Ever since watching Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman, the author loved the tales surrounding Robin Hood. While exaggerated, stories like these derive from historical events revealing a great deal about the people who wrote and enjoyed them. It tells us their heroes, what they viewed as just and what was evil.
Here, Jeb Smith tells us about Robin Hood.
Robin Hood with Sir Guy. From Bold Robin Hood and His Outlaw Band: Their Famous Exploits in Sherwood Forest by Louis Rhead.
The tales of Robin Hood demonstrate many stories adapted to their time period. As the culture changes so do their heroes. For example, the later tales written during the Reformation included a corrupt Church and local bishop, as reformers held the view that money had corrupted the Catholic Church. Later still, in the Prince of Thieves, we receive a far more secular Robin and the addition of the beloved Muslim character Azeem, played brilliantly by Morgan Freeman. Yet, despite his prayers towards Mecca and his abstinence from alcohol, his character is far more Christian than Muslim.
While the oldest manuscripts date from a couple of centuries later, the tales of Robin Hood seem to originate in England shortly after the Norman Conquest. The historical setting is usually between the 12th and 13th centuries, often during the Third Crusade. Some authors searching for the historical Robin Hood place the historical source between 1205-1282.[1] This period seems to fit the tales as successive kings following the Norman Conquest introduced hunting restrictions on the peasantry and reduced many peasants to serfs. Under the former Anglos-Saxon law, anyone could hunt in the forest for food, but William the Conqueror declared all forests property of the king.[2]Also, before the Norman conquest, the Sheriff of Nottingham was appointed by the king as a close vassal and friend, but after the conquest, bureaucracy took over and all the corruption came along with it. We see this reflected even in the fully developed modern Robin Hood where the sheriff is at odds with the king and raises taxation on the people. In addition, the bow was used by English outlaws in guerilla warfare against the superior Norman cavalry of the conquerors.
Origins
Robin was likely from nobility with oath-bound loyal followers under him.[3] It appears he was an aristocratic lord rebelling against foreign tyrant rulers. Thor Ewing wrote, "Robin commits rightful crimes against wrongful authority."[4]Robin Hood takes back what is rightfully the people's from the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham. Even though the sheriff is "the government," he is acting unlawfully by confiscating the people's money, so Robin and his followers are morally justified in resisting, and Robin is a hero for bravely doing so. Jesse Harasta wrote that originally Robin Hood was "a symbol of the strength of Saxon commoners to overcome their oppressors."[5] The original ballads also portray Robin as resisting a foreign occupier. Unlike our modern, more socialist Robin Hood, the medieval Robin Hood was reactionary, desiring a return to older customs. He is fighting to return things to how they were before the Norman Conquest.[6] "Steal from the rich, give to the poor" was not only not in the original ballads, but it also did not come into play until the 16th century. But even here, as in later editions, the "rich" was the corrupt government, and the "poor" were the unjustly taxed citizenry.
Roger Green presents us with a modern and "fully developed" Robin Hood, also placing the events after the Norman invasion.[7] However, even here, Robin and his men have sworn fealty to Richard the Lionheart, and they put into action "rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God," resisting Prince John and the Sheriff, who both are tyrannical rulers. Green wrote, "The new Norman earls and barons… treated the Saxons as mere slaves…serfs with no rights of their own."[8]
Resistance
The original problem was that Prince John was a cruel man who "needed money" and "the easiest way of getting it was to accuse some wealthy man of treason or lawbreaking. Make him an outlaw and seize his house or castle and all his goods."[9] The corrupt Prince John would target the old Saxon families and wealthy lord's lands, such as those of Robert of Locksley (Robin). Prince John would then distribute land, titles, and money to his faithful followers. In other words, the government stole private property and used it for political gain. In addition, he confiscated forests and forced serfs to starve without access to food supplies.
For resisting, Robin and his men were declared "traitors" who also drank to and toasted the rightful king Richard rather than the upstart prince John.[10] Robin and his men stayed true to their feudal oaths to Richard rather than blindly obey whoever was currently in power while the king was away. Robin was the wealthy lord of Locksley – a just feudal lord who protected his people from the oppressive actions of a ruler by resisting those actions. To the faithful lord Robin, prince John was not acting lawfully and assumed authority over the people he did not have. Robin would resist those Norman knights and barons who he declared "break both the king's law and the law of God in their cruelties and oppression."[11] Robin is a defender of old Anglo-Saxon law, tradition, and God's law, and he vowed to be an outlaw until "King Richard comes home from the crusade and there is justice once more in all this fair England." In one instance three youths were to be hung for violating the new hunting limits imposed on the people, and Robin says, "this is…but a cruel unlawful wickedness…are you free Englishmen?" Robin believed they were duty bound to stop tyranny and he stirred the crowds into condemning "all Normans."[12]
After Prince John took the "rebellious" Robin of Locksley's land, the aristocratic feudal lord Robin was elected king, and Maid Marian became "queen of Sherwood."[13] After being selected as King, Robin declared, "our first care is for justice and mercy and the love of God. And in this I hold that we commit no treason; when Richard comes home from the crusade, this reign of terror and of evil against which I fight will end. Cruel lawless John will oppress us no longer."[14] Will Scarlet said, "speak not of revenge, it is for justice that we fight."[15] Rather than a modern post-Marx hero, Robin seems to be a hero of his age, a defender of the people who faced a foreign ruler.
Conclusion
Robin did not rob from the rich but from corrupt rulers. He said he and his men were "outlaws, but not robbers" and "we declare war upon all of those thieves, robbers, extortioners…the false sheriff of Nottingham who so wickedly abuses his power.""[16] They took from the corrupt Norman barons, the true thieves, and gave their wealth back to the people who had it illegally taken from them. They especially sought out the "poor, the needy, the widow and the orphan, and all those who have suffered or are suffering wrong."[17]
Jeb Smith is the author of Missing Monarchy: What Americans Get Wrong About Monarchy, Democracy, Feudalism, And Liberty (Amazon US | Amazon UK) and Defending Dixie's Land: What Every American Should Know About The South And The Civil War (written under the name Isaac. C. Bishop) - Amazon US | Amazon UK
You can contact Jeb at jackson18611096@gmail.com
References
-Armstrong, Dorsey. n.d. "The Medieval World." The Medieval World the great courses.com. https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/medieval-world.
-Ewing, Thor, ed. 2020. The Original Robin Hood: Traditional Ballads and Plays, Including All Medieval Sources. Translated by Thor Ewing. N.p.: Welkin Books.
-Green, Roger L. 2010. The Adventures of Robin Hood. N.p.: Penguin Adult.
-Harasta, Jesse. 2013. Robin Hood The History And Folklore Of The English Legend. N.p.: Charles River Editors.
[1] (Ewing 2020)
[2] (Armstrong, n.d. The Medieval World Part One)
[3] (Ewing 2020, 36)
[4] (Ewing 2020, 40)
[5] (Harasta 2013)
[6] (Harasta 2013)
[7] (Green 2010, 12-17)
[8] (Green 2010, 1-2)
[9] (Green 2010, 8)
[10] (Green 2010, 17-19)
[11] (Green 2010, 23)
[12] (Green 2010,40)
[13] (Green 2010, 182 )
[14] (Green 2010,36-37)
[15] (Green 2010,16)
[16] (Green 2010,40)
[17] (Green 2010,40)
