To confuse the issue a gravestone reputed to be a copy of  Robin's grave from Kirklees is known from Loxley in Warwickshire, with a Lombardic style or fleuretty cross on the capping stone. This confusion is modern conflation par excellence redolent of some of England's finest story-tellers.
A very similar style grave cover was drawn by John Throsby from St. Anne's Well in Nottingham which could have been sold to the Nottingham tourist traders by the Armitage family of Kirklees.

Loxley village in Yorkshire lies on the River Loxley about three miles from the centre of present day Sheffield near the site of a Roman road from Doncaster to Chapel-en-le-Frith in Derbyshire ("the road to nowhere"). See The Last Eorl
A few miles to the west of Loxley is Hathersage, the reputed burial place of his second-in-command, "Little John". The Hathersage district has a number of places using the name "Robin Hood"- Robin Hood's Stoop, Robin Hood's Cross and Robin Hood's Cave. 

However, from more recent findings neither this Yorkshire Loxley, the Staffordshire Loxley nor the Loxley in Warwickshire are the site of one of Robyn's manor houses. The name has been changed as they say 'to protect the innocent' and has yet to be announced. When the present owner discovers his good fortune, he will be well pleased and 'Time Team' or their hopefully subsequent equivalent,  will have to spend more than three days sifting the soil.

See: Robin Hood Places

Huntington
The earl of Huntington's arms were described by Joseph Hunter as Gules, two bends, engrailed or. However Hunter appears to be using earlier sources (e.g. Ritson, Major et.al.) without question. If there were a coat of arms or an achievement then the arms would have evolved after the invasion of 1066, as such they were introduced by the Norman-French into England in Henry I's reign.. 

Further research has shown that in fact a coat of arms very similar to the one provided above is found in the family of a traditional adversary of the person styled 'Robin Hood', William Brewer, an early Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. The title earl of Huntington is used by Munday in his plays but whether this refers to an imaginary place of title or Huntington in Yorkshire, Huntington in Staffordshire, Huntingdon in Huntingdonshire/ Cambridgeshire or Huntingdon in Herefordshire/Worcestershire, is not apparent. The phonetic spelling of Huntington as written in Munday's plays and the ballad Robin Hood and Queen Katherine could easily have been originally spelled with a "d". However it seems to be common to spell Huntingdon as Huntington during the Tudor period.
According to one author, Robin Hood was the earl of Huntington whose true name was Robert Fitzooth (Filii Ooth, corrupted to Robin Hood) who was descended from a Gilbert de Gaunt, the earl of Ryme and Lindsey [Muschamps were his stewards]. Gilbert de Gand [Gaunt/Ghent] according to the Domesday Book, also held lands in the East Riding of Yorkshire at Humanby, Ricstorp & Wold Newton.

The 2nd earl Warrene had two children [some sources state six], William and Adeline. Adeline married Henry Canmore [Gaelic : Ceann mhor] or Henry de Huntingdon  [b. 1114, d. 1152] Prince of Scotland, earl of Northumbria and Huntingdon. Prince Henry's fifth child, David earl Lennox became the 2nd Earl of Huntingdon. One of Henry's grandchildren [Isabella Ceann mhor] married Robert de Bruis [Bruce] of Scotland. The title earl of Huntingdon was not lost to the [Ceann mhor] Canmores with David's death in 1219 at Yardley [Northamptonshire]  for his youngest child John Ceann mhor inherited the title. However with John's death, the Huntingdon honour was eventually broken up in 1245 when John Le Scot's wife died. Earl David was succeeded by two daughters, for his eldest son Robert, who some have equated with "Robin Hood" died at about the age of  thirty in 1221. Both Robert and John pre-deceased their two sisters, Ada and Isabella. The title could then have passed through Ada to the Hastings family but the title earl of Huntington was went into abeyance until granted to William Clinton [Fiennes] of Climpton, Oxfordshire by Edward III for his assistance against the Scots.
 

Arms of Fiennes:        Azure, three lions rampant or                 .

Thus the title earl of Huntingdon was taken from the Scottish line. Jean/John le Scot/Cean mhor, earl of Chester and Huntingdon was probably the the last in the Ceann mhor Scottish line to hold the title. Thus if there were a dispossesion of the earldom then this is where it definitely occurred. See: The Earls of Chester.

