Locksley

by Nicholas Chase

(Nicholas Chase was a pen name used by Anthony and Christopher Hyde).


Robert Godfrey Bouvier Atheling of Locksley assumes different identities including Robin Hood and Daniel Delore. The story is told from his perspective, a life that weaves through major historical events of the reign of King Richard I and King John, in a time of violence and political intrigue.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, British Literature

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 8, 1983

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Nicholas Chase is an alias for Anthony og Christopher Hyde.

Reviews

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an entirely different version of Robin Hood, even though all the familiar elements are there.

When the story is working, it’s a thrilling ride, but there are several points along the way when things plod along, and months, years, or even decades, will be summed up in a paragraph to move things from Point A to Point B.

It might have worked better if the book had been broken apart into a trilogy – clearly the author had several points in history he wanted to cover, but having the coronation of King Richard and the death of King John in one book means there’s going to be a lot of ground to cover, and some of it was a slog to get through.

We start off in the usual way, with Robin as an idealistic young nobleman, off to the Third Crusade for Glory, God, and the King. He’s there with his older brother, who has ‘dead man’ written all over him, and it’s only a matter of time before big brother gets killed in the Battle of Cyprus.

However, before they get to Cyprus, as they sail to the Middle East, Robin is introduced personally to King Richard, his indomitable mother Queen Eleanor, and King Richard’s new wife Berengaria. Robin gets a crash course in high level politics, and falls head over heels in love with Queen Berengaria.

After the elder brother dies in battle, King Richard decides to send Robin home at that point to tell the family about his promotion from “spare” to “heir” and to go spy on Prince John.

Robin gets home to an England that has become seriously effed up by Prince John – with the very personal touch of Robin discovering that the sheriff of Nottingham torched the family castle with Robin’s family trapped inside.

Luckily, his sister lived because she was off gallivanting at the time with her boyfriend, Little John. Her name? Marian. Interesting twist to make her his sister.

I’ve seen Marian’s character with a brother a lot, and sometimes making a love triangle out Robin-Marian-John happens, but this particular incarnation was new.

So, Robin flees to the forest, since the sheriff has declared him and his family outlaws. Marian wisely hides out in a nunnery. The sheriff is pressing her to marry his stepson (again, slightly different from the usual tale) and she’s using the old I-have-to-mourn-for-a-year! excuse to buy time.

Marian gives Robin a character reference to Little John, and Little John in turn introduces Robin to his gang of outlaws.

The sheriff suddenly dies of a cough, off stage, but his wife takes over, and turns out to be about 100 times as villainous, declaring all-out war on the locals for not turning over Robin Hood.

The ravaging and massacres get pretty bad, even by the Dark Ages standard, and Robin decides, well, all’s fair in love and war, and trains up the Merry Men into a pretty fierce and well-disciplined military group (sound familiar?) and begins bringing the war back to the soldiers, making some pretty pointed killings.

Then, that Christmas, he sneaks into Nottingham Castle for the feast.

Robin Hood gate crashing the sheriff’s party is pretty standard stuff for a typical version of the tale, but here, not only does he crash the party, he brings the Old Testament, all eye for an eye, and burns the castle down to the ground, and damn whoever was just there for the party. Ouch. Especially as the book pretty explicitly describes the screams, stampede for the door, and lords and ladies rolling around in the snow trying to put out burning silks and velvets…

And then time moves along quickly as Robin hustles Marian out of England to go hang out with Berengaria for safety in France and Robin concentrates on making sure the ransom money is delivered.

A bit of plodding to establish who the money is coming from and hwere it is going, the rip roaring action as Little John and Robin dash all over Europe to make sure the money stays safe.

Then Little John dies, saving a damsel in distress, and I was all, book, you and I are going to have some problems. How dare someone kill off my favorite Robin Hood character! It’s all very noble and he literally dies with the word “love” on his lips, but, damn, I was almost ready to just stop reading right there and then.

The king is safe, but at this point, Berengaria is tired off all the angst and drama so she strips down naked and throws herself into Robin’s arms, all, ‘take me, lover boy.’

So, with the heat still on in Sherwood, Robin sets up shop as a merchant in London under a fake name and uses it as an excuse to hop over to the Continent to visit Berengaria a lot, but also to try and amass a large fortune should the need ever arise.

Robin then settles down to a spell of buying, selling and trading goods across Europe and just in general making buckets of cash, ready to flee England with a go-bag if the heat ever gets real bad again.

He then takes a crash course in Investment Baking 101 from Jacob of London as well as gets into some theological debates that boil down to Robin acknowledging that Christians can do whatever the hell they want but Jews have to be good-good-good 24/7 –and still have a good chance of being thrown into someone’ Beltane fire.

