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Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen. Robin Hood was one of the romantic heroes of ballads of the Middle Ages. He was portrayed as an outlaw (in those times the word "outlaw" didn't mean a criminal living outside the law, but someone who had become an outcast of society for a wrong committed against the King) who lived and poached in the royal forests of Sherwood, in Nottinghamshire, and Barnsdale, in Yorkshire. He robbed and killed those who represented the power of the government and the church, and he championed the cause of the needy and oppressed. His band of comrades included Little John, Will Scarlet, Will Stutely, Much the miller's son, and the romantic minstrel Alan-a-Dale. Robin Hood's chaplain and confessor was the fat and jovial Friar Tuck. Although scholars disagree as to whether Robin Hood is a historical figure, the original ballads contain valuable information on the ideas and social conditions of medieval England. The Robin Hood legends may have grown up about some actual victim of the harsh forest laws of old England. He is said to have lived from 1160 to 1247. Some accounts state that he was created earl of Huntingdon by Richard the Lion-Hearted. Most of the legends say that Robin Hood died at Kirklees Priory, in Yorkshire. Near the ruins of this priory is a grave with an inscription in 18th. century lettering. This grave is supposed to be that of Robin's. The epitaph (with modern spelling) reads: Here underneath this little stone Underneath is a statement that Robin died in 1247. Some believe the inscription is a copy from an earlier and genuine stone. Most scholars, however, doubt this. An argument against the hero's existence is the fact that no historian mentions him living during the time in which he is supposed to have lived. And if all the events referred to in the stories had actually happened he must have lived to be at least 150 years old. Whether he was real or only a legend is uncertain. One of the earliest records of a "Robin" is in the rustic plays given at Whitsuntide in France in the 13th century. The hero was called Robin des Bois (Robin of the Woods). An old English spelling of 'wood' was whode, which could easily have become hode, or hood. Robin also appears in 'The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman', written by William Langland about 1370, and his life is detailed, in verse, in 'A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode', by Wynkyn de Worde. This was probably compiled from earlier ballads towards the end of the 15th. century. According to Worde, Little John is not the giant outlaw we are familiar with, but merely a medium-sized Lytell John, meaning his family name was Lytell. 'A Lytell Geste' locates the band in Barnsdale, in Yorkshire, and this coincides with the area recorded in a Yorkshire pipe-roll of 1230 which mentioned an outlaw by the name of Robert Hood. In this fifteenth-century story, Robin's enemy, the Sheriff of Nottingham is said to be the King's representative, responsible for keeping law and order over an area stretching from Nottinghamshire and southern Yorkshire to the coast, and true to the modern legend, the Sheriff gets steamed up at the mere mention of Robin Hood's name. A ballad, 'Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne' appeared soon after 1750, and he also appears in two of Sir Walter Scott's novels, 'Ivanhoe', where he appeared as 'Locksley', and 'The Talisman'. Interesting as all this might be, it is no help in proving that Robin Hood ever existed, and is not merely a figment of someone's vivid imagination. By the nineteenth century, he was regarded as a mere invention of the medieval story tellers. There are historical records which mention possible candidates for the position of the leader of a merry band of outlaws. One is Robert Hood of Cirencester, an outlaw who was wanted for murder around the year 1213, and there is another Robin Hood who went to prison in 1354 for offences he committed in Rockingham Forest. Then again there is the record of a Robert Hode, an outlaw of York in 1225. But none of these candidates lived anywhere near Sherwood Forest, and none of them could handle a bow and arrow with any sort of expertise, and so are not serious contenders for the title. However, an English historian and Shakespearian scholar by the name of Joseph Hunter took upon himself the task of finding evidence that the famous outlaw had existed, just to prove that everybody else was wrong. Hunter delved into the catalogues of the Historic Documents Commission which covered 800 years of British history and, in 1852, he caused a furore among his fellow historians by announcing that Robin Hood had been a real flesh and blood individual. And what was more, he said he could prove it. Hunter had found the record of a boy named Robert Hood who was born in the town of Wakefield in Yorkshire between 1285 and 1295, his father being Adam Hood, a forester in the service of the Earl de Warenne, lord of the manor of Wakefield. In 1316 Robert Hood married Matilda, a girl with a criminal record. (She had been brought before a court for taking dry wood from an old oak tree, was found guilty and was fined twopence. She should have been a good girl and only picked up wood from the ground, which was perfectly legal.) Robert and Matilda bought a piece of Earl de Warenne's land for the sum of two shillings and built a house on it. It appears that Robert moved, for, according to another record, Robert's landlord in the year 1322 was Thomas Earl of Lancaster. The Earl had a life-long grudge against the king, Edward II, and called on all his tenants to join in his rebellion against King Edward. Thomas was confident in winning - this was his second fight with the king, and he had won the first one at Bannockburn. As Robert was a tenant of the nobleman he had to go into battle for him. The record says Robert Hood was very useful in the rebellion because of his amazing skill at archery. This second rebellion failed and the Earl of Lancaster was captured and beheaded for treason. The Earl's estates were then forfeited to the king and so Robert Hood and the other survivors of the failed insurrection became outlaws and fled for the cover of Barnsdale Forest in southern Yorkshire. The southern end of this forest adjoined Sherwood Forest So was Joseph Hunter right? Had he found positive proof of Robin's existence? No one can be sure. All the facts he uncovered fit in with the bare bones of the story of Robin Hood that we know and love. I'll leave you to make up your own mind. BILL HUTCHINGS |
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page last updated 12 OCTOBER 2002 |
Who was the Legendary Outlaw?