In the pedigree of the Scottish kings there is a Robert of Huntington [born before 1207 perhaps 1180]. He appears to be the eldest child of seven, of David Earl Lennox [2nd Earl Huntingdon]. This would appear to be Huntingdon in what is now Cambridgeshire but was then Huntingdonshire. Robert's mother was Mathilda [Maund/Maud] of Chester, Countess de Keveliock [Ceuelioc, Wales] whose father Hugh, was the earl of Chester. Coincidentally the first reference to the ballads of Robin Hood is titled 'Rymes of Robyn Hood and Randolf Erl of Chestre' Thus this Robert should have inherited the title "Earl Huntingdon" but because he pre-deceased his father he did not aquire the title. According to Fordun, Robert Ceann mhor died in infancy. Robert's younger brother Jean le Scot appears to have inherited the title "Earl of Huntingdon" as well as the earldom of Chester. Interestingly, the 6th child of David and Mathilda was Isabella Ceann mhor [FitzDavid] of Huntingdon who married Robert Bruce, 4th Lord of Annandale which led to the line of Bruces including the great Robert le Bruis I King of Scotland.[note: Bruis, like other titled Scottish family names is in fact French!#].

     Pedigree for the earls of Huntington*:

From the above pedigree it can also be noticed that Sir Henry de Hastings married into the Canmore [Gaelic: Ceann mhor or "bighead"] family which at that time lay claim to the title earl of Huntingdon, his line ostensibly could have succeeded to the title earl of Huntington but it was granted by Edward III in 1337 to William Fiennes for services offered in the Scottish Wars.
Later Lord William Hastings was the king's Captain of the Wool Staple at Calais [during Edward IV's reign] and was given the title Tyger Pursuviant of Calais. It is this tyger which sits on the Midgley achievement of arms and indicates a follower of Lord William Hastings created a peer by Edward IV on the battlefield of Towton in 1461. Edward the IV was of the Yorkist line, Lord Hastings his great friend and warrior in arms was beheaded in 1483 by another Yorkist, Richard III, following Edward IV's death.
See Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick

Not shown in the pedigree above is the fact that another son of Henry Prince of Scotland, Malcolm IV ["The Maiden"  reigned 1153-1165] was given the title of "The 6th earl of Huntingdon"⁴  Henry II had insisted that he surrender his claim to Northumbria in 1157 in return for a re-grant of the earldom of Huntingdon. Malcolm fought as an English baron in 1159 against the French and did homage to the English king in 1163. Between 1160 and 1164 Malcolm was busy suppressing rebellions in Scotland.

Even earlier, Maud [Matilda] of Huntingdon, had married David I, King of Scotland secondly but firstly, Simon de St. Liz an earl of Huntingdon. Maud was Waltheof  II's daughter who was created  earl of Huntington under William the I. Maud and Simon I  had a son Simon II who according to the map-maker John Speed inherited the title earl of Huntington [Speed uses the spelling in both ways] through his mother. Speed says that Maud's son, Henry Ceann mhor by David I of Scotland carried away the honour after the death of her husband Simon I from his half and elder brother. However Prince Henry pre-deceased his father, David I and by "mutability of fortune and favour of princes, dignity was again restored to the de Lizours [sic] and against the Scottish"³ So here again we have a case of dispossesion of the earldom of Huntingdon.
 

WHY HUNTINGTON?
From the above pedigree we may be able to see that Matilda of Northumberland was possibly born here at Huntington, Yorkshire. This may indicate that Waltheof's Court was here or nearby, outsideYork, Eorfwich or Euric. There also appears to be a hall of Waltheof's at the lost place of Hallam in South Yorkshire. 
Waltheof was an important Anglian leader from Northampton in Northumberland who due to his young age was superceeded as leader of the English by Harold Godwinson of Wessex whose son  led the English at the Battle of Hastings. Waltheof was later defeated by William I of England. The "Harrying of the North" between Tyne and Tees removed this warriors' army from contention when every male over the age of 15 was butchered for rebelling against the Norman invaders. Was this the origin for the Robin Hood dispossession of Munday's "Earl of Huntington", for Waltheof would appear to have been the Anglian Earl of Huntington in Yorkshire.

Huntington manor in North Yorkshire lies today in the N.E. outskirts of York city. York was the Primary Cathederal in England until William I moved this hierarchy to Canterbury under a Norman Bishop. Huntington Manor would have played an important part in  food production for the city and  guarded the northern approaches to the city wall and gate.  In the Domesday book of 1086 Huntington is referred to as Huntingdune [HVNTINGDVNE] but by 1579 Christopher Saxton has it spelled Huntington as does John Speed in 1610 who also distinguished Huntingdonshire as Huntingdonia. By Thomas Moule's time the spelling of Huntington in Yorkshire had retained its spelling of Huntington.
 
