Wilikin of the Weald: the forgotten English hero
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be examining some “real Robin Hoods”. All of these men were true heroes of history. They were charismatic, ruthless, and all of them were common men fighting for justice. Some parallels to the Robin Hood story are stronger than others. Some of these men lived long after the time when the earliest Robin Hood ballads were set, but as you read their stories, it’s easy to see how they might have influenced the Robin Hood tales, or even the other way around.
For the first hero, I would like to introduce guest writer Michael Long, author and ammeter historian. So without further ado, let the story begin.
‘Wilikin of the Weald:’ the forgotten hero of English History
On a list of ‘bad’ Kings of England, King John ranks at the top. Despite recent attempts by historians to rehabilitate his reputation, by any measure of kingship, he was a failure. ‘Bad’ King John lost the vast Plantagenet-Angevin Empire forged by his father, Henry II, which stretched from the Scottish borders to the Pyrenees. He imposed punitive taxes at home, alienated both the English clergy and his Barons. Little wonder that the ‘English’ Barons rebelled against him resulting in the peace accord that was Magna Carta in 1215.
By the summer of 1216, John’s reign was in turmoil. He had lost the Crown lands in Normandy; two-thirds of his barons were in open revolt and worse still, England had been invaded by the armies of Prince Louis of France, the eldest son of the French King Phillip II.
The Dauphin, Louis had control of southern England with the support of the rebel English barons who sought the overthrow of King John. French armies ravaged the countryside south of the Trent. Villages were levelled, crops and buildings burned as the French invaders left a path of rape, pillage and destruction in their wake. From the ashes of disaster emerged one English hero, hailed in the contemporary chronicles as defender of English freedom from French aggression; a supporter of his King; a common man; a low-born nobody, William of Cassingham, known as ‘Wilikin of the Weald.’
This was an age when history was recorded for the prestige of the prominent men in society; Kings, nobles, the senior clergy and written not by historians but by patrons paid to complete the task. Thus it is not surprising that the common man did not feature. Not so for Wilikin of the Weald. He established his fearsome reputation fighting the French invaders in a guerilla war in the Wealden forests of Kent and Sussex. In the early thirteenth century, this extended from London southwards through Kent and Sussex to the channel coast and west towards the new Forest. It was an area heavily forested and sparsely populated, the Weald became the battlefield for Wilikin of the Weald attacking the French using skilled local huntsmen and their favoured hunting weapon, the English longbow.
The story of Wilikin is well documented in both English and contemporary French chronicles. The monk, Roger of Wendover, writing at St. Albans Abbey said that Wilikin gathered local 1000 archers and attacked the French army and supply columns when they moved through the Weald. Although the figure Roger of Wendover gives, of 1000 may be speculation it is clear that Wilikin knew the terrain of the Wealden forest and used this local knowledge to good effect, killing thousands of French according to Roger of Wendover. The French knights, with their heavy armour, would be ineffective in the forests, and narrow tracks whereas the archers Wilikin could deploy could adopt ‘hit-and-run tactics causing maximum damage before retreating into the woodland. Kentish and Sussex villages would have witnessed French foraging parties seizing animals, food and supplies; Prince Louis’s troops engaged in ‘ravaging;’ a policy of terror, killing, rape, theft, burning and torture towards non-combatants. There was no chivalry in their actions. It must be noted, however, that the mercenary soldiers King John employed often engaged in similar practices.
That Wilikin was successful is not in dispute for the French chronicles also record his presence. A monk from Bethune in northern France wrote in his Histoire des Ducs de Normandie, of Wilikins, “..noble prowess,” and how he was much feared and “renowned in the Dauphin’s army.” Thus it is no surprise that Wilikin was labelled an outlaw and a price placed on his head. It must not be assumed that Wilikin and his men behaved in a chivalrous manner. Wilikin too engaged in ruthless tactics. He had his men take no French prisoners; French soldiers who surrendered were immediately executed and beheaded; at this time, a French Chevalier (a knight on horseback) could expect to be ransomed if captured. Long before the concept of guerilla warfare was developed Wilikin, was formulating the tactics. He could not afford the men to guard, much less the food any prisoners would consume, so execution provided the solution as well as instilling terror into the French already fearful of the forest and the evil spirits which they believed resided there. The French had to follow the tracks and ancient routes that crisscrossed the Weald to get north from their supply bases on the Kentish coast.
It is dangerous for a historian to make assumptions but the fact that between 1216 and 1217, Wilikin and his men moved seamlessly through the dense Wealden landscape suggests that they possessed definite local knowledge of the forest and the tracks. This provided Wilikin with a significant tactical advantage against the French invader. His successes against the French were not just known for the writings of the chronicles but were known at the time. One month before his death in October 1216, King John sent a despatch to Wilikin thanking him for his loyal service and paying him for the military campaign against the French; Wilkins exploits were known at the highest levels in society.
Who then was this ‘freedom’ fighter, Wilikin of the Weald? The use of an alias fits with the guerilla war he was waging, though it is uncertain whether this was the name he used or whether it was given to him by the French. His real name was William of Cassingham, but the surname applies to the manor he received as a reward for his success. The evidence of his existence and his exploits are very real. He was a young man, perhaps under thirty-years-old, for Roger of Wendover describes him as, “ … a certain youth, a fighter and a loyalist.” That he was loyal to King John is certain, unusual at a time when two-thirds of all English Barons supported Prince Louis. Roger of Wendover also records that Wilikin “despised those who were not” loyal to the King.