The king dies, and here’s the next fun twist; Marian doesn’t feel like leaving the nunnery now that Little John is dead, while Berengaria is desperate to get out and actually have a life, so they switch identities. Not that hard when few people have actually seen you, and there’s no annoying digital file to erase, let alone a paper trial of identification.

So Robin ends up with a Marian, after all. He and Marian 2 live together, but she keeps up the fiction of being his sister, which really seemed unnecessary, and more of a risk than a caution, because nothing will get tongues wagging faster than the juicy gossip of insect.

Life plods along, with Robin occasionally stirring the pot of history, like the time he accidently gets the Magna Charta started, or when he murders John’s nephew on Queen Eleanor’s orders. (Lady, your own grandson? You sick f---)

Then, Robin has to sort things out between the Pope and King John to keep England on an even keel, what with that whole church closure episode when all the truly faithful has to suffer lack of religious service due to a lot of male chest thumping at the executive level.

And, after a lot of back and forth debating if loyalty is owned to the crown or to the person, Robin makes his final move of pawn to king and takes out King John.

This, however, seems to be too much even for him, so he runs to a priest for confession. The priest tells Robin, that, as penance, he must give up the-thing-he-loves-most.

So, what is his greatest love? Is it Marian 2, the woman he pined for over about two decades and the woman he now shares his heart, life, love, home and bed with?

NOPE.

It’s – wait for it – England! So he moves to Calais to spend the rest of his life looking morosely at the horizon.

On the one hand, yay he didn’t have to give up the person he loves?

But on the other hand, this whole choosing a lump of dirt over a flesh and blood person makes my blood kind of boil, because people do this All. The. Damned. Time. And it leads to things like martyrdom and massacres.

But on the, errr, third hand, he wouldn’t be Robin Hood if he didn’t choose England above all else. Otherwise, after the first time he did the robbing-the-rich thing, he would have picked up that bag of gold, grabbed Marian by the hand, and said: “Let’s go to southern France, babe, and buy a vineyard. With the current exchange rate, we’ll live like kings!”

(And if I was Marian, I’d say: “Cool, I’ll get the horses!”)

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded down. A well written book, but not really a Robin Hood novel. More a novel of kings, namely King Richard I and King John. No bad thing, and it does focus on a time period that intrigues me. But I’d have preferred more Sherwood Forest-based outlawry.

[Sverre · Rating 4 out of 5]

== The stage for a multifarious hero ==

A number of authors have written historical novel about the reigns of King Richard the Lionheart, his brother King John, their mother Queen Eleanor of Acquitaine. This was time when England gradually lost its foothold in northern France and Philip II, and later King Louis VIII, of France cast their eyes on even conquering England by hook or by crook. The barons of England were in constant revolt against their kings after the death of Henry II, Richard and John’s father. The barons devised the Magna Charta to attempt to limit the royal autocracy. John signed it reluctantly but he never took its “rule by law” seriously. Richard spearheaded a Crusade (the third), supposedly in liege with King Philip II but the two became intense rivals as Philip favoured John to rule England. Whether Richard was gay or bisexual has been open to debate but in this book author Chase presents the king as so averse to women that he never consummated his marriage to Queen Berengaria.

Chase has created an interesting character in Robin Atheling, Earl of Locksley. The narrative portrays the time period from 1190 to 1217. As the book progresses Atheling is portrayed as an opportunist whose loyalty is to his country and does not necessarily include the king. He manages to have kings, queens, archbishops, the pope, Jewish bankers and a band of outlaws in his confidence. He is presented as a brave knight, a destitute vagabond, the original Robin Hood rebel, an entrepreneurial merchant, a devious smuggler, a mastermind of deal-making and subterfuge, an adulterer and lover, and an opportunistic murderer. The dirt, the smells, the barbarisms, the persecutions and the fractious social relationships of this time period are well described. Chase is a masterful writer of the English language and he packs a lot of interesting narrative and dialogue into this medium-length book.

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really, really, really need to stop reading dreadful versions of Robin Hood. But it's kinda my thing, I guess.

In this one, Robin starts off as the "spare" to his brother Garth's "heir" until Garth is killed on the Third Crusade! Richard sends Robin back to England to keep an eye on John, who is starting a little rebellion in the country that Rich will only spend 6 months of his reign in. This is standard operating procedure for a Robin Hood legend... except Robin totally has the hots for Richard's wife Berengaria! (Later, nicknamed Gala, which is stupid). But this is sorta with Rich's blessing, because in this version (and in about 97% of Robin Hood legends) he's totally gay.

