The Death of Robin Hood – an Analysis
But before then of a shot-windowe
Good Robin Hood he could glide,
Red Roger, with a grounden glave,
Thrust him through the milke-white side.
Take a look at the rest of this blog series here.
In an effort to place these ballads in some rough biographical order, I have saved The Death of Robin Hood for last. As with Gisborne, the Death exists in the Percy Folio but in a very poor state. Fortunately the story also survives in a 1786 garland called The English Archer. Modern reprintings of the ballad construct the narrative using both sources with the garland filling in the blanks in the Folio manuscript.
Robin, feeling a weakness in his arms, decides to go to Churchlees where his cousin the prioress, will bleed him. Will Scarlett warns him of a ‘good yeoman’ there who is sure to quarrel with him and advises Robin to take a hundred of his best bowmen. Robin refuses and brings only Little John for company.
On the way they come to a black water with a plank lain over it. An old woman is kneeling there, banning (lamenting) Robin Hood. She claims that she and other women are weeping for Robin’s body which ‘that this day must be let bloode’.
Robin and John arrive at Churchlees and the prioress bleeds Robin to the point of weakness. Sensing treachery, Robin blows his horn and Little John breaks in. ‘Red Roger’ also appears and he and Robin fight. Robin, despite his weakened state, manages to slay Roger.
The distraught Little John threatens to burn all Churchlees down but Robin stays his hand for he has never harmed a woman and is not about to start now. Instead, he tells John to fetch his bow. He shoots an arrow (presumably through the window) and tells John to bury him where it lands. Robin dies and is buried ‘within the fair Kirkleys’.
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The Passing of Robin Hood by N. C. Wyeth, 1917
It’s a confusing end to England’s greatest hero. The old woman banning at the water is a motif of Celtic origin which made it into the chivalric romances of the middle ages. She may be connected to the Irish banshee (bean sídhe); a female spectre whose wailing heralds the imminent death of whoever hears it.
Churchlees/Kirkleys is generally considered to be Kirklees in West Yorkshire although South Kirkby near Pontefract has also been put forward (1). At Kirklees the guesthouse of a medieval priory still stands as well as a grave which has long been associated with Robin Hood. The inscription on it reads;
Hear Underneath dis laitl Stean
Laz robert earl of Huntingtun
Ne’er arcir ver as hie sa geud
An pipl kauld im robin heud
Sick utlawz as hi an iz men
Vil england nivr si agen
Obiit 24 kal Dekembris 1247
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Nathanial Johnston’s 1665 sketch of ‘Robin Hood’s’ grave at Kirklees
The pseudo-archaic English suggests that the current monument may have replaced an earlier one. The 1569 chronicle of Richard Grafton and a sketch done by historian Nathanial Johnston in 1665 describe a very different stone engraved with a long cross and Hood’s name as well as that of William of Goldesborough, whoever he was (2). The current inscription may have been taken from the 1630 ballad A True Tale of Robin Hood by Martin Parker which gives the text as;
Decembris quarto die, 1198 : anno regni Richardii Primi 9.
Robert Earle of Huntington
Lies under this little stone
No archer was like him so good
His wildnesse named him Robbin Hood
Full thirteen yeares, and something more
These northern parts he vexed sore
Such out-lawes as he and his men
May England never know agen.
Robin Hood was first associated with the Earl of Huntington in Anthony Munday’s 1598 play The Downfall of Robert, Earl of Huntington. Nobody knows where Munday got this idea from or if it was just fantasy but the name has stuck and is often used in modern interpretations along with Locksley as the true name of Robin Hood.
The date of Robin’s death is also a matter of debate. The antiquarian Joseph Hunter found a Robert Hood of nearby Wakefield in the Wakefield court rolls and calculated his death to be 1347. That this is exactly a century after the date on the tomb could be a coincidence or a scribal error on the part of the one who carved the current inscription (if indeed they believed the person interred was Robert Hood of Wakefield). But then why call him Robert Earl of Huntington? Incidentally, the Earl of Huntington is a non-existent title. There have been earls of Huntingdon but none of them were called Robert.
Red Roger is most likely Roger of Doncaster from the Gest, mentioned in that ballad as the prioress’s lover. Why they both wished Robin ill is never explained. The Wakefield court rolls have a Roger de Doncaster living at nearby Crigglestone in 1327 (3).
No name is given for the treacherous prioress of Kirklees which makes the search for her identity even harder. Joseph Hunter suggested Elizabeth de Stainton (4). According to Hunter, the twelve-year-old Elizabeth and her sister Alice, were placed under the care of the nuns at Kirklees when their widowed mother married Hugh de Tutehill circa 1344. Elizabeth eventually became prioress of Kirklees although the date of her incumbency is unknown.
John Walker (5) claims that Hugh de Tutehill/Toothill had a daughter called Matilda who lived at Wakefield. One Matilda mentioned in the Wakefield court rolls is Matilda Hood, wife of Robert. But before we get carried away with the idea that Elizabeth de Stainton was Robert Hood’s sister in law, it must be said that we do not know Matilda Hood’s maiden name.
Stainton’s grave (which can still be seen) was discovered in the priory’s grounds in 1706. Unfortunately there is no date on it but, if she was around twelve-years-old in 1344 (as Hunter tells us), it is unlikely that she would have been the prioress a mere three years later when Robert Hood of Wakefield met his end.
There have been various lists of Kirklees’s prioresses but the dates of their tenures are debatable and there are many gaps in the line of succession. The mystery of the wicked prioress’s identity is perhaps an even more tightly locked secret than that of Robin Hood.
The original ballads of Robin Hood formed much of the basis for my latest novel – Lords of the Greenwood. I blended elements of the ballads with historical events and characters to present a realistic take on the character while attempting to remain true to the spirit of the legend. Check it out here.
Sources:
The Robin Hood Project at the University of Rochester has been invaluable in my research and is well worth a look at here. http://d.lib.rochester.edu/robin-hood
Read The Death of Robin Hood here.
David Hepworth. A Grave Tale in Robin Hood: Medieval and Post-Medieval, ed. by Helen Phillips (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2005)
W. Walker. The Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, vol xxxvi
Harris, P.V. Wakefield Manor Rolls, in: The Truth about Robin Hood. Mansfield, 1973.
Hunter, Joseph. South Yorkshire. 1831
John Walker. The True History of Robin Hood. 1973
