'Robyn stode in Bernesdale' - A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode
'My name is Robyn Hood of Barnesdale' - Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne.
'The wooddi and famous forest of Barnesdale,
wher they say Robyn Hudde lyvid like an outlaw' - John Leyland's Collectanea, Itinerary c. 1540.
Looking in the time of Roger de Laci we find a family living at Skelbrooke manor called Butler. Their pedigree provides a vertical column of detail, over a sustained time in a fixed geographic area which came to be known by travellers of the Great North Road as 'Barnsdale'. They are probably descended from Herewig [Hervey or Herveus] who held lands in Skelbrooke in D.B from Ilbert de Laci and lands at Great and Little Haseley and three other manors in Oxfordshire from Odo the Bishop of Bayeaux. These latter properties became part of the De Laci fee after Odo's banishment.
From Herewig probably descended Thomas de Armthorpe [nr. Doncaster] born ~ 1125. According to a analysis of the genealogy by W.P. Baildon [1926], Thomas produced two sons :
1. Alan born ~ 1150 d. by 1202
2. Robert d. by 1202
According to Baildon, Alan's son was Hugh Pincerna [i.e. Butler] of Skelbrooke, Armthorpe and [Parva or Kirk] Sandal. He was born about 1175 and was of age in 1202. According to Holmes he had tenure of office as seneschal/butler 1211 to 1216. This person is believed to have been the butler to the De Lacis of Pontefract during the first five years of John II de Laci, Constable of Chester's time. He is described by Holmes for the year 1216 as the "aged Hugh Butler, seneschal of Pontefract." [although the Pontefract Chartulary is much devoid of dateable charters so this is suspect].
From
Joseph
Hunter in
his South
Yorkshire,
p. 457,
Theobald
Butler,
Henry II's
butler in
Ireland
was a
grandson
of Hervey.
As such
this would
connect
the Irish
Butler
family to
that of
the
Butlers of
Skelbrooke.
Also
see
Barnsdale
Gallery.
Butlers of Skelbrooke,
Barnsdale [by W.P.
Baildon1, A.S. Ellis2, Holmes,
modified with additions]
Herewig+============?
D.B. 1086 "In Skelbrooke....now
Herewig has [it] from
Ilbert".
of D.B.
1086 |
/?/ -
______________________|_________
|
|
Robert &
Thomas de Armthorpe*==========?
b~1125
b~1125
|
d~1160
________________________________________________________________
_______ ?_______ ___
___
___
___
___
___
?
___
___
___
___
___
___
___
___
|
|
|
|
Alan========?
Robert ======
Roger de
Skelbrooke Theobald
Butler=====1=====Maud
===2
===Fulk
III
b~1150
d. by 1202
active Galloway
Henry II's butler in Ireland le
Vavasour
FitzWarin
d. by 1202 |
R.H. has
been predicted active 1180's-
90's
|
1186
Matilda
(Maud) le
Vavasour
and Fulk
III
FitzWarin
|
|
are often
likened to
the later
tales of
Robyn and
Marian
Hugh Pincerna#
[Le Boteler or Butler] =============Avice
de Savile
John de Armthorpe
Of Skelbrooke,
steward/seneschal/butler to
of Savile
Hall, Dodworth
liv. 1200-1212
De
Lacis of Pontefract 1211-1216
|
d. of
heiress of Golcar
b.~1175,
of age by 1202 d~1246
liv.1246
______________________________________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
Richard=====?
William**===?
Idonia==Michael
Dionisia
Butler/Pincerna/Sevile/Sevilla
son of Hugh Pincerna
de Doncaster++
d~1240-6
b~1200
d~1240-6
b~1200
?dsp 1240-6
d. 1240-6
|
___________________________________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
Richard=====Agnes
Robert====Constance
Ralph de Savile
Gerard de Savile
Le Botiller/Butler
| of Spaldington
b~1225 d 1267-68
E.
Yorks.
|
|
Hugh Butler======Isabel
Robert le Botiler====~1269===Agnes§
b~1250
liv 1287
d. 1299
?FitzWilliam
|
______________________________________________________________________________
|
|
|
Robert
III Butler===Constance or Christian
Edmund Butler^ ======Agnes
##
William
Butler
b~1275
?murdered ~1330 | ? de Langthwaite
d. 1336
charged
for robbery, theft, rape and homicide
Seneschal of Pontefract
provided
names but would not plead
in Henri de Laci's time
pressed
to death 1294 in the
time
of his mother, father & wife
|
?dsp
___________________________________________________
|
|
Joan========1========= John Butler§======2======Agnes
William
de Sutton of
b~1300
|
d~ 1354
Sutton Holderness
d. by 1346
Roi de
Bruant
|
Agnes Butler======1334=======Thomas
de la
Hay of Spaldington, E.R.Y.
liv. 1336
Gained
Skelbrooke
by
marriage.
Key:
+ Herewig [Herveus, Harvey
or Hervey Walter] was possibly
a Breton who lived in the
reign of William The Conqueror. He held lands
at Great and Little Haseley besides others in Oxfordshire which he held
of Odo the Bishop of Bayeaux. These manors became part of the
Laci fee after Odo's banishment. Herewig also
held Skelbrooke under Ilbert de Laci
in 1086. Herewig's successors
or descendants were styled Pincerna or
Le Boteler [Butlers to the de Laci family
of Pontefract]. This Herewig or Hervey I Walter also appears
to be the father of Hervey II Walter of East and West Dereham, Norfolk who
produced six sons. One of these sons was Hubert Walter,
Archbishop of Canterbury and another, Theobald, was lord of Preston, sheriff
of Lancashire and Henry II's [r. 1154-1189] butler in Ireland. In 1177 he was created hereditary chief butler
of Ireland, and was granted Baggot Rath, Co.Dublin, and lands along the Stein
River near what is now Trinity College Dublin. As early as 1199 he was styled
'Theobald Butler' and retained his position during the reigns of Richard
I [r: 1180-1199] dying at Arklow, co. Wicklow in February 1206
during the reign of King John [r: 1199-1216]. Thus there is a distinct possibility that Herewig [Herveus, Hervey
Walter I] of Skelbrooke, the progenitor of the Butlers of Skelbrooke
is also the progenitor of the Butlers earls of Ormonde, Ireland. Indeed, Hunter
in his
South
Yorkshire
[vol.
II, p.
457] says
that
Theobald
was the
grandson
of Haarvey
of D.B.
The
genealogical
relationship
needs
to be confirmed but the heraldic arms of the Butlers of Skelbrooke are identical
to those of the Butlers earls of Ormonde. Despite this,
Hunter
declares
that the
Butlers of
Skelbrooke
and those
of Ireland
were of a
'different
race'.
[Ibid.] Theobald 'FitzWalter' [Botiller or Butler], as lord of Preston &c. married
Matilda le Vavasour of Edlington, South Yorkshire, who thus became Baroness
Butler or Matilda 'FitzWalter'. After Theobald's death in 1206 she
returned from Ireland and married Fulk FitzWarin of Whittington, Shropshire.
Some have tried to equate Fulk FitzWarin with the ballad hero Robyn Hode
and Matilda FitzWalter with the 'Maid Marian' of folk tales. Anthony Munday
in his plays [1599, 1600 Robert erle of Huntington], probably used
the fact that Fulk was outlawed under King John whilst Matlda le Vavasour
was cast as Munday's 'Matlida FitzWalter' whose forest name was 'Marian'.
The association of these two personalities in history with Munday's muddlings
have confused the issues if we are to try to identify who was the historical
origin for the ballad character Robyn Hode. Although these associations
are tempting, they are wishful thinking on the part of a Tudor script writer,
no more accurate than the filmic depictions of 'Robin
Hood' of modern day script writers. The Vavasours make
another
appearance
in 1298
when
'Robert le
Vavasur'
of Norton
near
Burghwallis,
son of
William
the
seneschal
of
Ponteract
was on the
1297-8
Flanders
campaign 'for
robberies,
larcenies
and other
trespasses,
and of his
outlawry
for the
same.' [C.P.R.
1292-1301,
p. 330.]
*
Armthorpe is to the east
of Doncaster near 'Sandal Parva'
[now Long Sandall] and Kirk Sandal
other early lands of the Butler
line.
#
According to Holmes in his Pontefract Chartulary [p.
360] his tenure
of office as steward
[seneschal] was 1211 - 1216 [i.e.
during the time of John II de Laci, constable
of Chester's].
Hugh
['Hugone
Pincerna
tunc
senescallo
de
Pontefracto'
in the
Pontefract
Chartulary]
replaced
Robert Wallensis of Burghwallis who
had previously been Roger de Laci's
seneschal from 1195 - 1211. Hugh
held Skelbrooke and Armthorpe in King John's
time for on the 6th January
1215/1216 King John ordered the then
sheriff of Yorkshire to give a Master
Robert Talebot [Talbot]
full seisin of the land of Hugh Pincerna
in Armthorpe and Skelbrooke, Hugh had
fallen foul of King John. This coincides
with the end of Pincerna's tenure as seneschal
of Pontefract
**
He paid yearly a pair of white
gloves at Christmas for his
lands.[elements of Gilbert Withondes
or Gilbert of the White
hand?] Probably the person who
held lands of his ancestor, Herewig.
++
Elements of the name ''Roger de Doncaster'? the prioress
of Kirklees lover.
§ This
appears to be John le Botiler who forfeited houses
in Pontefract on the 28th October 1322 probably after
supporting Thomas of Lancaster. The houses were granted
to William de Morley, "King of the North",
a minstrel king of Edward II.
John le Botiler was known
as Roi de Bruant or King of Bruant/ King
Brownhead or King of the Sparrows.,
a former King of the Minstrels. Thus he may have been Thomas Earl of Lancaster
and Alice de Laci's 'King of the Minstrels for
the North'. [
Ph.D by George Rastall 1968, p.38.]
In 1334 the manor of Skelbrooke with 5 acres of land
and 8 acres of meadow at Burghwallis and Skellow passed from his father to
his mother Agnes with remainder to John and his wife Joan.25
## In 1336 Agnes, the widow of Edmund founded
a chantry in the newly
built Skelbrooke Chapel on
the north side of the
church. This was dedicated on 4th June 1338. [J.W. Walker, Y.A.J. vol.
36, 1944.] but it was destroyed during the Reformation. There is a glass window in
the church of the mid 1300's with
the image of a young man with
a foliate background [the 'Greenman' , St. John the
Evangelist or a representation of her husband's brother. Skelbrooke
Chapel was first built, probably
by the Butler family, in the 1100's. Only
a few extant fragments remain from this time.
The
original dedication of the church is not
known but when the chantry was founded
in 1336 the church was already dedicated to St
John the Evangelist, the church was rededicated
as St.
Michael's and All Angels after a fire in 1870 which
necessitated a rebuild two years later.
^
Edmund Butler [Edmund le Butiller] was probably named after
one of the sons of the Lord of Pontefract, Henry de Laci [ 3rd earl Lincoln and
earl of Salisbury d. 1311]. Edmund
Butler was a younger brother to Robert III Butler. Edmund was also a steward
[Fr: seneschal] to Henry de Laci at Pontefract Castle and following his
father's
death, became Lord of
Skelbrooke. In 1311
Edmund Butler was granted
a free warren in Skelbroc and Slephull
[Sleephill] and he had a road enclosed
in Skelbrooke which led under his
house toward the north pasture called
'Skelbrocthornes' [1326]. Thus Edmund benefited greatly
from his elder brother's demise, which leads us to question whether
Edmund had a hand in the capture of his brother. Edmund may have
later been Thomas earl of Lancaster's steward as Edmund did not die
until ~1330.
3rd April 1330 at Woodstock -
'Commission of oyer and terminer to Richard de Willughby, Adam
de Everyngham, and Thomas Deyvill touching the murder of Edmund le Botiller,
at Pontefract, co. York. By K.' [C.P.R. Edward II, 1327-1330,
p.558.]
In 1333, Henry de Percy, John
de Eland et. al. were justices
who outlawed three persons [Edmund and brother Hugh
Brearley and William Hebble, outlawed for not appearing 4th July
1333]23 for the
death of Edmund Butler. John de Eland's
relative, Margaret de Savile,
was a prioress of Kirklees
1350-1360. See Prioress
§ It
could be speculated that Agnes, mother
of Robert III Butler was Agnes FitzWilliam
d < 12 May 1303, grand daughter
of Adela Plantagenet. Adela was the daughter
of Hamelyn Plantagenet of Conisbrough
Castle, illegitimate half brother of Henry
II and Isabel de Warrene of Surrey and the
Wakefield Manor &c.. This would make Robert III
Butler of Skelbrooke of the illegitimate Anglo-Norman
royal bloodline! I rarely use exclamation marks, the pedigree
looks like this :
______________________________
|
|
|
William III
Ada======Henry
Ela [Adela]===Sir
William
Empress ====
Geoffrey ====concubine
de
Warrene de
Warrene earl of Huntingdon
| FitzWilliam
Matilda
|
of Anjou |
Adelaide
Lord of Emley
de Angers?
|
d
1148
|
|
Avicia de Tani===== Sir William FitzWilliam=====Albreda
de
Lizours Henry II
Hamelyn
===Isabel
de
Clairfait
of Sprotbrough
Plantagenet
Warrene
Lord
of Emley and Hampole*
|
[illegit.]
|
Sir William FitzWilliam
|
Lord of Emley,
Hampole and Sprotbrough=======================Adela
Plantagenet
b 1174 d >1218
|
Sir Thomas FitzWilliam=========Agnes
Bertram
b 1209 Emley
|
Robert II Butler=====~1269======
Agnes ?FitzWilliam**
d >12 May 1303
of Skelbrooke^
|
Robert III Butler
of Skelbrooke d 1294
* William 'Clairfait'
established Hampole priory
as a nunnery with his wife Avicia de Tani [?Tanfield], the date varies
but between 115011-1170.
