The King Hunts RobinSite of Robin Hood's Bower (cottage)
Free of debt thanks to Robin, Sir Richard wheeled his horse around and rode home to his wife with the fantastic news: they still owned their castle. Meanwhile, Robin announced a tournament in Nottingham against the sheriff’s men. Each man had six shots, and the winner received a silver arrow. Gilbert, with the white hand, hit the staff three times. Robin did the same, but an arrow hit Little John in the knee as the Nottingham men started fighting. Unable to walk or ride, Robin lifted his friend onto his back and carried him to the safety of Sir Richard’s castle. Sir Richard pulled up the drawbridge and ushered them into the dining hall. He fed Robin and his men for several days, more than making up for the one meal he received from Robin in Saylis. “You are a traitor,” said the sheriff to Sir Richard. “You support the king’s enemies and break the law.” “I will defend everything I do,” said Sir Richard. “Go. Do not return till you know the king’s will.” Without delay, the sheriff went to London Town and informed the king how the knight had protected Robin Hood. “My king, the knight, told me he will defend everything he did to support the outlaws. You, my king, are powerless in your northern kingdom.” “Hasten back,” commanded the king, “and seek the best archers in England. I will deal with Robin Hood when I arrive in Nottingham.” King Edward kept his promise and took the captured King John of France and his comrades on an elaborate hunting trip to Bestwood in Nottinghamshire. (Dobson and Taylor). While the king was in the north of England, he founded the northern guilds, hunted deer, and sought archers for the forthcoming Battle of Auray. Going to Plumpton Park along the Lancashire Pass, they did not see a solitary deer. The furious king dismissed Rufus de Strelley, the forest warden, for falsifying his returns. Robin, meanwhile, herded and killed the deer at will. Determined to capture Robin, the king told Sir Richard: “Whoever cuts off the knight’s head and brings it to me shall have his lands.” Despite searching for half a year, the king never found Robin until a gallant forester said to him, “Bring five of your best knights and follow me. Each man shall wear a monk’s habit, and I will lead you to Robin on this side of Nottinghamshire” (Yorkshire). The king met Robin under a Linden tree, surrounded by bold archers. Robin took the king’s horse, mistaking him for an abbot, and begged him, saying: “Abbot, please stay. You have churches, rents, and gold, but we are poor. Please help us.” The kindly king replied, “The King and I have spent most of the money in Nottingham, and only forty pounds remain. If I had a hundred pounds, you could have half.” “Gramercy,” smiled Robin, taking the money. “Forty pounds will do for now until we meet again.” “Thank you,” the unhappy king replied to Robin, the trickster and people’s friend. After Robin had served his guests an excellent meal of the king’s venison, oops, they shot arrows together. Robin split the staff twice, as did the good Gilbert with the white hand. When Robin realised the abbot was the king in disguise, he looked him in the eyes. “My Lord the King of England,” Robin pleaded, “for your kindness and mercy under your trysting tree. I love you and pray for my men and me. Yes, to God. Please, God, save me. My Lord, the King of England, I beg you for mercy, and I also beg for my men.” The king spoke to Sir Richard and returned him to his land, telling him to be loyal. On his bended knee, Robin thanked his kindly king, who ordered him to live at his court in London. On the way, the king removed his cloak, put on Lincoln Green like his knights, and held an archery contest in Nottingham. (The Battle of Auray was in September, and Edward needed archers.) When they arrived in London, the king asked, “Have you any green cloth to sell me?” “Yes,” said Robin, “thirty poles and three.” “Sell me your green cloth to clothe my archers well and true.” “Yes sir,” said Robin, “and you will also clothe me in green before Christmas too.” Eventually, Little John and William Scathelock returned to Greenwood with the king’s permission. Meanwhile, Robin languished as a prisoner in the king’s court. Tired of being a captive, Robin turned to the king and said, “Sire, grant me, I pray. I built a beautiful chapel for Mary Magdalene and must go there barefoot, wearing a hair shirt, to atone for my sins.” “I will allow it,” the king granted. “I will give you seven nights to leave me alone.” “Thank you, sir,” said Robin, kneeling before the king. When Robin arrived back at the Greenwood, the sun shone, the birds were chirping, and he felt young again. I missed this place, and now I will hunt again. He shot a magnificent stag and blew his horn; their master had returned. Everyone of Robin’s seventy men, the number of soldiers in a company, lined up in a row. “Welcome, our Lord,” they said as they greeted him on bended knees, their hoods removed. NOTES: 1. Yeomen: has several meanings, but the prologue to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales seems appropriate. “The yeoman, who knew the forest like he knew his home, would accompany the knight; they were hunters, indeed.” This yeoman has a bow and arrows, a coat, and a hood of forest green, as does the yeoman in “The Friar’s Tale,” the bailiff of the forest. (Wiki) Robin, it seems, progressed from forester to yeoman of the forest and then to Knight. 2. The route King Edward took along the Pass of Lancashire may have followed the old Roman Road to York. It started near Blackpool on the west coast, then diverted south to Great/Little Plumpton near Westby. It progressed along the Calder, Ribble, and Wharfe river valleys and continued east to the southern edge of the Forest of Bowland, noted for its wild boar. Within the Forest of Bowland is the Forest of Gisburn, the home of Gisborn, the bounty hunter. The land belonged to King Edward’s son, John O’ Gaunt; so, presumably, the hunting was fit for a king. 3. The Strelley family were the verderers in charge of the Royal Forests of Sherwood and Peak Forest. They provided horses for the King whenever he came to the Peak. In return, King Edward III gave them the bridge near the mill at Brough, on the road leading to Hazelbadge Hall, belonging to the Sheriff of Nottingham, for their services. If a Strelley horse died during one of these visits, the King replaced it and gave the family two robes as compensation. The verderer falsified the returns and lost his position. (The author, who loved to walk in the Peak District, has driven over the bridge leading to Hazelbadge Hall many times.) 4. Edward III often wore a disguise. In 1341, he competed against 250 others while disguised and trounced them all. Three years later, Edward disguised himself again and won the prize as the best knight in the royal household for three consecutive days. When his son, John of Gaunt, married in 1359, he celebrated with a tournament, competing against his four eldest sons, plus 19 nobles dressed as the mayor and aldermen of London, and again beat the field with honour. In one tournament, he wore Thomas Bradstone’s coat of arms, and in 1348, he fought incognito at Calais under Walter Mauny’s command. (M. Prestwich) 5. (Charles R. Young, The Royal Forests of Medieval England (Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1979), p. 147.) 6. Our comely King was Edward III. (Laurence Minot, the minstrel.) 7. Sir Richard had a licence from the King to go overseas in 1364. (Family tree.) He and the King were at Bestwood earlier. After Sir Richard died from injuries sustained at the Battle of Auray, his castle, Haddon Hall, went to another branch of the family. His son no longer appears in the records. The new owners rebuilt the “castle,” and turned it into the magnificent, stately home we see today. 8. Living at the same time as Robin were King Edward III, King John of France, and King Richard II. Those three names, Edward, John and Richard, have exercised the minds of Robin Hood researchers for years, and here they are all together, but not as first thought. Copyright © 2020, Graham Kirkby All rights reserved NEXT PAGE |