The Life and Times of Robin Hood

Robin Hood’s PardonRobin Hood’s pardon was discovered by David Pilling and Rob Lynley. It identifies him as coming from Wadsley which included Loxley. His pardon reads, “Robert Hode (Hood), otherwise known as Robert Dore of Wadsley given the King’s pardon on 22nd May 1382” (Roll of King’s Pardons 4-5 Richard II 1382).

Robin was outlawed for his participation in the Peasants Revolt when he rebelled against John Gisbourne who was the corrupt Lord Mayor of York. He was pardoned a few months later by the sheriff, Sir John Saville whose sister was a prioress at Kirklees Priory where Robin Hood’s grave is situated. Robin was initially outlawed by Sir Ralph Hastings who was the sheriff of York and his descendants who are the Earls of Huntingdon can trace their ancestry back to Loxley through the Talbot and Furnival families. They christen their children Robin Hood as in the “Honourable Aubrey Craven Theophilus Robin Hood Hastings.”

Robin Hood’s BirthplaceThere are several sources that tell us Robin Hood was from Loxley in Hallamshire and Roger Dodsworth the respected antiquarian wrote, “Robert Locksley was born in the Bradfield Parish of Hallamshire, he wounded his stepfather to death at plough, fled into the woods and was relieved by his mother till he was discovered. Then he came to Clifton upon Calder, and became acquainted with Little John, that kept the kine. Which said John is buried at Hathersage in Derbyshire where he hath a fair tombstone with an inscription. Mr. Long saith that Fabyan saith, Little John was Earl Huntley’s son. After, he joined with Much the Miller’s son.” (Bodleian Library MS. Dodsw.160, fol. 64r)

Sir Walter Scot in his book Ivanhoe wrote: “The remains of this extensive wood are still to be

seen at the noble seats of Wentworth, of Warncliffe Park, and around Rotherham (they married into the Wadsley family) … …and here also flourished in ancient times those bands of gallant outlaws whose deeds have been rendered so popular in English song.”

When Robin was outlawed for the first time as a young boy he fled north to the Calder Valley perhaps to Kirklees Priory which is on the River Calder itself. Here he met Little John who was looking after the cattle and this is where the legend began and ended with the well-known grave of Robin Hood on the hillside overlooking the priory that belonged to the Cistercians who also possessed Fountains Abbey where Robin made Friar Tuck carry him across the stream.

The next we read of Robin Hood is his pardon in York when he was involved in the Peasants Revolt. Ten years later he was made a Freeman of the city and as the rules and regulations required that candidates were proposed by a family member living in the city then it seems likely Robin Hood was going to relatives when he fled north to York. The same rule applied when it came to being a member of a trade guild and the rhymes tell of him being a tradesman with the status of master who was accompanied by Little John, Will Scarlet, Little Much and others. Robin was made a freeman of the city shortly after John Gisbourne died and it seems unlikely Gisbourne, assuming he had any authority would have allowed that to happen while he was still living.

Loxley and HathersageOver the hill from Loxley in Rivelin Firth were the deer belonging to Beauchief Abbey making it easy for young Robin to poach the abbot’s deer. The abbey was founded in 1175 by Robert Fitz Ranulf who was a sheriff of Nottingham and due to boundary changes the abbey is now in modern-day Sheffield which illustrates how close the people of Nottingham were to Yorkshire and Loxley so-much-so that Welbeck Abbey in Sherwood was the mother house to Beauchief and the church of Edwalton in Nottinghamshire was given to Beauchief for its financial foundation. The first abbot of Beauchief Abbey was Sir Thomas Chaworth from Nottinghamshire and the knight Sir Robert-de-Wadsley where Robin Hood was from witnessed the charter confirming the abbot’s instalment. (Loxley was a sub-division of Wadsley)

The boundary between Hathersage and Loxley had been long disputed. Some claimed Loxley was in Yorkshire while others said it was in Derbyshire that was administered by the sheriff of Nottingham and if that were the case then Robin Hood would have come under Nottingham’s jurisdiction. However there is no Loxley in Nottinghamshire and after literally hundreds of years of arguing the dispute was finally settled by the arbitrator, William Jessop of Broom Hall, Sheffield who ruled that Loxley was in Yorkshire where it had always been and although the dispute was about hunting rights the ruling had the effect of confirming Robin Hood’s status as a Yorkshireman.

Not only was the sheriff of Nottingham a stones throw from Robin Hood’s birthplace but also three Nottingham sheriffs namely Eustace-de-Ludeham, Brian-de-Lisle and Henry-de-Faucumberg became sheriffs of Yorkshire. In addition the Yorkshireman Roger-de-Lacey who owned all the land around Barnsdale was also a sheriff of Nottingham which means Robin Hood did not have to leave Yorkshire, or Barnsdale, to come into contact with a sheriff of Nottingham.

The “Name” Robin HoodTwo examples of robinhood type figures are the de Eyville brothers who in 1317 “Sir Gosceline D’Eivill and his brother Robert, with two hundred men dressed in the habit of friars, did many notable robberies; they spoiled the Bishop of Durham’s palaces, leaving nothing in them but bare walls, for the which they were hanged at York.” Then there was the Earl of Essex who plundered the abbeys of St. Alban’s and Ramsay assisted by his brother-in-law, William-de-Say and one Daniel, who was a counterfeit monk or robinhode.

The custom of wearing a monks habit may explain the ‘name’ ‘Robehod’ with spelling variants and this may be why the clerk of the court made the note “robehod” against the name of William-le-Fevere that became a legal term used by the courts to identify robbers like Piers Venables who in 1437 “gadered and assembled unto hym many misdoers beynge of his clothinge and, in manere of insurrection, wente into

the wodes in that contre, like as it hadde be Robyn Hode and his meyne.” The situation finally resolved itself when King Henry VIII closed the monasteries and we hear no more of the Robin Hoods after that.

