Was Robin Hood real? Probably not, but the legend could have been based on a real person.
Robin Hood has been made famous by the many movies that have been made about him. His story is legendary. In all of the modern stories, he is a lord and while he is away fighting in the crusades, his lands are taken by the Sheriff of Nottingham, who is empowered by Prince John (the man who becomes King John and who was forced to sign the Magna Carta when his barons revolted). Robin Hood goes on the run, becoming an outlaw and living with a band of vigilantes in Sherwood Forest before vanquishing the sheriff and marrying Maid Marian, usually in the presence of King Richard the Lionheart.
The first thing to look at is when the character of Robin Hood appeared. It is a tricky problem because Robin and all of the different spellings of it was a very common name in the Middle Ages. It could be a name in itself, or it could be a shorted form of the name Robert (Rob = Robbie = Robin). Hood was also a common family name and it could mean someone who made hoods, someone who sold hoods, or even just somebody who often wore a hood. Criminals were also made to wear hoods and “Hood” was a nickname for petty criminals. So, Robin could have been Robert and he could have made hoods, worn hoods, sold hoods, or been some kind of criminal. All of that, coupled with the fact that people didn’t keep records in the way or in the quantity that we do today, makes it very difficult to find any real Robin Hood.
The very first reference to a Robin Hood is in 1226. It is a court register from Yorkshire, England, and it records the seizure of the property of someone called Robert Hod, which is close enough to be Robin Hood. He had 32 shillings and 6 pence (roughly $2,800 today). The date 1226 was just before the sixth crusades, so it is possible that this Robert Hod could have been there, but it is 27 years after Richard the Lionheart and 10 years after John 1 had died. Other than the name, there is no connection between this person and the story of Robin Hood. And that is the case with all of the other Robin Hoods that pop up in the records.
There is a person who has several similarities to the Robin Hood story, but they are most likely just coincidences. A man called Roger Godberd. He was born in thee 1230s and he died in the 1290s. He follows his master into a rebellion and loses his property, forcing him to flee to Sherwood forest where he becomes a leader of men. He was arrested by Hugh Babington, the under-sheriff of Nottingham, but he escaped from prison. He became the leader of a band of outlaws through the 1270s, committing several crimes. His crimes ranged from burglary to murder, and even attacking an abbey for money. He was finally captured and sent to the Tower of London for trial. He was pardoned when Edward 1 returned from the 9th crusade. All of this has a lot in common with the Robin Hood we know, but there are also a lot of things that are not similar. Godberd sounds to have committed many more heinous crimes than Robin Hood was accused of and there is no real account of him giving any more to the poor.
The legend of Robin Hood was first written about in a poem called “Piers Plowman”, written in 1370, however, not much is told about him. The story doesn’t really take off until the 16th century, when a few different ballads are written about the adventures of Robin Hood. Some of the characters we know are there, but the giving to the poor is not. They do set him in Sherwood forest and set him in opposition to the sheriff. There is no Maid Marion yet. Maid Marion was actually the character in a different set of ballads and she was only added to the Robin Hood story in the 16th century. In 1601, “The Downfall and The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington” was published, which was a story about Robin Hood and it is this story which fixed Robin Hood in the time of Richard the Lionheart and King John. In the 18th century, there was a surge of interest in the classical and the medieval, and the story of Robin Hood was rehashed. The story keeps evolving and it is Walter Scott’s novel Ivanhoe that sets down the story we have today. It also made Robin Hood mainstream and started an interest in trying to find out who he was.
Robin Hood might have been a person. He might have been many people. Robin Hood might have just been a nickname given to outlaws. It is most likely that he was just a character in a story and things went from there. And this is what I learned today.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Godberd
https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/robin-hood
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Robin-Hood
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood
https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/robin-hood-real-myths-facts
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator