Footnotes
1Roger Belers was murdered in 1326 in the field of Brokesby, Leicestershire. The incident was recorded in the Assize Rolls – Just1/470
2Each county in England was split into hundreds, which served as individual administrative areas. By 1326 each hundred had its own court. Ashby Folville, Twyford, and Reresby were all in the Leicester Hundred of East Goscote.
3The Outlaw’s Song of Trailbaston, Dobson & Taylor, Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw (Gloucester, 1989,) p.253
4Piers the Plowman, Langland, W., The Vision of Piers the Plowman; A Complete Edition of the B-Text (London,1987), Passus XIX, line 245, pp. 242-3
5Scattergood, J., ‘The Tale of Gamelyn: The Noble Robber as Provincial Hero,’ ed. C Meale, Readings in Medieval English Romance (Cambridge, 1994)
6The real-life steward of the Folville Manor at Ashby Folville was John de Sproxton. I have only made Robert de Folville the steward for the purposes of this story.
7Leyser, H., Medieval Women: A Social History of Women in England 450-1500, (London, 1995)
8Robin Hood and the Monk, Dobson & Taylor, Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw (Gloucester, 1989), p.113
9Bellamy, J., ‘The Coterel Gang: An Anatomy of a Band of Fourteenth Century Crime’, English Historical Review Vol. 79, (1964)
10Edmund de Ashby, sheriff of Leicestershire, was ordered to pursue and arrest Thomas and Eustace de Folville (with others) after they were indicted in the murder of Belers. Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1324-1327, p.250
11Nichols, ed., History and Antiquity of Leicester, Vol. 3, Part 1, p.389, p.96
12Hanawalt, B.A., Crime and Conflict in the English Communities 1330-1348 (London, 1979)
13A Song on the Times is recorded in the ‘Harley Manuscript’ No.913, folio 44. Wright, T., The Political Songs of England, From the Reign of King John to that of Edward II (Camden Society, First Series, Vol. 6, London, 1839)
14A Geste of Robyn Hode, Dobson & Taylor, Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw (Gloucester, 1989), p.112, stanza 456
15Robin Hood and the Potter, Dobson & Taylor, Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw (Gloucester, 1989), p.127, stanza 17
16Robin Hood and the Monk, Dobson & Taylor, Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw (Gloucester, 1989), p.117, stanza 22
17A Geste of Robyn Hode, Dobson & Taylor, Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw (Gloucester, 1989), p.79, stanza 10
18Sir Robert Ingram was sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire on four occasions between 1322 and 1334. Lists of Sheriffs for England and Wales from the earliest times to AD 1831 Preserved in the Public Record Office (List and Index Society 9, New York, 1963) p.102
19The most scandalous crime committed by the Folville and Coterel families in unison was the kidnap and ransom of the justice Sir Richard de Willoughby. This is this felony that I alluded to as the ‘future crime’ Mathilda becomes aware of the brothers plotting.