Is Robin Hood Plausible?

Grimm,

I was citing "Men in Tights" as an example of Robin-gets-dispossessed-while-away versions of the tale.

"MiT" is a parody of "Prince of Thieves," which also has a dispossession plot, IIRC.
MiT is also about as historically accurate.

[I loved Jean-Luc Picard playing Sean Connery... - that should be enigmatic enough not to be a spoiler]
 
One of the facts that is slid over or romanticized is that Robin Hood [whoever He or They may be] was a Outlaw. IE. Outside the Law.
As such anyone who wanted could kill Him [for the Reward] with out worrying about consequences.**




**It is impossible to Murder a Outlaw.
 
I think the first question we need to answer is *which* Robin Hood we're talking about. The earliest sources for Robin Hood (as opposed to the various indiciduals identified more or less closely as "the" historical Robin Hood) paint a very different picture from the dispossessed noble of the Romantic imagination. He's a hearty fellow, that Robin, and quite uninhibited about injuring and killing folk he takes a dislike to. But that's atrait - like many of the early narratives - he shares with a number of other 'social bandit' type folk heroes (yes, that's a literary trope, too, and Hobsbawm fell for it).

So, is a poaching, robbing, locally well-connected outlaw plausible? Sure. It's even likely that 'Robin Hood' for some time was thought of as a a generic brand name for unimaginative bandits to adopt (robynhodesmen I think the phrase went).

As to the later embellishments, the dating in King Richard's day and such, probabnly not. The biggest problem is that the symbols Robin is associated with are those of a later rural military culture - that of the retained yeomen archer - while his aristocratic credentials are supposed to place him in thedays of the Plantagenet, and his still later Saxon identity in an Anglo-Norman context. Robin Hood as a brother in spirit to Hereward the Wake or fellow of William the Marshal works, but not clad in Lincoln Green and a champion archer and master of the quarterstaff. That's not the fault of the ballad tradition, though. That part of the legend is fairly consistent.
 
Back to the (bodkin) point...

Yes, in the 1940s the Lithuanians had a handful of Forest Brothers who kept on fighting Russian occupation...

Robin Hood seen as a Hereward the Wake figure is plausible and the idea of him being too noble to use a bow is just plain stupid. After all, Richard Coeur de Lion used a crossbow at Acre. As far back as the reign of 'King' William the Bastard, the Welsh archers were literally a PIA to Norman knights.:D

'They don't like it up 'em, sir, they don't like it up 'em!'

William did say that if England had had a dozen men like Hereward, he would have been unable to hold the country.

Looking at it from the point of view of being an outlaw in semi-wooded country, people outside Britain make the common mistake that a Royal Forest must be dense woodland. Not true. Many of the most famous were simply tracts of mainly open country in which the Forest Laws held sway and deer were protected. Forest Courts were as much about raising revenue for the Crown from easily-infringed laws as from deer protection.

Barnsleydale and Sherwood (Scirwudu) could thus be linked by open country. If Robin was a successful outlaw, then like a 1700s highwaymen he would need 'safe houses' and would probably share his plunder with them. However, where it gets really interesting is when you consider his objectives, for if he's fighting established authority he needs (like Robin) to have effective weapons. The small amount of iron or steel needed to make an anti-tank round of his day - the famous bodkin-point clothyard shaft - was easier to obtain than the steel needed for swords.

So....

An archery army with longbows plus pikemen a la Suisse, and you have a force that would have massacred mounted knights. Read the story of the old Swiss Confederacy's battles with the Habsburgs, and you'll see what pikes alone could achieve.

Robin Hood could have existed but the jump from woodlands outlaw to successful revolutionary government is a big one.

Give this TL a chance!
 

Stephen

Banned
In the oldest form of the tail he is a Yeomen in some dispute with the local authorities with no involvment of any named king. But there is nothing particularly ASB about even the most elaborate pre holywood versions of the tale. Although Friar Tuck and Maud Marrion seem to of been added later Little John is in the oldest forms of the tale and in a grave marke LJ which was acording to tradition his grave there was indeed an extremely large and sturdy femur.
 
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