The Historical Setting
Sir Richard at the Lee
The Geste of Robin Hood tells us the impoverished knight, Sir Richard at the Lee came from a long line of noble knights. The castle he inherited, surrounded by woods at the Lee in Verysdale, had a drawbridge at the entrance and fortified walls castellated during the reign of Richard I. This describes Sir Richard Vernon of Haddon Hall at the Lee in Wyedale, died 1376.
When Sir Richard the impoverished knight met Robin Hood at the Saylis he was intending to go on pilgrimage and history confirms he had a license to do that in 1364. This is the year after he was in Bestwood with King Edward III. Later we read in the Geste that Sir Richard gave Robin sanctuary when the Sheriff of Nottingham came looking for him after Robin won an archery contest. Sir Richard’s home is not far from the jousting field of Castleton. The Geste confirms Robin, Sir Richard, and King Edward III were contemporaries when we read, “Robin beheld our comely King wistly in the face, so did Sir Richard at the Lea, and knelt in that place.”
Earl of Huntingdon
An heiress to the earldom of Huntingdon through her grandfather, John II de Balliol, King of Scots was Agnes aka Matilda De Stapleton / Sheffield (FitzAlan), Heiress of Bedale, b. 1298 d. November 03, 1348. According to the link she was the wife of Sir Gilbert de Stapleton, Knight; Thomas Sheffield; and Robert Sheffield; LINK
Before the Norman Conquest, Hallamshire that included Sheffield; Bradfield, Loxley, and Wadsley belonged to Waltheof the Earl of Huntingdon. The earldom then passed to David, King of Scots. Later, the aforementioned Agnes, aka Matilda De Stapleton became an heiress to the earldom of Huntingdon through her grandfather, John II de Balliol, King of Scots. She died in 1348 in Wadsley when Robin was young as did her husband Sir Thomas Sheffield who was born and died there. Was Robin's association with the Huntingdon earldom through Agnes? If only we had his family tree.
Powerful Local Families Living the same time as Robin Hood.
The Sheffield Mounteney family married into the powerful Furnival family when Arnold de Mounteney married Matilda Furnival. In 1379, Joan Mounteney married Thomas Lord Furnival who became 1st Lord Neville of Halumshire. He voted in parliament for Richard II’s clandestine incarceration in the Tower of London. Another Mounteney, Alice de Mounteney was the Prioress of Kirklees.
And their powerful neighbours
After the eldest son of John O’Gaunt, Henry IV ascended the throne, another son of John O’Gaunt, Thomas Beaufort, became a Knight of the Garter. Later he became Chancellor of England and then Earl of Dorset. His mother was Katherine Swynford, the third wife of John of Gaunt. Thomas Swynford was the constable of Pontefract castle where Richard II died. Joan Beaufort, the daughter of John of Gaunt, and Katherine Swynford married Ralph Neville in 1396. Joan was made a Member of the Order of the Garter by Richard II.
The Hastings family can trace their roots back to Sheffield’s Hallam through the Talbot and Furnival families. Anne Hastings, Countess of Shrewsbury lies in Sheffield Cathedral and her mother was Katherine Neville. Sir Ralph Hastings was the Sheriff of Yorkshire at the time of the Peasants Revolt involving Robin Hood.
When George Hastings, who was a member of the Drapers Company received the honour of Huntingdon from Henry VIII in 1529, he began the family tradition of naming their children Robin Hood as in the Honorable Aubrey Craven Theophilus Robin Hood Hastings. The present Earl of Huntingdon is William Edward Robin Hood Hastings-Bass, 17th Earl of Huntingdon (b. 1948). Both Grafton and King Henry’s chief antiquarian John Leland confirm Robin’s noble birth. it is unlikely members of the aristocracy would name their sons after a commoner, or identified their family with Robin Hood unless he appeared in the family tree.