Other well known outlaw gangs, the Coterels the Folvilles and the Tweng families associated with members of the clergy, for example the priest Robert Bernard was the vicar of Bakewell, Richard Folville was the rector of Teigh and John Twenge (1319–1379) was the Prior of Bridlington although as John was later venerated it is not suggested he was anything other than a saintly man.

The rhymes of Robin Hood in many respects resemble the lifestyle of the mendicant friars. These were the slothful men of whom William Langland spoke so disparagingly when he wrote about them in Piers Plowman “I do not know my paternoster perfectly as the priest sings it but I know the rhymes of Robin Hood and Randolph, earl of Chester.” Langland who was a priest from Hereford and is described as a protégé of Wycliffe. He was contemptuous of their lazy ignorance and he spoke out against the way they robbed people by trickery.

The mendicant friars were frequently charged with encroaching on the rights of others, misappropriating the king’s soil, blocking the roads and levying a toll. Two examples of this are at Northwich in 1272 by monks of the Cathedral Priory and at Grimbald Bridge near Plumpton that features in the Rhymes of Robin Hood as a place where Robin went hunting and interestingly that is where John Gisbourne’s son-in-law was from. The ballad “Robin Hood and Guy of Gisbourn where Guy lost his head is set in Barnsdale.”

It was to the felons advantage to be tried in court by a churchman who was a member of their own family, in addition they would claim the privilege known as “The Benefit of the Clergy” which meant their case was often dismissed because it was unlikely a member of the church would find another member of the cloth guilty of any crime unless the crime was against the church which accounts for criminals having the appearance as a monk which was required when claiming the “Benefit of the Clergy.”

Knights in LoxleyPlatts Farm near Loxley belonged to the Knights Hospitallers who were a religious and military order of Benedictine monks. They had fought in the Crusades and were trained to protect pilgrims to the Holy Land, they specialised in eye injuries and the treatment of leprosy which was brought to England by the Crusaders. Their privileges were granted by the Papacy which meant they were exempt from all authority including the king of England and they were only answerable to the Pope, they paid no tithes and were allowed their own religious buildings.

They were joined by the Templar’s after their disbandment in 1312 and both orders appear to have been motivated by the high ideals of Saint Francis of Assisi. They had all taken

Holy orders, they were battle trained and their vow of celibacy included a pledge not to harm women. The Franciscan lay brothers worked in the Cistercian houses of which Kirklees was one and Fountains Abbey where Robin met Friar Tuck was another.

After the Templar’s were disbanded most of them became mendicant friars and like all mendicants they needed to live on their wits. John Wycliffe who lived at the same time as Robin Hood was strongly opposed to the Mendicant Friars and beginning at Oxford he gave a series of public lectures to correct the abuses of the clergy and their open wickedness. He was supported by Edward III who remained “a most valiant champion of the truth among the tyrants of Sodom.”

Peasants RevoltJohn Gisbourne who is known in the rhymes as Guy of Gisbourne (Guy means leader) was the Lord Mayor and chief Burgomaster (magistrate) of York. He controlled the trade guilds and imposed fines and

penalties and was always surrounded by scandal. He was a notorious patron of robbers, he issued false money and two of his right hand men were murderers.

Gisbourne had always been a trouble maker and as early as 1357 which is when the trade guild was set up, the then mayor of York, John Langton, objected to Gisbourne’s nomination as bailiff. Then in 1364 the mayoral election was disturbed for a day and a half by rioting and again in 1371 there was more friction between Langton and Gisbourne who this time was standing for the office of mayor. King Edward III had to intervene; forbidding either man to become mayor but Gisbourne disregarded both the king’s order and election rules and held the office for that year and the next.

He had a small army for whom fifteen hundred hoods had been made indicating not only the size of his army but planning and preparation as 1,500 hoods are not made overnight, he also issued badges which together formed a uniform or livery. This was a privilege reserved for the aristocracy and in the statute of 1390 even lords were prohibited from giving liveries to yeoman archers or anyone lower than an esquire.

The giving of livery by both Gisbourne and Robin Hood who dressed his men in scarlet or Lincoln green liveries indicates a time as Keen suggests, “when liveries and personal badges were in everyday use” thus indicating a time of social change when the lower classes and criminal gangs were imitating the aristocracy (Ohlgren) thus further evidence if more evidence was needed that Robin Hood and his men were active at this time of unrest and rebellion.

On 25th November 1380 a few months before the Peasants Revolt, Gisbourne was attacked by rioters and had to flee for his life. The citizens of York then broke into the Guildhall and finding Simon-de-Quixley who was the preferred choice swore him into the office of mayor against his will.

Then a year later in what became known as the “Peasants Revolt” Gisbourne’s men attacked the monks along with other citizens in York as well as in Scarborough and Beverly. The trouble was so bad Gisbourne had to flee the city yet again for his own safety. This time it was King Richard II who had to go from London to York to restore order, instructing his uncle John of Gaunt to settle the dispute.

However Gisbourne’s day was coming to an end and Simon-de-Quixley became mayor until 1383 and his leading supporter William Selby was mayor in 1385, 1387 and 1388. Gisbourne died two years later in 1390 age fifty-four.

When Parliament met to consider the proposals made by the leaders of the Peasants’ Revolt at York the Churchmen, represented by bishops, abbots, and priors, joined with the city authorities in declaring that bondsmen were “the goods and chattels of the lords of the manors, and must remain so.” This was little more than slave labour and needless to say nothing changed except that the cloth-making industry began to move over to the West Riding rural communities including Wakefield where weaving became a cottage industry free from such restrictions as existed at York, Ripon, Selby, Whitby and Beverly.

Gisbourn’s son-in-law William Plumpton was from nearby Plumpton which is one of the places according to the Gest where Robin Hood hunted. William’s minstrel was paid eight pence for his performance at Fountains Abbey (Holt) which is where Friar Tuck was from and Gisbourn’s wife Ellen was related to Robert and John Morton who were Sheriffs of Nottingham and Yorkshire respectively. Robert Morton of Harworth in Nottinghamshire and Bawtry in Yorkshire had property in both counties and according to the Court Roll 1380-81: “The Peasants Revolt” Robert-de-Morton was the steward of Conisbrough Castle all of which accounts for the Sheriff of Nottingham being in Yorkshire. He was one of John O’ Gaunt’s most trusted retainers. Robert’s wife Joan was lady-in-waiting to Richard II’s wife Queen, Anne of Bohemia

and their father Thomas Morton was secretary to King Edward III of England.