** Agnes FitzWilliam's
older sister, Albreda
FitzWilliam married Richard
Le Waleys of Burghwallis [marriage settlement
1250-1260] so there is evidence
of the FitzWilliam daughters
marrying locally.
Agnes FitzWilliam
had land close by regranted by her nephew
at Adwick -Le-Street in 1303. The FitzWilliam
lands at Sprotbrough adjoined those
of the Butlers of Skelbrooke at Scawsby.
As well the Skelbrooke lands abutted the Hampole
lands, the latter held by the FitzWilliams
since the time Sir William FitzWilliam de Clairfait
[d.
1148] was Lord of Hampole. Robert II Butler's
second son was Edmund as with the second son
of Sir William FitzWilliam of Emley and Sprotbrough,
[nephew of Agnes, d. by 1342] and Robert
II's third known son was named William which
is naturally a common name in the FitzWilliam line.
^ Gained lands
at Spaldington [East Yorkshire]
from his mother Constance :
"1269, Trinity Term. - Fine
between Robert le Butiler junior
[here Robert II] and Agnes [FitzWilliam?]
his wife, plaintiffs, and Robert le Butiler
senior and Constance his wife, deforciants,
of 12 bovates of land in Spaldington.
The deforciants admit the property
to be the right of Robert junior and Agnes by
the gift of Robert senior and Constance;
Robert junior and Agnes grant to Robert
senior and Constance for life, to hold of Robert
junior and Agnes and the heirs of their bodies,
paying yearly 1d. at Pentecost for
all service; reversion to Robert junior and
Agnes and the heirs of their bodies, to hold of the
chief lords; remainder to the right
heirs of Constance, quit of any other heirs of
Agnes (Feet of Fines, Yorks., case 266, file 53, no.
43)." W.P. Baildon [1929] Parentheses my addition - T.M. Spaldington is 13 miles west of Hotham
[Hode in the D.B.]
Does this give credence to the
idea that Robin was of noble
blood? John Major first proposed
Robin Hood was a noble outlaw [1521]
and it was Henry VIII's antiquarian,
John Leyland [Collecteanea 1540]
who also suggested that Robin Hood
was of nobility 'Kirkley monasterium
monialium ubi Ro. Hood nobilis ille
exlex sepultus'. Leyland had visited
Barnsdale in the early 1500's on his fact finding
travels about the country and had obviously been
impressed. Note the presence of Prince Henry
of Scotland as an earl of Huntingdon associated
with the descending FitzWilliam line. Later a daughter
and heiress of William Clinton [Fiennes] of Climpton Oxon.
married into the FitzWilliam line. William Clinton had been
made an Earl of Huntingdon by the young Henry III in 1337 for he
had been one of Edward's followers, who in 1330 entered Nottingham
Castle and arrested Roger Mortimer. The association may have been
enough for Anthony Munday to introduce the legendary hero
as the 'Earl of Huntington' into his plays.
See Nottingham
Coup.
The connection between Robert III Butler
and Agnes FitzWilliam needs proving but the
filial and geographical associations surrounding
the families of Butler and FitzWilliam are very compelling.
The Huntingdon theme makes a late appearance
in the late 1500's but one
other way the Huntingdon idea may have
entered the Robin Hood tales into Munday's
works is through another sometime resident
of the Barndale area, John I de Hastings
who held Fenwick from his mother Joan de
Canteloupe. John's grandmother was
the Scottish Ada Ceann mhor [Canmore] daughter
of David earl of Huntingdon. For this connection
to the Royal Scottish House of Dunkeld
he claimed the crown of Scotland in 1292 under
Edward I. However over the twelve other 'Competitors'
he was not successful, the prize going to
the soon to be vassal king, John Balliol.
If we also trace
back the genealogy we have predicted
for Robert III Butler, from Sir William
FitzWilliam de Clairfait we can take the pedigree
back to Charlemagne, King of France from
whom the Capetian kings descended and all the 'noble'
families of Europe and through Adelle de Vermandois
to King Alfred The Great, King of England
:
Charlemagne----->
Louis I The Pious de Aquitane,
King of France + Judith----->
Adelaide de Aquitane + King Robert I of France----->
Hugh Magnus de Neustria Count of Paris + Hedwige of Saxony----->
Hugh Capet,
King of France + Adelaide of Poitou----->
Robert II Capet The Pious, King
of France + Constance of Toulouse------>
Henri I
Capet, King of France + Anna Agnesa Yarovlavna
of Kiev----->
Hugh Capet Magnus + Adelle de Vermandois*----->
Isabella
Capet de Vermandois de Crepi [second marriage]
+ William II de Warrene------>
Ela [Adela] de Warrene Sir William
FitzWillam, Lord of Emley----->
Sir William
FitzWilliam de Clairfait, Lord of Emley
and Hampole [Gt x3 grandfather of
Robert III Butler of Skelbrooke].
* A descendant of Alfred
The Great, King of England --------->
Edward The Elder,
King of England------->
Edgina + Henri third Count de
Vermandois------>
Hubert fourth Count de Vermandois--------->
Adelle de Vermandois
During Alan's [son of Thomas de Armthorpe d. by 1202] time and before Hugh's stewardship a 'Roger de Scelboc' is known to have departed Skelbrooke in the De Laci lands and become a vassal knight of Duncan, son of Gilbert of Galloway*. It would appear that this Roger was either a member of the Butler family of Skelbrooke [e.g. Alan's brother] or had married into it for we find the lands of Herewig in the hands of a William de Scalebroc [probably the William in the above genealogy, son of Hugh Pincerna] in Henry III's time which were by then a parcel of the De Laci lands. *And probably also for Gilbert of Galloway.
Gilbert of Galloway had his brother Uchtred murdered in order to gain control of Galloway. This murder set the stage for Uchtred's son Roland of Galloway to oust Duncan in battle on 5th July 1185. Whilst this was occurring, Henri Curtmantle was pleased to see William the Lyon, then King of Scotland, being otherwise engaged in his own country instead of trying to regain the three northern English counties lost by his brother, Malcolm IV. Henri had been encouraging this approach since he released King William from Falaise Castle in 1175, when the Galwegians again, as in 1160 under Malcolm, revolted and even Hugh de Morville, Constable of Scotland had to abandon his lands here at this time when every Anglo-Norman the Galwegians could find was killed.
Now Roger de Laci's daughter who died in 1209 [name not known, perhaps Helen or Alice, sister of John Constable of Chester later, earl of Lincoln] is referred to by Stringer as having married Alan of Galloway. Alan was the son of Roland. This indicates that the De Laci's were trying to make cross-border ties and were very familiar with the Lords of Galloway.
We might ask what was a knight, probably a member of the Butlers of Skelbrooke, strongly associated with the De Laci household, doing in Galloway assisting Duncan? Duncan's line eventually lost Galloway whilst later the De Lacis tried to develop this connection with the Pictish enclave through marriage to Duncan's opposing Galwegian line in Alan of Galloway [his first or second marriage with no issue].
In 1186 Roger de Scalebroc is recorded as having built a ring structured castle at Greenan west of Ayr which was then in Northern Galloway. Duncan was defeated in 1186, and presumably so was his tenant and vassal Roger de Scelbroc. Duncan made peace, renouncing claims to Southern Galloway and was awarded the earldom and lordship of Carrick [the northern part of Galloway, i.e. basically Ayrshire]. His descendant Marjorie of Carrick married Robert VI Bruce who produced King Robert Bruce. Roger may have had a daughter, Maria [Marie] de Scalebroc who married Henry Livingston of Livingstoun
What was going on here between Galloway and the De Lacis? Was king Henry trying to encourage bonds with Galloway to undermine the Scots under William The Lyon? The answer would have to be a resounding yes, for these cross-border marriages were a regular strategy of the Norman kings to reduce the chances of the Scots massing into Northern England.
How does this relate to our investigation of who we think Robin Hood was? If Robin was resident in Barnsdale in the 1180's he could very easily have been drawn to Roger de Skelbrooke's cause, to fight for the Pictish Galwegians against the Scots, William the Lion and David earl of Huntingdon and all their progeny. This would suit Robin's cause as well as that of Roger de Skelbrooke's, Robert Le Waleys [a Galwegian descendant], Roger de Laci's and King Henry's. Does this help to explain why we have reports of Robin Hood in Cumberland*, the English county adjacent to Southern Galloway, his appearance in references to Carlisle and Inglewood? Was Galloway an early exploit before he was declared an outlaw in the 1190's?
*Written by the Scotsman Andrew de Wyntoun, a cannon of St. Andrew's and prior of St. Serf's Inch on Loch Leven. He wrote under the patronage of Sir John Macduff of Wemyss 3rd earl of Fife [d. 1428] who moved his residence from 'Macduff's Castle' to West Wemyss, Fife. John Fordun continued de Wyntoun's work in the 1440's. Mentions that R.H. and Little John had been outlaws in Inglewood and Barnsdale c. 1283. De Wyntoun was the only writer to mention Inglewood, which is in Cumberland.
Associations with A Lyttel Geste of Robyn Hode
In addition, our columnar history of the Butler family of Skelbrooke exhibits elements found in the narrative A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode. We have a small church or chapel built here in the 1100's which associates itself with Robin Hood's wish to return to Barnsdale to build a chapel [he has helped the Butlers to build?] dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene. The author of the Geste clearly had in mind Monk Bretton Priory near Barnsley, which was dedicated to Mary Magdalene.
I made a chapell in Bernysdale
That semely is to see
It is of Mary Magdaleyne
And thereto wolde I be
- Geste D text
 |
|
Source: Google Earth Aerial view of Monk Bretton Priory. KEY: A = Priory Entrance. B = Gatehouse. C = Cellar. D = Kitchen. E = Refectory. F = Guest House. G= Infirmary. H = Warming House. I = Chapter House. |
William,
son of Hugh Pincerna and all
his heirs were provided with
a token peppercorn rent of a pair
of white gloves for tenancy of his
lands each year [which may explain
the appearance in the Geste
of Gilbert Withondes or Gilbert
of the White hand]. The surname
'De Doncaster' is evident conjoining
with the Butler family in the
early 1200's.The disagreement and resulting
fight between Little John and the
Sheriff's butler in the
Geste is well matched and Little
John invites the butler to join the
band of outlaws, the connection with butlers
will not go amiss either.
In verse 91 of
the Geste the exclamation
'By God and Saint Richard"'
is probably St. Richard of
Chichester who was canonised
in 1262 [Dobson & Taylor],
this suggests that the
Geste was compiled after this
date. The meeting with 'Edward our Cumly
King' of the Geste
which Hunter shows is most likely
Edward II [r.1307-1327] is seen as
evidence of the earliest time that the
compiler of the Geste could
have been active although Childs
sees this as the least likely scenario
to be historically based. After abortive
attempts in Scotland, Edward II was in York by April
1323. After a progress
through North Yorkshire
King Edward moved onto Lancashire [the
only time he visited this county] to Liverpool,
a very young town then, and to Nottingham
where he stayed [9th - 23rd November,1323]
and hunted in Sherwood.
These time frames would indicate
that the Geste was compiled
between 1323 and 1377 [the latter
from the Piers Plowman reference]. As P.V. Harris
points out, Ranulf, Earl of Chester [presumably
De Blondeville] has been assumed
to be coeval with Robin Hood in Piers Plowman,
but this may not be the case. This compilation
is thus predicted to be near the end of Edward
II's reign [1327] or in the early years of Edward III's reign
[1327-1377]*. Dobson and Taylor [1976] suggest
that the compiler of the Geste
was accomplished, he fused perhaps two stories
one from Barnsdale and one from Sherwood
into the one narrative. We find the later fyttes of
the Geste are more related to Sherwood
than Barnsdale.
* Between
1327 when Edward II was
deposed and the accession of Edward
III, the kingdom was effectively
ruled by Queen Isabella, widow of
Edward II, and her paramour, Roger Mortimer
for three years 1327-1330. See Nottingham Coup.
If we consider Laurence
Minot's 1339 poem, with reference
to Edward III, during
his invasion of France, as 'oure
cumly king' [ line 1 of Poem IV] then
we must place at least one compilation
of the Geste
after 1330. We might also
consider the possibility of the
Geste being
written down in English during
this time. French was used as the language
of the judicial courts until after the great
pestilence
of 1349
during the reign
of Edward III when English was permitted.
Was the original scribe for the
Geste a cleric
associated with criminals? He was certainly well accomplished in
conveying
imagery
through
rhyming
verse and
it can be
argued in
also
creating
historically
inaccurate
metaphorical
descriptions.
