The Death of Robin HoodAfter the Peasants’ Revolt, Robin went back to Greenwood, and life returned to normal. Then, one day after hunting the Dunne (brown) deer, Robin felt weak and could not eat. In desperation, he sought help from his cousin, the prioress, who would let (bleed) his blood. Will Scarlet said to take half a hundred of his best archers with him, but Robin dismissed Scarlet’s advice and rode there with only Little John for company. As they got near, an old woman kneeling on a plank over the black water banned (announced) Robin’s arrival. She lamented his death, saying, “We women have no venison to give poor Robin Hood. We wept for his dear body when they let his blood in.”
Going into the convent, Robin gave his cousin £20.00 in gold coins, telling her to spend it while it lasts, and if you need it, I will give you more. (Gold coins date to 1344, when Thomas Neville, Robin’s overlord, was the king’s treasurer.) Despite Robin’s generosity towards his cousin, the prioress of Kirklees deceived him for the love of her special lover, doing much evil when she and the knight Sir Roger of Doncaster plotted in secret how best to kill poor Robin. Through their foul deeds, they betrayed the noble Robin Hood. With his lifeblood dripping away and knowing his end was near, Robin said, “Give me my bent bow and a broad arrow; I will let fly and where it falls; let my grave there be dug. Lay me down with a green sod under my head and another at my feet. Put my bent bow by my side; it was my music, sweet, and make my grave of gravel and green. Let me have length and breadth enough, so they may say, When I am dead, here lies bold Robin Hood.” They readily granted him these words and buried brave Robin in fair Kirklees. Dear Christ, have mercy on his soul. The man of legend had taken his last breath. The historical setting BANN: from Old English Bannan. It means proclaiming or announcing a forthcoming event, as in marriage banns. The old woman, kneeling on a plank over the black water, may have been dying cloth to make nun’s habits. Woad turns the water black and smells vile, causing Queen Elizabeth to decree that dyers (litsters) should not engage in their trade within five miles of where she was staying. When the woman saw Robin, she banned (announced) Robin’s forthcoming death. She may have recognised his symptoms from earlier outbreaks of plague that came to England from Calais in 1348. Fresh outbreaks occurred in York in 1361, 1369, 1375, 1378, 1390, and 1400. Rat fleas living on cloth carry the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Robin dealt in cloth, and York was a seaport. Outbreaks continued until the Great Plague of London in 1665 and the Great Fire of London in 1666. Little John died soon after he buried Robin. According to the ballad of Robin’s death, the prioress, a daughter of Robin’s aunt, was a member of the Mounteney family. Bolingbroke (Henry IV), Richard II, and Thomas de Neville, 5th Baron Furnivall were all involved in a power struggle between Lancastrians and Plantagenets. Bollingbroke was a Lancastrian. Thomas Neville had been a Plantagenet but after the death of Richard II became a Lancastrian. He was the treasurer of England, the keeper of several castles in the north of England, and a massive landowner. Between them, they owned most of England’s land. It all revolved around the love of money, land, and power. Then they died. Copyright © 2020, Graham Kirkby. All rights reserved NEXT PAGE |