2-324-045 - www.picturethepast.org.uk/Nottingham City Council /Heritage Images

'Robin Hood's Death', c1900(?). Engraved illustration depicting the last moments of Robin Hood. The earliest version of this tale is a few verses at the end of the longest and one of the earliest ballads called A Gest of Robyn Hode although an earlier version of the full tale of Robin's death was found in the famous Percy folio. In the earlier version of the tale, after the Prioress bled Robin Hood (a common medical practice then), he was stabbed by her lover Sir Roger of Doncaster, or Red Roger. The well known tale of Robin launching his final arrow to mark his grave was not in the earlier version. In another ballad, A True Tale of Robin Hood, a friar is said to have killed Robin Hood, and in Robin Hood and the Valiant Knight, it is a monk who did the dirty deed. But the prioress is the oldest and longest lasting tradition of Robin Hood's death. The priory, which was supposed to have been the location of the event, has been called in various ballads Kyrkesly, Church Lees, Kirkly and even Bricklies or Bircklies. A gravestone can be found on the site of the old Kirklees priory in Yorkshire, almost certainly the intended location. The current stone is more recent than the first ballad references to it. This gravesite is on private property.