We may recall
from the above pedigree that
Edmund Butler of Skelbrooke
was murdered by three assailants
and Sir John de Eland outlawed these
persons. If the compiler of
the Geste was using Sir
John's relative+, Margaret
de Savile, as a model for the prioress
of Kirklees whose tenure was perhaps
from 1350-1360 then this places the
compilation after 1350-60 and before
1377. It is worth noting that Sir John de Eland, who appears to be a bullying
tyrant for John de Warrene was living in the time
of Margaret de Savile's tenure.
+
It would appear
from Baildon's work that she
was the sister of Sir John de Savile
[d. 1405] who married Isabel de
Eland daughter of Thomas de Eland second
son of Sir John de Eland, High steward
of the Wakefield manor [d.1253], a relationship
by marriage viz :
Sir John de Eland=========1=========Alice
de Latham
High Steward of
Wakefield manor
|
Sheriff of Yorkshire
d. 1353*
|
__________________________________
|
|
Sir John de Eland
d.s.p.1353
Thomas de Eland====Joane
|
____________________
|
|
|
Isabel de Eland====<Trinity 1353===Sir John
de Savile
Margaret
de Savile
Prioress of Kirklees
tenure
prob. 1350-60
d. >1360
* Old pedigrees
give death date as 20th October
1350.
Verse 451 of the
Geste tells us that
'The pryoresse of Kyrkesly
that nye was of his kin', suggests
a filial relationship between
Robin and the prioress of Kirklees.
We do in fact find a relationship
between Robert Butler
and Margaret de Savile. The Butlers
after Hugh Pincerna's marriage
to Avice de Savile sometimes
referred to themselves, or were
referred to by their relatives in
records as 'De Savile' e.g.
Richard the son of Hugh Pincerna and Richard's
son Ralph. The connection between
Robert Butler and the prioress of Kirklees
is traced but not recognised by W.P. Baildon
[1929] this deriving from a common
ancestor in Sir Henry de Savile [d.1231?] as
follows :
The heiress
of Golcar*====1====Sir Henry de Savile
====2====?
d. 1231?
|
|
Hugh Pincerna=========Avice
de Savile
Sir John de Savile=====Agnes
b~1200 d 1250
|
|
Richard Butler [
de Sevile/Savile]====?
John de Savile===?
b 1225 d 1278
|
|
Robert I Butler====Constance
Peter de Savile*=====Maud
* 14 Ed. I
- Inq.
showed
Peter who
held
Skelbrooke
to be an
idiot.
[Hunter J.
South
Yorkshire]
b 1250 d 1308
|
|
Robert II Butler====Agnes
John de Savile===Margery
d 1299
b 1275 d1336
Rishworth
|
|
Robert III Butler of Skelbrooke
John de Savile ===Margery Wood
d. 1294
|
______________________________________
|
|
Sir John de Savile===Isabel de Eland**
Margaret de Savile
Prioress
of Kirklees
tenure prob. 1350-1360
Key:
* Golcar
is between Elland and Huddersfield,
Golcar
passed to Peter de Savile.
This removed
these lands from the Butler line
[dispossession by the male Savile
line?]
** Grand-daughter
of Sir John de Eland, chief
steward [seneschal to John de Warrene earl of Surrey Lord
of Wakefield], Sheriff of Yorkshire who outlawed
the murderers of
Edmund Butler of Skelbrooke of the De Laci
camp.
However
from the period of Margaret
de Savile's tenure and
Robert Butler's death date it would
not appear that she had any direct
effect upon his demise. The assumption
is that he did die as a result of
'pressing'. But did he? The Geste
was apparently compiled during or
after the prioress's tenure as mentioned
above. But there is a connection
between the Kirklees nunnery and Robert
Butler of Skelbrooke. This relationship
bears considered analysis.
Robert III Butler of Skelbrooke
apparently died in 1294 from
the effects of torture by the
Yorkshire ecclesiastical courts.
These courts were held in the Chapter House
which was probably built under the instruction
of John Le Romeyn, Archbishop of York.
|
|
The early
York Minster with its Chapter House yellow = 1220-1260 blue = 1280-1350 The chapter house was completed in 1286, it was and still is used as the meeting and discussion place for the Dean and chapter of the clergy/college of canons. New canons are also installed here and in the past ecclesiastical courts were held to determine the fate of heretics and fallen clerics. In 1296, Edward I even held a parliament here. The octagonal plan unlike many other chapter houses has no central column to support the roof, but a very intricately designed vaulted structure. The chapter house provides six seats on each wall, there being seven walls for this purpose. The walls display some of the Minster's finest carvings, mostly made between 1270-1280. These carvings include depictions of grimacing faces, hounds, monkeys and other grotesque animals, a woman being attacked by an eagle, a king with a pig on his head and green men with leaves sprouting from their mouths. The green men represent the pinnacle of a stonemasons skill, combining the intricacies of the carving of the greenwood leaves and the features of the human face. The eighth side of the octagon is taken up by the entrance doorway leading from the vestibule and north transept. It would have been here, in the chapter house, that Robert Butler would have been brought in 1294, perhaps to stand in the centre whilst his inquisitors and superiors determined his punishment and fate. This has vague correlations with the 'Poor Knight' being arraigned in the prescence of the abbot of St. Mary's Abbey, a short distance from the Minster, a little creative licence by the author of the Geste. . |
. 
Green men in York Cathedral Listen to the stirring music of Charles-Marie Widor's 'Toccata from Symphonie V opus 42, No. 1' played in Paris. On 4th June 2011 during an afternoon wedding ceremony this work was played at York Minster when four major pieces of the Robyn Hode jigsaw were discovered at the cathedral. All to be revealed in a forthcoming publication. This is the real link to the Masons, not the often misleadingly speculated Roslin Chapel. Widor's opus 42 has been played as recessional music at the royal weddings of : Antony Armstrong-Jones and Princess Margaret,
6 May 1960 at Westminster Abbey. * Since
1967 Prince Edward has been
Grand Master of the United Grand
Lodge of England. |
We should recognise that the Archbishop of York at the time of Robert III Butler's torture [d.1294] was in fact John Le Romeyn [elected 29th
October 1285, tenure 1286-1296]
a natural son of John Le Romeyn the elder, treasurer
of York. It was during the later1200's
that Kirklees nunnery, which was under the control
of its mother house at Rievaulx, first
came under the control of the Archbishop of
York and thence until the dissolution. At this time
there were rumours of fraternisation with the
laity and as a consequence, a concern for the spiritual
health of the nuns was raised. It is recorded
for 1287 that Le Romeyn asked the prior of St. Oswald's
of Oswaldkirk to visit Kirklees nunnery where
he was required to hear the confessions of the
nuns and ensure that they were leading worthy lives.
If Robert was tortured under John Le Romeyn's
authority then in some way the prioress in waiting,
Margaret de Savile, who by the time the
Geste was composed, was the prioress
of Kirklees, became connected by association. She was
also connected to Sir John de Eland [d. 1253],
the cruel seneschal of a dissolute master, John de Warrene earl of Surrey, Lord of the Wakefield Manor.
This man was at the forefront of the 'Elland Feud'
a running sore between two contiguous manors, Wakefield
and Pontefract. This feud may have appeared as long ago
as Hugh Pincerna's time when in 1303, it is recorded that
'Simon de Wakefeld complained about Hugh Le Butiler [Pincerna]
of Skelbroke and William de Wakefeld [Simon's relative?]
for assaulting him at York on Tuesday after the
close of Easter, 30 Edw. I [1302]. They denied it.
The jury found that Hugh did beat and wound Simon, by order
(per preceptum) of the said William, and assessed
the damages at £40 '.
Above all other
similarities with the narrative
of the Geste
in Barnsdale is the case of
the above Robert III
Butler of Skelbrooke [d.1294], the
pebble in the millpond, who appears
as an alleged criminal of the
worst type. No alias here, just athief, robber, rapist and murderer, at least those are allegations levelled. In Robert Butler's gaol* delivery record for 1293 we find "William the man of William del Sayles living in Skelbrooke...." this has undoubted associations with Saylis of the Geste, a place we recognise here as Sales Wood in the valley of the Skell. The similarity of the name Robert with the diminutive Robin, cannot be misconstrued by anyone who has heard the Robin Hood tales.
* The gaol in the "Wapentake of Osgoldcross", Liberty of Pontefract, may have been at Pontefract Castle where the dungeons of the castle keep can still be found. Robert III Butler's brother, Edmund [possibly murdered 1333-4] was the seneschal of Pontefract castle during Henry de Laci's lifetime [d. 1311] and may well have had a hand in the capture of his brother.
Micklegate, York, about 1855
The base of the north tower of the Pontefract keep housing the windowless dungeons [Donjon] |
Map of Pontefract Keep, also known as the Donjon Tower or Round Tower. |
This cleaned image of Pontefract
keep drawn about 1560-2 shows the final three levels
above the dungeons on each tower with intervening
corbelles. John of Lancaster [Gaunt] had the keep raised
in 1374 and added the corbelling which was noted by John Leland
~1530 who described the keep as 'cast into 6 roundelles,
3 bigge and 3 smaull'.17
The 1560 drawing however appears to show
a fourth or northern tower which would make the original
keep quatrefoil rather than trefoil in plan, similar to
Clifford's tower in York. We also can see the addition of Tudor
chimney pots, somewhat similar to some of those seen today at
Hampton Court which the trust is trying to preserve.
At the end of August 1541 Henry
VIII did stay at Pontefract Castle on his royal progress of the
North, following the 'Pilgrimage of Grace'. He was accompanied
by Katherine Howard, a very young wife. Katherine appointed her
former lover, Francis Dereham as her personal secretary whilst at
the castle. The sheriff of Nottingham
at this time was Sir Gervase Clifton who had been visited at his
home in Hodsock by King Henry on the king's northern progress following
their mutual appearance at a Robin Hood shooting contest at Finsbury
Park. How did Robin Hood of 'Loxly'* become linked
into the ballad Robin Hood and Queen Katherine?
Bellamy [1985] suggests this ballad could have been written by Richard Darrington who from 1542 was a footman and Keeper of the Royal Mastiffs for King Henry VIII. In the first few stanzas of Queen Katherine, a Richard Parrin[g]ton or Patrington is mentioned as Queen Katherines 'trusted page'. The queen is to her chamber gon As fast as she can wend, She calls to her her lovely page, His name was Patrington Darrington is also a place-name near Pontefract, thus it could be speculated that Richard Darrington originated from the village of Darrington, exactly two miles south-east of Pontefract Castle and that he was hired by the king on his progress north. Did this person, Darrington, carry the place-name, 'Loxly' to King Henry VIII’s Court in the ballad Robin Hood and Queen Katherine? This author thinks that he did. * The accepted wisdom is that the first mention of Robin being connected to Locksley (Loxley) in Yorkshire or Nottinghamshire appears in the Sloane MS. of about 1600 which also states that Robin haunted around Barnsdale Forest. However if we take the ballad of Robin Hood and Queen Katherine as being penned by Darrington, a footman of Henry VIII's household then the Sloane likely borrows from it. The Sloane seems to borrow from John Leyland's Collectanea [1540] which suggested that Robyn and his followers hid out in 'Barnsdale Forest'. However, there never was a Barnsdale Forest, suggesting that this was either creative hypothesising or inaccurate local hearsay committed to print. |
Alice daughter of Henry [d.1311] de Laci of Pontefract would have been about 11 or 12 years of age in 1296
two years after her marriage to Thomas Earl of Lancaster, the question which may arise is: Was Alice de Laci living in an upper level of Pontefract keep whilst Robert Butler was incarcerated below in the dungeons? Edmund Le Botillier, Lord of Skelbrooke, younger brother of Robert III Butler was Henry de Laci's steward [Fr: seneschal] and may have later been steward for Thomas Earl of Lancaster and Alice de Laci, for Edmund did not die until 1333.
Robert Butler
would not plead and although
he provided the court
with names of accomplices,* his lack
of plea led the court to dispense
with him by an extreme form of punishment
intended to extract such a plea,
la peine forte et dure
['strong and hard punishment'] or
basically pressing, often to death with
as much force as could be applied. This
method was introduced under Edward
I's Chancellor, who was also a churchman and was
also used during Edward I's reign upon William
Wallace, the Scots thorn in the Anglo-Norman heel.
At least Robert Butler and William Wallace had one
thing in common but William was not Robert as
some have speculated. Such a form of torture was
not abolished in Britain until 1772 following
the last case to employ such a method at the Cambridge
Assizes of 1741."He was stripped, laid on his back on the bare ground, and as much iron and weights as he could bear, et plus, were placed on him, so that he could not rise; he was given to eat of the worst bread that could be found, and to drink of the water nearest to the gaol, except running water; he had nothing to drink on the day that he ate, and nothing to eat on the day that he drank. This was kept up until he either pleaded or died. The object of the prisoner was to avoid forfeiture, which followed on a conviction for felony; by refusing to plead, he could not be tried, and consequently could not be convicted."-W.P. Baildon [1929]
* These 22 who indicate a large network of criminals as accomplices and receivers in the Barnsdale area are provided by Dr. David Hepworth : Alice Hotty of Skelagh [Skellow] and her sister Matilda, Colle of Burgh Walleys [Burghwallis] the man of Richard Tyes [Le Tyas probably after Farnley Tyas although Richard is also known to have held land in Burghwallis and Skellow in 1284 and 1319], Thomas son of Sybil of Skelagh [Skellow], William the man of William del Sayles living in Skelbrook, John son of Sen' of Doncaster, Thomas chaplain of Skelagh [Skellow] formerly living at Doncaster, William Luggeto sergeant of Armethorp [this is one of the Butler families earliest estates, east of Doncaster], Adam le Waleys [Wallace] of Skelagh [Skellow], Geoffrey le Mouner [Miller] of Skelbrook, Adam Alman, Benedict son of Thomas of Slepyl [Sleephill] living at Kekelton [?Kirkheaton], William son of Stephen of Burgh Waleys [this may be an unknown son of Sir Stephen Le Waleys], Robin son of Walter Walschef of Elmsale [Elmshall], William Smith of Leicester and his wife, John Skyllare of Lancaster, William Curry of Tickhill, John the Goldsmith of Doncaster, Robert le Mouner [Miller] of Paynel Hoton [Hooton Pagnell] and William Maureward.
