On the outlaw trail again

In 1279 one Nicholas of Leicester came before the justices of common pleas at York, where he begged to be excused for his previous failure to appear. He had been summoned to answer one Denise, widow of William de Wath, who claimed some of his land in West Yorkshire.

This was a standard dispute, but Nicholas’s excuse is interesting. Translation from the Latin:

’And Nicholas says that the aforesaid default ought not to harm him. For he says that he, in coming here, was taken on Sunday next before the morrow of All Souls, between Muskham and Newerk in the county of Nottinghamshire on the royal street, by unknown robbers and went back as far as Sherwood, and there he was wounded, beaten and mistreated so much by the same men that he lay infirm on his bed throughout three weeks, in such a way that he could not move himself, nor come at his day. And that this is so, he seeks that it is be inquired into by the country. And Denise similarly. Therefore, the sheriff of Nottingham is ordered that he causes to come here in 15 days after Easter Day 12 men, etc, by whom, etc, and who not, etc, to give judgement in the aforesaid form, because both, etc.’

Now, Nicholas may have invented or exaggerated this tale, but the point is he thought it would convince the justices. They certainly took it seriously, and ordered the sheriff of Nottingham to hold enquiry.

Here, then, is proof that Sherwood Forest was considered a place of danger and ambush as late as 1279. This was over a decade after the end of the civil war in England, when Sherwood had been used as a refuge by bands of Montfortian rebels. It was clearly still a trouble spot.

Not long after, in 1306, we have the earliest references to Barnsdale in West Yorkshire as a notorious place of ambush. Barnsdale and Sherwood are (obviously) Robin Hood’s haunts in the early ballads - so you can see a legend forming before your eyes, in the dry records of the state.