Timeline
1252: The first yeoman archers.
1319: The Pavement Tax we read about in the ballad Robin Hood and the Potter was first introduced this year in Wentbridge. (By David Greenwood)
1322: The wearing of livery began. The first known use of Lincoln Green was at the Battle of Boroughbridge.
1327: King Edward III ascended the throne.
1336: Gisburn, born this year.
1337: The completion of Nottingham’s city walls. In the ballad, Robin and Little John climbed the wall when escaping from the sheriff.
c. 1339: Robert Hode, the archer, was born in Loxley.
1339: Johannes Hode, pistor (baker/miller) admitted to the Freedom of York.
1341: Birth of Robertus Hode, the son of John Hode, the miller and wine merchant. (Not Robin Hood from Loxley)
1343: Birth of Adam Hode, second son of the miller, and brother of Much the miller’s son.
1344: The first gold coins in England were issued by royal proclamation in January of this year; Robin Hood gave the prioress £20 in gold coins.
1350 – 1550: The two-handed long sword featured in Robin Hood and the Monk belonged to the late mediaeval period. It was after this time (the Black Death) that local lords and prominent citizens began having their own livery.
1348: Sir Thomas de Sheffield died in Wadsley where he was born. He married an heiress to the Huntingdon earldom. After the death of Sir Thomas, Robin fled to Kirklees, then to York, where he became a Forrester, during which time he befriended the impoverished knight.
1351: Henry Grosmont became Duke of Lancaster, a title held today by Queen Elizabeth II.
1352: Laurence Minot, living in 1352, and troubadour-of-all-work. His subjects were: Halidon Hill; the capture of Berwick, which he takes as an avenging of Bannockburn; the entry of Edward, our comely King, into Brabant; the battle in the Swin; the leaguer at Tournay; the march to Calais; Crecy and the battle there; the siege of Calais; Neville’s Cross; the sea-fight with the Spaniards; and the conquest of Guines. He sang of Edward III as “our comely King.”
c. 1354: Robert Hode begins his apprenticeship in the clothing trade.
c. 1355: Edward III in Nottingham and the North of England with Robin and the Impoverished Knight. The King held tournaments throughout the country in search of archers. He imprisoned Robin in the King’s court and clothed him in green before the battle of Poitiers.
1356: Battle of Poitiers.
1357: In the ballad Robin Hood and Guy of Gisbourne, William de Trent was one of the sheriff’s men. He witnessed the signing of a document regarding the transfer of land on the Wednesday before St. Michael, 30 Edward III.
1357: the first historical record of green-clad men living rough in the forest after English forces defeated King John of France at Poitiers.
c. 1361: Robert Hode finishes his apprenticeship and begins his journeyman and mercantile period.
1362: Gisburn’s son-in-law was born. He was William Plumpton, born in Plumpton, Yorkshire. Gisburn’s wife, Ellen, was related to Robert and John Morton. They were the Sheriffs of Nottingham and Yorkshire, respectively. Robert’s wife, Joan, was the lady-in-waiting for Richard II’s queen, Anne of Bohemia.
1362: John of Gaunt became Duke of Lancaster, a title held by Queen Elizabeth II.
King Edward III at Bestwood, Nottingham, in 1364. The first charter granted to the Drapers’ Company by Edward III included Robert Hode, a litster (dyer) admitted to the Freedom of York. Also admitted to the Freedom of York this year included Alanus de Bradeley, bocher (butcher); Ricardus de Cottyngham, bocher (butcher); and Rad. De Waddesley, tailliour (tailor). Ricardus de Gysborne (not the mayor) gained admittance to the freedom of York at the same time as Robin. Adam Hood, the miller’s son, became a litster (dyer) like Robin, and a freeman of York two years later, in 1366. King Edward III hunted in Bestwood and Plompton Park and reminded the impoverished knight where his loyalty lay.
1364: Robin made a prisoner in the King’s Court.
1365: Sir Henry Green, Knight, High Justice of England, Lord Chancellor, and Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, was stripped of his office for corruption. The Geste tells us the Abbot of St Mary’s had a hold over the Justice of England. The Abbot of Englonde, the Justyce of Englonde, dyde holde.
1366: (40 EDW. III): Adam Hode, lyttester (dyer), is admitted to the Freedom of York.
