Recordings & Info 144. Robin Hood & the Bishop of Hereford
[There are no known US or Canadian versions of this ballad.]
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 2338: Robin Hood and the Bishop (18 Listings)
Alternative Titles
Robin Hood and the Bishopp
Traditional Ballad Index: Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford [Child 144]
NAME: Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford [Child 144]
DESCRIPTION: The Bishop of Hereford enters Barnsdale and finds Robin Hood killing a deer. He tries to convince Robin Hood to come before the king. Robin refuses, gives the Bishop dinner, and then extracts the price -- several hundred pounds, plus a dance or a mass
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1670 (Forresters manuscript)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood hunting clergy money
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Child 144, "Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford" (2 texts)
Bronson 144, "Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford" (3 versions)
Leach, pp. 411-413, "Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford" (1 text)
OBB 120, "Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford" (1 text)
PBB 70, "Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford" (1 text)
DT 144, RHOODBSH*
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 39-43, "Robin Hood and the Bishopp" (1 text, longer than Child's text based on the garlands)
Roud #2338
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Robin Hood and the Bishop" (plot, lyrics)
NOTES: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. The notes to that ballad also detail some reasons why Robin might be particularly likely to pick on the Bishop of Hereford, who might (on this line of argument) have been Adam Orleton. who was bishop in the 1320s. This is one of several hints that this song, although seemingly late in form, may be based on older materials than most of the late Robin Hood ballads. The fact that Robin is here based in Barnsdale, not Sherwood, is another. Although the attestation for the ballad is late (first known from the Forresters manuscript of c. 1670, and first published in the Aldermary garland of c. 1750), the content give evidence of being early.
Another possibility for the Bishop of Hereford involved is John Stanbury, Bishop of Hereford from 1453 to 1474, or possibly one of his immediate predecessors. Stanbury was a member of the royal council of King Henry VI, and apparently attended it regularly; (Wolfe, p. 275).
The significance of this is indirect. Henry VI's inept government had lost all its territories in France, except Calais, in the 1440s and early 1450s (Seward, pp. 242-262). Plus Henry had let government finances go to ruin. The crown was technically bankrupt by the 1440s, and in 1450, the debt was equivalent to at least eleven years' income (Ross, p. 26).
By 1450, this resulted in the popular rising known as Jack Cade's Rebellion (Wagner, p. 133). And popular protests continued over the next decade. By 1461, Henry VI was overthrown.
What is interesting is that, in 1469, there was a rebel who was called Robin of Redesdale, who also called himself Robin Mend-All (Wagner, pp. 234-235). Scott/Duncan, p. 531, calls him an "avatar" of Robin Hood, This is a little deceptive; he was almost certainly a political agent operating on behalf of the Earl of Warwick. But the name does seem to suggest that he was trying to equate himself with Robin Hood.
And if a rebel of 1469 could allude to Robin Hood, so could an outlaw of (say) 1454. So it is just possible that the real Hereford of Henry VI's reign had a run-in with "Robin Hood" -- such things certainly happened in those lawless times, and an associate of Henry VI would be particularly vulnerable. We know, in fact, that the town of Hereford was captured by associates of the Duke of York (who was Henry VI's enemy and potential heir) in 1452 (WOlffe, pp. 303-304).
This is all pure speculation. I know of no instance of such a robbery in the 1450s. Nor have I any reason to think this ballad is historical. The pieces fit,but that's all we can say. - RBW
>>BIBLIOGRAPHY<<
Ross: Charles Ross, _The Wars of the Roses_, 1976 (I use the 1977 Thames and Hudson paperback edition)
Scott/Duncan: Sir Walter Scott, _Ivanhoe_, edited with an introduction by Ian Duncan, [Oxford] World Classics, 1996
Seward: Desmond Seward, _The Hundred Years War: The English in France, 1337-1453_, 1978 (I used the 1982 Atheneum paperback)
Wagner: John A. Wagner, _Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses_, ABC-Clio, 2001
Wolffe: Bertram Wolffe, _Henry VI_, 1981 (I use the 2001 paperback edition in the Yale English Monarch series with a new introduction by John L. Watts)