The Merchant AdventurersRobin’s journeying will have been due to him being a merchant, but for that to happen it was necessary to be a member of a trade guild which may well have been the company of dyers, mercers, drapers and hosier’s founded in 1357 courtesy of King Edward III. Their Patron Saint was John the Baptist and for some guilds it was the Virgin Mary. They became known as the “Company of Merchant Adventurers of York” and were a religious and charitably based mutual association having on their premises a hospital for the care of the poor, feeble and orphans and the altruism of the Guild may account for the religious

element in the Gest? The Merchant Adventurers were free to risk, or ‘adventure’ their money wherever they wished which is where the name came from and as York is on the River Ouse with easy access to the sea they were able to trade around England and on the continent including Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Iceland and the Baltic. John Gisbourne traded in wool, cloth, wine and lead and other commodities were fish, food, iron, wood, dyes, fur and salt. When Thomas Grissop died in 1446, he left a will showing that his shop was filled with wonderful imported goods leather, furs, purses, hats, paper, glasses, spices and sugar. Basically they were importing and exporting and interestingly there is a record of a ship in Aberdeen c.1438 named “Robin Hood.”

Once a year the various Guilds produced a Corpus Christi play that was appropriate to their particular trade, the man playing Noah was probably a shipwright and the dyers which was Robin’s trade acted out the trial of Jesus by Herod. They provided the white robe Jesus wore that speaks of purity and in a play on words the mockers said jokingly that only fools thought white was a colour and suggested the audience had their clothing dyed if they did not want to appear foolish. They were after all businessmen.:-)

The word Gest/Jest is defined as “A notable adventure or exploit;” “a metrical romance or history” or “to make fun of someone by scoffing or mocking them” which seems appropriate to the genre of the Robin Hood rhymes that presumably were acted out to an enthusiastic audience?

The original charter of the Merchant Adventurers provided for a master which is how Robin is described in the Rhymes and the Yorkshire status of Robin and the “Merry Men” is confirmed by the fact they came from across Yorkshire including Whitby, Newcastle and Hull. Numbers increased and the membership widened and by 1564 the master had 24 assistants and in 1603 there were at least 200 members. It isn't known how many there were in the beginning but the figures aren't dissimilar from the "Merry Men" which means “famous men” and many of its members are equally prominent today. There are four honorary members who are Prince Phillip, who has been a member for 50 years, Prince Charles, the Ex-Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, now Lord Carey of Clifton and Margaret Thatcher, the only woman member.

The Adventurers Guild was the wealthiest guild in York and today they are busier than ever across England both in business and charity work. The Bristol Venturers have a nursing home, accommodation for old mariners and clergymen and they have donated money and buildings to several homelessness projects including the Cold Weather Shelter, a youth housing scheme and The Big Issue.

NottinghamRobin’s trade was given in his pardon as a litster who is a dyer of cloth and situated in Nottingham’s Lace Market that was at the centre of the wool and cloth trade is St. Mary’s Church that enabled Robin to say Mass and while he was there to trade in the market which at one time set the price of wool for the whole of England.

Much of the wool came from Rufford Abbey in Nottinghamshire and Rievaulx and Fountains Abbeys in Yorkshire. Buyers and sellers came from miles around including Yorkshire and Lincolnshire to trade in Nottingham’s market and the incident with the Black Monks from York whose plan it was to bankrupt the impoverished knight probably took place as Robin and his men were going from York to Nottingham which maybe the origin of the following short rhyme:- “Robin Hood in Sherwood stood, Hooded and hatted, hosed and shod. Four and twenty arrows he bore In his hands.”

Several times we are reminded of Robin trading in Green cloth, and other rhymes tell of Robin selling various goods in Nottingham’s market. Little John called Robin “Master” and in the rhyme said he was the richest merchant in all England, this was when the York merchants were becoming prosperous and the Adventurers Guild was the wealthiest guild of them all and here is Robin going to Nottingham to say Mass.

Yet one thing is grieving me said Robin,“And does my heart much woe

That I may not know the solemn dayWhen I to Mass nor Matins go.

“It has been a fortnight and more,” said he,“Since I have been to Mass;

Today I will to Nottingham go” said Robin,“With the help of mild Mary.”

(From Robin and the Monk)

Robin the MasterThe theme of the wool and cloth trade is brought out in the Gest when we read about Robin Hood supplying Green cloth to the king. At the same time we cannot fail to notice Robin’s constant references to the Virgin Mary who was the Patron Saint of the Tailors Guild. Professor Thomas Ohlgren believes that the Gest commemorates Edward III who was known as “Our comely king,” with the play celebrating him as both the protector of the English Channel and the founder of seven of the twelve Great Livery Companies. It is easy to visualise the actors in the following scene.

“Have you any green cloth,” said the king, “That you will sell to me?”“Yes, for God,” said Robin, “Thirty yards and three.”

“Robin,” said the king, “Now I ask of thee,Sell me some of that cloth For my men and me.”

“Yes, for God,” then said Robin, “Or else I were a fool.Another day ye will me clothe, I trust, against the yule.”

The king cast off his cowl then, A green garment he put on.And every knight, also, Got a new green robe.

When they were clothed in Lincoln green They cast away their grey.“Now we shall go to Nottingham,” Thus the king did say.

When Robin came to the aid of the impoverished knight Little John informs us that Robin was the wealthiest merchant in England with a rich array of scarlet and green cloth. Little Much describes Little John as the devils draper and Scarlet laughingly says “By God almighty, John may give the impoverished knight good measure for it costs him but lightly” meaning it was his masters cloth that was being measured out and not his own. Before the impoverished knight went on his way he was given a grey packhorse which as merchants they would have several to carry goods and to top it off they also gave the knight a horse and a pair of boots which obviously Robin could afford to do.

