PROOF IS IN THE COURT RECORDS
1. Robert Hood/Hode appears at Wakefield in the WCR for 1331 [fined for not attending the tourn]
2. Robert Hood of Newton appears at Thornes in 1331 ['unjustly taking and detaining a horse'], at Alverthorpe in the same year ['tresspass'] and at Alverthorpe again in the same year when Robert's cattle trampled John Couper's corn and rye in the field of Newton.
3. Robert Hode at Stanley is mentioned in the WCR in the same years as Roger De Doncaster of Crigglestone, 1327 & 1333 and also 1332.The 1333 entry at Stanley states that Robert's cattle trampled William Templer's corn. Later in the same year the case appears again but does not proceed 'for want of jurors', and later in the year Robert is fined 3 pence for the tresspass.
4. Robert Hode at Sowerby is fined for not attending.
Hood is a particularly Scottish name, it is considered that any one of these persons residing within the Wakefield Manor could have provided the name 'Robyn Hode' for use by the author/compiler of the Geste. The added allusion to a hooded villain as a parody of the character of the Geste would not have been lost on the compiler.
ยต Steward sometime when Alan De Nesse was Abbot of St. Mary's Abbey [1313-1329]. Sir John also held some land in Doncaster and nearby Bentley. He was entrusted with the stewardship of the Warrene lands between February 1323 and April 1324 which were then held by King Edward II [after Earl Thomas had taken them in 1317 and lost all to the king in 1322].
It is speculated here that either John or his nephew Roger, as members of this family, were the basis of Sir Roger De Doncastre of the Geste, designed by a ballad-muse or minstrel. This ballad-muse is described elsewhere as a member of the Le Waleys family of Burgh Wallis, South Yorkshire. We do find a minstrel, Nicholas De Doncaster, acting as a trumpeter to Earl Warrene§ and King Edward I's accounts mention payments to him for services in 1303 for 25th February, 12th June, 15th May, 26th April, and 23rd March..6 Nicholas is sometimes mentioned with Adam De Cliderhou [Clitheroe] the King's harper.
§ Note: This was John the seventh Earl Warrene and Surrey [1231-1304]. Because his father died when John [really a Plantagenet through his grandfather Hamelyn] was eight, his mother Matilda held the estates until later. He became a ward of Henry III as a result of his father's early death when he was 9 years of age. John Warrene 7th Earl married Alice [Alicia] de Lusignan [de Brun] d. 9th February 1255, they had a son, William and two daughters. Henry III's half sister.
John De Warrene became involved in a vitriolic land dispute with Henri de Laci of Pontefract in 1268. The 7th earl was issued with a writ along with may other barons by the king, Quo warranto? [Who Holds?], in which it was demanded by what authority he held his estates. The earl is said to have drawn the first earl's sword and replied " Gladoi riri, gladio teneo, gladio tenedo" or " I gained it by the sword, I hold it by the sword, I will keep it by the sword". Both barons assembled their armies but Henry III intervened to prevent the situation leading to war.
It was John the 7th Earl of Warren who built the stone castle of Sandal Magna, from 1240, making it the chief seat of the manor1 An earlier wooden motte and bailey had been built soon after the conquest.
Warrenes V's the De Lacis
The question might arise as to why a ballad-muse would introduce such a nefarious anti-hero with such a specific surname that seems to have been locally common in this medieval period. The answer may lie in the continuing feud between the De Lacis of Pontefract and their enemies the De Warrenes who held Sandal Castle and the Wakefield Manor. What better way of scandalising one of your enemies greatest supporters than by immortalising him as an evil-doer in a ballad. John De Doncaster as steward had in practice, control of the Warrene's Wakefield Manor, for most of the year. The earl of Warrene would only visit his Northern domains on circuit perhaps no more than a fortnight every six months.11 We know that the Le Waleys family* supported both the De Lacis and after 1311, Thomas Earl of Lancaster who married the De Laci heiress, Alice. Even after Thomas's death in 1322, the Le Waleys would have had strong feelings of enmity towards the stewards of the Wakefield Manor. Memories of John De Doncaster and the De Doncaster family particularly from the time of 1317 when the Warrene castles were attacked in reponse to Alice De Lacis apparent abduction by earl Warrene's men would have been high in the mind of the any compiler in the De Laci camp. It is speculated that the later fyttes that refer to the prioress and her lover were added by someone after Stephen II Le Waleys' death in 1347. A contender for this could be Sir Robert de Swillington, Stephen II's son-in-law and steward to John of Gaunt at Pontefract castle. The rivalry appears to have boiled again later, when, as described in the popular local drama, "Revenge upon Revenge", later described as the Elland Feud a steward of the Wakefield Manor, Sir John De Elland, was murdered along with his son.
