at one
particular place associated with Robin’s girlfriend - Little Dunmow, near
Colchester in Essex. I was glad I did and unearthed far more than I expected!
Today all that survives of the
Augustinian priory of St Mary the Virgin, (founded in Dunmow in 1106) is the
present church in St. Mary’s Place, which was the Lady Chapel. It is here that
local tradition states, is the tomb of Maid Marian.
Little Dunmow church
Dunmow formed the caput of a feudal
barony along with Baynard’s Castle in south-west London, which was granted to
Robert Fitzwalter of Woodham (c.1198- 1235) on the death of his father in 1198.
Robert was the baronial leader, styled ‘Master of the Army of God and the Holy
Church’ who later went on to oppose King John and lead the revolt that
culminated in the Magna Carta in 1215. Today he has become romanticized and
styled the champion of English liberty, but history reveals that he was far
from the saintly character created by modern myth.
King John had refused to allow the pope
any right to appoint an archbishop of Canterbury without royal assent. He
banished from England five monks from Canterbury and seized all the English offices
held by Italian bishops. He then went on to refuse to allow any papal legates
to enter the country. By the spring of 1208 the Pope had placed the country
under an Interdict forbidding any church services to be held.
In 1212, Robert Fitzwalter had been
heavily implicated in an assassination plot against King John during his
expedition against the Welsh. The king was to be killed, or to be abandoned to
the Welsh while a new king was chosen. But John had received intelligence of
the scheme and Fitzwalter was outlawed and fled to the court of King Philip of
France. John seized Fitzwalter’s lands and destroyed both Baynard and Benington
castles. But in the ‘Historire des ducs de Normandie (p.118)’, compiled between
1215-16, it states that when Robert Fitzwalter fled to France, he told King
Philip that his break with John was caused by the latter’s attempt to rape his
daughter Matilda. How this allegation arose is unclear and not taken seriously
by modern scholars. Some historians suggest that Fitzwalter may have left his
wife Gunnor de Valognes and the children, at Arras in Northern France while he
had gone to repeat his tale to Philip Augustus!
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Seal Dye of Robert Fitzwalter
Meanwhile another enemy of John, Eustace
de Vesci, had also been allegedly enraged by what he described as the king’s
attempt to seduce his wife Margaret, the daughter of King William of Scotland. Later
a chronicler wrote of these allegations, at the Cistercian Abbey of Waverly,
accusing King John of violating the wives and daughters of many of his barons.
These attempted rapes were also confirmed by Matthew Paris; who although not a
contemporary of John continued to re-write and add to the work of Roger of
Wendover, with extreme hostility, describing the monarch as irreligious, lazy
and wishing to convert the country to Islam.
This is perhaps unsurprising when you
consider that King John had been excommunicated by the Pope and this severely
biased all views of him emanating from monastic sources -‘veiled behind fable,
invention and hostile criticism.’ So true or not, as hostile propaganda, these
allegations helped to establish the image of an immoral and untrustworthy king
that has lasted to the present day.
The story of the seduction of Robert
Fitzwalter’s daughter by King John first appeared in the manuscript chronicle
of Dunmow (Ms.Cotton, Cleop, C, 3. f29).
Sadly only one copy survives from the 16th Century, but it was
probably begun by Nicholas de Brumfield a canon of Dunmow in the latter part of
the 13th Century.
In 1597 appeared Michael Drayton’s (1563-1631) England's
Heroical Epistles, a series of poetical accounts, in imitation of those of Ovid. In this we first get our first glimpse of Dunmow’s heavily romanticized myth:
“King John enamour’d, by all means
assay’d,
To win chaste Matilda, a chaste
noble maid,
The Lord Fitzwater’s daughter; and
to gain her,
When by his courtship he could not
obtain her,
Nor by his gifts, strives (to far
being in)
To get by force, what fear means
could not win.
And banisheth the nearest of her
blood,
Which he could think had his
desires withstood:
When she to Dunmow to a nun’ry
flies,
Whither be writeth, and whence she
replies.”
It is interesting to note that
between 1597 and 1602 Michael Drayton had strong connections in London with the
theatrical syndicate of Philip Henslowe, and collaborated with many of the
playwrights of that time. Drayton’s influence possibly inspired two Elizabethan
dramas that left a lasting legacy on the legend of Robin Hood.
Henslowe’s famous theatrical diary states
that the prolific Anthony Munday (1563-1633) registered two plays on the 1st
December 1600:
1. “The Downfall of Robert Earl of
Huntington, afterwards called Robin Hood of Merrie Sherwood; with the
lamentable tragedy of chaste Matilda, the Lord Fitzwater’s daughter afterwards
his faire maid Marian.”
2. The Death of Robert Earl of
Huntington, otherwise called Robin Hood of merrie Sherwood; with the lamentable
tragedy of chaste Matilda, his faire maid Marian, poysoned at Dunmowe by King John.