The name Will Scarlet indicates someone who traded in scarlet cloth and the Germanic word “will” means wool. Another of Robin’s men who was familiar with the wool trade was Friar Tuck from Fountains Abbey that also belonged to the Cistercians. The Abbey possessed many thousand of acres of rich pasture-land stretching across the North East of England into the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales. The abbey’s success was due in no small measure to the lay-brothers who worked as manual labourers on the monastery’s estates in the granges, their numbers peaking at the height of its prosperity between 500-600 people.

The rhymes continue with the adventures of Robin as he and his men travelled between Nottingham, Barnsdale, York and Wakefield during their business and the extract below tells of Robin’s part in the wool and cloth trade, his association with Lincoln Green and why in some pictures he is shown as wearing red or scarlet, not forgetting of course that Robin was a yeoman and they also wore Lincoln Green.

Here are the relevant verses in the “Gest of Robin Hood” translated into modern English by Robert Landis Frank.

“Master,” then said Little John, “His clothing is very thin.You must give the knight some good clothes, To wrap his body in.

“For you have scarlet and green, master, And many a rich array.There is no merchant in merry England So rich, I dare well say.”

“Take him three yards of every colour, And see that you measure it true.”Little John took no other measure, But his long bow of yew.

And at every handful that he met He counted it a yard.“What devils draper,” said little Much, “Do you think you are?”

Scarlet stood still and laughed And said, “By God almighty,John may give him good measure For it costs him but lightly.”

“Master,” then said Little John To gentle Robin Hood,“You must give the knight a horse, To carry home these goods.”

“Take him that grey packhorse,” said Robin, “And a saddle new.He is Our Lady’s messenger, God grant that he be true.”

“And a palfrey horse,” said Much, “To maintain him in his right.”“And a pair of boots,” said Scarlet, “For he is a gentle knight.”

The monks who Robin waylaid were from York and seeing as both Robin and the monks were involved in the rioting in York they may have been known to Robin for the thieving scoundrels they were and this was Robins opportunity to correct their mischief outside the crowded city where a rough and ready justice was more easily be achieved?

YeomenThe office of yeoman was created by King Edward I in 1252 which again tells us Robin was living later rather than earlier. The Assize of Arms required that all landowners with an annual income between 40 to a 100 shillings were to be armed and trained with a longbow (war bow). The more wealthy yeomen were also required to possess a sword, buckler, dagger and to be trained in their use.Yeomen of the Chamber had access to the royal bed-chamber and perhaps this is what King Henry VIII and eleven of his nobles were acting out when they entered the queen’s chamber disguised as Robin Hood and his men. It may be Queen Catherine who was the title character in the later ballad “Robin Hood and Queen Catherine” where the queen invited Robin Hood to shoot for her in an archery tournament?

Yeomen of the Chamber were described as virtuous, cunning, skilful, courteous, and experts in archery, all of which describes Robin Hood. They acted as porters guarding baggage trains to protect them from robbers and they acted as escorts to the great nobles of the land including of course the king on their journeys across the realm and across sea including any pilgrimages they might make and this may be what Robin was doing when he rode with the King to Nottingham, “shooting arrows as they went.” This along with Robin’s later business activities explains his travels around the country.

Due to their military training yeomen became known as ‘yeomen archers’ and John of Gaunt who was the grandfather of King Henry IV and uncle to King Richard II retained 1,000 of the 4,500 men-at-arms and 3,000 of the 9,144 archers that composed the royal host. The famous ‘yeoman archers’ drawn from the Macclesfield Hundred and the Forest districts of the Cheshire region were specially appointed as bodyguard archers for King Richard II.

The livery of archers associated with royalty is Lincoln Green. King Edward II had his men all clothed in green and after his death Roger Mortimer who ruled England for nearly four years as regent alongside Queen Isabella the wife of Edward II did the same. Queen Catherine the wife of King Henry VIII had her yeomen guard wear Lincoln Green and for travelling they wore grey as described in the Gest of Robin Hood. When Queen Elizabeth II is in Scotland her personal bodyguard is the “very antique Royal Company of Archers. Green-liveried and armed with longbows.” Robin Hood and his men are said to have worn Lincoln Green and the Gest tells us Robin was in the service of the king.

Robins most famous accoutrement’s, his bow, arrows, and horn were the recognised tools and insignia of the local foresters that distinguished them from other bailiffs. (Holt) This would be when Robin left the service of the king and set out for Barnsdale to build a chapel to Mary Magdalene.

Robin stood in the greenwoodAnd leaned against a tree,

And by him stood Little John,A good yeoman was he.

You lie,” then said Little John,“And for that you will be sorry.

He (Robin) is a yeoman of the forestAnd has invited you to dinner.”

“Who is thy master?” Said the knight.John said, “Robin Hood.”

“He is a good yeoman,” said the knight.“Of him I have heard much good.

The Hollywood image of Robin Hood is derived from Geoffrey Chaucer’s description of a knight’s yeoman in the Canterbury Tales as having a “cropped” head (long hair got caught in the bowstring), wearing a coat and hood of green, a sheaf of peacock arrows on his belt and a mighty bow in his hand. On his arm a bracer (arm band), by his side a sword and buckler (a small round, metal shield used in hand-to-hand combat) and on the other side a dagger. He also wore a silver Christopher on his breast, a horn and the baldric (a bag slung over the shoulder) was of green.

Chaucer worked as a page, a soldier, an esquire, a diplomat, a customs controller, justice of the peace, member of Parliament, Clerk of the Works of Westminster, Commissioner of Walls and Ditches, and Deputy Forester of the Royal Forest and like Chaucer Robin Hood had several strings to his bow. According to professor Holt the kings yeomen could look forward to honourable retirement in some forest office like Robert-de-Maulay who was made steward of Sherwood for life in 1334 and according to the Gest, Robin Hood and his men also became yeomen of the forest.

