The Historical Setting
Sir Richard the Impoverished Knight
The impoverished knight at the Lee came from a long line of noble knights. The castle he inherited, surrounded by woodland at the Lee in Uttersdale, had a drawbridge and fortified castellated walls dating back to Richard I. This describes Haddon Hall at The Lee in Wyedale. (V and W were late additions to the alphabet.) His castle and the jousting field in Castleton were both administered by the Sheriff of Nottingham. The Gest confirms Robin, Sir Richard, and King Edward III knew each other when we read; "Robin beheld our comely King wistfully in the face, as did Sir Richard at the Lee, and knelt in that place."
Earl of Huntingdon
Agnes de Stapleton, an heiress to the Earldom of Huntingdon, settled in Wadsley/Loxley with her third husband, Sir Thomas de Sheffield, born in Wadsley, where he lived and died. Her grandfather was John II de Balliol, King of Scots. When her third husband (Robin’s stepfather) died in 1348, Agnes returned to her hometown of Bedale, taking her husband’s remains with her. His tomb is in St. Gregory’s Church at Bedale. She died on November 3, aged fifty, in the same year as her husband, the first year of the Black Death.
Her first husband, Sir Gilbert Stapleton, knight of Bedale, was a childhood companion of King Edward III. He accompanied Edward to Nottingham Castle, where they captured Piers Gaveston. Gilbert’s eldest son, Sir Miles Stapleton of Bedale, was a knight and founder member of the Order of the Garter. He lived at the same time as Robin but died, according to family history, in 1364, aged 46, of severe wounds received in the battle of Auray. Agnes’s grandfather, John II de Balliol, King of Scots, featured in Mel Gibson’s Oscar-winning 1995 film Braveheart.
When King Henry VIII ascended the throne in 1509, he came to Westminster with his queen, Katherine of Aragon, and all her attendants. One morning, to everyone’s surprise, the King, along with his graces, the Earls of Essex, Wiltshire, and other noblemen numbering twelve, put on short coats of Kentish Kendal green with hoods on their heads. They carried bows, arrows, swords, and bucklers. Appearing to be Robin Hood’s men, they burst into the Queen’s Chamber. The strange sight and sudden appearance astonished the Queen, her ladies, and everyone else. After several games and dances, the king and his men departed.
Living at the same time as Sir John Saville, Robin Hood, and the sheriffs of Nottingham and Yorkshire, Robert and John Morton, was another Yorkshire sheriff named Sir Ralph Hastings. Later, King Henry VIII created Ralph’s descendent, Sir George Hastings, the Earl of Huntingdon. Since then, the Hastings family has identified with Robin Hood by giving their children the middle names Robin Hood. The tradition continues with William Edward Robin Hood Hastings-Bass, 17th Earl of Huntingdon (b. 1948).
The Hastings, Mounteney, Furnivall, Neville, and Talbot families intermarried. John Talbot married Maud de Neville, the sole child of Joan de Furnivall and Thomas Neville. Anne Hastings was Baroness Furnivall, and her husband George Talbot was the ninth Baron Furnivall. They are all prominent people in the history of Sheffield and England. The tomb of Anne Hastings is in Sheffield Cathedral. Robin, along with his cousin Alice Mounteney a relative of the Saville and Furnival families, will be among their number.
Hallam Moors around Loxley and Bradfield provided the best grouse shooting then and now, and the tradition continues to the present day. In our grandparent’s lifetime, nine guns shot 2,842 grouse on August 12, 1913. It became an annual custom for coaches to take the people of Sheffield to watch this spectacular event. During Robin’s lifetime, the lords of the manor were the Wadsley family. They were knights of the realm, and their fletchers (arrow makers) made arrows on Loxley Common, but now the land belongs to the Duke of Norfolk's office. The duke's lineage begins with King Edward 1, and the late Queen Elizabeth II was his cousin.