1369: King Edward III granted a special pardon to everyone except those forest officials who committed forest offences, in recognition of the great aids the parliaments granted him. Archery practice became compulsory this year.
1371: The completion of the chapel in Saint Mary’s Church that Robin attended in Nottingham. Strife again disturbed York’s mayoral elections between Langton and Gisburn, requiring royal intervention.
1377: Edward III, “Our Comely King,” died, and William Langland’s “Piers Ploughman” published. The poem is a comment on the moral decline of contemporary society as exemplified by Lady Meed, whose real name was Alice Perrers. She was Edward III’s mistress after his wife died. Likewise, the priest should have known the Psalter, but only knew the rhymes of Robin Hood. Langland in 1377, unwittingly, but fortunately for us, connected Robin Hood to Edward III, our comely King. Laurence Minot confirmed Edward, our comely king, was indeed Edward III.
1379: Second poll tax levied. Robert Hode and his wife appear in the Tax Rolls for Yorkshire.
Nov 1380: Armed citizens of York temporarily ejected Mayor John Gisburn from office. Twenty-four of the leading rioters were imprisoned in the Tower of London (Dec 1380-Jan 1381). Many of these were craftsmen, particularly butchers and weavers.
1381: Hathersage church built.
1381: Third poll tax announced. The levying of this tax leads to the Peasants’ Revolt in June.
The Sheriff of Nottingham, Robert Morton, was in Conisbrough Castle in Barnsdale when the king outlawed Robin for his involvement in the Peasant Revolt. It happened “when liveries and personal badges were in everyday use.” (Keen) “thus showing a time of social change when the lower classes and criminal gangs imitated the aristocracy” (Ohlgren) in the 14th and 15th centuries, known as “Merrie England” (Ronald Hutton).
1382: (4-5 RIC. II): “Robert Hode given the King’s pardon on 22 May 1382.” Also pardoned were Alan Bradley and Richard Cottingham, who appear in the Patent Rolls as leaders of the Nov 1380 York riots.
1390: Gisburn died.
1396: William Courtenay, the Bishop of Hereford, died. He held the office’s Bishop of London. Prebendary of Exeter, Wells, and York. He was Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of England, succeeding Simon de Sudbury after the Peasants Revolt. He officiated at the marriage of Richard II with Anne of Bohemia, and afterwards, crowned the queen. He opposed the Poll Tax, challenging the right to impose taxes on peasants, and reproved Richard II’s extravagance, which was the cause of the unwarranted taxation. Buried at Maidstone, where he founded the College of St. Mary and All Saints. Afterwards, they removed his body to Canterbury and buried him in the presence of King Richard II at the feet of the Black Prince, near the shrine of St. Thomas. He lived the same time as Robin, 1342 – 1396. On his way to York, where he was a regular visitor. Robin and his men, according to the ballad, robbed him and had fun at his expense.
1400: William Langland died. There was a fresh outbreak of the Black Death.
c. 1402-1416: Alice de Mounteney of Loxley, the prioress of Kirklees.
c. 1402: Robin died aged approx. 63 years.
1429: Robert Stafford, alias Frere Tuk, was still evading the law in 1429.
C. 1450: Robert Fabyan is best placed to author “The Little Geste of Robin Hood.” He and the Long family were clothiers. Fabyan was a “Master of Drapers,” historian, chronicler, and friend of Mr Long and his family. This made him ideally placed to compile “The Little Geste of Robin Hood,” in which cloth and clothing are recurring themes. He died in 1512.
1618: In January 1618, after visiting Robert Armitage III of Kirklees Roger Dodsworth while still in Wakefield went into a local church and wrote, “Robin was born in the Bradfield Parish of Hallamshire; he wounded his stepfather to death at the plough and fled into the woods, where his mother sustained him until discovered. Then, he went to Clifton-upon-Calder where he met Little John, who kept the kine. Little John is buried at Hathersage in Derbyshire, where he has a fair tombstone with an inscription. Mr Long said that Fabyan saith Little John was Earl Huntley’s son, after which he joined with Much the Miller’s son.” (Huntly Castle itself had been through three rebuilds and that is what it was called in Fabians’ lifetime, but in the 13th and 14th centuries, it was Strathbogie.)
