mortally wounded at the Castle of Burwell, which he had laid siege to. He was carried off by some of the Knights Templars, who, putting him in the habit of their order, carried his corpse into their orchard at the Old Temple. But as he died under sentence of excommunication, they would not give him Christian burial, but wrapping him up in lead (canali plumbeo inclusum) hung him up on a crooked tree. At length the sentence was taken off by the application of the Prior of Walden, to the Pope, and the Templars buried the body obscurely in the porch before the west door.

This haughty baron inherited above one hundred Manors, with the constableship of the tower of London. The Monks of Walden have taken care to embalm the memory of their munificent founder, and though they acknowledge him to have committed the greatest outrages, he was with them one of the bravest and best of men. "Erat enim vir militaris ac Deo devotus, cujus cordis "arca virtutibus nunquam erat vacua." He married Roisia de Vere, daughter of the Earl of Oxford, by whom (according to Dr. Stukeley) William Fitzooth was brought up, and he marrying their daughter, Joanna, became the father of Robert Fitzooth, commonly known as Robin Hood.* The sons of Geoffrey de Mandeville dying

The traditional bow of Robin Hood, (which is stated by Ritson to have been preserved with peculiar veneration) is in

without issue, the bulk of his possessions devolved to Henry de Bohun, in right of his wife, Matilda, sole daughter and heiress of Geoffery Fitz Piers, who was himself, through his wife, Beatrice de Say, representative and heir of the Mandevilles. Henry de Bohun, constable of England, was created Earl of Hereford, and was one of the Barons of Runnymede. He died in 1220, on his voyage to the Holy Land, and was succeeded by his son Humphrey, second Earl of Hereford, and Earl of Essex, and distinguished by the title of "The Good." By his marriage with Maude, daughter of the Earl of Eu, in Normandy, he had a son, Humphrey, who died before

possession of J. W. Ford, Esq., and would tax the strength of any modern archer to string it-to say nothing of drawing it with “a cloth-yard arrow" to the head.

Whatever exaggeration may attach to the stories of Robin Hood shooting an arrow 'a measured mile," there can be no doubt that the distances reached by the old bowmen were far beyond anything which modern skill or strength could approach. Drayton says that they used to shoot at marks full 800 yards, and the statute 33 Henry VIII. cap. 9, made it penal for any one who had reached the age of 24, to shoot at any less distance than 220 yards.

Strutt mentions that at the end of the last century he was at a meeting of the London Toxophilites, "in their ground near Bedford Square," when the Turkish Ambassador, who was present, complained of the shortness of the enclosure, and going out into the adjoining fields, he shot several arrows more than double the length of the archery ground," being above a quarter of a mile.

66

Counter Seal of Humphrey de Bohun,

4th Earl of Hereford, and 3rd Earl of Essex.

The principal shield in this seal bears azure-a bend argentcotised and between six lioncels or. On either side is a small shield charged with the arms of Mandeville, Earl of Essex- quarterly or. and gules-from which arrangement the usage of quartering is said to have been derived.

The de Bohun swan was a badge of the Mandevilles, who bore this device, along with the Nevilles, in token of their descent from a common ancestor Adam de Swanne, or Sweyn, a Dane.

Geoffrey Mandeville, Earl of Essex, was buried in the Temple Church, where may be seen his effigy, with a shield, on which his arms are sculptured-being the earliest instance known of a monument with an armorial bearing.

Gough's Sepulchral Monuments,-p. 104, Introd.

his father, leaving a son, Humphrey, who married Matilda, daughter of William de Fienles, and had one son, Humphrey de Bohun, who, in 1302, married Elizabeth Plantagenet, daughter of Edward I. The eminent position of the Bohun family at this time is apparent both from the alliance and the cause that led to it, as set forth in an important document, which states, that there having been great dissention between the King and the Earl's father, the peace and tranquillity of the realm might be secured by the proposed marriage.

5th Earl of Hereford, and 4th Earl of Essex.

Shortly after this event, he surrendered all his honours and lordships to the King, who granted them again to him and his heirs. His eldest son, John, succeeded him, who married Alice, daughter of the Earl of Arundel, and was succeeded by his brother Humphrey, who, in 1347 obtained the royal licence to fortify and embattle his manor houses in Essex, Middlesex, Wilts, and Gloucestershire; of these ten castles, one was at Enfield. His nephew, Humphrey, was the eleventh and last who bore that name. He died in 1372, leaving two daughters, Alianore and Mary de Bohun, the two most noble and wealthy heiresses in the realm. Alianore married Thomas de Woodstock, seventh son of Edward III., Earl of Buckingham and Essex, afterwards Duke of Gloucester, who was murdered at Calais by the command of his nephew Richard II., in 1397. "I was informed," (says Froissart)" that he was on the point of sitting down "to dinner; when the table had been laid and he was "about to wash his hands, four men rushed from an "adjoining chamber, and throwing a towel round his "neck, strangled him by two pulling at one end and two "the other. When he was quite dead they carried him

to his bed and undressed him, placing him between two "sheets, and covering him with a furred mantle, "gave out that he had died of a fit of apoplexy." His unfortunate widow survived her husband for a period of about two years, and was buried in St. Edmund's Chapel, in Westminster Abbey, according to the directions of her