Syr Roger of Donkestre or Syr Roger De Donkesley of the Geste, also known in later ballads as 'Red Roger' is thought from the description, to have been the lover of the Prioress of Kirklees1.
"For the love of a knyght,
Syr Roger of Donkesley [or Donkester in other versions],
that was her owne special"
Roger of Hornington and Ruddington.
On 13th March 1301 a Roger de Doncaster is described in a quitclaim as a chaplain [clergyman] with a manor at Hornington3 (9.5 miles S.W. of York near Bolton Percy beside the River Wharfe). The quitclaim was witnessed by a Robert de Pavley. Clergymen were given the title of 'Sir'. In 1306 Roger the chaplain was sent as a priest, by the Archbishop of York, to Ruddington* near Nottingham4. In 1309 a Roger de Doncaster ['Sir Roger De Doncastria'] was charged with adultery with Agnes, wife of Philip de Pavely. He is further mentioned as a vicar of Ruddington in 1328. By 1333 a person of the same name ['Sir Roger De Doncastria'] was imprisoned in Nottingham for tresspass of vert in Sherwood. Phillips and Keatman consider this person was at least sixty years of age in 1347 [1347-1306 = 41+21 = 62 ]. Certainly the author of the Geste could have included characteristics of such a person into the ballad. As Phillips and Keatman [1995] state, this person, Roger De Doncster of Hornington and Ruddington "certainly fits the bill" for being the model of Roger De Doncaster of the Geste, with which it is agreed here over any other possible model for the character.
*In the area of Clifton, Plumtree and Stanton-in-the-Wolds.
Hornington Manor lies just 3 miles N.W. of the priory of Nun Appleton and 4 miles S.E. of Healaugh Priory. It was at the Benedictine Healaugh Priory in 1347 that Stephen II Le Waleys, our suspected author of the Geste, died and was buried here. Two and a half miles N.W. of Healaugh Priory was a contemporary but Cistercian priory of nuns, Syningthwaite. It was here between about 1314 and 1320 Elizabeth Le Waleys was the prioress. We might recall that the Geste says that the prioress was 'nye of his kin'. and that in this earliest Robyn Hode ballad Robyn did not shoot an arrow from the priory in which he lay, that vignette appeared much later.After a visit by Archbishop William Melton, Elizabeth resigned. This suggests that the Geste, written in its final fyttes by a successor, was using the death of Stephen Le Waleys as a model for the death of Robyn Hode, not at Kirklees, but at the Church Fields, Healaugh.
The De Doncasters of the manor of Wakefield.
The Wakefield Court Rolls record that on 22nd January 1327 the Court ordered 8 acres at Crigleston (Crigglestone) be given to Roger, son of William de Doncaster. Roger was therefore a contemporary of Robert Hood of Wakefield2. In the C.P.R. there is a William de Donecastre who is met at Doncaster by Edward II returning from Carlisle in 1307. This William is described as a 'citizen and merchant of Chester', who is also widely reported in the C.F.R. The steward for the manor of Wakefield is mentioned in the introduction to the W.C.R. for 1331-3 [p xiii] as a John de Doncaster. Again in 1333, Roger de Doncastre was named as the son of William de Doncastre at the Stanley Court, both of Crigglestone. Elias and his son Thomas are also mentioned here5. Elias is described as the brother of William.
Sir John de Doncaster6 Justice of gaol delivery, oyer and terminer ['to hear and judge'], Justice of Court and Commoin Pleas [WCR], Steward of Wakefield Manor and steward to the Abbot of St. Mary's.8 In 1951 P.Valentine Harris recognised this person was a knight, from the Wakefield Court Rolls, as well as a steward for earl Warrene8. His stewardship of Earl Warrene's lands occurred in 1302, and also from February 1323 to April 1324 'he was entrusted with the stewardship of those lands the Earl Warrene had lost to Thomas of Lancaster in 1317, and which in 1322 had forfeited to the king" [Ed. II]. 9 Harris appears to be amazed that there was a family in Wakefield called 'De Doncaster' but this should not be so surprising for it merely refers to someone whose family moved from Doncaster, which in sensible terms is not far afield. Indeed there was a Michael De Doncaster who in the early 1200's married Idonia d. of Hugh Pincerna of the Butler family of Skelbrooke and in the W.C.R. for 8th January 1333 an Elias De Doncastre of Crigglestone who is shown elsewhere in W.C.R. to be the brother of William De Doncastre. What really did excite Harris was the fact that he found in the W.C.R. for 22nd Jan.1327 at the Wakefield Court :
Extract from
the Wakefield Court Roll for 1327
|
| Translation:
John Attelme surrenders 22 acres in Crigleston. Committed
to Robert del Dene [1 acre]; Matilda handmaid of Henry del Dene, and
her son [1 acre]; Roger son of William de Doncastre [8 acres]; William
son of John [7 acres]; Adam Attegrene [2 acres]; and Robert son of
John [3 acres]. |
Harris also found that Roger
De Doncastre was fined 2d. on the 7th July 1327. His name appears
agsain in 1333 in the W.C.R. but a person with the same name
was located in a previous record dated 18th March 1301-2, reprinted
in Yorkshire Deeds, Record Series II, No. 1. p.82 :- "Release
by Henry De Holn, parson of the church of Ryther, to Sir William son
of Sir William De Ryther, of all right in the manor of Hornyngton [eight
miles S.W. of York] Witnesses.... Roger De Doncastre, chaplain".