Lincoln Green:
The livery of archers associated with royalty is Lincoln Green. The first known use of the colour was during the reign of King Edward II, who clothed his men in green at the Battle of Boroughbridge on 16 March 1322. After his death, Roger Mortimer, who ruled England for four years as a regent alongside Queen Isabella, did the same. After the Black Death and subsequent social changes, the lower classes and criminal gangs began imitating the aristocracy by giving their men livery. Gisburn gave his 1,500 workers a badge and hood. Robin Hood clothed his company of men in Lincoln Green, the King’s livery, identifying himself as belonging to the King’s army. 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.”
WADSLEY, a chapelry with several villages, became a manor under the control of the knightly De Wadsley family. They had manorial rights and built a manor hall, a deer park (Loxley Chase), and a chapel. Their surname was first recorded in 1227. For those with local knowledge, the River Don marks the manor of Wadsley, that extends from Oughtibridge through to Niagara Forge at Wadsley Bridge and the Sports Stadium at Owlerton, where it joins the River Loxley (Loxley Firth). The boundary then followed the River Loxley to Malin Bridge, then to Dam Flask. At Damflask, the boundary takes a right turn to Kirk Edge Road near the convent, over Onesmoor, and right down Coumes Brook, which flows parallel to Wheel Lane and back to Church Street in Oughtibridge and the River Don.
John Harrison surveyed the Manor of Sheffield, Cowley & Ecclesfield for Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, and Lady Alethea Talbot, his wife, the granddaughter of Bess of Hardwick. She inherited vast estates in Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, and Derbyshire. Sheffield became the principal part of the family fortune and is so to the present day. Thomas Howard Earl of Arundel became the Earl of Norfolk in a later creation. The 18th Duke of Norfolk is Edward William Fitzalan-Howard, born on 2nd December 1956. Their family tree goes back to John Talbot, the 1st Earl of Shrewsbury. He married Maud de Neville at age seventeen, the only child of Joan de Furnivall and Thomas Neville, thereby gaining possession of their lands. Hallamshire, where the hunt was second only to the New Forest, included Loxley and Wadsley. They are part of the Duke of Norfolk’s estates. His responsibilities include organising state occasions, such as the crowning of the monarch, and the State Opening of Parliament.
Copyright © 2020, Graham Kirkby All rights reserved NEXT PAGE
1319: The Pavement Tax we read about in the ballad Robin Hood and the Potter was first introduced this year in Wentbridge. (By David Greenwood)
1322: The wearing of livery began. The first known use of Lincoln Green was at the Battle of Boroughbridge.
1327: King Edward III ascended the throne.
1336: Gisburn, born this year.
1337: The completion of Nottingham’s city walls. In the ballad, Robin and Little John climbed the wall when escaping from the sheriff.
c. 1339: Robert Hode, the archer, was born in Loxley.
1339: Johannes Hode, pistor (baker/miller) admitted to the Freedom of York.
1341: Birth of Robertus Hode, the son of John Hode, the miller and wine merchant. (Not Robin Hood from Loxley)
1343: Birth of Adam Hode, second son of the miller, and brother of Much the miller’s son.
1344: The first gold coins in England were issued by royal proclamation in January of this year; Robin Hood gave the prioress £20 in gold coins.
1350 – 1550: The two-handed long sword featured in Robin Hood and the Monk belonged to the late mediaeval period. It was after this time (the Black Death) that local lords and prominent citizens began having their own livery.
1348: Sir Thomas de Sheffield died in Wadsley where he was born. He married an heiress to the Huntingdon earldom. After the death of Sir Thomas, Robin fled to Kirklees, then to York, where he became a Forrester, during which time he befriended the impoverished knight.
1351: Henry Grosmont became Duke of Lancaster, a title held today by Queen Elizabeth II.
1352: Laurence Minot, living in 1352, and troubadour-of-all-work. His subjects were: Halidon Hill; the capture of Berwick, which he takes as an avenging of Bannockburn; the entry of Edward, our comely King, into Brabant; the battle in the Swin; the leaguer at Tournay; the march to Calais; Crecy and the battle there; the siege of Calais; Neville’s Cross; the sea-fight with the Spaniards; and the conquest of Guines. He sang of Edward III as “our comely King.”
c. 1354: Robert Hode begins his apprenticeship in the clothing trade.
c. 1355: Edward III in Nottingham and the North of England with Robin and the Impoverished Knight. The King held tournaments throughout the country in search of archers. He imprisoned Robin in the King’s court and clothed him in green before the battle of Poitiers.