It is noteworthy that a cleric, the chaplain of Skellow is included, perhaps a prelude to the introduction of 'Friar Tuck' in much later ballads. The name Robin makes its appearance at this time and place in Robin 'Walschef' probably of Elmshall [Robin was a diminutive of Robert more common in the 1200's, according to Dobson and Taylor than Robert]. The reference to a goldsmith indicates the direction any contraband gold would have travelled and this destination appears to be Doncaster rather than Pontefract. The place-names provide us with the geographical distribution of the persons involved. 'Walter Walschef of Elshale' would have been 'a man of' John de Wentworth of Elmshall who married Joan daughter of Richard Le Tyas of Burghwallis who is mentioned above in relation to 'Colle of Burgh Walleys the man of Richard Tyas'. Richard Tyas married one of two heiresses of Tankersley, Alice de Tankersley and thereby gained part of the Tankersley estates along with Hugh de Eland who married the other heiress Joan. Joan Tankersley's marriage to the High Steward of Wakefield the manor and High Sheriff of Yorkshire, Sir John de Eland made him the nephew of Alice de Tankersley. This Alice de Tankersley who married Richard Tyas of Burgh Wallis had a daughter Joan who married John de Wentworth of Elmshall, this appears to be a close network of local landowners and their criminal subculture. Is this the band of outlaws which provided the compiler of the Geste with further inspiration for the original ballad, at least the earlier fyttes, of Robin Hood?
Robert III Butler claimed some immunity from the king's civil courts as a clerk of the Church. According to court records Robert possessed no chattels, he admitted his guilt, ostensibly outside the court, and allegedly under torture whilst in custody. However, the custodian denied, under oath, that any torture had occurred. Robert Butler would have succeed to his father's lands at Skelbrooke if he had not been convicted, but if he were to plead, be tried and convicted then he and his heirs would lose the claim to his father's lands [dispossession]. The justices ordered the sheriff of the time to take Robert back to prison. A priest pleaded for Robert as a member of the clergy, the justices handed Robert to the Archbishop of York for trial by ordeal [pressing]. Again similarities arise, for the court that dispensed the punishment was an ecclesiastical court at York. This may remind us of the abbot of St. Mary's court at York who was visited by Sir Richard at the Lee and perhaps the York county assizes where historically a Rob. Hode was declared a fugitive in 1230.3
Ostensibly, Robert Butler was killed in 1294 by the method of 'pressing', but his trial is exactly 100 years after John Major claimed that Robin Hood had been outlawed [1193-4]. Hunter gave Robin Hood's age at his death as 77 years, subtraction from the oft quoted death date of 1347 that provides a birth year of about 1270, approximating to that of Robert Le Botiller of ~1275 [according to Baildon] whose parents married ~ 1269. If there were folk tales about shortly after the death of Robert III Butler then there would have been 25 years or less in which to name Robin Crosse* in Derbyshire and 150 years or less, plenty of time, to name Robin Hood's Stone in the Skell valley [first recorded 1422]. *Three miles S.W. of Hathersage, a medieval wayside cross on the moors, one mile east of Bradwell in Hazlebadge parish. The base of the cross was still extant in the 1970's and recorded as 'Robin Crosse' in 1399. Later this became known as 'Robin Hood's Cross'.
How could Robert Butler become known as 'Robyn Hode'? There had already been a number of miscreants with a similar name. Robert Hode of the York Assizes of 1225 for example. Between 30 Edward I [1302] and 10 Edward III [1336] a period of less than forty years, there were no less than six 'Robyn Hodes' identified by Childs such as Robert Hood of Bitchill, Wakefield [1316], originally noted by Hunter, Robert Robyn Houd of Hastings, Sussex [1332], Robyn Hode, one of Edward II's valets de chambre* [1324], also noted by Hunter and Robert Hod a common councillor for Vintry Ward, London [1325]. These may all have been legitimate names rather than epithets. By 1400 a manuscript from Lincoln Cathedral had wriiten on it 'Robyn hod in Scherewod, stode' which mimics the Geste ['Robyn stode in Bernesdale'] which in turn seems mimiced by a legal maxim which appeared in the English court of 1429 'Robin Hode en Barnsdale stode'. His name seems to come entirely from the Geste so popular was its movement through the halls and fairs of England and Scotland.*Hunter's account [1852] of a Robyn Hode as one of the King Edward II's hirelings centred upon a correlation with Robert Hood, who lived in Wakefield, with the person 'Robyn Hode' mentioned in the king's accounts. Hunter's researches indicated that this person was in the King's service from March 1324 to November 1324. However subsequent ultraviolet analysis of the account documents showed that Robyn Hode was in the King's service in July 1323 which is before the King travelled North.16
The Sheriff of Yorkshire was John de Meux in 1292 and 1293 but just prior to Meux the sheriff of Yorkshire for six years had been Gervase de Clifton [tenure 1286-1292] . We also find that a Sir Gervase Clifton was a Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire in 1279 and 1290, this would obviate the removal of any barrier to the sheriff of Nottingham and Derbyshires operating in Yorkshire. Is this the sheriff that Robyn [actuality the compiler] reminds his band of men to keep high in their minds? The compiler of the Geste could have been writing about a Sir Gervase de Clifton [d.1377] who was the sheriff of Nottingham in 1345, the similarity of name and descendancy would not have gone amiss. A Sheriff of Nottinghamshire who followed the tenure of Gervase [d.1377] was John Walleys [1350] who may have been a descendant of the Le Waleys of Burghwallis.
Much later a Gervase Clifton 1st baronet of Hodsock [b.1581] is recognised here as being a great influence in popularising the Robin Hood-Nottingham connection. Hodsock is just over the county boundary in Nottinghamshire and was visited by Henry VIII with his wife Queen Katherine [Howard]. Katherine had a short tenure as queen as a result of her dalliances whilst on Henry's perambulation of the North. This royal progress evolved after the 'Pilgrimage of Grace' when Catholics in the north revolted but were crushed after Henry broke his vow. Hodsock was granted originally by Roger de Busli to his kinsman Torald de Lizours whilst Torald's likely brother, Fulk de Lizours was granted Sprotborough. Sprotborough then descended to the FitzWilliams when Sir William FitzWilliam de Clairfait, Lord of Emley and Hampole advantageously married Albreda [Aubrey] de Lizours.
We also find that the Butlers held lands at Scawsby adjacent to Sprotbrough lands [FitzWilliam country] where Scawsby Lees, like the Butler's Skelbrooke lands, straddled the old Roman Ridge, and which further north becomes 'Watling Strete' through 'Barnsdale'. To the N.E. probably still in the Butler lands stands a motte and bailey , 'Castle Hills' which could conceivably have been a residence of the Butler family.
.
Key : ..... Lands belonging to the Butlers
..... Lands belonging to the FitzWilliams
Upon these lands at Scawsby Lees on the 26th October 1536 Robert Aske with 30,000 troops camped during the rebellion against Henry VIII's repressive regime led by the Duke of Norfolk. Were the troops, 'the flower of the North' aware of the significance of this site as they faced Henry's troops across the rapidly flooding River Don.? If so, how much would tales of Robin Hood be regaled around the troop's camp fires.
It is also interesting to note that Katherine Howard prior to Henry's travels north instigated an archery match at Finsbury Circus outside the London city walls.7 Sir Gervase of Hodsock ['Gentle Sir Gervase' b.1516, grandfather of the 1st baronet] played the part of the Sheriff of Nottingham. Was it here a member of the Stanhopes played 'Little John' which gave rise to the story attached to 'Little John's bow' which used to hang at Hathersage and then Cawthorne Hall, South Yorkshire?
Gervase Clifton 1st baronet was somewhat of a serial groom for he married seven times. The first was to Penelope Rich of the Wakefield Manor [wherein lies Kirklees priory] the seventh and last was to Alice Hastings, daughter of the 5th earl of Huntingdon which honour Henry VIII had revived in George Hastings. Both these marriages provide strings with which to draw some of the other stories together.
We find similarities between the Butlers of Skelbrooke and the Paston's of Norfolk. Sir John Paston's letter to his brother William Paston dated 16th April 1473 states that John's servant had deserted him 'to pleye Seynt Jorge and Robyn Hode and the Shryff of Nottingham' and had 'goon to Bernysdale'.15 The Paston's were patrons of minstrels and balladeers, albeit the letter was written about one hundred and eighty years after Robert Butler's death. Recent findings indicate that the copy of Robin Hood and the Potter in Cambridge University Library, another early ballad, belonged to John Paston's bailliff, Richard Calle. A complex set of circumstances surrounds the family and its involvement as patrons to the art of minstrelsy and balladry.
What could a ballad-muse/minstrel in Skelbrooke/Burghwallis not do with this story of Robert Butler! A story of a man perhaps nineteen to twenty-one years old, ostensibly from a well connected family in Barnsdale, who at the end of the 1200's was made to look a criminal to all and sundry. He certainly appears from the list of his accomplices names to be of a higher social status and thus may have been respected as a leader.Would it not be a literary incongruity to paint a robber from a landed family as a friend to all yeomen and knights but an enemy of the clerics and sheriff. A man who would be hero, a man who would be moulded in the image of a local robber who had perhaps lived a hundred years before in the same geographic location. This sounds like cunning literature, for which the English have become well known. A tongue in cheek approach, irony and paradox rollicking together, some elements of truth, some of fiction, but above all a roaring good tale told by the fireside in a lord's hall with a pint of ale; the primeval beginnings of the Geste.
Robbery seems to have been a favourite occupation in Barnsdale for a long time, even after the example the judiciary made of Robert Butler. Joseph Hunter showed that Barnsdale was rife with robbers in the last year of Edward I [1307]. The Bishop's of St. Andrews and Glasgow and the Abbot of Scone journeyed from Scotland to Winchester where on some sections of the journey [in southern England] they had no guard of archers; at others they had a guard of eight or twelve men but from Pontefract to Tickhill the guard was increased to twenty, the reason given was propter Barnsdale ['because of Barnsdale']. Twenty-two years later the situation was palpably unchanged when it was recorded in the C.P.R.24 for 23rd June 1329 at a Parliament at Rochester -
'Commission of oyer and terminer to John Travers, Thomas Deyvill*, and Adam de Hoperton on complaint by William de Felton that William Frere of Doncaster, William le Taverner of Doncaster, Thomas Frere, John Frere, Nicholas de Tykhull, Matilda de Clayton, John le Carter and others assaulted him at Skelbrook, co. York,
and carried away his goods. By p.s.' *keeper of the contrariants property at Sandal etc.1322.
In the Geste Little John notified Robin that the monk[s] waylaid in Barnsdale had fifty two men with them whereas Robin's band is described as numbering 'seven score [140] of whyte young men'. Was the instruction given by Robin to 'bete and bynde ... these bisshoppes and these archebishoppes' a salvo at the ecclesiastics, particularly of York after Robert III Butler's cruel death?
If the monetary value of £ 800, given in the Geste is any guide to the amount of money taken from the monks on the road North, then this equates today to an amount of over £ 4 million, a not insubstantial sum13. If Robert Butler had been involved in the robbery of such wealth from the monks of St. Mary's, York then the Chuch and archbishop would have approached Robert's sentencing most severely.
By 1333 Robert's brother, Edmund Butler, Lord of Skelbrooke had been murdered. The third brother, the last of the Butler male line,died in 1336. All that was left of this family in this year was Agnes Butler who appears to have had a chantry built into the chapel on the north side of the church in 1336. In this building is a window approximately dated to the mid 1300's, The window is a simple glass affair with the representation of a young man's face that stares dolefully out of a foliate background. Is this the face of the forest 'greenman' or the first representation of a Barnsdale robber imitating Robin Hood?
The Wallaces of Burghwallis
If we now turn our attention to the Wallaces [Le Waleys] of Burghwallis, the next village to Skelbrooke, in the honour of Pontefract, they seem related to the Wallaces of Ayrshire, one, Robert Le Waleys [Wallensis], as we have seen was a tandem sheriff of Yorkshire with Roger de Laci in King John's reign, so the links to Carrick/Galloway seem strong at this time within Barnsdale.
