Shooter's Hill festivals

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Shooter's Hill.

[[File:|thumb|right|500px|Shooters Hill / Paul Farmer, 1 Oct. 2011, Creative Commons, via Geograph.]]

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2013-08-11. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2018-06-01.

Henry VIII and his queen, Catherine of Aragon, accompanied by many lords and ladies, rode to Shooter's Hill, where they met with Robin Hood, Little John, Friar Tuck, and Maid Marian – impersonated respectively by Yay or Ghay, Thomas Wawen, Wynsberry, and Thomas Villiers – as well as two hundred members of the royal guard dressed as outlaws. The royal guards gave an archery exhibition, all 200 men shooting on cue, with arrows with whistle heads that produced a loud and impressive noise. 'Robin Hood' invited the royal couple into his arbour, feasting them on venison and wine. The royal and noble visitors were subsequently escorted back by Robin Hood and his company, being met en route by Ladies May and Flora in a rich chariot drawn by five horses, ridden by the ladies Humidite, Ver, Vegetive, Pleasant, and Sweet Odour – perhaps impersonated by the children of the chapel – who saluted the king with songs. Pasteboard giants were carried in procession on cars. This maying was witnessed by a large number of spectators. In the afternoon there was a horse race with the royal and noble riders dressed in cloth of gold and – appropriately on May Day – green velvet.

Allusions

Lists and gazetteers

• Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), p. 315.
• Lancashire, Ian, compil. Dramatic Texts and Records of Britain: a Chronological Topography to 1558 (Cambridge, 1984), No. 1385.
• Sussex, Lucy, compil. 'References to Robin Hood up to 1600', in: Knight, Stephen. Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw (Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1994), pp. 262-88,. p. 270.
• Wiles, David. The Early Plays of Robin Hood (Cambridge, 1981), Appendix I, p. 65.

Sources

• Stubbs, William, ed. Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I. and Edward II. (Rolls Series, vol. 76, pts. 1 & 2) (London, 1882-83), pt. 1, pp. 157, 267.

Studies and criticism

• Nielsen, Henrik Thiil. The Literary Evidence of the Gest of Robin Hood and the Origins of the Outlaw Tradition (M.A. thesis, University of Copenhagen, 1990), pp. 77, 93.

Background

• Wikipedia: Royal Borough of Greenwich
• Wikipedia: Shooter's Hill.

Also see

• 1309 - Anonymous - Annales Londonienses
• 1309 - Anonymous - Annales Paulini

Notes