(On this second play, Munday was helped by another playwright, Henry Chettle).
In Munday’s fist play we see
Matilda being persecuted by Prince John and following her lover to Sherwood
where she assumes the name Maid Marian. In the ‘Downfall’ Maid Marian is once
again pursued by the lecherous John (who has now become king) to Dunmowe Abbey,
where he eventually poisons her.
During the ‘Downfall’ play, Matilda
confusingly changes back to Marian then Matilda again, which possibly indicates
how Munday was struggling to combine the two separate traditions. But both
plays became hugely popular at the time and the ‘Downfall’ was later selected
for performance at Court.
This popularity led to another
play, ‘King John and Matilda,’ written about 1628 by Richard Davenport. But critics tend to describe this historical
tragedy as lacking originality and bearing a strong resemblance to Munday’s
second Robin Hood production.
In 1631 John Weever published his
‘Ancient Funeral Monuments of Great Britain’ and under Little Dunmow writes:
“The church of this monastery is
yet standing, in the choir whereof, between two pillars, lieth the body of
Matilda the fair entombed, who was the daughter of Robert Fitz-Water, the most
valiant knight of England. About the year 1213 saith the book of Dunmow, there
arose a great discord betwixt K. John
and his barons, because of Matilda
surnamed the faire, daughter of Robert Fitz-Water, whom the king unlawfully
loved, but could not obtain her, nor her father’s consent thereunto. Whereupon,
and for other like causes, ensued war through the whole realm. The king
banished the said Fitz-Water among others, and caused his castle, called
Baynard, and other his houses to be spoiled. Which being done, he sent a
messenger unto Matilda the fair, about his old suit in love, et quia noluit
consentire toxicavit eam. And because she would not agree to his wicked motion,
the messenger poisoned a boiled, or potched egg, against she was hungry, and gave
it unto her, whereof she died in the year 1213.”
The story was repeated, with more substance in William
Dugdale’s (1605-1686) Monasticon Anglicanum (1693):
“...in the year 1216 Robert Fitz Walter refusing to
consent to King John’s unlawful love to his daughter Matilda the Fair, that
king seized upon his Estate and Barony , and his castle of Baynard at London;
and Matilda, who was then there at Dunmow not admitting the King’s Suit, was
poisoned in a mess of broth. These things occasioned the Barons Wars, which
after a while were again composed, and Robert Fitz Walter restored to his
Barony and the King’s favour as formerly.”
'Matilda's' tomb at Dunmow
So the legend was taken into the nineteenth century,
but Geoffery Fitzpeter in his ‘Historical Essay on Magna Carta’ was more
critical:
‘... between two pillars, on the north side of the
choir, is the tomb of the fair Matilda, daughter of the second Walter
Fitz-Walter, who, according to the monkish story, unsupported by history, is
pretended to have been poisoned by the contrivance of King John, for refusing
to gratify his illicit passion. Her figure is in alabaster, and by no means a
despicable piece of workmanship. Her fingers are stained with a red colour,
which according to the Ciceroni of the place, was done to represent the effect
of the poison; but in all likelihood is the remains of a former painting.”
This for me has been a very interesting journey. On
the way we have seen how the seeds were sown to portray King John as the bad
king of popular literature and film and also witnessed the gentrification of
Maid Marian, the village May Queen into Matilda Fitzwalter daughter of Lord
Robert Fitzwalter.
After the death of his wife Gunnora de Valognes,
Robert Fitzwalter married Rohese Bayard who survived him. He is recorded in
most sources as having four children, Robert (pre-deceased him), Walter his
heir from his second marriage (d.1258), and Christina who married William de
Mandeville.
But did Robert Fitzwalter have a daughter called
Matilda? I have searched for historical evidence, but frustratingly, apart from
a mention in Sidney Painter’s ‘King John’ (1966), that ‘Matilda did die about
that time [1212] but it is unlikely John poisoned her,’ there is no reference.
The tomb of King John
In W.L.Warren’s excellent book on the life of King
John, he writes:
“[Robert
Fitzwalter and Eustace de Vesci] put out stories of John’s lecherous designs
upon their woman folk - an easy enough charge to make, but the stories they
told were so confused and unsubstantiated as to be beyond unravelling, let
alone belief. They seem indeed to be unintelligent fabrications to cover lack
of rational excuse; and it is hard to believe that Fitzwalter and Vesci were
anything more than baronial roughnecks. They had been out simply for John’s
blood in the conspiracy of 1212...”
Warren goes on: “Fitzwalter was altogether disreputable
and mischievous, rescued from ignominy only by his great fiefs, and owing his
leadership largely to his dominating aggressiveness. He was quick to take
offence and draw his sword.”
