Richard at the Lee — The Indebted Knight

A courteous landholder driven to the edge by debt, Richard becomes one of Robin Hood’s most valuable respectable allies: a man with walls, servants and a legal identity the greenwood outlaws do not possess.

What Is Richard at the Lee Doing Now?

Richard is trying to recover financially without betraying the people who saved his household. He provides shelter, rumours and respectable introductions when he can, but every favour to Robin risks renewed scrutiny from officials and creditors.

Encounters

• The Seized Estate: Officers arrive with papers claiming Richard has defaulted again.
• Guest Right: Richard shelters someone the party has been paid to arrest.
• The Son’s Debt: A new accusation against Richard’s heir threatens to reopen the family’s ruin.

Personality

Courteous, proud and deeply conscious of obligation. Richard hates being treated as a charity case and repays loyalty with more loyalty than is always prudent.

Relationships

Robin Hood: benefactor and dangerous friend. The Sheriff: an authority Richard cannot openly defy without risking everything. His household: the reason he accepts humiliations he would never tolerate for himself alone.

Equipment

Warhorse, longsword, shield, good mail or plate, household retainers, a defensible hall, sealed property documents and whatever coin remains after creditors are paid.

Adventure Hooks

Richard is a bridge between outlaw adventures and respectable society. Use him when the party needs a castle door opened, a noble witness, a place to hide or a debt that cannot be solved by simply drawing swords.

Sir Richard is a nobleman, the lord of Verysdale. He appears as a sorrowful knight whose lands will be forfeited because he pledged them to an abbot to get a loan he can not repay; Robin assists him with the money. Later he gives Robin Hood and the Merry Men sanctuary from the Sheriff of Nottingham by hiding them in his castle, after they have nearly been caught in an archery tournament.

• Gender – Male
• Race Human
• Occupation – Knight
• Religion – 
• Allies – Robin Hood
• Enemies – 
• Abode/ Base of operations – Verysdale, England
• Nationality – Kingdom of England
• Alignment –
• Affiliation (s) –
• Significant others – 

In A Gest of Robyn Hode

Richard came from a long line of noble knights and was a courteous man indeed. He had inherited a great castle at the wooded village of Lee in Verysdale in which he resided; a castle fit for knights with thick fortified walls, surrounded by two ditches and with a drawbridge at the entrance.

Richard resided in this castle with a small group of loyal servants and he had a beautiful fair wife and a son whom, although a he was a wild spirit, Richard loved dearly. His son entered into a jousting contest and accidentally killed an opponent, a knight of Lancaster. The unfortunate heir to Verysdale was then immediately arrested by the High Sheriff. However, the Sheriff was open to bribes, and Richard was able to bail his son out of jail for the princely sum of forty thousand gold pieces before his son was executed.

Richard was down on his luck. Although he was a nobleman with his own lands, he had very little money at all. So in order to pay the sheriff’s bail and save his son’s life he loaned the money off the abbot. However what he didn’t realise was that the abbot was corrupt and in league with the sheriff. Richard had only a few short days to repay the loan, otherwise the sheriff and the abbot would claim his land and divide it up between themselves. These were the abbot’s terms and Richard had no choice but to accept them. Religious communities were often notorious for their greed, sleaze, lax morals and hypocritical lifestyles.

Meanwhile, in Barnsdale Forest, Robin Hood commands some of his merry men to prepare a feast fit for a king, and to the others he commands them to bring him a wealthy knight or noblemen to join him in his meal.

There passes a poor-looking knight with a sad expression, and they bring him to Robin Hood’s camp. He is treated with utmost respect and enjoys a fine banquet of deer, fowls of the river (fish), swans, pheasants, bread, and fine wine. After the meal Robin Hood asks the knight to pay for his meal. However the knight tells Robin that he is poor and has no more than ten silver pieces in his trunk.

Robin Hood tests the knight’s honesty. If there is no more than ten silver pieces in the trunk, as the knight says, then Robin will not touch a penny and indeed will financially assist the knight. However if the knight has lied then Robin will take everything the knight has. The merry men open up the trunk and indeed find it nearly empty.

So, finding the knight true, Robin listens to his entire story. This knight is Sir Richard of Verysdale; Robin feels sorry for him and Richard also seeing nobility and honesty in Robin the two men form a close bond of friendship. As Sir Richard is travelling to York to see the abbot that very day, Robin loans Richard the four hundred pounds needed to pay back the abbot and tells Richard that there is no obligation to pay it back in a hurry. And so Richard repays his loan to the abbot, and keeps his lands, courtesy of Robin Hood.

Related Places and People

• British Isles NPCs
• Nottingham
• Sherwood Forest
• Robin Hood
• Sheriff of Nottingham

Sources and Adaptation

Richard at the Lee is adapted from the Robin Hood ballad tradition as a living indebted knight whose household obligations make him a bridge between Sherwood’s outlaws and respectable society.

Rules Notes

The game statistics and campaign relationships on this page are original adaptations for the stated rules editions.