Sherwood and BarnsdaleThe vast coal fields stretching seventy miles between Nottingham and Leeds are evidence of a massive forest which apart from the New Forest and Milbank Forest in the Welsh Marches had the best hunting anywhere in England. Barnsdale may owe its name to the town of Barnsley some fifteen kilometres away and six miles from Doncaster which is where the Black Monks were going before Robin hijacked them. Despite the road between Barnsdale and York being notorious for highway robbers journeymen took the route along Watling Street rather than tackling the muddy terrain of the royal forests where a toll had to be paid. Sometimes pack-horsemen and others waited at Blyth until they were joined by

sufficient travellers to form a convoy. Sometimes an armed escort accompanied them from Tickhill Castle but for this they may have required payment?

The only difference between Sherwood and Barnsdale is in the name although the terrain varied and there were different families with different allegiances. Back in prehistoric times 250 million years ago the forest extended onto the continent and covered most of England which is why there is coal under the North Sea that was then dry land. Nearer to our own time but long before it had a name Sherwood belonged to the chain of forests that stretched from the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire through the Midlands and Yorkshire to Whitby extending into several counties (shires). The remains of great trees have been found embedded in the peat on the highest ground of Kinder Scout in the Royal Forest of the Peak and pollen records show that there has been an unbroken cover of woodland here since the end of the last Ice Age. The map of the coal fields (brown) shows some of this ‘shirewood’ to which the extensive coal fields in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire owe their existence.

Even today the National Forest (Shirewood) borders on Manchester, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Leicestershire, Cheshire, Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire. The area is thought to have been visited by humans as far back as 200,000 years ago during the Aveley Interglacial. While this visit is said to have been brief, the area was revisited during the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic periods of the Stone Age and evidence of these settlers can be found in the many caves.

Signs of agriculture and Settlement can be traced back in the shire to the Bronze Age with signs of clearance, hut circles and arable fields located on the moors of the peak district. The area was popular

during the Roman invasion as the limestone hills contained lead ore. Invaders built forts in the areas near the Hope Valley and Glossop. They also created settlements in Buxton and forts near Little Chester. After the Norman Conquest, the area became Royal Forest and was put under forest laws.

Sherwood is not recorded in the Domesday Book and did not become a royal forest until the reign of Henry II (1154–1189) All that remains today is reduced to a mere 423 hectare (1.63 square-mile) remnant that surrounds the village of Edwinstowe which is only a small part of the greater whole. What we call Sherwood Forest is really Thoresby Park and the first recorded Robin Hood rhyme dates from the early 15th century which is consistent with Robin Hood being active in the Peasants Revolt of 1381. It is four lines long and begins “Robyn hode in scherewode stod.” He could have been standing in any one of three counties.Manwood’s “Forest Laws” records an occasion when King Richard the Lionhearted who was hunting in Sherwood chased a hart out of Sherwood and into Barnsdale. Because the king failed to kill the hart (stag) he made a proclamation at Tickhill, in Yorkshire and at divers other places that no person should kill, hurt, or chase the said hart, but that he might safely return into the forest again. The hart was afterwards called, “a hart royally proclaimed.”

Professor Holt tells us the whole area could be traversed in a day which is what King John did on the 9th September 1213 when he travelled from Rothwell which is seven miles north of Wakefield and ten miles north-west of Barnsdale to Nottingham probably on the King’s Great Way that connects London with York following the route of an older Celtic/Roman Road. The Sherwood section going north is from Nottingham Ford through Sherwood and Thieves Wood to Newstead and Papplewick, then to Harthill and Conisbrough on the river Don to Hampole and Barnsdale joining with the Great North Road otherwise known as Watling Street.

Medieval England was a lawless society where robbery was rife and many of the churchmen, sheriffs and lords were corrupt and self-seeking. On 26 November 1332 the sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire was ordered to exact from county court to county court no fewer than two hundred men including the canons of Lichfield, the hard core and the hangers on belonging to the Coterel and the Folville gangs. (J. G. Bellamy) The Folville gang penetrated Sherwood from Derbyshire. They held Blidworth village to ‘ransom’ and poached wide areas of the royal forest. They were closely associated with the Cotteril gang who had a notable ally in no less a person than the Sheriff of Nottingham himself, Sir Robert Ingram.The forest officials were corrupt and at an inquest in 1289 Robert-de-Everingham who was the Bailiff and Keeper of Sherwood which was a hereditary position had his bailiwick taken from him and his heirs for ever by the justices for pleas of the forest on account of the many transgressions whereof he had been convicted.

Another member of the Everingham family, Margaret-de-Everingham, who was a nun at Broadholme in 1350 was accosted and stripped of her religious habit before being violently and forcibly carried away by William Fox, parson of Lee, near Gainsborough, John Fox and Thomas-de-Lineston who were Friars Minor (mendicant Friars) of the convent in Lincoln. They were indicted before Gilbert-de-Umfravill and other justices of Lindsey at Thwacaster on the Saturday after the feast of St. John the Baptist of that same year and they were also charged with taking away divers goods to the value of 40s. What punishment was inflicted on the offenders, the record does not say. They probably claimed “The Benefit of the Clergy.”

At Rufford Abbey near the Major Oak at Edwinstow it was alleged that the Abbott, Thomas of Doncaster, had broken his vows of chastity with at least two married and four single women. Six of the fifteen monks at the abbey were said to want to be released from their vows to take up other careers. The monks were dispersed, with the allegedly immoral Abbot being granted a pension of £25 a year that was later withdrawn when he became vicar of Rotherham in Yorkshire.

At Beauchief Abbey near Loxley which was the daughter house to Welbeck Abbey in Sherwood Abbot Downham was found guilty of perjury, incontinence (lacking in restraint or control, especially sexually), rebellion, wasting the convent’s goods and other notorious crimes. On being found guilty, Downham along with seven canons resisted the discipline of the order and offered armed resistance with swords and staves, forcibly making their way out of the monastery. A few months later the king mandated that Beauchief was revisited and the sheriff of Nottingham was commissioned to arrest John Pole of Hartington, esq. Edmund Hartington, John Downham, late abbot of Beauchief, John Mundeville and Robert Bowlond, late canons of that monastery, and fifteen others, and to

bring them before the king in council within twelve days after arrest, and if they cannot be arrested without inconvenience, to require assistance from knights, esquires, and other gentlemen of the county.