 
 
 

In the DB Huntingdune near York consisted of  two carucates and six bovates [taxable] and land for two ploughs which was held by Frithgestr & Arngrimr, [both Danish names] from King William I himself.
The DB also states that Thorketill & Thormothr [Danish Sokemen] held two manors of 5 carucates, taxable, with three ploughs possible. It is mentioned that "now Nigel [ Nigel de Fossard, under-tenant of Count of Mortain] has it from the Count [ the term Count is French] in lordship - half a plough, a priest & church, 8 villagers with one plough."
The whole manor was 7 furlongs by 7. The value had dropped as with other properties after "The Harrying of the North" from 20 shillings before 1066 to 12 shillings in 1086 or to put it into perspective, by 40%. See: Domesday Book Defined

Munday's plays The Death of Robert Earle of Huntington & The Downfall of Robert Earle of Huntington have striking correlations with persons in history.  These names are all associated with French-Norman family names in the North of England, indeed if Robin is a contraction of Robert then this is a particularly Norman name:

*Sir Hugh Lacy [Hugh Lacy Lord of the manor of Midgley] The de Lacis were granted large estates in Yorkshire.
*The Earl of Chester [Hugh Keveliock, Earl of Chester & his grandson Jean/John le Scot who also took the title Earl of Huntington]
*Lord Fitzwater [Fitzwalter]
*Sir Doncaster of Hothersfield [Huddersfield]
*Justice Warman [Warrene?]
*Earl of Leicester [Roger de Beaumont 1st earl Leicester married Isabel deVermandois] who married secondly, William 2nd earl de Warrene who held the manor of Wakefield]
*Hugh de Brun [Hugh le Brun married Maud de Albini dtr. of Duke of Norfolk, his daughter, Alice, married John 7th Earl Warrene]
*Henry de Burgh [Elizabeth de Burgh married Robert Bruce of Scotland in 1302]
*Aubrey de Vere [Joan de Vere entered the Warrene line by marrying William de Warrene who pre-deceased his father, dying in 1286]
*Bruce [Robert Bruce married into the Earl of Huntington generation]

Place names also have actual places in the North [line numbers refer to The Downfall of Robert Earle of Huntington by Munday]:

Sowtham [Southowram near Halifax], line 284
Hothersfield [Huddersfield], line 284
Wortley [South Yorkshire], line 284
Bairnsdale [Barnsdale], line 1282
Barnsley, line 1286
Rotheram [Rotherham], line 1292
Wakefield
Bawtrey [Bawtry] South Yorkshire, line 2496, a river port prior to fen draining in the 1700's.

In addition:
The Greenwood, lay near Heptonstall, West Yorkshire. [from which many local people take their surname] Guisborough in Cleveland which originally lay in Yorkshire, was once held by the Bruce family & according to John Bellamy was called Gisburne in the medieval period. [GISBVRGH in Christopher Saxton's map of 1579 and also in John Speed's map of 1610]. Certainly Munday could have used the name with slight modification. Guisborough became the seat of the Chaloners. See Stanley Page 

Whether Munday was using unknown ballads or other sources as well as the Geste is not known but there is certainly a good sprinkling of recognisable Yorkshire names along with his 'grene wode' mentioned many times. The Geste, which I can show was the original Robin Hood ballad, never mentions 'Shirewode' or even 'Sherwood'. This was a later addition to the Robin Hood ballads, again 'fact' has been constructed upon fallacy, the Geste author did not only have the forest of Sherwood in mind particularly when he penned his cryptic political song.
In addition Munday has Gilbert de Hood as Robert's uncle who is the Prior of York¹. Gilbert Hoode is also described in a play from 1600 as Robert's father²
In the late 1500's and early 1600's Huntington was the estate of the earls of Northumberland. The Percy's throughout the medieval period arguably possessed  as much power and baronage as the English kings and were a common source of irritation for the crown. The 9th earl, Henry Percy who was a Catholic was imprisoned in the Tower of London for his suspected role in the "Gunpowder Plot" in 1605.

Further recent research does not support the idea that Robyn was ever an an earl. However, I find that the man who modelled for the ballad character had some astounding connections which have yet to be announced.

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