Walter W. Skeat in his edition of English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day [e-book May 2005] gives as a heading in Chapter IV "Lowland Scotch [sic] identical with the Yorkshire dialect of Hampole." Here Skeat rediscovers the works of earlier writers relating to the dialects of Northumbria A.D. 1300-1400. Specifically Skeat is exhuming the works of the hermit Richard Rolle of Hampole, Barnsdale. Rolle wrote a poem about the year 1340 called The Pricke of Conscience.5 The language of this poem is very unlike the Geste although some have suggested, with little evidence that Rolle wrote the primal Geste. More than likely A Lyttel Geste of Robyn Hode and The Pricke of Conscience were later provided to the printer 'Wynken de Worde' in the same bundle of manuscripts from a source in Barnsdale, either Skelbrooke or Burghwallis Hall. In the1863 edition of a work by a Dr. Morris for the Philological Society there is an analysis made of the grammar :
| "I have
now mentioned the chief
authorities for the study
of the Northern dialect from early times
down to 1400. Examination
of them leads directly to a result
but little known, and one that
is in direct contradiction to
general uninstructed opinion;
namely that, down to this date, the
varieties of Northumbrian are
much fewer and slighter than they afterwards
became, and that the written
documents are practically all in one and
the same dialect, or very nearly
so, from the Humber as far north as Aberdeen.
The irrefragable results noted
by Dr Murray will probably come
as a surprise to many, though they have now
been before the public for more than forty
years. The Durham dialect of the Cursor
Mundi and the Aberdeen Scotch [sic] of
Barbour are hardly distinguishable
by grammatical or orthographical
tests; and both bear a remarkable resemblance
to the Yorkshire dialect as found in
Hampole. What is now called Lowland
Scotch [sic] is so nearly descended from
the Old Northumbrian that the latter was
invariably called “Ingliss” by the writers
who employed it; and they reserved the name of
“Scottish” to designate Gaelic or Erse, the
tongue of the original “Scots,” who gave
their name to the country. "We should particularly notice Dr Murray’s statement, in his essay on The Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland, at p. 29, that “Barbour at Aberdeen, and Richard Rolle de Hampole near Doncaster, wrote for their several countrymen in the same identical dialect.” The division between the English of the Scottish Lowlands and the English of Yorkshire was purely political, having no reference to race or speech, but solely to locality; and yet, as Dr Murray remarks, the struggle for supremacy “made every one either an Englishman or a Scotchman [sic], and made English and Scotch [sic] names of division and bitter enmity.” So strong, indeed, was the division thus created that it has continued to the present day; and it would be very difficult even now to convince a native of the Scottish Lowlands—unless he is a philologist—that he is likely to be of Anglian descent, and to have a better title to be called an “Englishman” than a native of Hampshire or Devon, who, after all, may be only a Saxon. And of course it is easy enough to show how widely the old “Northern” dialect varies from the difficult Southern English found in the Kentish Ayenbite of Inwyt, or even from the Midland of Chaucer’s poems.""To quote from Dr Murray once more (p. 41): “the facts are still far from being generally known, and I have repeatedly been amused, on reading passages from Cursor Mundi and Hampole to men of education, both English and Scotch [sic], to hear them all pronounce the dialect ‘Old Scotch.’ Great has been the surprise of the latter especially on being told that Richard the Hermit [i.e. of Hampole] wrote in the extreme south of Yorkshire, within a few miles of a locality so thoroughly English as Sherwood Forest, with its memories of Robin Hood. Such is the difficulty which people have in separating the natural and ethnological relations in which national names originate from the accidental values which they acquire through political complications and the fortunes of crowns and dynasties, that oftener than once the protest has been made—‘Then he must have been a Scotchman settled there!’” The retort is obvious enough, that Barbour and Henry the Minstrel and Dunbar and Lyndesay have all recorded that their native language was “Inglis” or “Inglisch”; and it is interesting to note that, having regard to the pronunciation, they seem to have known, better than we do, how that name ought to be spelt ." |
The conclusions to this linguistic study clearly indicates that even by the 1300's the dialect used in the Barnsdale area was little different from that used in Northumberland and lowland Scotland. Dobson and Taylor ponder 'why the Robin Hood legend should have struck such deep roots north of the border' and add 'this has never been satisfactorily explained'. Was it that the title 'Earl of Huntington', included later in Munday's plays, was held as the earldom of Huntingdon by various Scottish kings or was it that there were links with Barnsdale and Ayrshire? Both seem plausible.
Genealogy of the Le Waleys of Burghwallis and their Galwegian association
Henry I le Waleys============Agnes*
b~1133 Skellow | b~1135
|
Robert le Waleys**=========Dionysia Poitevin
[Wallensis] heiress of Burgh [Wallis], Skellow, Frickley & Hooten Pagnell
b~1158 d.1218 |
1206-1211 Sheriff of Yorkshire
|
_________________________________________________________________
| | |
Henry II ======Elizabeth Robert===? Elizabeth=====?
dsp 1210 | de St. Mary µ succ. 1210 d.1247
neice of the abbot
| of Kirkstall later
abbot for Fountains
| Abbey
|
Sir Richard I le Waleys+======Albreda FitzWilliam§ sister to Agnes FitzWilliam
b. <1226 d.1272 | d.of Sir Thomas FitzWilliam of Elmley & Sprotbrough
probable uncle to Robert III Butler descendant illegitimate line from
| Henri Curtmantle's father Geoffrey of Anjou
Sir Stephen I¤======Alice? Contemporaries of Robert III Butler of Skelbrooke.
b~1245 | probable cousins to Robert III Butler
|
__________________________________
| | |
Nicole Elizabeth====Sir William Sir Richard II ====<2===Eleanor===<1===Robert VI Bruce==2>==Marjorie of
Nevile of Raby Wallace of b~ 1240 d1304 Carrick
Burgh Wallace# | descendant of
d 1301 | Duncan of
Galloway
| |
Stephen II Le Waleys King Robert The Bruce
b 1305 d 1347 Healaugh Priory.
Key :
* The name Agnes is French and is particularly popular in Ayrshire [originally part of Galloway]
** Gained Sibthorpe near Nottingham in the time of King John.
µ Richard I Le Waleys' mother was Elizabeth de St. Mary, i.e. of St. Mary's, York. .She was the daughter of Jordan de St. Mary, who married Alice Haget sister to Ralph Haget Abbott of Fountains Abbey[1170-1190].
+ 1253
Sir Richard I Le Waleys was
appointed as the first rector
of Burghwallis Church [St. Helen's]
when Burgh was first recorded
as 'Burgh Wallis'. If we are looking
for an early compiler[s] of the
Geste then a
member of the Le Waleys family could be the
originator [s]. Stephen I Le Waleys[d
<1301] appears to be a first cousin of
Robert III Butler, a son of a knight &
rector who held Burghwallis manor, just as Robert III
Butler was a son of the owner of Skelbrooke
manor. We might reasonably speculate that Robert and
Stephen played together as children, in Skelbrooke and
Burghwallis as well as their grandparents lands at
Emley, Hampole and Sprotbrough. Sir Richard as a rector
of Burghwallis and probably his son, were learned men,
able to read and write in English and Latin. That Burghwallis
Church [St. Helen's] may always have had a minstrel
gallery also points in the direction of patronage
of minstrels. The compiler of the
Geste makes our hero a devout follower
of the church as we assume the family of a rector might
be. By his marriage, Sir Richard I was connected
to the FitzWilliams[an illegitimate descendancy
from Henry II's father, Geoffrey of Anjou] and from our
speculation here his wife Albreda was sister
of Agnes FitzWilliam who may be the Agnes who married
Robert II Butler of Skelbrooke. If this
is the case then Robert III Butler's grandparents
were the high profile FitzWilliam family residing
at Emley, near Midgley and
Sprotbrough castle whose woodlands,
Robert Butler would have known as a child
whilst visiting his grandparents, perhaps in companionship
with his cousin Stephen. If this filiation
and speculation holds true then Sir Richard I
Le Waleys would also have visited his parent in law's
manor at Emley, perhaps with his son and young nephew,
Robert at his side. § Sir Richard Le Waley's wife Albreda FitzWilliam had a marriage settlement dated 1250-1260. Albreda's great great grandmother was Albreda de Laci, ancestor of the Pontefract de Lacis. Her grandmother was Adela Plantagenet, daughter of Hamelyn Plantagenet, illegitimate half brother of Henry [II] Curtmantle, King of England.
¤ Sir Stephen I Le Waleys, it is speculated, was a cousin of Robert III Butler of Skelbrooke. We know that Sir Stephen was familiar with an Abbot of St. Mary's, York [Simon de Warwick in 1276] for their names appear along with Roger FitzThomas [of Woodhall], and William FitzThomas both Robert III Butler's uncles:
''Sir Roger fitzThomas [of Woodhall], witness (together with his brother Sir
William) to grant of the manor of Langthwaite for life, dated at
Langthwaite, 2 Ides of Mar 1276:
Hugh de Langthewait, son and heir of Sir William de Langthewait,
to Sir Robert de Eueringham,[Everingham] then rector of the church of Berkyn.[Birkin, E. Yorks.]
The manor of Langthwaite with all appurtenances; all his land in
Adwick le Street; all his land and rent in Doncaster between
Chesewold Bridge and the mills bridge; all his land and rent in
Wheatley; ½ mark annual rent in Sprotborough which is owed by Sir
William fitzThomas. For term of life. Annual rent of 19s. 8d., of
which 5s. 4d. to the chief lord of the fee, Peter de Mallo Lacu,
13s. 4d. to the Abbot of St. Mary's, York, 1s.[Simon de Warwick in 1276] to Sir Stephen le
Waleis,[Stephen I Le Waleys] lord of Bourk[Burgh (Wallis)]; and suit of court to the Court of Sir Peter de Mallo Lacu at Doncaster.
Witnesses: Sir William fitzThomas [aka FitzWilliam d. 1295], Sir John de Romundby, Sir
Roger fitzThomas,[of Woodhall] Sir Richard de Romundby, kts., Sir William de
Veyley, rector of Owston, Sir Henry de Normanton, Henry chaplain of
Adwick le Street, Ralph de Langthewait, Thomas de Scauceby [Scawsby], William
de Newesum, Henry de Rockeleye, Adam de Langthewait, Adam Maldut
and many others. " - PRO, Sheffield Archives: Cooke of Wheatley Muniments, CWM/131[12]
# Sir Richard married Robert VI Bruce's widow, Robert had stong links to the Wallaces of Ayrshire and secondly married the Countess of Carrick. Sir Richard II Le Waleys [Wallace] originally supported Thomas Earl of Lancaster against Edward II for in 1315 he was a member of an insurgent group who struck at supporters of the king in Lancashire, this was led by Adam Banastre and became known as the Banastre Rebellion. The Lane through Skelbrooke is called Bannister [Banastre] Lane . Later Sir Richard II Le Waleys also supported Thomas Earl of Lancaster in his attempt to overthrow Edward II. As a result of the earl's loss at the Battle of Boroughbridge, Sir Richard forfeited Burghwallis after 1322 for a while. Earl Thomas's lands were held from 1322 until 1327, this may give us some indication of the time that elapsed during which Richard had his lands confiscated.22 1322 was the year that Roi de Bruant, John Butler [Botiller], lost his holdings in Pontefract for also supporting Thomas.
Both Robert le Waleys and Hugh Pincerna were contemporaries living on adjacent manors and held offices as consecutive seneschals of Pontefract. Their lands straddled 'Watling Street' in Barnsdale. In addition a decendant of Robert le Waleys, the sheriff in King John's reign, was the first marriage of Robert VI Bruce who later married Marjorie of Carrick [northern Galloway] who was the mother of King Robert The Bruce.
There is no evidence as yet that Robert Butler took from the rich and gave to the poor. What sets Robyn aside from other outlaws in the Geste is his 'curtesye' but this appears to be a construct of the compiler later taken up by John Major [Mair] who added flesh to this solitary word from the ballad.:
| 'He
would allow no woman to suffer
injustice, nor would he spoil the
poor, but rather enriched them from
the plunder taken from the abbots' -Historia Majoris Britannia. |
'Equally unlikely, from the relationships provided here, is the period of our hero occurring in the reign of King John as suggested by Major 'Robertyus Hudus Anglus et Parvus Johannes'. This denial flies in the face of widely and commonly held beliefs which may need to be rectified. Dobson and Taylor [1972] remind us that Major derived his positive belief in Robyn Hode from 'songs which were told all over Britain'.
Did Robert Butler plunder the abbots wealth as John Major suggested? One in particular, the bishop of Hereford? Here again we enter the grey area. There is little support for this other than a later ballad and folk tales. But the fact that Robert Butler was passed over to the ecclesiastical court at York indicates that, apart from being a clerk of the church perhaps under Richard Le Waleys, first rector of Burghwallis church, there was a serious score to settle. Certainly the church tortured Robert using a very recently devised method and for him there seems to have been little mercy. In reality what part, if any, did the prioress play in Robert's capture and why does she take such a defining part in the Geste? The speculation may revolve about the prioress representing the Church at York or just as plausibly this part of the Geste was added later, along with Robyn's exploits in Nottingham. There is little doubt that the pervading tenor of the Geste is anti-monasterial.
There are two possible reasons why the Geste and later ballads were so popular, why the pebble in the millpond created such a huge wave. One is that the person they were based upon was a larger than life character as is often displayed in modern entertainment, or alternatively, and probably more realistically, he was an ordinary man-boy of whom larger than life things were written. There is little doubt that the Geste and later ballads gave ridiculously exaggerated abilities to both Robyn and his followers, such as jumping huge distances etc.