FriarsFriars were known as “preaching friars,” “brothers of St. Mary” or Black Friars, Grey Friars and White Friars depending on the colour of their habit that identified the order to which they belonged. They wore their habits long the same as monks but Saint Francis of Assisi instructed his friars to wear them short thereby becoming known as Curtailed Friars which means to cut short. As preaching friars they travelled the countryside proclaiming the gospel much like Jesus and as wearing a habit or cassock was tricky when walking over rough ground or riding a horse they pulled their habit between their legs and TUCKED it into their cincture (belt) at the back, hence the name “FRIAR TUCK” which gives us Friar Tuck the Curtail Friar.

It wasn’t long before there were many mendicant (begging) Friars roaming around England in disorderly fashion, “brazen and shameless beggars of scandalous fame.” The monks were frequently guilty of forgery and violence, they were guilty of brawling, frequenting taverns, indulging in licentious pleasures and upholding unlawful games. They soon became powerful and began to attack the constitutions of Oxford University, claiming independence from its jurisdiction through the Pope.

The first person to challenge this “pestiferous canker” of mendicancy was the Chancellor of Oxford University, Archbishop of Armagh Fitzralph (Armachanus). He warned that everything good and fair – letters, industry, obedience and morals were being blighted. There was unrest, disturbances and lawlessness caused by the begging friars due to the privileges granted them by the Pope who remained unmoved for they were indispensable to him. They had been created by him, they were dependent upon him, they lived for him and they were his obsequious tools.

Weighed against the services they were rendering to the Papal throne, what was happening in England was “as dust in the balance.” Not a finger must be lifted to curtail the privileges or check the abuses of the Mendicants.

In 1257 St. Bonaventura bewailed the contempt and dislike felt universally for the Order, caused by its greedy money seeking and the idleness of so many of its vagabond friars who entered into all manner of vices and excesses leaving behind them the memory of scandals rather than examples of virtue. “The persistent beggary of the friar rendered him more terrible than any robber was to the wayfarer.”

The mendicant friars soon became known for extorting money from the general populace. They became rich by charging to preach weird fables to the credulous, to hear confessions and to forgive the sins of the most wicked of men. For a fee they would sell ‘indulgences that promised impossible rewards like salvation from eternal damnation in return for money.’ In addition you were also expected to work on church land for free for a specified number of days per week. A peasant had to pay for a child to be christened which had to be done if the child was to go to heaven, you had to pay to get married and you had to pay to bury someone from your family in holy ground.

Then there was “The Power of the Keys” where for the payment of money to the Catholic Church St. Peter would (supposedly) open the Pearly Gates and let you into heaven. Also the church sold ‘relics’ such as straw, hay, white feathers from a dove, pieces of the cross etc. as things that had been the nearest to Jesus on earth. These relics were the bones of pigs, not departed saints and the crosses they sold that appeared to be studded with precious stones were in fact bits of common metal. Pilgrims were also a source of income for the Roman Catholic Church as at the end of their journey they would buy badges, holy water, and certificates to prove they had been to Rome.

These mendicant friars were the slothful men of whom William Langland spoke so disparagingly when he wrote about them in Piers Plowman “I do not know my paternoster perfectly as the priest sings it but I know the rhymes of Robin Hood and Randolph, earl of Chester.” Langland was contemptuous of their lazy ignorance and he spoke out against the way they robbed people by trickery.

It was to the felons advantage for them to be tried in court by a churchman who was a member of their own family, in addition they would claim the privilege known as “The Benefit of the Clergy” which meant their case was often dismissed because it was unlikely a member of the church would find another member of the cloth guilty of any crime, except when the crime was against the church. In order to claim the "Benefit of the Clergy" it was necessary to appear in front of the court having the appearance of a monk.

The picture above shows mendicant friars examining the proceeds of a robbery. They were frequently charged with encroaching on the rights of others, appropriating the king’s soil, blocking the roads and levying a toll. Two examples of this are at Northwich in 1272 by monks of the Cathedral Priory and at Grimbald Bridge near Plumpton that features in the Rhymes of Robin Hood as a place where Robin went hunting and interestingly that is where John Gisbourne’s son-in-law was from.

Robin’s motivation was to help those who had been wronged by robbing the robbers thus making him the “Prince of Thieves” which had the effect of making him the unofficial Head Justiciar of England.

KirkleesThe name ‘Kirklees’ (meaning ‘Church Meadow’) is taken from the ruined Kirklees Priory, north of

Huddersfield where Robin Hood is reputed to be buried. This small Cistercian priory of Kirklees was founded in 1155AD during the reign of Henry II by Reiner le Fleming, lord of the manor of Wath-upon-Dearne.Apart from the scandal regarding the lifestyle of three nuns, Alice Raggid, Elizabeth Hopton, and Joan Heton who entertained male friends between the years 1306 to 1315 life will have been fairly uneventful. However in 1347 A. D., the great plague known as the Black Death swept over Europe. Among those who died of the plague were Robert Hood of Wakefield, Thomas Alayn, William of Goldesborough and others. They were buried in the cemetery of the priory where the Prioress laid “a very fayre stone” with all their names engraved.

This particular Robert Hood appears to have been a yeoman with his own property who tilled the soil. Thomas Alayn was his next door neighbour and his attorney. We know from records that this Robert Hood, which was his real name, was in court on Friday 13 December 1308, Feast of St. Lucy, on a charge of drawing blood from the wife of Henry Archer and he also drew blood from Juliana Horsse and was also charged with building his haystack in the common way (the highway). He was fined 12 pence for each offence.

Taking events in chronological order, at the Dissolution of the Monasteries Joan Kyppes surrendered the priory into the hands of the King in 1539. At that date it had eight inmates and the whole property amounted to £29 18s. 9d.