Harris speculates that there could not be
two Roger De Doncastres in Yorkshire living at the same time,
nor is it likely that two could be found throughout England.
Harris becomes quite convinced that this is the Roger De Doncastre
of the ballads of Robin Hood. However the difference between 1301-2
and 1327 is slightly more than a generational gap [~ 25 years] and
thus they could conceivably be two different people, perhaps the earlier
Roger being a kin-relative [see Holt's statement below]..
Walker in the W.C.R. found that, on the 8th
Jan.1333, six years after Roger had been mentioned, a Robert
Hode of Stanley was fined 6d.
See The Prioress of Kirklees Lover
A speculative genealogical tree for the De Doncasters of the W.C.R.may look like this, and warrants further research:
Michael De Doncaster============Idonea Pincerna [Butler] of Skelbrooke
~ 1240-6 |
/?/ 1-2 generations?
|
Nicholas De Doncaster===========?
1302 Lord Warrene's |
trumpeter ?
|
__________________?_____________________________________________
| | |
Sir John De Doncaster**===? William De Doncaster====? Elias De Doncaster===?
Steward of Wakefield Manor 1302, of Crigglestone WCR 1327 & 1333 of Crigglestone WCR 1333
early 1300's, 1317, 1322-3, 1333-4. | |
Steward of St. Mary's Abbey, York.µ
| |
Roger De Doncaster* of Crigglestone Thomas De Doncaster
WCR 1327 & 1333+ WCR 1333
Key:
* Described as the same person who was chaplain of Hornington Manor [Yorks. Deeds 1301], although J.C. Holt discovered that they were two different men.7 Holt states ' Harris's evidence refers to at least two men called Roger of Doncaster, neither of whom was a knight, like the prioress's lover'.10 Crigglestone was part of the Wakefield Manor.
** Sir John was also the steward for John 8th Earl Warrene in 1317 when Thomas Plantagenets private army attacked Sandal Castle, ejecting Warrene's then concubine, Maud De Neirford.4
+ We might note here that there are three or four Robert Hode/Hoods living at the same time :
1. Robert Hood/Hode appears at Wakefield in the WCR for 1331 [fined for not attending the tourn]
2. Robert Hood of Newton appears at Thornes in 1331 ['unjustly taking and detaining a horse'], at Alverthorpe in the same year ['tresspass'] and at Alverthorpe again in the same year when Robert's cattle trampled John Couper's corn and rye in the field of Newton.
3. Robert Hode at Stanley is mentioned in the WCR in the same years as Roger De Doncaster of Crigglestone, 1327 & 1333 and also 1332.The 1333 entry at Stanley states that Robert's cattle trampled William Templer's corn. Later in the same year the case appears again but does not proceed 'for want of jurors', and later in the year Robert is fined 3 pence for the tresspass.
4. Robert Hode at Sowerby is fined for not attending.
Hood is a particularly Scottish name, it is considered that any one of these persons residing within the Wakefield Manor could have provided the name 'Robyn Hode' for use by the author/compiler of the Geste. The added allusion to a hooded villain as a parody of the character of the Geste would not have been lost on the compiler.
µ Steward sometime when Alan De Nesse was Abbot of St. Mary's Abbey [1313-1329]. Sir John also held some land in Doncaster and nearby Bentley. He was entrusted with the stewardship of the Warrene lands between February 1323 and April 1324 which were then held by King Edward II [after Earl Thomas had taken them in 1317 and lost all to the king in 1322].
It is speculated here that either John or his nephew Roger, as members of this family, were the basis of Sir Roger De Doncastre of the Geste,elsewhere as a member of the Le Waleys family of Burgh Wallis, South Yorkshire. We do find a minstrel, Nicholas De Doncaster, acting as a trumpeter to Earl Warrene§ and King Edward I's accounts mention payments to him for services in 1303 for 25th February, 12th June, 15th May, 26th April, and 23rd March..6 Nicholas is sometimes mentioned with Adam De Cliderhou [Clitheroe] the King's harper.