Is this the nucleus upon which was grown a crystal so large and brilliantly coloured that we have lost the original seed, that literary inspiration? Is Robert III Butler of Skelbrooke that seed? He was living at the epicentre for the setting of the earliest ballad and was associated with a large network of criminal accomplices who may have been but the tip of the iceberg. It would be interesting to hear the views of a criminologist on this one.
Roger de Laci - the Patron of Minstrels - a Conduit for Minstrelsy.
We now turn to what at first seems unrelated but bears direct relationships to Barnsdale and minstrelsy at the time of Roger de Laci. Ranulf de Blundeville, the earl of Chester took a force of men from the town of Chester and entered Wales. However, during their tour they found themselves outnumbered by the Welsh and decided to make haste to the safety of their nearest castle at Rhuddlan or 'Rothelan' [Rhuddlan- 4km S. of Rhyl, North Wales 40 km west of Chester]. Whilst under siege, Ranulf sent word to his constable at Chester, Roger de Laci, Lord of Pontefract to come to their assistance. Roger had recently [1205] been released from King Philip of France for a ransom of 1000 marks after his defiant, almost year long stand against overwhelming forces at Castle Galliard.
Roger set forth across the River Dee with mostly minstrels, thieves and vagabonds who were attending the Chester Fair that had originally given priviledges to these people "That they should not be apprehended for theft, or any other offence during the time of the fair, unless the crime was committed therein."
Roger raised the seige more by bluff than substance, for when the besiegers perceived the large host descending upon them with Roger's purple lion rampant banner at their head, they dispersed, thinking it was a large trained army approaching. As a reward Ranulf earl of Chester [he who is probably mentioned in Piers Plowman] conferred upon Roger and all his heirs the control and patronage of all the minstrels [as well as fiddlers, shoemakers and vagrants] in the county of Cheshire. This ostensibly gave rise to the exclamation "Roger, and by all the fiddlers of Chester!".
Roger then transferred this patronageof the minstrels to Hugh Dutton, his seneschal [chief steward] of Halton Castle [Dutton lies 5 km S.E, of Halton Castle]. This eventually led to the Dutton family taxing by licence, the musicians in the county which was carried out in the Dutton Court at Chester on the feast day of Saint John the Baptist, this jurisdiction continuing in the Dutton family until 1756 :
|
The Patronage bestowed
upon Roger de Laci's Steward "That, at the midsummer fair held at Chester, all the minstrels of that country, resorting to Chester, do attend the heir of Dutton, from his lodging to St. John's Church* (he being then accompanied by many gentlemen of the country, one of them walking before him in a surcoat of his arms depicted on taffeta, the rest of his fellows proceeding two and two, and playing on their several sorts of musical instruments."] When divine service terminates, the like attendance upon Dutton to his lodging, where a court being kept by his steward, and all the minstrels formally called, certain orders and laws are made for the government of the society of minstrels." *Near the now half excavated Roman Ampitheatre at Chester. |
If we now move this scenario to the other side of England, to the De Laci lands in the honour of Pontefract, we can envisage Roger de Laci's seneschals at Pontefract and perhaps Roger himself, patronising minstrels and fiddlers in order that they entertain them. Not only was the chief steward responsible for the food and wine, but also, with the supervision of Lady de Laci, the organisation of periodic entertainment, a social secretary of sorts.9 There can be little difficulty in visuallising Lady Matilda de Laci, [a lady of the great House of Clare formerly living at Tonbridge Castle, Kent], bringing the enjoyment of the minstrels to Pontefract Castle from Halton Castle where she would have often resided.. We should not be surprised if this cultural cross-pollination occurred between Cheshire and Yorkshire.
It would not be drawing a long bow to expect that this influence of minstrelsy, through direct contact of Roger with the minstrels of Chester Fair, would find its way to Burghwallis and Skelbrooke after 1205 where both manor houses were held by two consecutive seneschals of Pontefract. The minstrels would also have been brought to Burghwallis and Skelbrooke manors in Barnsdale where at least one of them seemingly absorbed the local stories of the 1180's and 1190's. This tradition would have been passed down the Le Waleys* and Butler lines for a number of generations, for contacts with fiddlers and minstrel bands, once made, would be maintained by demand, regular patronage and word of mouth.
*St. Helen's Church, Burghwallis, may always have had a minstrel gallery.
Like Ranulf de Blundeville, Roger's de Laci's overlord, Roger had a major change of policy towards Prince John following his accession in 1199. From being his unrivalled enemy, and probably therefore an enemy of Ralph III Murdac, sheriff of the adjoining county, Nottinghamshire, he became after 1199, not quite a supplicant but a strong supporter of King John par excellence. He was the only baron in practice, to totally support John in his desire to retake his French possessions, evidenced by Roger's heroic but unsuccessful stand at Castle Galliard.
This would suggest that Roger's liegemen would have had to follow suite even though their lands had likely been ransacked along with De Laci's lands at Donnington near Nottingham about 1193 under Prince John's orders, the year before Roger came of age. If an earlier hero had been sheltered up to now by either Roger or his liegemen, Robert Le Waleys of Burghwallis, and/or the Butler family of Skelbrooke, he would now have to depart for Sherwood. Richard's general pardon of 1189 for all felons in England had long since expired, good will had run out.
Hugh Pincerna of Skelbrooke operated under the aegis of John II de Laci from 1211 to 1216. It is easy to see that Robyn could have been sheltered or at least tolerated, particularly if the Butlers and Le Waleys were operating collusively with cutthroats and robbers. We can envisage perhaps Robin being employed as a huntsman in Burgh [Wallis] or Skelbrooke Park for the respective families with or without Roger or his son's knowledge or agreement*. Indeed verse 115 of the Geste mentions that Robin is residing in a [hunting] lodge when he sends Little John and Much [later, Midge] the Miller's son up to Saylis [Sales Wood, above the Skell valley and Skelbrooke]. *Roger seems to have been extremely confined to matters in Halton, Chester, Donnington, Nottingham, Wales, Normandy and Ireland, it must have left little time for his Pontefract concerns which he probably left in the hands of his seneschals.
They brought hym to the lodge door,
Whan Robyn hym gan see,
Full curtesly dyd of his hode
And sette hym on his knee.
It is difficult to imagine that Robert could have worked his 'trade' in such close quarters to the two manors of Skelbrooke and Burgh [Wallis] without some connivance of the local landowners, even as heirs of the landowners. Indeed, Professor J.C. Holt notes, 'Extremely common for example, was the use of armed ambush as an instrument in local vendettas and disputes between landlords and their other tenants'.8 We might add no less between these landlords and the wealthy travellers, particularly the clergy. Landlords could endow themselves with some of the spoils of the highway robber, which would have supplemented their incomes and would have been particularly tempting stradddled as their lands were, across this part of the richly travelled great road north, their behaviour little different to the Cornish ship-wreckers. Indeed after Roger's de Laci's death in 1211, Robert Le Waleys had to produce a large sum of money which had apparently been detained from the sheriff's county profits.6 He and Roger de Laci had only declared half the profits made, Robert was obviously not averse to plundering even King John's income stream.
The original composer of the Geste narrative knew the locality of the Burgh [Wallis] and Skelbrooke environs well enough to include salient topographic features and human settlement patterns, but nowhere are Skelbrooke and Burgh mentioned, just the generalisation 'Barnsdale' which seems vague enough to deflect any identification and targeting of local families involved. The question which arises here is was Robert Butler of Skelbrooke the inspiration, rather than the candidate for a medieval narrative based upon some associations with this family?
The seal of St. Mary Magdalena
of
Lund, Monk
Bretton
Priory.
The chapel at Skelbrooke,
originally built in the 1100's
was undoubtedly patronised
by the Butlers of Skelbrooke,
is this the chapel in the Geste dedicated to Mary
Magdalene which Robin said he wanted
to [help] build, an excuse to leave
the king's household? If so then
the compiler of the Geste
was almost certainly residing
in the area at the time this piece was written. The
probable
truth is
that the
author of
the Geste
used the
name of
the nearby
Monk
Bretton
Priory. Unlike Hunter, perhaps we should not
try to equate occurrences in the
Geste with literal historical
figures here, remembering that the
primary purpose of a minstrel's verse sung
was for the that of entertainment in
order to make a living. Show business with the
emphasis on 'business'. Ask any
English folk
balladeers
today, who essentially
sing about situations extremely
close to themselves, we
should not expect the literal truth
but some entertaining version of it.
No one would suggest that 'the
Scottish play' of Shakespeare was historically
accurate yet there are elements
of history within the play.
A vector for the narrative, 'A
Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode'
One other interesting
connection occurs between a
Gilbert
Robynhod of Fletching,
Sussex and Pontefract. This person
was first noted by E. K. Chambers12
and later followed by Dobson & Taylor [1976].
J.C. Holt noted that this surname must have derived
from the outlaw. Bellamy [p.32] states, "Gilbert
Robynhod may have served in the household of Alice de Lacy [and Earl Thomas Plantagenet]
and aquired the name by playing or reciting the tales
which came from the northern Lacy estates". As
J.C. Holt states [p.59] this is the first recording of the
surname Robynhod. Gilbert appears as a
tenant of the Liberty of Leicester, Sussex in a tax roll
of 1296. In 1294, the year Robert III Butler presumably
died, Alice de Laci, heiress to much of the De Laci
estates, married the Earl of Lancaster, Thomas Plantagenet.
Until his death in 1311,
Alice's father, Henry de Laci held the honours
of Pontefract and Clitheroe. Thomas and Alice
held the Liberty of Leicester in Sussex wherein
lay the manor of Hungry Hatch in Fletching as well
as the De Laci lands of Alice's father. This
supports both Bellamy and Holt's suggestions that
the ballad was known within the De Laci family into the
time of Thomas Plantagenet a powerful man who held
five earldoms.
One fact which Bellamy
felt worked against Gilbert [introduced
Withondes?] is that the period 1294 - 1296
is a very short time for Gilbert's new patronymic,
'Robynhod' [which it is suggested here is the result
of telling the story of the Geste] to become
commonly accepted. Holt details other people* in Sussex
who appear later in records with the same surname,
who were possibly descendants of Gilbert Robynhod.
* Robert
Robynhoud at West Harting, Sussex, 1332,
and Winchelsea, Sussex, 1381.
But we might now ask how
quickly could a new, popular, ballad travel,
carried by one person from the De Laci lands
in South Yorkshire to Sussex? Very quickly,
and the bearer, perhaps from Yorkshire, would equally
have quickly aquired the surname, enough to
be recorded in an official court document in 1296
at Fletching Sussex. If this is the case then Gilbert
Robynhod gained his name from the telling of the
Geste which was written and dispersed very quickly.
De Laci Pedigree:
Roger 'Helle' de Laci========
Patron of
Minstrels
|
Roger's seneschal : Robert
Wallensis [Le Waleys] 1206-1211
|
John II de Laci=========
b 1192 d 1240
|
John's seneschals/stewards
: Hugh Buticularius [i.e. Butler] before 1211, Hugh
Pincerna [Butler] 1211-1216,
Sir Henry Le Waleys
1216-1218+
|
Edmund de Laci=======Alice de Saluces
[Saluzzo, NW Italy]
b 1230 d 1258
d
by 1311-1312
Const. of Chester
|
1234+ Lord
of Stanbury Manor
Edmund's seneschal : Walter de Ludham
1240-1246 |
|
Henry de Laci======Margaret Longespee
3rd Earl
of Lincoln b 1250 d 1311
| Plantagenet
b 1250 d 1306-1310
Sir John de Hoderode [ d 1269-1272] is recorded
as the seneschal/steward
of Pontefract in 1252
during Henry III's and also Edward
I's reigns.
|
1275 the steward was Peter de Santon
Henry's
seneschal : Oliver de Stansfield*
|
Thomas
Plantagenet==============1294 ==========Alice de Laci+
Earl of
Lancaster
Countess of Lincoln & Salisbury
executed 1322 Pontefract Castle
d 1348 died without issue.
Held Fletching, Sussex. Stewards:
1314 -1315 - John Traves [Travers?];
Notes:
The male line of de
Laci ended with Henry and after the execution
of Thomas Plantagenet, earl of Lancaster,
the estates passed to the crown of Edward II.
* Oliver de Stansfield or 'Stansfeud' of
Heasandford or 'Heasanforth', 'Heysandforth' House now in Burnley, Lancashire,
son of Jordan de Stansfield of Stansfield, Yorkshire,
a descendant of Wyan Marmions who
probably accompanied William the Conqueror in 1066.
Oliver was widowed by 1292 when he was granted
Worsthorne manor by Henry de Laci and subsequently
Oliver became the founder of
the Stansfields of Burnley. This grant was
for a peppercorn rent of 1 penny per annum,
presumably for his efforts as constable
and
receiver of Pontefract Castle. In 1311
he was called to parliament [ M.P.] as a knight.
Oliver granted land
to John, son of Gilbert de la Legh in 1306. Bellamy
tells us that the family named Legh 'was involved in
administration of the Lancashire forests' but none of
them were named Richard. Gilbert about 1322 was the stock
manager for Ightenhill [now Gawthorpe], north of
Burnley, eventually the de la Legh's became the Townleys
of Townley manor south of Burnley. Oliver survived until about 1350 [23 Ed. III] when he was buried
in the
Stansfield
Chapel,
St.