Piers Ploughman
The year King Edward died; William Langland published his prestigious poem, Piers Ploughman B text. Included in the poem are Robin Hood, Sloth, the drunken priest, Lady Meed, and the Earl of Chester. They are all there. Friar Tuck, the lazy priest, might have been Sloth. He did not know the Psalter, but could recite the rhymes of Robin Hood. The King’s mistress, Alice Perrers, was Lady Meed, and King Edward’s son, the Black Prince, was the Earl of Chester. His Cheshire Archers operated from Dieulacres Abbey, of which he was the patron. They hounded people, ambushed them, looted, assaulted, maimed, and killed many.
Their activities, along with the ballads of Robin Hood, would have made headline news in the newspapers of the day. Broadsheets cost a penny each, while chapbooks included popular ballads, giving the balladeers and players enough material to keep them singing and playing for years to come. The mischief of the Cheshire archers continued into the reign of King Richard II. The Black Prince maintained three hundred Cheshire archers as his bodyguard, and during King Richard’s reign, they continued to do the same in London as at Dieulacres Abbey, where they robbed, raped, flogged, and killed, but were never punished. These men killed hundreds of poll tax protesters, and in his poem, Piers Ploughman Langland complained about the moral state of the nation. Afraid for his life if he named the high and mighty, Langland contented himself by identifying the founder of Dieulacres Abbey, the 4th Earl of Chester, Ranulph de Blundeville.
With the publication of Piers Plowman, Robin joined with other heroic figures on the country's bookshelves. Shakespeare (1564-1616) made mention of Robin in “As You Like It,” “Henry IV,” and “The Two Gentlemen of Verona.” The nineteenth century saw Francis Child’s collection of Robin Hood ballads, plus Hunter’s “Great Hero of Ancient Minstrelsy.” Carola Oman wrote “Robin Hood” in 1937, and J. H. Gable’s “Bibliography of Robin Hood” is another. Other writers include Ben Johnson and Thomas Fuller. Films include “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” and “The Adventures of Robin Hood.”
Copyright © 2020, Graham Kirkby All rights reserved NEXT PAGE
CLICK HERE FOR A HISTORY OF LOXLEY AND THE SURROUNDING AREA
The impoverished knight at the Lee came from a long line of noble knights. The castle he inherited, surrounded by woodland at the Lee in Uttersdale, had a drawbridge and fortified castellated walls dating back to Richard I. This describes Haddon Hall at The Lee in Wyedale. (V and W were late additions to the alphabet.) His castle and the jousting field in Castleton were both administered by the Sheriff of Nottingham. The Gest confirms Robin, Sir Richard, and King Edward III knew each other when we read; "Robin beheld our comely King wistfully in the face, as did Sir Richard at the Lee, and knelt in that place."
Earl of Huntingdon
Agnes de Stapleton, an heiress to the Earldom of Huntingdon, settled in Wadsley/Loxley with her third husband, Sir Thomas de Sheffield, born in Wadsley, where he lived and died. Her grandfather was John II de Balliol, King of Scots. When her third husband (Robin’s stepfather) died in 1348, Agnes returned to her hometown of Bedale, taking her husband’s remains with her. His tomb is in St. Gregory’s Church at Bedale. She died on November 3, aged fifty, in the same year as her husband, the first year of the Black Death.
Her first husband, Sir Gilbert Stapleton, knight of Bedale, was a childhood companion of King Edward III. He accompanied Edward to Nottingham Castle, where they captured Piers Gaveston. Gilbert’s eldest son, Sir Miles Stapleton of Bedale, was a knight and founder member of the Order of the Garter. He lived at the same time as Robin but died, according to family history, in 1364, aged 46, of severe wounds received in the battle of Auray. Agnes’s grandfather, John II de Balliol, King of Scots, featured in Mel Gibson’s Oscar-winning 1995 film Braveheart.
When King Henry VIII ascended the throne in 1509, he came to Westminster with his queen, Katherine of Aragon, and all her attendants. One morning, to everyone’s surprise, the King, along with his graces, the Earls of Essex, Wiltshire, and other noblemen numbering twelve, put on short coats of Kentish Kendal green with hoods on their heads. They carried bows, arrows, swords, and bucklers. Appearing to be Robin Hood’s men, they burst into the Queen’s Chamber. The strange sight and sudden appearance astonished the Queen, her ladies, and everyone else. After several games and dances, the king and his men departed.