In 1542 John Leyland who was antiquary [historian] to Henry VIII and who travelled widely in England and Wales keeping records of all kinds of antiquities went to Kirklees where he recorded the grave as ‘monasterum monialum ubi Ro: Hood nobilis ille exlex sepultus.’ Which roughly translated means,” Resting under this monument lies buried Robin Hood that nobleman who was beyond the law.”

Then on the 31 May 1544 five years after the priory was valued at £29 18s. 9d. It was sold by the crown to John Tasburgh and Nicholas Savile for the massive sum of £987 15s 7d! A previous member of the Saville family had been the Sheriff of Yorkshire at the time of Robin’s pardon giving the Saville’s three claims to fame with regard to Robin Hood. (1) they bought the priory. (2) Margaret Saville was a prioress and (3) her brother was the sheriff of Yorkshire when Robin was pardoned.

On 26 October 1565 Robert Pilkington and his wife, Alice Savile, conveyed the manor of Kirklees to John Armytage, the family maintaining possession until the twentieth century.

In 1607 Camdens Brittania records the stone as being in the cemetery of the former priory and then in the mid-eighteenth century the Reverend Joseph Ismay tells us the grave has been moved to its present site on the hillside where today it is surrounded by rhododendrons. Ismay writes÷ nobles “Ye sepulchral Monument of Robin Hood near Kirklees which has been lately impaled (enclosed) in ye form of a Standing Hearse in order to preserve the stone (the slab) 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”

Then in 1850 Sir George Armytage II placed a headstone with a date 1247, one hundred years before the Black Death of 1347 when Robert Hood died, with an epitaph that reads: “Here undernead dis laitl stean laiz robert earl of Huntingtun near arcir ber az hei sa geud an pipl kauld im robin heud sick utlawz az hi an iz men vil england nibr si agen obiit 24 kal dekembris 1247” which when translated into modern English reads:

“Robert Earl of Huntingdon lies under this little stone. No archer was like him so good; his wildness named him ROBIN HOOD. For thirteen years, and something more, these northern parts he vexed sore. Such outlaws as he and his men, may England never know again. 8th November 1247.” According to the Gest Robin Hood’s last wish was÷

“Lay me a green sod under my head another at my feet, my best bow beside me place, for truly ’twas my music sweet, and make my grave of gravel and green which is most right and meet, give me length and breadth to lie so they will say when I am dead, HERE LIES BOLD ROBIN HOOD MY FRIEND HERE LIES BOLD ROBIN HOOD.” These words they readily granted him, which did bold Robin please, and there they buried bold Robin Hood, near to the fair Kirkleys.”

Dating the LegendThere were no Friars in England until after the deaths of Richard Lionhearted and King John. The first Franciscan friars arrived in England c. 1224, which is eight years after the death of King John thereby ruling him out as the monarch of the rhymes who, it is stated was King Edward and a close study of the internal evidence of the Gest points to the king being Edward III.

Barbara A. Buxton writes: – “The legal and royal records for the reigns of Richard I and King John are quite adequate to detail Robin’s offences, but they do not. Neither is the name of the sheriff ever mentioned even though the names of sheriffs were recorded as far back as 1135. There were no friars in the England of King John, the first came to England in 1221.”

Professor Holt writes, “It (Major’s conception) was not reinforced by argument, evidence or proof it was simply recycled through later versions of the tale and so became an integral part of the legend.” Neither is this view supported by the earliest ballads that name the reigning monarch as “Edward.”

Professor Holt himself is of the opinion the origin of the “Gest of Robin Hood” is c.1450, certainly no earlier than 1400 and was printed in the late 15th century. This is in accord with Professor Thomas Ohlgren who writes the Gest was “commissioned by one of the fifteenth-century guilds—possibly the Dyers Guild in the light of the numerous references to cloth and liveries—to commemorate Edward III not only as the protector of the English Channel but as the founder of seven of the twelve Great Livery Companies.” Dating Robin Hood as evidenced by Pierrs Plowman 1377; the Corpus Christi Plays 1376; and the Gest leaves little reason to pre-date Robin Hood before this time. Friar Tuck first appears in an early fragment called “Robin Hood and the Sheriff” printed before the “Gest of Robin Hood” sometime around AD 1472.

Time Line1221. The first friars arrived in England at this time. This is after the deaths of King John and Richard Lionhearted.

1252. The first yeoman archers.

c. 1300 onwards is the late medieval period. Professor Holt confirms Robin’s activity conforms to fourteenth and fifteenth century feudalism which is the era in which the rhymes are set. This is when land owning yeomen and yeoman officers were of equal social status and soldiers were maintained by their local lords in return for loyal service. We can see this in the Gest when the sheriff tells the king that the knight “maintains” the outlaws to the detriment of royal government which undermines their authority.

“He will avow what he has done,To maintain the outlaws strong,

He will be lord and set you (the king) at nought,In all the northern land.”

(John Gisbourne had his own army and livery in the form of a badge.)

Another pointer to the period in which the rhymes are set is Robin’s and Little John’s notable “courtesy” towards other people which was again fashionable in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries especially in feudal households and the knightly class at court, an example in the Gest is seen with Little John’s first encounter with the knight:

“Little John was very courteous,And knelt on his knee,

“Welcome are you, courteous knight,Welcome are you to me.”

1319. Pavage Tax that we read about in Robin Hood and the Potter was not introduced until 1319 in Wentbridge. (David Greenwood)

c. 1322. First known use of Lincoln Green was at the Battle of Boroughbridge.

1327-1335 King Edward III ascended the throne 1327, his marriage to Philippa of Hainault was celebrated formally in York Minster Cathedral on 24 January 1328, they stayed in the Franciscan friary. Their first son died as a child and was buried in York Minster. Edward moved his government to York and with so much bullion and plate held there, robbers clustered around the main roads into the city. (Barnsdale as well presumably?) Parliament gathered 15 times in York.

c. 1335. Robin Hood born about this time, he was also known as Robert Dore of Wadsley. Loxley belongs to Wadsley in the same way London belongs to England.