1356: Battle of Poitiers.
1357: In the ballad Robin Hood and Guy of Gisbourne, William de Trent was one of the sheriff’s men. He witnessed the signing of a document regarding the transfer of land on the Wednesday before St. Michael, 30 Edward III.
1357: the first historical record of green-clad men living rough in the forest after English forces defeated King John of France at Poitiers.
c. 1361: Robert Hode finishes his apprenticeship and begins his journeyman and mercantile period.
1362: Gisburn’s son-in-law was born. He was William Plumpton, born in Plumpton, Yorkshire. Gisburn’s wife, Ellen, was related to Robert and John Morton. They were the Sheriffs of Nottingham and Yorkshire, respectively. Robert’s wife, Joan, was the lady-in-waiting for Richard II’s queen, Anne of Bohemia.
1362: John of Gaunt became Duke of Lancaster, a title held by Queen Elizabeth II.
King Edward III at Bestwood, Nottingham, in 1364. The first charter granted to the Drapers’ Company by Edward III included Robert Hode, a litster (dyer) admitted to the Freedom of York. Also admitted to the Freedom of York this year included Alanus de Bradeley, bocher (butcher); Ricardus de Cottyngham, bocher (butcher); and Rad. De Waddesley, tailliour (tailor). Ricardus de Gysborne (not the mayor) gained admittance to the freedom of York at the same time as Robin. Adam Hood, the miller’s son, became a litster (dyer) like Robin, and a freeman of York two years later, in 1366. King Edward III hunted in Bestwood and Plompton Park and reminded the impoverished knight where his loyalty lay.
1364: Robin made a prisoner in the King’s Court.
1365: Sir Henry Green, Knight, High Justice of England, Lord Chancellor, and Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, was stripped of his office for corruption. The Geste tells us the Abbot of St Mary’s had a hold over the Justice of England. The Abbot of Englonde, the Justyce of Englonde, dyde holde.
1366: (40 EDW. III): Adam Hode, lyttester (dyer), is admitted to the Freedom of York.
1369: King Edward III granted a special pardon to everyone except those forest officials who committed forest offences, in recognition of the great aids the parliaments granted him. Archery practice became compulsory this year.
1371: The completion of the chapel in Saint Mary’s Church that Robin attended in Nottingham. Strife again disturbed York’s mayoral elections between Langton and Gisburn, requiring royal intervention.
1377: Edward III, “Our Comely King,” died, and William Langland’s “Piers Ploughman” published. The poem is a comment on the moral decline of contemporary society as exemplified by Lady Meed, whose real name was Alice Perrers. She was Edward III’s mistress after his wife died. Likewise, the priest should have known the Psalter, but only knew the rhymes of Robin Hood. Langland in 1377, unwittingly, but fortunately for us, connected Robin Hood to Edward III, our comely King. Laurence Minot confirmed Edward, our comely king, was indeed Edward III.
1379: Second poll tax levied. Robert Hode and his wife appear in the Tax Rolls for Yorkshire.
Nov 1380: Armed citizens of York temporarily ejected Mayor John Gisburn from office. Twenty-four of the leading rioters were imprisoned in the Tower of London (Dec 1380-Jan 1381). Many of these were craftsmen, particularly butchers and weavers.
1381: Hathersage church built.
1381: Third poll tax announced. The levying of this tax leads to the Peasants’ Revolt in June.
The Sheriff of Nottingham, Robert Morton, was in Conisbrough Castle in Barnsdale when the king outlawed Robin for his involvement in the Peasant Revolt. It happened “when liveries and personal badges were in everyday use.” (Keen) “thus showing a time of social change when the lower classes and criminal gangs imitated the aristocracy” (Ohlgren) in the 14th and 15th centuries, known as “Merrie England” (Ronald Hutton).
1382: (4-5 RIC. II): “Robert Hode given the King’s pardon on 22 May 1382.” Also pardoned were Alan Bradley and Richard Cottingham, who appear in the Patent Rolls as leaders of the Nov 1380 York riots.
1390: Gisburn died.