Turns out, Marian is Robin's sister in this legend, although she and Gala switch identities when Richard dies???????????? I don't even know you guys. This way Gala can stay with Robin and bang him any time she wants... even though she's pretending to be Marian??????? Marian, meanwhile, becomes a nun and forges a bunch of letters in Gala's name.

Also, if anything happens during John's reign, it's totally Robin's doing. I mean really. Anything. It's almost boring, really. He's never out of the picture, considering how much he claims to hate politics.

Urgh.

[Abigail G · Rating 3 out of 5]

A totally different take on Robin Hood than most others have read, though most of the familiar characters do play a part. This story covers a broader picture of England and Europe during the reigns of Richard and John rather than focusing on Sherwood and the Sheriff. There were a few places with adult content that made reading it less enjoyable.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really, really liked this one. The characters were sharply defined and interesting, the writing crisp, and the story an intriguing mix of bits I "knew" from other sources and bits I didn't. I wish the brothers had written more than just this one story!

[Kerry Hennigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If there was a real Robin Hood in 12th-13th century England, it’s easy to believe he was Robert Atheling a.k.a. Earl Locksley a.k.a. the outlaw Robin Hood.

Nicholas Chase’ venerable novel ‘Locksley’ is the very best version of the classic tale I’ve ever read, and it has lost nothing on re-reading many years after its publication.

Chase (actually a joint pseudonym for brothers Christopher and Anthony Hyde) loves his history, and he has incorporated the fictional tale of Robin into the actual history of Kings Richard and John, sons of Eleanor of Aquitaine.

In slotting Robin into the historical landscape, Chase has managed to reveal the fates of certain historical characters which the history books have failed to explain.

Robin’s intervention in the cause of English – and continental history, is in the cause of safeguarding his loved ones, his sister Marian and a young woman married to another man – Richard’s bride, the Princess Berengaria.

In addition we meet the outlaws of Sherwood, the Jewish money lenders of the City, the archbishops and even the Pope as Robin travels far and wide to do the bidding of one royal or another.

Always he is torn between the fate of his immortal soul and that of his family and friends.

The background, action, historical details and characters all ring with authenticity, even when they’re creations of Chase’ imagination.

THIS version of the Robin Hood story is one to keep for a return visit down through the years.

Kerry Hennigan
14 February 2017

[Chuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite version of the Robin Hood legend. In this he is the younger brother of the man intended to be the heir. The two brothers uncover a plot against King Richard. Marian is not Robin's love, but his sister who was the lover of Little John. Robin was appointed the protector of Berengaria of Navarre, King Richard the Lionheart's intended, and of course fell in love with and lived with her under the pretence that they were brother and sister.

The book follows Robin's life from the time of the Third Crusade, through his outlaw days in Sherwood and his years as a respected innkeeper in London.

Through it all, he serves both Richard and John. It is noted that a king owes the people who serve him the same degree of loyalty, as they give him. It is shown that this rarely happens.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always try to be fair in my reviews, but I have to admit that I am biased when it comes to this book. About twenty-eight years ago, I came across a copy of this book at a garage sale and I devoured it. It was perhaps the first historical fiction book that truly gave a "how it could have happened" view of the life of Robin Hood. This book weaves a spellbinding tale about the life and times. It is well written and easy to read. The last day and a half that I've spent going over it have been one of the best in a long time. If you liked the feel of Russel Crowe's Robin Hood, you will like the feel of this book. Although, you might not like this Robin Hood as much as classicly told stories, I find this one the most believable and deserving of being brought to the big screen.

[Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a shame this is such a little known work that one sees remaindered about the place and can pick up often enough for fifty cents. It's got nothing to do with the quality of this first rate retelling of the story of Robin Hood. Who knows why these things happen: publishers must err occasionally, I suppose. Or perhaps the author really is, as I've read somewhere, a pair of brothers writing under a joint and singular pseudonym, and they've fallen out! Don't tell anyone you read that here. Instead, put pressure on someone to dig it out for you from somewhere, at any cost. It's probably one of the most under-rated books of the last century. And who can resist dear old Robin!

[Peekablue · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably the most unique telling of the Robin Hood legend that I've read so far. It's told completely from Robin's perspective. It begins with Robin in the crusades. He ends up becoming a sort of undercover spy for Richard. Also, Marian is Robin's sister in this version...don't worry, for those who like romance, there's another lady love for Robin. I recommend this book for anyone interested in Robin Hood.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some creative placement in history, with added emphasis on John's reign, but ultimately not a Robin Hood book and some of the interactions with historical figures were not that believable.