Living at the same time as Sir John Saville, Robin Hood, and the sheriffs of Nottingham and Yorkshire, Robert and John Morton, was another Yorkshire sheriff named Sir Ralph Hastings. Later, King Henry VIII created Ralph’s descendent, Sir George Hastings, the Earl of Huntingdon. Since then, the Hastings family has identified with Robin Hood by giving their children the middle names Robin Hood. The tradition continues with William Edward Robin Hood Hastings-Bass, 17th Earl of Huntingdon (b. 1948).
The Hastings, Mounteney, Furnivall, Neville, and Talbot families intermarried. John Talbot married Maud de Neville, the sole child of Joan de Furnivall and Thomas Neville. Anne Hastings was Baroness Furnivall, and her husband George Talbot was the ninth Baron Furnivall. They are all prominent people in the history of Sheffield and England. The tomb of Anne Hastings is in Sheffield Cathedral. Robin, along with his cousin Alice Mounteney a relative of the Saville and Furnival families, will be among their number.
Hallam Moors around Loxley and Bradfield provided the best grouse shooting then and now, and the tradition continues to the present day. In our grandparent’s lifetime, nine guns shot 2,842 grouse on August 12, 1913. It became an annual custom for coaches to take the people of Sheffield to watch this spectacular event. During Robin’s lifetime, the lords of the manor were the Wadsley family. They were knights of the realm, and their fletchers (arrow makers) made arrows on Loxley Common, but now the land belongs to the Duke of Norfolk's office. The duke's lineage begins with King Edward 1, and the late Queen Elizabeth II was his cousin.
Piers Ploughman
The year King Edward died; William Langland published his prestigious poem, Piers Ploughman B text. Included in the poem are Robin Hood, Sloth, the drunken priest, Lady Meed, and the Earl of Chester. They are all there. Friar Tuck, the lazy priest, might have been Sloth. He did not know the Psalter, but could recite the rhymes of Robin Hood. The King’s mistress, Alice Perrers, was Lady Meed, and King Edward’s son, the Black Prince, was the Earl of Chester. His Cheshire Archers operated from Dieulacres Abbey, of which he was the patron. They hounded people, ambushed them, looted, assaulted, maimed, and killed many.
Their activities, along with the ballads of Robin Hood, would have made headline news in the newspapers of the day. Broadsheets cost a penny each, while chapbooks included popular ballads, giving the balladeers and players enough material to keep them singing and playing for years to come. The mischief of the Cheshire archers continued into the reign of King Richard II. The Black Prince maintained three hundred Cheshire archers as his bodyguard, and during King Richard’s reign, they continued to do the same in London as at Dieulacres Abbey, where they robbed, raped, flogged, and killed, but were never punished. These men killed hundreds of poll tax protesters, and in his poem, Piers Ploughman Langland complained about the moral state of the nation. Afraid for his life if he named the high and mighty, Langland contented himself by identifying the founder of Dieulacres Abbey, the 4th Earl of Chester, Ranulph de Blundeville.
With the publication of Piers Plowman, Robin joined with other heroic figures on the country's bookshelves. Shakespeare (1564-1616) made mention of Robin in “As You Like It,” “Henry IV,” and “The Two Gentlemen of Verona.” The nineteenth century saw Francis Child’s collection of Robin Hood ballads, plus Hunter’s “Great Hero of Ancient Minstrelsy.” Carola Oman wrote “Robin Hood” in 1937, and J. H. Gable’s “Bibliography of Robin Hood” is another. Other writers include Ben Johnson and Thomas Fuller. Films include “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” and “The Adventures of Robin Hood.”
Copyright © 2020, Graham Kirkby All rights reserved NEXT PAGE
CLICK HERE FOR A HISTORY OF LOXLEY AND THE SURROUNDING AREA