Sir Robert de Veer served as constable of Rockingham Castle, Northamptonshire and keeper of the surrounding royal forest in the early fourteenth century. When the king’s household was elsewhere, Rockingham became something very different under his watch.
Veer routinely sheltered outlaws and fugitives inside the castle—sometimes twenty or thirty men at a time—who slipped out at dawn or under the cover of darkness. To keep their presence hidden, he closed the main gates to locals and used a secondary concealed entrance instead. Even supply deliveries were tightly managed to keep outsiders away.
At the same time, Veer was under scrutiny for abusing the colour of his office. Veer confronted investigating justice William la Zouche on the highway, declaring:
“You wish to destroy me, but before I am destroyed I shall destroy all those who intend to destroy me, whatever their rank or estate may be.”
Veer also appears as a key figure in the notorious kidnapping of royal justice Richard Willoughby—an audacious scandal. He harboured the Folville brothers and the Coterel gang immediately afterwards, allowing the royal forest itself to become a host to the conspirators.
He was eventually brought before the courts as an accessory to the kidnapping, though his role was almost certainly central. But the case stalled: the principals could not be found, and without a determination against them, no judgment could be made against their accessories.
Veer was held in custody, then bailed, and—like the Folvilles and the Coterels—never truly brought to book.