Peter's
Church,
Burnley,
where his
effigy
resides.
+ Alice de Laci entered a marriage
contract with Thomas of Lancaster when
she was 9 or 10 years old in 1294. [this
would make her born ~1285 but some genealogists have
her birth year as 1281 which would make her ~ 13 years
old at the time of the marriage contract]. It seems
some did not approve of the marriage for one description
has 'a wretched and disgraceful marriage attended
with all kinds of scandals'.
Thomas argued with
his cousin, Edward II that the population
were being over-taxed and had suffered a number of
famines, antipathy grew between the two.
By 1317 Alice seems to have been estranged
from her husband and was allegedly abducted [others
say she ran away of her own free will] from her castle at
Canford, Dorset, which she had gained through her mother Margaret
Longespee. The men who 'abducted' Alice included Richard
de St. Martin, a retainer of John de Warrene, 8th earl
Warrene, baron of Conisbrough and Sandal Magna castles.
Eubolo Le Strange was earl Warrene's squire and it seems that
Alice and Eubolo were adulterous before their marriage in 1324.
This scenario was most probably encouraged with the connivance
of Edward II. As a consequence, Thomas Earl of Lancaster laid
siege and took Sandal and Conisbrough Castles, burning
Sandal to the ground. After his defeat at Boroughbridge in
1322 and his subsequent trial in the Great Hall at Pontefract
Castle, Thomas was made to face Scotland before being beheaded
under the orders of King Edward II.
See Elland Feud and
The honour
of Pontefract
The Honour of Clitheroe
as part of the Duchy of Lancaster
possessed six manors :
* Ightenhill Manor [now
Gawthorpe Hall and Park]. Here a manor
house was built in the 1100's-1200's which today
exists only as a mound to the rear of Hill Farm
[Manor House or Smith's Cottages]. In 1200 Geoffrey
Towneley married a daughter of Roger 'Helle' de Laci,
when Geoffrey was granted land at Burnley by Roger.
Later the Towneley family of nearby Towneley Hall held
Ightenhill Park lands until about 1580 when Richard
Shuttleworth was granted a lease here. In 1290 Ightenhill
had a corn mill constructed and by 1294 Henry de Laci
[12th Lord of Clitheroe] had been granted, by his great
personal friend, Edward I, a charter for a weekly Tuesday
market and a three day annual fair both of which continue
today. By 1296 a fulling mill, using local fuller's earth
had been established on the banks of the river Brun, this
saw the beginning of cloth making in Lancashire. Henri de Laci's two sons died prematurely, one is reported to have
fallen down the main well of Denbigh Castle and the second
son to have fallen either from the parapet of Pontefract
Castle or from a window at Ightenhill manor house. Henri's
only surviving child and heiress, Alice de Laci married
Thomas Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster in 1294. Thomas
gained Ightenhill manor upon the death of Henri in 1311.
But by 1322 Thomas had been executed for his open rebellion
against Edward II. In October 1323 Edward II visited the
manor and spent a number of days here where he busied himself
with hearing pleas after the rebellion of Thomas of Lancaster. In
1333 Richard de Norton, one of King Edward III's archers was
the keeper of Ightenhill Park. Ightenhill Manor was bounded
by Colne and Accrington manors whose limits were marked with unusually
shaped stone boundary markers, ditches and dykes.
* Accrington
* Colne
* Pendleton
* Tottington
* Chatburn
* Worston
Ightenhill was perhaps
the most pre-eminent manor containing
eight vills :
Padiham
Briercliffe
Worsthorne - granted
to Oliver de Stansfield by Henry de Laci
for his services rendered as constable of Pontefract
Castle. Henry de Laci looked after Ightenhill
in King Edward's name.
Burnley [Bruneley]
Extwistle
Haberingham
Little Marsden.
Bellamy discussing Holt's
comments states 'Three names
and incidents "seeped into a legend centred
on South Yorkshire" through the Lacy families
possession of the honour of Clitheroe, the
Park of Ightenhill and various chases in Blackburnshire....there
were long established links between the
Lacy holdings in Lancashire and those in Yorkshire'
and as Holt puts it, the two county
holdings were connected by ' the road that never left the
Lacy territory'.
An author for the Geste
There is a reasonable speculation
that one of the Waleys of Burghwallis
and Newton Wallis was the author of the
Geste. It is proposed that [Sir]
Richard II Le Waleys of Burghwallis [first
baron Waleys d. >1336 who married
Eleanor, Robert Bruce's* widow i.e. King Robert
Bruce's step mother] wrote at least the some of the
fyttes of the Geste Later, Richard II Le Waleys son,
Stephen II Le Waleys is considered to have added or compiled the Geste
with the later fyttes concerning the prioress and Sir Roger de Doncastre
being added by his son-in-law, Sir Robert de Swillington, steward to John
of Gaunt at Pontefract Castle. The undying belief in
the goodness of 'Robyn Hode' and his fidelity
can really only be borne out of a personal knowledge
of a person who modelled for the ballad hero. The first
fytte is at great pains to repeat that Robyn was 'a good
outlaw'. That Robert Butler was a church clerk would
also offer some support for the Geste's
insistence that Robyn was dedicated to Mary Magdalene.
The Magdalene name appears as the dedication in Campsall
Church and the priory at Monk Bretton near Barnsley.
The author seems to have borrowed the name from one
or the other location. Thus what is proposed here is that the
Geste in its early stages underwent
an evolutionary process as the 'Robin Hood' tales still
undergo today. As prof. J.C. Holt has noted, later fyttes seem
to be grafted on. Evolution allows for survival. As with
the living world, organisms that do not evolve or change
to suit their surroundings become extinct. The stories
of Robin Hood survived because they constantly changed
or were added to, new adaptations produced an entirely
different beast to the original concept.The Waleys family also held Newton Wallis [Waleis] from 1159, a property with a moated manor house lying beside the water meadows of the left bank of the River Calder downstream from Castleford. The Waleys family had to travel between their two estates and to do this they passed from Newton Wallis by either of two routes :
1. Along Newton Lane towards where it connected with the Roman road, sometimes called Roman Ridge, between York and Doncaster. This Roman road has been given various names along its length. From Doncaster it was Roman Ridge, today, York Road, towards Barnsdale Bar, the Great North Road, from Barnsdale Bar it has been called Watling Street, today, Doncaster Road. From East Hardwick to the Aire meander it is Pontefract Road and then Lock Lane, a more modern name following the canalisation of the Aire. North beyond this point it becomes, anomalously, Barnsdale Road and continues with this name today as far north as the Allerton Bywater turnoff, beyond which it becomes Ridge Road. What is significant here is that it appears that the Waleys family were naming the road to their southern estate after the location of their Newton Wallis estate. This indicates that the family referred to their second estate in Burghwallis as 'Barnsdale', the very name which appears in the Geste.
2. A later route developed as a substantial highway after the late 1200's or early 1300's through Fairburn and Ferrybridge. As its name implies, Ferrybridge had been an early ferrying point downstream from the lowest fording point at Castleford. About the turn of the 13th century , the Waleys family could have taken the shorter and faster route by bridge across the Aire at Ferrybridge. The route would then follow this newly improved road through what is now Wentbridge, and which was probably only just developing as a hostelry/staging point, then on to Burghwallis in Barnsdale. The successor to the Waleys estates at the turn of the thirteenth century was none other than Sir Stephen I Le Waleys, cousin to Robert III Butler.
Ritson, in his Robin Hood makes a note regarding Leland's mention of Barnsdale [Itinerary, V.101]
" Along on the left honde, III miles of betwixt Milburne and Feribridge, i saw the woodd and most famous forest of Barnsdale, wher thay say that Robyn Hudde lyvid like an outlaw."
Now there is no place known by the name of Milburne but looking on John Speed's map of 1612 we see Milforth which today is the same place as [South] Milford. It is possible that Leland travelling from Milforth to Fairburn has conflated the two names as Milburne. This then would make the wood referred to as "Barnsdale" an area on both sides of the A162 just north of Brotherton. Here, today, there is a place called "The Dales" and the area is still well wooded. This was where Newton Lane from Newton Wallis met the road to Ferrybridge and would have been one of the routes for the Le Waleys to take south.. By the mid 1800's the area north of Brotherton had been extensively quarried for limestone, changing its sylvan character. Thus, hearsay was providing more 'factoids' with which the Elizabethans were muddying the waters.
.
Site of Newton Wallis 'Abbey'[Fr: ab-bé, a house surrounded by
water]. It became known as such because it was a fortified manor
house lying within the backwaters of the river Calder.
.
1850's map of Newton Wallis 'Abbey'
Sir Stephen I was born ~1245 and died at Newton Wallis [Waleis] sometime before 1301. He was thus familiar with route1. to 'Barnsdale' and was just becoming familiar with the new route 2. when his life was cut short. Sir Stephen's son Richard II Le Waleys would have been far more familiar with route 2. than his father for he died about thirty years after his father. If Sir Richard II did amplify and add to the Geste then he could well have added references to Wentbridge. Sir Richard II Le Waleys had shown his alliance to Thomas earl of Lancaster by his involvement in the Banastre Rebellion in 1315, and later fell foul of Edward when in 1320 he supported Thomas Earl of Lancaster against the King. John Bellamy suggests that King Edward II may have visited the nearby Campsall manor from the 5th to the 6th of November 1322 when Campsall was forfeited to the crown by Thomas earl of Lancaster.7, p80 If this is so then Edward may have also called in at Burghwallis, passing along the Great North Road, turning off at Skelbrooke for Burghwallis and Campsall. It was here at this turning that fairs with troubadours would gather for local festivities. We could perhaps envision the local populace merry-making at this junction with the procession of the king along the highway and local by-ways.
Thus for a while, Richard II Waleys lost Burghwallis, his precious 'Barnsdale' from 1322. But at the accession of Edward III [1327] under Isabella and Mortimer he had the 2000 mark fine imposed by Edward II cancelled. Certainly as a possible compiler of the Geste he could have added the veneration of King Edward [his regal reality being King Edward III] as the 'comely king' at this point. Was it here that Richard II Waleys eventually regained his 'Barnsdale'- Burghwallis from the King, a pardon in 'Barnsdale', not Sherwood, written into the Geste as Robyn Hode?
Burghwallis from the air.
A = Burghwallis Hall B = St. Helen's Church which contains a minstrel gallery.
It has been noted by others that the latter part of the Geste seems to be a later addition. Stephen II Le Waleys' son-in-law, Sir Robert de Swillington, steward to John of Gaunt at Pontefract Castle is the man with local knowledge at the right time to complete this. Robin's visits to Nottingham, Little John's stouch with the sheriff's butler and the death of Robin at the hands of the prioress of Kirklees are fyttes more concerned with places other than Barnsdale. The connection of the Waleys [Wallaces] to the Scots may explain why the Scottish also widely celebrated the ballads of Robyn Hode.
Stephen II was probably born about 1305 at Burghwallis and died 1347. This date will be familiar with Robin Hood researchers as the date given by Hunter and others for the death of Robin Hood. But was it the death year of the author/compiler of the Geste? Did Sir Stephen II Le Waleys [highly speculative], the suspected author/compiler of the Geste, not Robyn Hode, die in 1347? As we will see Stephen II had the opportunity to gain considerable material for the Geste from his wife's family as well as his own.It might also be noted here that Richard I Le Waleys father, Robert is recorded as dying in 1247, this too will be recognised as an alternative death date for 'Robin hood' as offered by the Scottish chronicler, John Major but is likely to be nothing more than a coincidence.
As mentioned above, Richard Le Tyas was known to have held lands in Burghwallis and Skellow in 1284 and 1319. His caput however was at Lede [Lead] near Saxton only 6 miles north of Newton Wallis, the Waleys and Tyas families would have undoubtably been well known to each other. As touched on above, in 1327 Edward III as a king in his nonage, under the influence of Isabella and Mortimer, had a fine of 2000 marks cancelled against Stephen II's father, Sir Richard II, which had been imposed by Edward II for Sir Richard's involvement with Thomas the earl of Lancaster. Does this too explain the lauding of 'Edward our comly king' in the Geste ? Certainly Edward III was much more popular than his father.
In July 1306 Edward I granted a third of the manor at farm in Hatfield Broad Oak priory to Eleanor le Waleys* but in 1307, the year of his accession, Edward II granted the manor to Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford and Essex. [Calendar Close Rolls, 1307–13, pp. 386-387.]
However, Humphrey was one of the baronial leaders who fought against Edward II and lost his life at Boroughbridge in 1322. After this his lands were forfeited and not regained by his son John until 1326.
In the next reign, according to a writ issued at Wells on the 25th December 1331, the dower lands of Eleanor, Sir Richard's wife at Writtle and Hatfield Regis, Essex were given to John de Bohun son of Humprey the earl of Hereford who had died at Boroughbridge. [Calendar Fine Rolls, 1327-1337, p.292.] This writ of 1331 indicates that Sir Richard and Eleanor were possibly out of favour with the king and that Edward III now saw fit for these lands to pass back into into the de Bohun family. * Eleanor had previously been the wife of Robert Bruce, father of King Robert Bruce, she was thus King Robert Bruce's stepmother..
