In the reign of Henry II (1154-1189), Richard I (1189-1199) and John (1199-1216), all of Nottinghamshire north and west of the Trent was subject to forest law.
In fact this area extended into Derbyshire as far as the River Derwent.
All of that combined area of forest was at that time under the control of Maud De Caux as hereditary keeper of the forests of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire (see Women Keepers of Sherwood Forest entry for more details)
This is the period that nowadays we most readily associate with Robin Hood.
All of that combined area of forest was at that time under the control of Maud De Caux as hereditary keeper of the forests of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire (see Women Keepers of Sherwood Forest entry for more details)
This is the period that nowadays we most readily associate with Robin Hood.
This large expansion of forest law under the Angevin kings (see Timeline of Medieval Kings for more details) proved very unpopular.
In 1215 King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta- the Great Charter
Pressure to reduce the extent of the forest led to the inclusion of Forest Clauses in the great charter.
King John was not happy however and he quickly dismissed Magna Carta and went on the attack.
In 1216 King John died at Newark Castle (Nottinghamshire) having lost the crown jewels in the Wash.
Many barons had backed Louis heir to the throne of France- he was crowned King Louis in Westminster.
However the great warrior of the age William Marshal (more soon) forced the barons to fall in behind Johns 9 year old son, who was crowned Henry III in 1216.
Louis returned to France no longer king of England.
In 1217 a separate Charter of the Forest was created- underlining the importance of the Forest law in the Kingdom of England(more to come soon)
The Forest Charter of 1217 aimed at the reduction of the area of land subject to Forest Law.
Between 1218 and 1227 a number of perambulations of the forest boundary took place (these will be discussed further soon).
Eventually the boundary of Sherwood Forest was set for the remainder of the medieval period.
The boundary from the 13th century onwards was from the River Trent in the south to the River Meden in the north, and from the Doverbeck and the King's highway (now the A614 roughly see the Road to York entry) in the east to River Leen in the West (see oldest known boundary for other boundaries over time).
(See the Landscape page for information about the landscape of Sherwood Forest within this boundary)