Piers Plowman
Langland’s Piers Plowman B text published 1377 is a contemporary reflection on the moral state of the nation during the reign of King Edward III. In his prestigious poem Langland tells of a lazy priest; Lady Meed, and Ranulf Earl of Chester. Friar Tuck might have been the lazy priest. He did not know the Psalter, but he knew the rhymes of Robin Hood and Ranulf Earl of Chester. Lady Meed was Alice Perrers the king’s mistress, and the Earl of Chester in their day was Edward’s eldest son the Prince of Wales. His renown Cheshire archers operated out of Dieulacres Abbey founded by an earlier Earl of Chester and now the Black Prince was the abbey’s patron. His Cheshire archers, described as marauding monks, operated out of the abbey. They terrorised the people of Staffordshire. They lay in wait, assaulted, maimed, killed some and drove others from place to place on the orders of the abbot. King Richard II created himself the Prince of Chester and the archers formed his bodyguard. As a priest, the moral state of the nation worried him, but claiming the king and those in high places were morally degenerate would be foolish, so discretion being the better part of valour, all Langland and the balladeers needed to do was to identify the abbey by naming its long-dead founder Ranulf, Earl of Chester.
Robin Hood's Era
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 confirms the above, saying Robin was active in the later medieval period. He writes, “the “Geste of Robin Hood” was written circa 1450 and all the literature, the setting and the dates are in this later medieval period. “Major’s conception about a 13th century Robin Hood was not reinforced by argument, evidence, or proof it was simply recycled through later versions of the tale and so became part of the legend. Neither is this view supported by the earliest ballads, they name the reigning monarch as “Edward.”
This accords with Professor Thomas Ohlgren who wrote, "the Geste was commissioned by one of the fifteenth-century guilds-possibly the Dyers Guild in the light of the many 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. He adds: "“the giving of liveries indicates a time of social change when the lower classes and criminal gangs were imitating the aristocracy in the 14th and 15th century." Ronald Hutton tells us the 14th and 15th centuries were known as “Merrie England” and Keen writes: The giving of liveries indicates a time “when liveries and personal badges were in everyday use”
(John Major wrote his piece while living in France and possibly meant King John of France, Richard II and Henry IV of England which is correct. The Sloane MS written in a 'crabbed' hand is difficult to decipher leaving the Roman numerals of the date open to misinterpretation.)
NEXT Copyright © 2014, Graham Kirkby
The Geste of Robin Hood tells us the impoverished knight, Sir Richard at the Lee came from a long line of noble knights. The castle he inherited, surrounded by woods at the Lee in Verysdale, had a drawbridge at the entrance and fortified walls castellated during the reign of Richard I. This describes Sir Richard Vernon of Haddon Hall at the Lee in Wyedale, died 1376.
When Sir Richard the impoverished knight met Robin Hood at the Saylis he was intending to go on pilgrimage and history confirms he had a license to do that in 1364. This is the year after he was in Bestwood with King Edward III. Later we read in the Geste that Sir Richard gave Robin sanctuary when the Sheriff of Nottingham came looking for him after Robin won an archery contest. Sir Richard’s home is not far from the jousting field of Castleton. The Geste confirms Robin, Sir Richard, and King Edward III were contemporaries when we read, “Robin beheld our comely King wistly in the face, so did Sir Richard at the Lea, and knelt in that place.”
Earl of Huntingdon
An heiress to the earldom of Huntingdon through her grandfather, John II de Balliol, King of Scots was Agnes aka Matilda De Stapleton / Sheffield (FitzAlan), Heiress of Bedale, b. 1298 d. November 03, 1348. According to the link she was the wife of Sir Gilbert de Stapleton, Knight; Thomas Sheffield; and Robert Sheffield; LINK
Before the Norman Conquest, Hallamshire that included Sheffield; Bradfield, Loxley, and Wadsley belonged to Waltheof the Earl of Huntingdon. The earldom then passed to David, King of Scots. Later, the aforementioned Agnes, aka Matilda De Stapleton became an heiress to the earldom of Huntingdon through her grandfather, John II de Balliol, King of Scots. She died in 1348 in Wadsley when Robin was young as did her husband Sir Thomas Sheffield who was born and died there. Was Robin's association with the Huntingdon earldom through Agnes? If only we had his family tree.
Powerful Local Families Living the same time as Robin Hood.