Maurice Ashley writes, “The story that John importuned
and molested the wives and daughters of his barons, including specifically the
wives of Eustace de Vesci and Robert fitz Walter, sounds improbable and was no
doubt cooked up by the monks.”
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The damaged face on the alabaster tomb
The figure, said to be of Matilda, the daughter of
Robert Fitzwalter, on the tomb in Priory Church Little Dunmow, is made of
alabaster and dated from the early fifteenth century. It is likely to belong to
a later member of the Fitzwalter family, but this endearing legend will of
course live on.
Lucy Griffiths as Marian Fitzwalter in Robin Hood (1992)
1215 The Year of Magna Carta
by Danny Danziger and John Gillingham
The Reign of King John by
Sidney Painter
King John by Maurice
Ashley
King John by W.L.Warren
Magna Carta by Geoffrey
Hindley
Guy of Gisborne
Richard Armitage
In the recent BBC Robin Hood series created by Dominic Minghella and Foz Allan, one of the best loved and enigmatic characters was that of Sir Guy of Gisborne played by Richard Armitage. Like Basil Rathbone before him, in the classic Hollywood blockbuster The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Armitage played the role of the Sheriff of Nottingham’s evil henchman who secretly is in love with Maid Marian. Thus an intriguing love triangle is formed between him, the beautiful Marian, and the outlaw Robin Hood. In his leather clad outfit, Armitage’s portrayal of the dark, complex and mysterious knight was in my opinion one of the best I have seen. But the BBC series didn’t stop with just Sir Guy though, and even introduced his sister!
Another hugely popular interpretation of Guy of Gisborne was accomplished by the late Robert Addie, in an earlier TV series of the 1980’s, ‘Robin of Sherwood’. Like Rathbone before him, Addie was an accomplished swordsman but also a competitive archer and a very experienced horseman.
Basil Rathbone
There may have originally been independent medieval tales of Sir Guy in circulation, and elements of his death may contain links to pre-Christian tradition. In the archaic and very violent ballad ‘Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne,’ (c.1475) he wears ‘capull hyde, top and tayle and mayne.’ This appears to be a complete horse’s skin and indicate a symbolic link to an ancient Germanic horse deity or ‘man-animal’.
In this surviving medieval ballad, Guy of Gisborne is a bounty hunter who attempts to capture Robin. But the outlaw foils the attempt and kills him brutally, by beheading him, sticking his head on the end of his bow, disfiguring his face and gouging out his eyes!
We are of course at the mercy of what has survived down the centuries. The Scottish poet, William Dunbar (1460?-1520?) wrote in his 'Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins' in 1508:
'Was never weild Robeine under beache,
So bauld a bairne as he;
Gy of Gisburne, na Allane Bell,
Off thocht war nevir so slie.'
Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne
A fragment of a genuine medieval Robin Hood play is written on the upper half of a half sheet of paper (8’’x10’’) containing household accounts from East Anglia dated May 1475-August 1475 and is kept at Trinity College, Cambridge. This verse play of twenty-one lines is possibly founded on the ballad of ‘Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne,’ unfortunately the villain is not mentioned by name.
But where is Gisborne, and who was Sir Guy?
Professor J. C. Holt in his groundbreaking book ‘Robin Hood’ (Thames & Hudson Second Addition 1988) agrees with the great ballad collector Francis J. Child, and suggests ‘the villain takes his name from a village known as Gisburn (Gisburne), ten miles from Wyresdale, to the east of Bowland Forest.’ This is seven miles from Cltheroe on the borders of Lancashire, which seems far removed from other sites associated to the legend.
But many years ago I stayed in York, quite near St. Mary's Abbey. It was while I was there that I bought a book on the many once magnificent Yorkshire Abbeys and discovered that the town and priory of Guisborough was once known as Gisborne!
Guisborough/Gisborne Priory
Robert de Bruce (d.1141) a Yorkshire baron founded the priory in 1129 for canons of the order of St. Austin on the south slopes of the North York Moors and dedicated it to St. Mary. All through its history the Bruce’s and their dependants were strong and generous supporters of the priory and many family descendants were buried there, including another Robert de Bruce, (1210-1295) the 5th Lord of Annandale, known as the ‘Competitor’ who by 1300 was claiming the crown of Scotland. Robert was son of Robert Bruce, 4th Lord of Annandale and Isobel of Huntingdon. It was his grandson, also known as Robert de Bruce (1274 –1329), who did become King of Scotland, and was the legendary victor at Banockburn.
The connections between Robin Hood and the Scottish hero Robert the Bruce are numerous and the Bruce family held the Earldom of Huntingdon for a long period.
Sadly, in the reign of Edward I (1289), the monastery was accidentally destroyed by fire, when all the books, relics, and goods were burnt.