1336. Gisbourne born.

c. 1350. Robin outlawed from Loxley for killing his stepfather at plough. He fled to the Calder Valley where he met Little John. (Roger Dodsworth) Kirklees Priory is in the Calder Valley.

c. 1355. Edward III held tournaments throughout the country in order to identify and train the best and strongest men for war and Poitiers was just a short time away. In the Gest we read how Little John, disguised as Reynolde Grenelefe, demonstrated his archery prowess by splitting the wand. Impressed with his skill, the sheriff offered to retain him for a fee of twenty marks a year and a good strong horse i.e., a retained knight. Later in the Gest the sheriff again organized a tournament, and this time Robin Hood took part and won the prize of a silver and gold arrow. In the second game, “plucke buffet,” Robin and King Edward, now dressed in Lincoln green supplied by Robin shoot at targets-more tournaments-to find the best archers while riding to Nottingham.

1357. When “King John of France was defeated at Poitiers he was taken to London and on the journey upwards of 500 yeomen lay in ambush clad in tunics and cloaks of Lincoln Green with bows and arrows, swords and bucklers. They sprang out on him as if they were a band of robbers and evil-doers and when King John asked what manner of men they were; the Prince replied that they were Englishmen living rough in the forest by choice and that it was their habit to array themselves so everyday.” (Holt-Anonimalle Chronicle (ed. V. H. Galbraith), p. 41.) The reason for this is unclear but A.J. Pollard says it was a mock ambush and in this context the word “mock” may be right if they were celebrating the defeat of the king of France. This was twenty years before William Langland gave us the first literary mention of Robin and thirty years before Robin Hood was outlawed in the Peasants Revolt, we need to remember as well that Robin was originally outlawed from Loxley and there were many pardoned outlaws fighting at Poitiers and Cressy. The 500 men would be equivalent to a battalion of archers with Robin Hood being their commanding officer and Little John his Lieutenant as it says on Little John’s headstone in Hathersage.

c. 1362. Gisbourne’s son-in-law born. He was William Plumpton born in Plumpton, Yorkshire where Robin hunted, There is a record in Fountains Abbey that William’s minstrel was paid eight pence. (Holt). Gisbourn’s wife Ellen was related to Robert and John Morton who were Sheriffs of Nottingham and Yorkshire respectively having family and property in Yorkshire accounting for the sheriff of Nottingham being in that county. Robert’s wife Joan was lady-in-waiting to Richard II queen, Anne of Bohemia.

1369. Robin hunted deer in “Plomtom Parke which makes one wonder if the Plumptons, Gisbourne and Robin Hood were mutual acquaintances?

This was the year Edward III “granted a special pardon to all except forest officials who had committed forest offenses as recognition for the ‘great aids’ the Parliaments had granted him.”

It was about this time that Wycliffe who was Master of Balliol College, Oxford and clerical advisor to John O’ Gaunt began a series of lectures to correct the abuses of the clergy and their open wickedness. He began at Oxford with a series of lectures supported by John O’ Gaunt and Edward III who remained “a most valiant champion of the truth among the tyrants of Sodom.”

1377. Edward “Our Comely King” dies. Richard II came to the throne. William Langland gave us the first literary mention of Robin Hood. Langland was a priest from Hereford and is described as a protégé of Wycliffe. Nicholas of Hereford was a friend of John Wycliffe. Abbey Dore is in Hereford (Robin Hood was also known as “Robert Dore”) and William Courtenay was the Bishop of Hereford; Chancellor of the Exchequer and Archbishop of Canterbury. In the rhymes Robin robbed the Bishop of Hereford and forced him to say a mass and do a dance.

1380 and 1382/3 the sheriff in York either side of the Peasants Revolt was Sir John Savile. His descendent bought Kirklees Priory where John’s sister Margaret had been prioress. At this time of social unrest and

change the lower classes and criminal gangs began imitating the aristocracy by giving their men livery. Robin Hood clothed his men in scarlet or Lincoln green and Gisbourne gave his 1,500 strong army a badge and hood.

1381. Robin was outlawed for his involvement in the Peasants Revolt. John Ball the leader of the Peasants Revolt was hung. He was a Lollard priest. Simon Sudbury was beheaded. He was the Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of the Exchequer who imposed the Poll Tax that led to the Peasants Revolt. The Sheriff of Yorkshire at that time was Sir Ralph Hastings and his descendants christen their children “Robin Hood” as in the “Honourable Aubrey Craven Theophilus Robin Hood Hastings.”

1382. Robin received the King’s pardon.

1384. John Wycliffe the reformer died. He campaigned against the robbing mendicant friars. His followers were known as Lollards.

1390/91. Gisbourne and John Saville both died in 1390. Robin received the Freedom of the City of York in 1391. There was a great plague at this time and 12,000 souls died in York alone. Is this what became of Robin Hood who perhaps also caught the plague causing him to go to Kirklees to be healed by the prioress?

1396. William Courtenay died. He was the Bishop of Hereford and Prebendary of York. He succeeded Simon Sudbury as the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Archbishop of Canterbury. His journeys to York will have taken him through Barnsdale. One of the first things he did was to attack the Lollard movement led by John Wycliffe.

1398. Ralph Hastings the Sheriff of Yorkshire died. His descendants trace their ancestry back through the Talbot and Furnival families who were the Lords of Loxley. They became the earls of Huntingdon and they christen their children “Robin Hood,” for example “Aubrey Craven Theophilus Robin Hood Hastings.”

1400. William Langland died.1400. A priest and author of Piers Plowman. He gave us the first literary mention of Robin Hood.

1414. Most friars had been expelled from England.

1597/8. Anthony Munday collaborated with Shakespeare and others in the writing of two plays called “The Downfall of Robert, Earl of Huntington” and “The Death of Robert, Earl of Huntington” in which he elevated Robin Hood to the status of Earl of Huntingdon the same as George Hastings had been elevated to the earldom. With the closing of the monasteries and the demise of the mendicant friar, the titles of Munday’s two plays regarding the downfall and death of robinhode take on a new significance.

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