St Robert of Knaresborough
Robert was born around 1170, the son of ToukFloure (or Flower). Both his father and his brother became mayors of York, and Robert no doubt could have led a comfortable life. From childhood he was fascinated with the religious life and, after being ordained a sub-deacon, he went to the Cistercian monastery at Newminster (Northumberland). After only four and a half months he returned home for a few days before traveling to Knaresborough where he took up residence with a “hermit-knight” in the cave he would later make his own. When the knight departed, Robert took the patronage of Juliana, a widow living in Knaresborough, who gave him the chapel of St Hilda at Rudfarlington(Plompton) two miles south of Knaresborough. There he first developed a reputation as a wise and holy man who cared for the poor. Attacked by thieves he moved to Spofforth where his reputation grew so great he was overwhelmed by the crowds and retired to a priory at Hedley, near Tadcaster. His ascetic lifestyle did not fit in withthe small community whom he found too easy-going for his taste, so he returned to Rudfarlington.
His former patron Juliana enthusiastically welcomed his return and immediately began the restoration and extension of his former accommodation. She also gave Robert a small landholding for his needs and those of the poor whom he served, with four farm-labourers to assist in its cultivation. Now Robert seems to have recovered his true vocation: a life of solitary prayer interspersed with hard agricultural labour that allowed him to minister both materially and spiritually to the destitute and outcasts of society. This activity brought him into conflict with the Constable of the royal castle of Knaresborough, William de Stuteville, who accused Robert of harbouring thieves and fugitives from the law. He ordered Robert to quit the Forest and instructed his servants to destroy the newly built and extensive hermitage.Robert told Stuteville’s servants to “Go back to your lord and tell him that willy, nilly, my resting place will be next to his tower for ever. I am not in the least afraid either of his malice or his threats. Because the Lord is my protector I have no fear of what man may do to me!”
Robert sought refuge within the immense forest of Knaresborough. Having wandered along the banks of the Nidd he found the ideal place in a little cave (in what is now the Retail Park end of Abbey Road). Here he lived on barley-bread, herbs and wild roots, drinking only water. Every day he recited all 150 Psalms.
While out hunting, Sir William saw the smoke from Robert’s fire at the river bank. He decided to destroy the hermit’s shelter. That night he had a terrible dream that transformed his view of Robert, and the next morning he went to the cave, begged Robert’s forgiveness for his ill treatment, and provided him with land, oxen, horses and cows.
Robert’s reputation developed as someone committed to poverty and prayer, and as a befriender of the poor, especially those in prison, and a chronicler says of him:
To begge and brynge poor men of baile
This was hys purpose principale.
Miraculous powers were soon being attributed to Robert. He is said tohave had victorious encounters with goblins, evil spirits and the Devil himself. He is said to have healed the broken leg of one of his few companions, Ivo, with his touch.
A popular story concerns his complaining about the King’s deer eating his crops. Sir William, making fun of Robert, invitedhim to catch the offending beasts. Robert not only managed to herd the deer into his barn as if they were a tame flock of sheep, but also harnessed them to his plough and set them to work repaying the damage they had done. (The incident is recorded in a stained glass window in St. Matthew's, Morley, Derbyshire.) The story may have been seen as illustrating the supernatural power that God gives to his holy ones. It can also be regarded as about justice and the irresponsibility of those charged with its administration. As a traditional hermit Robert might have been a marginal man but as representing the new breed of recluses he was a bridge-builder between the powerful establishment and the powerless poor.
Such was the interest in Robert, that on 17th February 1216 King John, on his last visit to Knaresborough, accompanied by Brian deLisle, made a pilgrimage to the cave, by this time extended to form a chapel (of which the outline can still be seen). Robert, deep in prayer, refused to break off merely because the King had arrived. When he eventually rose from his knees he held out some ears of corn and reminded King John that he was powerless to create something so beautiful and simple. The King granted Robert 40 acres of landfor his work with the poor.
Two years later Robert died on 24th September, not long after foretelling that there would be a dispute over the burial of his body. When the monks came from Fountains Abbey to claim his corpse they were forced back by armed guards from the Castle, and so Robert was buried in Knaresborough, perhaps in the tomb cut out from the rock in front of his cave. From this tomb is said to have flowed healing oil; and St Robert’s Well became a popular pilgrimage place (identified by Arthur Kellett as the spring just off Manse Lane covered by an open well-head in 1980, adjacent to Monkswell Park).
In 1257, King John’s youngest son, Richard, Earl of Cornwall, granted to the Trinitarian Friars all the land his father had given to Robert. On part of this land, between Abbey Road and the river, they built the house of St Robert, creating the Friary/Priory of the Order of the Holy Trinity and of the Redemption of Captives in the Holy Land. From there the mendicant friars went out through the district – begging alms for the upkeep of the Priory, for the poor and for paying ransoms for Christian hostages captured in the Crusades.
Based on the work of Arthur Kellett and Frank Bottomley.