His origins are unclear; he may have been a Brabant mercenary, from the low countries, whose men had a much sought after reputation for military skills, or the son of one of an English mother. The chronicles do show him as a foreigner rather as a loyal Englishman fighting for his King. Had he been foreign it is likely that Roger of Wendover would have said so. What is also uncertain is where he learned his guerrilla tactics though fighting in France for the lands of his Plantagenet King is the most likely answer. It is possible he learned such skills as a common soldier on Crusade, but that does not fit with Roger of Wendover’s description of him as being a “young” man. To have accompanied King Richard on the Third Crusade in 1190 he would have had to have been born around 1175 which would put him well into his forties by 1216.
Both King Henry II and Richard I used Brabanter mercenaries in their campaigns in Normandy and King John employed them as his preferred mercenaries in his war against the Barons. That Wilikin had such a familiarity with the forests and scrubland landscape of the Weald indicated local knowledge from growing up there. His military ability suggests experience in warfare, and the most likely candidate would be in the unsuccessful English defence of Normandy after 1204. Wilikin and his men were a highly effective mobile fighting force, who, most importantly had the support of the local villagers who provided refuge, supplies and intelligence for Wilikins resistance fighters against the French invader.
The author of the History of William Marshal, Englands premier knight of the period and Regent for John’s young son Henry III, wrote, “witness the deeds of Willikin of the Weald,” when it came to attacking the French.Nine-year-old Henry succeeded to the throne on John’s death in October 1216, with Marshall Regent and the power behind the throne. Wilikin swore loyalty to the new King and continued taking the fight to the French. By the autumn of 1216 Prince Louis held nearly sixty percent of England having laid siege to many of its principal castles.
In February 1217 Wilikin was responsible for attacks on the French forces around the English channel port of Winchelsea. Such had been the effect of Willikin of the Weald’s guerilla attacks on the French that Prince Louis had to seek reinforcements. To land these reinforcements coming from France, Louis needed to secure both Winchelsea and the neighbouring channel port of Rye. Louis had been obliged to lay siege to Dover and its castle, and now he was concerned that the route his siege engines had to take, took them straight through the Weald exposing them to surprise attacks from Wilikin and his men.
Louis’s army found it difficult to make the journey to Winchelsea having to fight his way to the coast, harried all the way by Wilikin and his men. Louis lost a significant part of his army in an ambush at Lewes and Wilikin, and his men pursued Louis army all the way to Winchelsea. Ragged and starving when they arrived in the port they found an English fleet in the Channel to deter the ships carrying reinforcements and Wilikin on their flank. Some French supply ships did make it into port, but, with his supply lines to the capital severed, Louis had to send out foraging parties to find more food. The forging knights were easy prey for Wilikin and his men, enhancing his reputation amongst the local population and at Court with William Marshall.
Attempts by the French to force their way through to the open roads that would take them to London met with little success. According to the chronicles, Wilikin’s men “ harassed them fiercely” killing more than 1000 French and summarily executing any found alive. Unable to break out of the stranglehold William had imposed Louis mounted a major sea expedition to rescue his forces.
Louis’ position was still strong. His French army was besieging Dover castle, and Louis planned to land his reinforcements there to assist with the siege. While Louis was trying to land his reinforcements at Dover, Wilikin and his men launched a surprise attack on the French camp, burning it and killing many French attackers. Prince Louis was forced to abandon his landings, and he sailed east seeking another landing spot. He chose Sandwich and in a furious rage at Wilikin’s actions he sacked and burned the town moving on the Hythe and Romney the next months which suffered a similar fate. Meanwhile, his army was penned in by William and his archers. By the spring of 1217, such was Wilikin’s repute that William Marshal gave him joint command, with Oliver Fitzroy, the bastard son of King John, of the English army outside Dover.
Forgotten by history, Wilikin was a tactical genius. Although he did succeed in landing his army on the Kent coast in 1217, Prince Louis’ forces were pinned down by the guerilla campaign waged by Wilikin and his men. Roger of Wendover recorded, “all the time they attacked and disrupted the enemy, and many thousands of Frenchmen were slain.” Wilikin’s use of terror unnerved the French, even though the region they were fighting in was ostensibly ‘friendly.’ The French army vastly outnumbered Williams archers but such was his reputation that French soldiers were afraid to venture onto the roads and tracks of the Weald.
By the summer of 1217 Louis’ army had been defeated by William Marshall in a decisive Battle at Lincoln and that August French reinforcements were destroyed by an English fleet in a decisive naval battle outside Sandwich. Louis was forced to make peace and retreated to France eventually becoming king in 1223 and the civil war in England ended as William Marshal reissued Magna Carta and the rebel lords came to terms with their new King.
The manor of Cassingham, where Wilikin/William lived after 1217 no longer exists, it is now the small hamlet of Kensham. The contemporary chronicles both English and French, record the actions of Wilikin/William of Cassingham rooting him firmly in the period and indisputably as a real person. That a man of non-noble birth could make such a significant impression on the chroniclers of both sides is a testimony to the reputation of William as Wiliken of the Weald. His contemporary reputation extended to the King and the nobility as evidenced by his being given the joint command at Dover. His lone stand against the foreign invader made him a national hero. His name was used to inspire; a common born soldiers fighting the foreign invader behind enemy lines. With the loss of the Plantagenet empire in France, this was a time of forging a national identity as William Marshal sought to do with his rallying cry at the Battle of Lincoln urging his men to “ defend our land.”
With the war at an end, William was rewarded with a pension, estates and royal offices in Essex and Kent including the Wardship of the Seven Hundreds of the Weald. With peace, there were no more battles for the name of Willikin of the Weald to feature in the Chronicles. He died in 1257 though his reputation and his legend lived on. Three hundred years later, the sixteenth-century Holinshed’s Chronicles, the basis for Shakespeare’s plays, called William of Cassingham, Wilikin of the Weald, “O Worthy man of English blood!”
