Robin Hood performs will have to be banned, wrote an consultant to King Henry VIII in 1536 – they had been, he argued, instructing the general public the best way to defy the king’s officials. It used to be principally the medieval identical of saying video video games make youngsters violent, a part of a longstanding motion to prohibit performances and stories of Robin Hood. This hero used to be in reality a villain, those medieval campaigners complained.
A brand new movie out the next day to come, The Loss of life of Robin Hood, echoes this declare. Set within the some distance north of England within the yr 1247, the movie sees a wounded Robin Hood (Hugh Jackman), a “wicked and murderous bandit”, mirror on his lifetime of crime. “He was no hero,” claims the movie’s tagline.
IMDB
However in our time of cost-of-living crises and emerging authoritarianism, do we’d like a villainous Robin Hood? One Reddit remark summed it up effectively: “Not sure I love the idea of tearing down a folk hero who fought against wealth inequality and greed from upper classes in the current era we’re in. Feels pretty tone deaf.”
The optics aren’t nice. This hero-to-villain recasting comes within the wake of Jackman’s efficiency at Rupert Murdoch’s ninety fifth birthday previous this yr, attended by way of individuals of the Trump circle of relatives.
However do the movie’s claims about Robin Hood’s villainous origins even stack up? What’s the fact in the back of the legend?
The historical past of Robin Hood
We first see literary references to Robin Hood within the 1370s, when poet William Langland wrote that rhymes and romances of Robin Hood had been shared in taverns. Quickly after, round 1405, a literary statement at the Ten Commandments, framed as a dialog between a wealthy guy and a deficient guy, complained that folks would relatively pass to the pub to listen to a story of Robin Hood than attend church services and products.
The earliest recognized Robin Hood narrative survives inside a essential supply that rubbishes Robin’s standard enchantment: Scotichronicon, compiled within the 1440s by way of Scottish abbot Walter Bower. The chronicle used to be a rejection of English claims over Scottish sovereignty. Bower emphasized each the piety of the Scottish church and the classes of violence often breaking out around the border.
He estimated that the Robin Hood delusion originated right through the 2d Barons’ Warfare (1264-67), wherein the forces of Henry III and Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, battled for keep watch over over England. Bower imagined Robin used to be one of the most many disinherited infantrymen who ravished the rustic following de Montfort’s defeat in 1265, putting him amongst those that stole vegetation and looted church buildings to make their residing:
Right now there arose from some of the disinherited and outlaws and raised his head that almost all well-known armed robber Robert Hood, at the side of Little John and their accomplices. The silly commonplace folks eagerly rejoice the deeds of those males with gawping enthusiasm in comedies and tragedies.
An early literary statement complained folks would relatively pay attention a Robin Hood story on the pub than attend church.
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Wikimedia Commons
That is the very supply that impressed director Michael Sarnoski’s 2026 imaginative and prescient.
But Bower additionally admits that a few of Robin’s exploits are commendable. Within the very subsequent sentence, he paraphrases a circulating story the place Robin is attacked by way of a viscount, whilst diligently preserving a Mass in his wooded area hideout. In spite of the chance, and the pleas of his males to escape, his non secular energy guarantees he’s the victor.
This Robin is the only maximum visual within the later Center Ages: now not a violent bandit, however a celeb of motion journey tales that upheld the sanctity of the church and emphasized neighborhood values.
Robin Hood as medieval superhero
The commonest means on a regular basis folks engaged with the Robin Hood custom used to be thru play-games – a mixture of costumed roleplays with authentic carrying competitions – which have been held in spring and summer season. Proof for those neighborhood performances date to the mid 1420s, the place gamers in Exeter had been paid 20 pence for taking part in a Robin Hood sport for the mayor.
Males would get dressed as Robin Hood and Little John and lift finances for neighborhood initiatives. Those appearances had been necessarily the identical of superheroes at buying groceries department stores as of late, however Robin’s presence in medieval communities used to be now not with reference to amusing: it signalled issues in the neighborhood wanted solving. Whether or not a church wanting upkeep, or a social hire wanting to be reconciled, if Robin Hood used to be on your the town, he used to be there to lend a hand.
Robin’s presence in medieval communities intended issues in the neighborhood wanted solving.
De Worde Gest
Those that refused to serve the neighborhood become Robin’s enemies. Within the literary custom, that is the Sheriff of Nottingham and the grasping bishops of the church. Robin used to be now not strictly anti-authority, however anti-corrupt authority.
He used to be staunchly dependable to the king, however challenged corrupt civic officers. He seen Mass 3 times an afternoon, however pressured the grasping clerics of the church. This mirrored Robin’s fundraising position, encouraging all to do their phase and chastising those that didn’t.
The well-known “rob the rich to give to the poor” mantra is a Sixteenth-century simplification of this altruistic spirit. A ways from being a bloodthirsty prison, the unique Robin had a communal mindset – now not an individualistic one.
Violence as an outlaw’s final lodge
Jackman has stated that within the Fifteenth-century poem A Gest of Robyn Hode, the outlaw is depicted as a violent cutthroat – however “from these grim beginnings emerged a hero”.
But the Gest famously options the primary glimpses of a gentrified Robin, depicted because the gracious host of feasts. This isn’t a softening of a few previous, violent model of the outlaw, however a easy mirrored image of his position because the host of the feasts of his communal video games.
Whilst some stories include violent episodes, they weren’t hidden, however had been celebrated by way of communities. The oldest surviving Robin Hood play, circa 1475, options the beheading of a knight – a second supposed to elicit a cheer from the target market on the defeat of an enemy.
The early Robin Hood stories featured violence, however they weren’t inherently violent tales: not more than Superman is violent as a result of he fights his enemy Lex Luthor. Studying violence into the medieval literary custom is going in opposition to the grain in their context as cautionary stories, which additionally include comedy, friendship and love.
Robin does now not hurt the deficient or the blameless – handiest those that are egocentric, or remoted from society. Violence is a final lodge for this outlaw. His number one weapon is guilt and disgrace. He’s any person who calls for higher from his target market and leads by way of instance.
It’s subsequently beautiful telling that those that complained about Robin’s reputation had been steadily the forms of folks the outlaw would assault. For those who had a responsible judgment of right and wrong, you had one thing to cover – clergymen and public officers complaining the outlaw used to be being too laborious on them is slightly the inform.
The early Robin Hood stories featured violence, however like Superman, they weren’t inherently violent tales.
Wikimedia Commons
Robin’s actual prison origins
To what extent, then, does The Loss of life of Robin Hood’s portrait of Robin as a violent prison ring true?
The earliest lines of the Robin Hood custom is a nickname for criminals, dated to 1262. A Berkshire fugitive had his identify modified by way of a London clerk, from William le Fevere to William Robinhood (“Robehod”). Data display a brief string of such aliases most likely imposed by way of clerks: to be a Robin Hood used to be to be a violent prison.
There used to be no personality but – handiest the identify. By way of the tip of the thirteenth century, “Robin Hood” starts to seem as a surname for each folks and households, with none prison implications. Those had been tax-paying folks, law-abiding voters, but they named themselves after Robin Hood. Possibly any person didn’t like being known as a Robin Hood and so they made up our minds to possess it, like reclaiming a slur?
By way of the mid-14th century, we start to see the green-clad outlaw of Sherwood Wooded area emerge as a hero in opposition to the grain of the everyday outlaw tale, now not combating for his personal freedom however for the rights of the neighborhood at massive. Robin Hood used to be now not modelled at the criminals of the thirteenth century, however at the spirit of those that challenged a label they refused to put on.
So, flipping the script on a violent Robin Hood isn’t so new finally.