The attractive market town itself may possibly have been built on an old Roman settlement, as many remains have been found in the area. The Domesday Book mentions three manors and a church in ‘Ghigesburg,’ and although Saint Nicholas Anglican Church has the de Brus cenotaph, today it contains nothing older than 1500.
In the year 1195, the town is known as 'Giselburn', indicating the name’s original meaning, 'rushing brook', from the words 'gisel burna', the town being sited on such a stream. Robert de Bruce’s brother William became the first prior and the name Gisborne appears to have been used sometimes as an alternative for Guisborough.
The first recorded spelling of the surname is shown to be that of Walter de Gisburn (also known as Walter Hemingford/Hemingburgh an Austin canon (c1280 – 1350). In 1302, he was sent with two other monks by his prior to confer with the Archbishop of York as to some disorders that existed at Gisburn.
Walter wrote the history of the Priory of St Mary's, Gisburn, during the reign of King Edward III. In most manuscripts of his chronicle he is described as Walter de Gisburn he was certainly at Gisburn in 1297 (Chron. ii. 130, 131), and was sub prior in 1302.
He writes:
“[1129] in that year was founded our house at Gysseburne by Robert de Bruys.”
And again:
“That he should be buried in our house at Gysseburne, next to his father.”
Gisborne Priory
At the Dissolution, Guisborough Priory was looked upon as the fourth richest monastery in Yorkshire, forty nine miles from York. From a manuscript in the Cottonian Library it is said:
.... “the prior kept a most pompous house, insomuch that the towne, consystinge of 500 householders, had no lande, but lived all in the abbey."
At the dissolution the annual revenue was to the amount of £628. 3s. 4d.
And in the priors Will he writes:
......."all my half year's pension which was due unto me at the feast of the Annunciation last past out of the possessions of the late Monastereye of Gisborne dissolved."
One of the benefactors to Guisborough or Gisborne Priory was the Lascelles family of Lincolnshire and a Picot de Lascelles gave to the Priory, sometime before 1229, a bovate of land at Aylesby in Lincolnshire.
A John de Lascelles was steward of Sherwood Forest and on the 7th July 1277 it was he whom, according to an enquiry held in 1287:
“...came to Salterford and there found Robert the Monk and Robert of Alfreton with bows and arrows; and he seized them and took them to Blidworth to hold them in custody until the morrow. And later that night twenty men armed with bows and arrows came to where the aforesaid men were under arrest, broke down the entrance to the building, sorely beat a certain Gilbert, page of the aforesaid John the Steward, who was keeping guard over the men, and released them from custody. Later all the aforesaid men attacked the chamber where the said John de Lascelles lay and broke the doors and windows of the said chamber. In which matter an enquiry was made by the foresters, verderers, regarders and other officials of the forest.”
They were too late and by the time the jury met, three of the accused had fled into Yorkshire, five could not be found and only a handful were captured. Perhaps Lascelles arranged for the three that had escaped into Yorkshire to be hunted down by a hired mercenary from Gisborne Priory or village, perhaps someone known as Guy?
‘I dwell by dale and downe,’ quoth Guye,
‘And I have done many a curst turne;
And he that calles me by my right name
Calles me Guye of good Gysborne.’
'Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne' (c.1475)
Ó Clement of the Glen (2010-2011)
Thoresby Hall
Albie was at Thoresby visiting an exhibition recently and took some snaps of the magnificent hall for the blog. He also very kindly wrote a quick history of the place below:
"Thoresby Hall and Park are situated on the eastern flank of Sherwood Forest, close to the Nottingham - York road. The first hall was built during the reign of Charles I in the 1600's, but burnt down in 1745. The Earl of Kingston had the hall rebuilt in 1767. This lasted for 100 years before being replaced by the present hall though in a location about 500 metres north of the old. By this time the Kingstons had become the Earls Manvers and amongst their other properties was Pierrepont Hall in Nottingham.
The Manvers continued to occupy the hall until the late 20th Century when it was acquired by the National Coal Board (so that they didn't have to repeatedly pay for coal mining subsidence). After several other owners, it was bought by Time Warner and converted to a spa hotel complex which opened in 2000. The park covered around 2000 acres in area and was said to have a circumference of 10 miles. Most of this is still owned by the Manvers family with just the grounds near the hall being owned by the hotel. The stables and courtyard are now a craft centre which is also separate from the hotel. The lake was used by the owner in the late 18th century to re-enact naval battles. Like many aristocrats of that period, he had miniature sailing ships to play with. There was a full time naval captain who maintained them from an estate house now known as Budby Castle (though it was never a real castle).”
Albie
The statue of Robin Hood is by Tussaud-Birt (November 1948) a grandson of Madame Tussaud (famous for her London wax works) and can be seen in the Stables Gallery (above) at Thoresby Hall. It once stood in the centre of the courtyard (below).
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.
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