![]() ![]() Kluger himself refers to Mark within the text as a “paragon” distinguished by “unalloyed goodness”. Kluger’s Mark (as he spells it) is not King John’s zealous and merciless enforcer, but a man guilty of no more than attempting to reconcile a scrupulous legalism with loyal service to a monarch who does not deserve him, and succeeds with hardly a moral compromise to his name. In 1992, Marc very surprisingly became a hero, the protagonist of Richard Kluger’s novel The Sheriff of Nottingham. ![]() However, it is impossible to establish the significance, if any, of these connections. The de Lovetot family appear to have been closely and perhaps corruptly involved in local politics, and have a number of potential connections to the Robin Hood legend – they were related to the Vavasour family into which the famous Marcher outlaw Fouke fitz Waryn married, and to the Fitzwalters, and to the Earls of Huntingdon. However, this connection also undermines the link to the Yorkshire Loxley, as the holdings of the de Ferrers family make it more likely that his name derived from a village of the same name in Staffordshire. He seems also to have gone by the name de Ferrers, meaning that he was probably a kinsman of the Montfortian rebel Robert de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, who has been proposed as a yet another original for Robin Hood. Robert de Loxley was associated with the Meveril family, who were able to call on the help of outlaws when they wanted to intimidate jurors. (It is worth contrasting with the Gest, in which Robin spends a lot of time in Yorkshire but never encounters a royal official outside Nottinghamshire.) Notably, when the Sheriff flees, it is “towards his house in Nottingham” – a considerable distance from Barnsdale on foot if the city is meant! “Nottingham” might here imply the whole shire or this episode might have been transposed from an originally more southerly location. However, it seems more likely that two originally separate strands of the tradition have been combined here. This has fed speculation that one of the men mentioned above must have been the “real” Sheriff – Lowdham has proven a popular choice, the argument being that he remained known as “the Sheriff of Nottingham” even after moving north (surely a stretch, especially since he had not in fact served as Sheriff of Nottinghamshire yet, only as Deputy). ![]() The 1473 folk play Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham adds no clues but in the ballad version of the same story, Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne (whose dating is contentious, but probably roughly contemporary with the play), we find the Sheriff hunting outlaws in Barnsdale – that is (despite the attempts of some Nottinghamshire partisans to identify it with Sherwood’s Bassetlaw) in Yorkshire. The mysterious “Hobbehod”, a Yorkshire outlaw identified by some as the original Robin Hood, was outlawed during de Lowdham’s term in office in York. (Theories connecting Robin Hood with the Lancastrian rebellion of 1322 have favoured de Fauconberg, who was in office at the time.) Eustace de Lowdham, Sheriff of Yorkshire 1225-26, served as Sheriff of Nottinghamshire 1232-33, having been Deputy Sheriff 1213-14, under the notorious Philip Marc. (Admittedly the eleventh century is much more sparsely documented than the later Middle Ages, leaving plenty of room for speculation.) The second was Henry de Fauconberg in 1329-30, having held office in each county separately for various earlier terms since 1318. The first was Hugh fitz Baldric in 1069-81, while the Sheriffs of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire were battling Hereward but although William Malet, Hugh’s predecessor as Sheriff of Yorkshire, did clash with Hereward, there is no record of Hugh himself facing any famous outlaws. Only two men held both shrievalties simultaneously. Like many early sources, it seems rooted more in Yorkshire than in Nottinghamshire (a subject for another time): the Sheriff’s base in Nottingham would seem anomalous if it were not so consistent across the tradition. The Little Gest of Robin Hood tells us little.
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