The Sheffield Mounteney family married into the powerful Furnival family when Arnold de Mounteney married Matilda Furnival. In 1379, Joan Mounteney married Thomas Lord Furnival who became 1st Lord Neville of Halumshire. He voted in parliament for Richard II’s clandestine incarceration in the Tower of London. Another Mounteney, Alice de Mounteney was the Prioress of Kirklees.
And their powerful neighbours
After the eldest son of John O’Gaunt, Henry IV ascended the throne, another son of John O’Gaunt, Thomas Beaufort, became a Knight of the Garter. Later he became Chancellor of England and then Earl of Dorset. His mother was Katherine Swynford, the third wife of John of Gaunt. Thomas Swynford was the constable of Pontefract castle where Richard II died. Joan Beaufort, the daughter of John of Gaunt, and Katherine Swynford married Ralph Neville in 1396. Joan was made a Member of the Order of the Garter by Richard II.
The Hastings family can trace their roots back to Sheffield’s Hallam through the Talbot and Furnival families. Anne Hastings, Countess of Shrewsbury lies in Sheffield Cathedral and her mother was Katherine Neville. Sir Ralph Hastings was the Sheriff of Yorkshire at the time of the Peasants Revolt involving Robin Hood.
When George Hastings, who was a member of the Drapers Company received the honour of Huntingdon from Henry VIII in 1529, he began the family tradition of naming their children Robin Hood as in the Honorable Aubrey Craven Theophilus Robin Hood Hastings. The present Earl of Huntingdon is William Edward Robin Hood Hastings-Bass, 17th Earl of Huntingdon (b. 1948). Both Grafton and King Henry’s chief antiquarian John Leland confirm Robin’s noble birth. it is unlikely members of the aristocracy would name their sons after a commoner, or identified their family with Robin Hood unless he appeared in the family tree.
Piers Plowman
Langland’s Piers Plowman B text published 1377 is a contemporary reflection on the moral state of the nation during the reign of King Edward III. In his prestigious poem Langland tells of a lazy priest; Lady Meed, and Ranulf Earl of Chester. Friar Tuck might have been the lazy priest. He did not know the Psalter, but he knew the rhymes of Robin Hood and Ranulf Earl of Chester. Lady Meed was Alice Perrers the king’s mistress, and the Earl of Chester in their day was Edward’s eldest son the Prince of Wales. His renown Cheshire archers operated out of Dieulacres Abbey founded by an earlier Earl of Chester and now the Black Prince was the abbey’s patron. His Cheshire archers, described as marauding monks, operated out of the abbey. They terrorised the people of Staffordshire. They lay in wait, assaulted, maimed, killed some and drove others from place to place on the orders of the abbot. King Richard II created himself the Prince of Chester and the archers formed his bodyguard. As a priest, the moral state of the nation worried him, but claiming the king and those in high places were morally degenerate would be foolish, so discretion being the better part of valour, all Langland and the balladeers needed to do was to identify the abbey by naming its long-dead founder Ranulf, Earl of Chester.
Robin Hood's Era
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 confirms the above, saying Robin was active in the later medieval period. He writes, “the “Geste of Robin Hood” was written circa 1450 and all the literature, the setting and the dates are in this later medieval period. “Major’s conception about a 13th century Robin Hood was not reinforced by argument, evidence, or proof it was simply recycled through later versions of the tale and so became part of the legend. Neither is this view supported by the earliest ballads, they name the reigning monarch as “Edward.”
This accords with Professor Thomas Ohlgren who wrote, "the Geste was commissioned by one of the fifteenth-century guilds-possibly the Dyers Guild in the light of the many 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. He adds: "“the giving of liveries indicates a time of social change when the lower classes and criminal gangs were imitating the aristocracy in the 14th and 15th century." Ronald Hutton tells us the 14th and 15th centuries were known as “Merrie England” and Keen writes: The giving of liveries indicates a time “when liveries and personal badges were in everyday use”
(John Major wrote his piece while living in France and possibly meant King John of France, Richard II and Henry IV of England which is correct. The Sloane MS written in a 'crabbed' hand is difficult to decipher leaving the Roman numerals of the date open to misinterpretation.)
NEXT Copyright © 2014, Graham Kirkby