1396: William Courtenay, the Bishop of Hereford, died. He held the office’s Bishop of London. Prebendary of Exeter, Wells, and York. He was Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of England, succeeding Simon de Sudbury after the Peasants Revolt. He officiated at the marriage of Richard II with Anne of Bohemia, and afterwards, crowned the queen. He opposed the Poll Tax, challenging the right to impose taxes on peasants, and reproved Richard II’s extravagance, which was the cause of the unwarranted taxation. Buried at Maidstone, where he founded the College of St. Mary and All Saints. Afterwards, they removed his body to Canterbury and buried him in the presence of King Richard II at the feet of the Black Prince, near the shrine of St. Thomas. He lived the same time as Robin, 1342 – 1396. On his way to York, where he was a regular visitor. Robin and his men, according to the ballad, robbed him and had fun at his expense.
1400: William Langland died. There was a fresh outbreak of the Black Death.
c. 1402-1416: Alice de Mounteney of Loxley, the prioress of Kirklees.
c. 1402: Robin died aged approx. 63 years.
1429: Robert Stafford, alias Frere Tuk, was still evading the law in 1429.
C. 1450: Robert Fabyan is best placed to author “The Little Geste of Robin Hood.” He and the Long family were clothiers. Fabyan was a “Master of Drapers,” historian, chronicler, and friend of Mr Long and his family. This made him ideally placed to compile “The Little Geste of Robin Hood,” in which cloth and clothing are recurring themes. He died in 1512.
1618: In January 1618, after visiting Robert Armitage III of Kirklees Roger Dodsworth while still in Wakefield went into a local church and wrote, “Robin was born in the Bradfield Parish of Hallamshire; he wounded his stepfather to death at the plough and fled into the woods, where his mother sustained him until discovered. Then, he went to Clifton-upon-Calder where he met Little John, who kept the kine. Little John is buried at Hathersage in Derbyshire, where he has a fair tombstone with an inscription. Mr Long said that Fabyan saith Little John was Earl Huntley’s son, after which he joined with Much the Miller’s son.” (Huntly Castle itself had been through three rebuilds and that is what it was called in Fabians’ lifetime, but in the 13th and 14th centuries, it was Strathbogie.)
Lincoln Green:
The livery of archers associated with royalty is Lincoln Green. The first known use of the colour was during the reign of King Edward II, who clothed his men in green at the Battle of Boroughbridge on 16 March 1322. After his death, Roger Mortimer, who ruled England for four years as a regent alongside Queen Isabella, did the same. After the Black Death and subsequent social changes, the lower classes and criminal gangs began imitating the aristocracy by giving their men livery. Gisburn gave his 1,500 workers a badge and hood. Robin Hood clothed his company of men in Lincoln Green, the King’s livery, identifying himself as belonging to the King’s army. 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.”
WADSLEY, a chapelry with several villages, became a manor under the control of the knightly De Wadsley family. They had manorial rights and built a manor hall, a deer park (Loxley Chase), and a chapel. Their surname was first recorded in 1227. For those with local knowledge, the River Don marks the manor of Wadsley, that extends from Oughtibridge through to Niagara Forge at Wadsley Bridge and the Sports Stadium at Owlerton, where it joins the River Loxley (Loxley Firth). The boundary then followed the River Loxley to Malin Bridge, then to Dam Flask. At Damflask, the boundary takes a right turn to Kirk Edge Road near the convent, over Onesmoor, and right down Coumes Brook, which flows parallel to Wheel Lane and back to Church Street in Oughtibridge and the River Don.
John Harrison surveyed the Manor of Sheffield, Cowley & Ecclesfield for Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, and Lady Alethea Talbot, his wife, the granddaughter of Bess of Hardwick. She inherited vast estates in Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, and Derbyshire. Sheffield became the principal part of the family fortune and is so to the present day. Thomas Howard Earl of Arundel became the Earl of Norfolk in a later creation. The 18th Duke of Norfolk is Edward William Fitzalan-Howard, born on 2nd December 1956. Their family tree goes back to John Talbot, the 1st Earl of Shrewsbury. He married Maud de Neville at age seventeen, the only child of Joan de Furnivall and Thomas Neville, thereby gaining possession of their lands. Hallamshire, where the hunt was second only to the New Forest, included Loxley and Wadsley. They are part of the Duke of Norfolk’s estates. His responsibilities include organising state occasions, such as the crowning of the monarch, and the State Opening of Parliament.
Copyright © 2020, Graham Kirkby All rights reserved NEXT PAGE