In the time of Stephen I Waleys,1288, it was recorded that "his ancestors were seised from the time of King John of lands at Sibthorpe in Nottinghamshire". This would be lands granted to Robert Walensis, the seneschal of Pontefract and one time tandem sheriff of Yorkshire with Roger 'Helle' de Laci. The position of these lands to the east of Nottingham, the Fosse Way and Sherwood may explain why Nottingham was introduced into the Geste. Sir Stephen was, it seems, also familiar with this part of the medieval world. We find some eight miles SSW of Sibthorpe a village called Cropwell Butler. This manorial affix suggests that the Butler's of Skelbrooke also held lands east of Nottingham in the same area as the Waleys family. Six miles to the SE of Cropwell Butler lies Clipston where the king's of England had a hunting lodge within the forest of Sherwwod from at least the reign of King John *Clipston lies near the Fosse Way sometimes also called 'Watling Strete' between Leicester and Lincoln six miles to the south-east of Nottingham.
In 1330 Edward [later III] attacked his mother, Isabella and her lover, Roger de Mortimer whilst in their chambers at Nottingham Castle, when Edward seized power and took the throne for himself. Following this coup, Edward met with his supporters in the castle .We do know that later, in December 1345, Edward III did hunt at Clipston, his favourite residence in Nottinghamshire and that he took Sibthorpe Chapel under his special protection. If the compiler for the seventh fytte which mentions the meeting of Robyn with our 'comly king' was aware of this he may have replaced King Richard with Edward III. Local east Nottinghamshire folk tales would have circulated about meeting King Richard in Sherwood and thus this scene made an appearance in the Geste, but with King Edward III taking the place of King Richard. Edward III [r.1327-1377] was the king reigning in the latter half of Sir Stephen's life when we have suggested, from other relationships, that the Geste was first compiled. We are left with the thought that the Geste may have been substantially written by Sir Stephen II Le Waleys in memory of his predecessors childhood friend and cousin, Robert Butler of Skelbrooke and as we will see at least three other persons being an inspiration for the ballad.
The sceptic's evidence would lead us to think that the meeting of Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest never occurred and was but a romanticised folkloric invention which later came to be associated with the title of earl of Huntingdon through associations of the tale with persons who held that title.
Cropwell Butler, meaning 'Rounded hill', between the Vale of Belvoir and Nottingham, is named after a peaked or copped hill south of the village. In the Domesday Book it is recorded as Crophille [1086] and by 1265 Croppill Boteiller, the manorial addition is from the possession by the Butler family from the 1100's [A.D. Mills.]. A mile south of Cropwell Butler is strangely, Cropwell Bishop or Bishopcroppehill mentioned in 1280, the manorial affix is from the possession by the Archbishop of York! [A.D. Mills].Crophill Bishop being amongst the manors of the Archbishop of York, later given to Southwell Church and Lenton priory, raises the the possibility of a seed of antipathy between the two manors that would have developed from the 'pressing' of Robert Butler under orders from the Archbishop of York. It is possible that the Archbishop gained the manor from the Butlers as compensation for church losses after Robert Butler's death.
Sir Richard at the Lee
The first and second fyttes of the Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode concern the knight who, we are later told, is Sir Richard at the Lee.Various authors have tried to identify this ballad character with a real person. If we follow J.C. Holt's assurance that the Geste was essentially based upon intense geographic localisation, then we should not cast too far afield for a candidate or an inspiration. There are eight fyttes in the Geste, the fifth fytte reintroduces Sir Richard who provides shelter for Robyn and his men at his castle 'doubleditched about'. This is mirrored in a parrallel and real local occurence which occurred in 1272. Sir Richard Foliot at this time held Fenwick manor, which is a little to the east of 'Barnsdale'. Here a number of roguish rebels, namely Roger Godberd, Walter Ewyas and John D'Eyvile were pursued by the sheriff of Yorkshire's men to Sir Richard's castle at Fenwick. Foliot gave them shelter but was forced to surrender and gave his son [probably Jordan II Foliot] with assurances, that he would 'give himself up as a prisoner at York on an agreed date' [Bellamy p.33]. This, J.C. Holt notes, is similar to the goings on in fyttes five and six. But there is little to recommend this correlation until we realise that in real life Richard Foliot had a second residence, Jordan Castle near Grimston and Wellow, Nottinghamshire which Henry III permitted to be crenellated in 1264. Today, Grimston is marked on maps only as "Grimston Hill", east of Wellow. In Nottinghamshire Sir Richard was known as 'Lord of Grimston and Wellow' J.C. Holt sees it as significant that the Foliots who held Fenwick, [Walden] Stubbs and Norton [Went Valley], before the Hastings family, had these other holdings on the eastern margin of Sherwood Forest thus linking Sherwood with Barnsdale. By about 1320 the heiress of Fenwick, Margery Foliot, had married Sir Hugh Hastings, son of the Scottish Competitor. Thus if the author for this part of the Geste were writing in or after this time he would be intimating the Foliot residence at Grimston.
Thus the Foliots married into the Hastings and thereby Fenwick came into the hands of Sir Hugh Hastings d.1347. Sir Hugh was the son of one of the thirteen Competitors for the Scottish Crown, John I Hastings, who the great-great grandson of Ada Ceann mhor de Huntingdon, third and youngest daughter of Earl David de Huntingdon.
In the Geste it seems that the author here has transposed the activities at Fenwick to somewhere nearer Nottingham, perhaps Jordan Castle. Jordan Castle was rebuilt in stone in the 1200's and it is likely that an earlier wooden castle was sited here with a motte and bailey. The manor castle is now ploughed under and little remains but there is likely to have been this small motte and bailey castle on the hill above Wellow. What we find at Wellow is another 'ditch' which was erected by the residents around the village. A very unusual structure for a civil settlement in the Middle Ages. This may suggest a double ditched arrangement if Jordan Castle also possessed a moat. An embankment and ditch running through the present day village called George Dyke was erected by the villagers for protection. The bank and dyke at Wellow were built sometime after 1145-7 when the monks of the Cistercian Rievaulx Abbey in Yorkshire purchased the land for Rufforth Abbey nearby, whereafter the people so displaced established Wellow. For this reason Wellow does not appear in the Domesday Book. As a result of the land aquisitions the monks of Rufforth Abbey became unpopular with the villagers, somewhat reminiscent of the Geste's "These bisshoppes and these archebishoppes, Ye shall them bete and bynde". The likelihood remains that the two dykes or ditches, one at the castle and one at the village represent the 'double ditch' of Sir Richard's castle in the Geste.
There is a large difference between the two scenarios in terms of outcome. The Geste version has Robyn, and Sir Richard seeing off the Sheriff of Nottingham whilst the Fenwick conflict has Sir Richard Foliot and his 'guests' having to surrender to the Sheriff of Yorkshire [Roger de Estraneus]. In terms of literary borrowing there is no difference.
In reality
Sir Richard II Foliot held lands at
Cowesby [N. Yorks.] and as a tenant of the
Delaci family, Fenwick, Yorkshire [Holt p.98]
and Grimston, Nottinghamshire. In 1252
a Robert Foliot [a relative] et. al. was a witness
to a charter for John de Savile in Kirk Smeaton
and for rent at Skelbrooke. In 1268 Henry III granted
him a charter to hold a fair at Wellow [Wellhaugh].
Henry III also granted him a coat of arms: "de goulz ung
bend d'argent" [Roll of Arms Henry III] i.e. Gules a bend
argent. Sir Richard was a patron to St. Peter's Church,
Kirk Smeaton 1238-9, 1270-71 and 1289. By 1272 it was obvious that by sheltering Godberd, Ewyas and D'eyvile, supporters of the rebel Earl of Leicester, Simon de Montfort, that Sir Richard had changed his allegiance.
One other challenge the Geste has provided is that of the whereabouts of Sir Richard's lands, described as 'Verysdale'. If we can accept that Jordan castle near Wellow, was the scene for Sir Richard's Castle and the repulsion of the sheriff, then it might well be the phonetic, Wellhaughsdale [Wellowsdale] a name that would be used by the monks of nearby Rufford Abbey, as the nuns of Hampole called Barnsdale or the monks of Fountains Abbey called Fountainsdale. Independently, Jeffrey Stafford in an unpublished work has found a reference to a 'Ferresdale' in the Rufford Charters vol. 3 which he suggests is a phonetic variant of the 'Verysdale' in the Geste. Jeffrey includes the statement that this is found on the western bounds of Boughton, on the main road from Blyth to Nottingham and about a mile to the N.W. of Jordan's Castle. see Jeff Stafford's notes at : http://midgleywebpages.com/jeff_staff.pdf
In 1535, just
before the reformation,
the religious building at
Skelbrooke was listed as a 'chapel'.
In 1336 Skelbrooke Chapel
on the north side of the church,
then dedicated to St. John the Evangelist,
had a chantry built. A window
on the south side portrays a man's face
from the mid 1300's perhaps constructed
well after the death of Robert Butler
and shortly after the murder, in 1333,
of Edmund Butler*. The window thus appears
in the time of Edmund's widow Agnes of Skelbrooke manor who is
recorded as founding the chantry. Is this a
representation of the 'Green man' or the earliest
representation of Robin Hood's face,
set within a circlet surrounded by a swathe
of greenwood leaves imitating St. John the
Evangelist? *court case presided
over by by Henry de Percy and John de Eland.
Sir John de Eland was sheriff of Yorkshire in
1341 and steward of the Warrene estates
in the manor of Wakefield but was himself
murdered during the 'Elland Feud'
at
Brookfoot. In 1332 social glue was stretched and smeared in this part of the world when 'contrariants' escaped from Edward II's forces at Boroughbridge and entered the Barnsdale area. Prior to the 'pestilence' in 1346 the 'Battle of Neville's Cross had been fought and won by he English army under the control of Henry III's wife Phillipa of Hainault, lives were lost no doubt many from the North leading to disruption in society. Between 1347 and 1352 and particularly in England in 1348 and 1349, there was a serious loss of life from the bubonic plague, no less in the Barnsdale area. The orignal real person behind the Geste was lost, links were broken, families and society in general were disrupted, at least one local plague pit has been found. This lies in an area near the church of Mary Magdalene, Campsall. Local tradition says Robin married 'Maid Marion' in this church at Campsall. Of course no such person as Marion appears in the Geste, she appears to be a much later graft to the tales of Robin Hood, but we note that Robert III Butler [Robert Le Botiller] was married to Constance and that their likely place of marriage would have been at the family chapel of Skelbrooke or the larger Campsall Church.
If we can envisage the Geste being read in the household of the Wallaces of Burgh [Wallis] and the Butlers of Skelbrooke Hall during the 1300's [by which time Wentbridge and Edward II could be rolled into the narrative] then we are probably on the route to understanding the origins of the tales of Robin Hood which appeared in print by the middle of the 1400's.
Sources/References:
1. Baildon, W. P. Notes on the Early Saville Pedigree and the Butlers of Skellbrook and Kirk Sandal. Yorks. Arch. J. vol. 29, (1929)
HTML version by Chris Phillips additional notes by Dr. David Hepworth
2. Ellis A.S. Domesday Tenants Yorks. Arch. Journal, vol. v, p. 309; Pontefract Chartulary (Record Series, vol. 25)
3. Dobson R.B. & Taylor J. Rhymes of Robin Hood. University Pittsburgh Press.1976.
4. Harris P.V. The Truth About Robin Hood. Linneys. Mansfield.1952.
5. Rolle, Richard. The Pricke of Conscience (Stimulus Conscientiae), A. Asher & Co., Berlin.1863.
6. Gladwin, Irene. The Sheriff. Gollancz, London, 1974.p.108
7. Bellamy, John. Robin Hood an Historical Enquiry. Indiana Press, Bloomington.1985.
8. Holt J.C. Robin Hood. Thames & Hudson, London.1982.
9. Ibid. p.108
10. Listen to a modern English folk balladeer-supremo-Richard Thompson.
11. Whiting C.E. Rev. Prof., Excavations at Hampole Priory, 1937,Vol XXXIV part 2, Part 134 Yorkshire Arch. Journ. MCMXXIV, pp. 204-212.
12. Chambers, E.K. English Literature at the close of the Middle Ages. O.U.P. 1945.
13. The National Archives Currency Converter.
15. http://home.infionline.net/~ddisse/pastons.html
16. Hobsbawm, E.J. Bandits.Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969, ch III.
17. Roberts, Ian. Pontefract Castle. West Yorks. Arch. Soc. 1990. p13.
18. http://midgleywebpages.com/jeff_staff.pdf
Rufford Charters Vol 3. spelling given as Feresdale and Ferysdale.
19. 2000 Years of York : The Archaeological Story. York Archaeological Trust. Thornton & Pearson. 1999.
20. Phillips, D. and Heywood, B., Excavations at York Minster 1 : From Roman Fortress to Norman Cathedral. HMSO, London. 1995.
21. Harte, Jeremy. The Greenman. Pitkin Guide. Jarrold Publishing, 2005.
22. Butler, Lawrence. Sandal Castle Wakefield. Wakefield Historical Publications,1991, p.24.
23. Close Roll, 7 Edw. III, part 1, m 6d.
24. C.P.R. Edward III,1327-1330, p. 432.
25. Yorkshire Feet of Fines, 1327-1347, p. 74.
'HISTORY IS A SET OF LIES AGREED UPON' - NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
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