Much of folklore and mythology is just the creation of imaginative story tellers. Some, though, has a basis in real life figures and events. An example of the latter is the legend of Robin Hood, which draws on some actual medieval outlaws.
The Robin Hood We Know Is a Cleaned Up Version of the Original
One of England’s greatest folklore legends is about a selfless medieval outlaw who robbed the rich to help the poor. He also fought the Sheriff of Nottingham and the evil Prince John, and helped Richard the Lionheart regain his throne. Surprisingly, for a figure whose story revolved around stealing from the rich, Robin Hood first gained widespread popularity as a result of plays originally staged for the upper classes in Elizabethan England.
However, that Robin Hood had to get cleaned up from the version that had long circulated among the masses. The playwrights gentrified him from a commoner bandit. In his place, they substituted a nobleman to whom the well-heeled could better relate. Such gentrification can be traced to the playwright Anthony Mundy, who reinvented the outlaw as an aristocrat, Earl Robert of Huntington, who was wrongfully disinherited by his uncle. So he flees to Sherwood Forrest where he becomes an outlaw. He then meets and falls in love with Lady Marion, and kicks off the legend.
Variations of “Robin Hood” Were Common Nicknames for Criminals
It goes without saying that nobody performed all the noble deeds of derring-do ascribed to Robin Hood. However, there were plenty of outlaws, nearly all commoners, who gained a measure of popularity with the lower classes for thumbing their noses at the upper class oppressors. Indeed, in the medieval era, “Robinhood” or “Rabunhod” or “Robehod” were common nicknames for criminals. Many such variants appear in twelfth century court records.
However, those Robin Hoods were not the kinds of criminals who did what they did and robbed the rich – the most lucrative targets to rob – out of any high-brow motives. Instead, they committed their crimes for the mundane reasons that led most people into crime back then, and that still put people on the paths of criminality in the present. Even if we set aside that Robin Hood was probably just a generic period nickname for criminals, identifying the original Robin Hood, as seen below, is no easy task.
Candidates for the Real Robin Hood
In England, Robin was and remains a diminutive of the name Robert. Robert was a very common first name back then. Likewise, Hood was a common surname in medieval England. As a result, identifying just which criminals named Robin Hood or some variation thereof might have inspired the legend, is difficult. That explains in part why numerous candidates have been proposed over the years. The earliest of those is a Robert Hod of York. He became an outlaw after his goods, worth 32 shillings, were confiscated to settle a debt owed a local church.
Other candidates include the brothers Robert and John Deyville, who fought on the losing side in the Second Barons’ War (1264 – 1267). With their cause defeated, the Deyvilles holed up in the woods as outlaws, until the records show that John, at least, was pardoned. However, the likeliest candidate seems to be Roger Godberd, another figure who ended up on the losing side of the Second Barons’ War and became an outlaw. What is known of Godberd’s activities led some historians to label him as “the prototype Robin Hood”.
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Some Sources & Further Reading
Baldwin, David – Robin Hood: The English Outlaw Unmasked (2010)
History Halls – Myths and Realities: Were the Middle Ages Really as Drab as Depicted in Movies?
National Geographic History Magazine, February 5th, 2019 – Who Was the Real Robin Hood?
