Robin Hood✦

A popular legendary figure since at least the 14th century,

Robin Hood is commonly believed to have been a master of
tricks and disguise, not to mention an accomplished archer
and singlestick fighter.

Although details of his life are vague, stories about ‘the merry
outlaw’ have long been recounted, added to and adapted through
the generations. In addition to his skills with a bow, the English say
that he robbed the rich to give to the poor. In early sources, he was
localized in Yorkshire, but is these days said to have come from the
Nottingham area.

The stories are usually set in the 1190s, with King Richard away on
crusade and his deceitful brother John left to rule in his absence.
The area of greenwood is generally taken to be Sherwood Forest in
Nottinghamshire, or Barnsdale near Wentbridge – although
Barnsdale in Rutland is also a possibility. Robin was said to be loyal
to the king, who pardoned him upon his return.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, he was promoted as Robin of

Loxley, the rightful earl of Huntingdon; later still, it was said that his
bloodline could be traced back to the 11th century and Waltheof,
earl of Northumberland. The idea of Robin as an impoverished earl
first appeared in Richard Grafton’s Chronicle at Large (1569), and
was expanded on in Anthony Minday’s plays (1598-9) and Martin
Parker’s ballad, A True Tale of Robin Hood (1632).

In his book, The Robin Hood Handbook (2006), Mike

Dixon-Kennedy claimed that Robin never actually set foot in the city
of Nottingham. The author also suggested that he was born in 1160
and died in 1247. However, none of the many and varied attempts
to offer an historical identity for him is particularly convincing – the
clues tend to be thin on the ground, and ‘Robert’ and ‘Hood’ were
both common medieval names. In addition to this, court records
discovered in the 1990s show that the nickname Robin Hood
attached to criminals between the 1260s and 1290s, leading one to
suspect that he was already a legend at this time. Perhaps, then, if
Robin was an actual person, he really was alive during the reigns of
Richard the Lionheart and John.

The earliest known references to Robin appear in William

Langland’s Piers Plowman (c.1377), in which a character says that
he knows the rhymes of Robin Hood. However, the earliest detailed
written source has been dated to about 1420.

✦What about Robin hood and Maid Marian?

His love interest, Maid Marian, was a 16th century addition to the
story (first mentioned by the poet, Alexander Barclay).

Robin Hood and Maid Marian were not linked in the earliest stories.
Maid Marian was a figure in the May Games festivities, possibly the
Queen of the May. A jolly fat Friar usually accompanied her in the
frolicsome plays and stories. She was often represented as a feisty
character and a skilled archer in her own right.

Robin also became associated with the May Games, forestry and
archery being important skills in medieval times. However, their
plays were usually different ones.

Anthony Munday brings Marian into his play, ‘The Downfall of

Robert Earl of Huntingdon’, in 1598. Her name is really Matilda,
daughter of the Earl of Fitzwalter, but she takes the name Marian
when she follows her love into the forest.
In a number of stories, Matilda, who is pursued by Prince John,
escapes his attentions by running away into the forest to join Robin
Hood and his men, as Maid Marian.

In the 16th century, ‘The ballad of Robin Hood and Maid Marian’,
Marian is a very capable swordswoman who disguises herself as a
page to flee to the forest to join Robin. When she meets up with
him, also in disguise, they do not recognize each other and fight on
equal terms for an hour before they realize who they are fighting.
“They drew out their swords, and to cutting they went,
At least an hour or more”.

Marian’s character has changed over the centuries according to

how women were perceived at the time. Victorian heroines were not
expected to be active but demure and modest. However, she has
stayed ‘noble born’ and nowadays, the feisty young woman,
participating to the full in the outlaws’ adventures, is favoured once
again.

His enemies were generally figures of authority such as the sheriff

of Nottingham and Guy of Gisborne.

✦Robin Hood and The Merry Men

Robin Hood’s gang of highwaymen (the Merry Men) were said to
have carried English longbows and dressed in Lincoln green. In The
Knight’s Tale, Chaucer wrote that Robin was most popular in
medieval times for robbery and for the killing of landowners –
especially Church landowners. Indeed, the ballads clearly have an
anti-clerical slant, and the one priest in his outfit, Friar Tuck, was
anything but spiritual.

During the Tudor period, Robin Hood and his Merry Men would
appear in May Day revels throughout southern England and the
Midlands, leading some folklorists to deduce that his roots lay in
popular paganism.
Gangs like the Merry Men were prominent in 13th century records.
They were usually large, powerful, well-organized bands of
criminals that flourished in a land without a police force. Markets
and fairs were particularly vulnerable to these medieval robbers,
just as the Robin Hood legend suggests.

Nevertheless, penalties for outlawry were severe in Anglo-Saxon

and Norman England. Property was seized and the bandit would be
pronounced outside the law and thenceforth ‘bore the wolf’s head’ –
meaning that anyone could hunt him down and kill him.

Legend has it that when he fell ill, Robin went to Kirkless Abbey,
Mirfield, Yorkshire, to have his blood let (a common medieval
healing technique) by the Prioress, where he was allowed to bleed
to death at the suggestion of Sir Roger of Doncaster – sometimes
said to be her lover.

As he lay dying, he is said to have called for his bow and arrow. He
shot an arrow through the window and asked to be buried at the
spot where it landed. It is possible to view his supposed tomb on
Saturday afternoons with permission from Kirklees Estate.

At first it bled the thick blood

And afterwards the thin

And well then wist good Robin Hood

Treason was there within.

Numerous rocks and barrows throughout England are named after

Robin Hood where tradition says that he lived. Various plays,
novels, films and children’s books also present him as a symbol of
gallantry, freedom and justice.
Whether he was a real historical figure that fought tyranny and
injustice will no doubt remain open to debate, however, he is an
enduring folk hero for many people throughout the world, and that
cannot be disputed.