§ designed by a ballad-muse or minstrel. This ballad-muse is described Note: This was John the seventh Earl Warrene and Surrey [1231-1304]. Because his father died when John [really a Plantagenet through his grandfather Hamelyn] was eight, his mother Matilda held the estates until later. He became a ward of Henry III as a result of his father's early death when he was 9 years of age. John Warrene 7th Earl married Alice [Alicia] de Lusignan [de Brun] d. 9th February 1255, they had a son, William and two daughters. Henry III's half sister.
John De Warrene became involved in a vitriolic land dispute with Henri de Laci of Pontefract in 1268. The 7th earl was issued with a writ along with may other barons by the king, Quo warranto? [Who Holds?], in which it was demanded by what authority he held his estates. The earl is said to have drawn the first earl's sword and replied " Gladoi riri, gladio teneo, gladio tenedo" or " I gained it by the sword, I hold it by the sword, I will keep it by the sword". Both barons assembled their armies but Henry III intervened to prevent the situation leading to war.
It was John the 7th Earl of Warren who built the stone castle of Sandal Magna, from 1240, making it the chief seat of the manor1 An earlier wooden motte and bailey had been built soon after the conquest.Warrenes V's the De Lacis
The question might arise as to why a ballad-muse would introduce such a nefarious anti-hero with such a specific surname that seems to have been locally common in this medieval period. The answer may lie in the continuing feud between the De Lacis of Pontefract and their enemies the De Warrenes who held Sandal Castle and the Wakefield Manor. What better way of scandalising one of your enemies greatest supporters than by immortalising him as an evil-doer in a ballad. John De Doncaster as steward had in practice, control of the Warrene's Wakefield Manor, for most of the year. The earl of Warrene would only visit his Northern domains on circuit perhaps no more than a fortnight every six months.11 We know that the Le Waleys family* supported both the De Lacis and after 1311, Thomas Earl of Lancaster who married the De Laci heiress, Alice. Even after Thomas's death in 1322, the Le Waleys would have had strong feelings of enmity towards the stewards of the Wakefield Manor. Memories of John De Doncaster and the De Doncaster family particularly from the time of 1317 when the Warrene castles were attacked in reponse to Alice De Lacis apparent abduction by earl Warrene's men would have been high in the mind of the any compiler in the De Laci camp. It is speculated that the later fyttes that refer to the prioress and her lover were added by someone after Stephen II Le Waleys' death in 1347. A contender for this could be Sir Robert de Swillington, Stephen II's son-in-law and steward to John of Gaunt at Pontefract castle. The rivalry appears to have boiled again later, when, as described in the popular local drama, "Revenge upon Revenge", later described as the Elland Feud a steward of the Wakefield Manor, Sir John De Elland, was murdered along with his son.
Other 'De Doncaster' personages
* A Johannes de Doncaster "mercator" was admitted to the Freedom of York during Edward III's reign sometime between 1352 and 1372 and he is recorded as a bailiff of York in 1391.
* In the early 1300's a William de Doncaster and his wife Felicia were granted 24 acres of land at "Herbistock" [today Erbistock] beside the River Dee near Overton [Madoc], Flintshire, which in the 1300's was a newly constituted borough of North Wales. A citizen, merchant, king's customs collector and mayor of Chester, William de Doncaster held office in 1301-2, 1315-16, 1317-18 and 1318-19.
* A Richard de Doncaster was a clerk of King Edward II's exchequer in February 1322.8
* A Robert de Doncaster was King Edward II's yeoman, clerk, sergeant and purveyor in the royal household.8 He was possibly also Keeper of the King's Lions, dying in August 1349.
* A Ralph De Doncaster was King Edward III's groom in 1330.8
Sources/References :
1. A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode.
2. Harris, P.V., Wakefield Manor Rolls, in: The Truth about Robin Hood, Mansfield, 1973.
3. Harris P.V., "Yorkshire Deeds Record Series II", held at Park Place, Leeds, cited in : The Truth about Robin Hood, Mansfield, 1973.
4. Bellamy, John. Robin Hood an Historical Enquiry, London, 1985.
5. W.C.R. 8th January 1333 at Sandal.
6. Minstrels and Minstrelsy in the Royal Wardrobe Books 25 Ed I to 15 Hen. VII., Richard Rastall.
7. Phillips G. & Keatman M. Robin Hood: The Man Behind he Myth. Michael O'Mara Books Ltd. 1995. p.98
8. Bellamy, John. Robin Hood an Historical Enquiry, London, 1985. p.122
9. Ibid.. p.113
10. Holt, J.C. Robin Hood. Thames & Hudson. 1982. p.48.
11. Butler, Lawrence. Sandal Castle Wakefield. Wakefield Historical Publications. 1991. p.19.
© Copyright Tim Midgley, 2000, revised 3rd March 2009.
