Posted on 03/14/2009 11:16:04 AM PDT by Turret Gunner A20
LONDON - A British academic says he's found proof that Britain's legendary outlaw Robin Hood wasn't as popular with the poor as folklore suggests.
Julian Luxford says a newly found note in the margins of an ancient history book contains rare criticism of the supposedly benevolent bandit.
According to legend, Hood roamed 13th-century Britain from a base in central England's Sherwood Forest, plundering from the rich to give to the poor.
But Luxford, an art history lecturer at the University of St. Andrews, in Fife, Scotland, says a 23-word inscription in a history book, written in Latin by a medieval monk around 1460, casts the outlaw as a persistent thief.
"Around this time, according to popular opinion, a certain outlaw named Robin Hood, with his accomplices, infested Sherwood and other law-abiding areas of England with continuous robberies," the note read when translated into English, Luxford said.
Luxford said he found the entry while searching through the library of England's prestigious Eton College, which was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI.
"The new find contains a uniquely negative assessment of the outlaw, and provides rare evidence for monastic attitudes towards him," Luxford said in a statement about his find issued on Friday.
He said the note about Hood - uncovered in the margin of the "Polychronicon," a history book which dates from the late 1340s - may be the earliest written reference to the outlaw.
First mentions of Hood, depicted in Hollywood movies by both Kevin Costner and Errol Flynn, are commonly believed to have been in late 13th-century ballads. Some academics claim the stories refer to several different medieval outlaws, while others believe the tales are pure fantasy.
Luxford said his discovery may put to rest debates in England about exactly where Hood may have lived.
The northern England county of Yorkshire has long claimed Hood was based there, rather than neighboring Nottinghamshire - even naming a local transport hub Robin Hood Airport in tribute.
But folklore has most commonly placed Hood in Sherwood Forest - where he is reputed to hidden from his nemesis, the Sheriff of Nottingham. The forest once spanned 100,000 acres (40,500 hectares) across Nottinghamshire, but has shrunk in modern time to about 450 acres (180 hectares).
"By mentioning Sherwood, it buttresses the hitherto rather thin evidence for a medieval connection between Robin and the Nottinghamshire forest with which he has become so closely associated," Luxford said.
600 years is “ancient”....?!
I agree. The church and the government taxed the people into submission. Robin re-appropriated taxes.
Difficult to make a distinction between the two, even after Henry VIII's kerfluffle with Rome. The Anglicans just picked up where the "papists" left off, after warring back and forth for a while. Seems like our own founding fathers took issue with this, themselves.
Absolutely.
If only they had borrowed and spent the money first, it wouldn’t have been as easy to reappropriate the money, since innocent third parties like lenders were now going to be hurt.
>”Around this time, according to popular opinion, a certain outlaw named Robin Hood, with his accomplices, infested Sherwood and other law-abiding areas of England with continuous robberies,”
Actually that really doesn’t sound too negative. If most of the people were paying, or trying to pay, their taxes then by that definition they are “law abiding”. Also note that there is no mention of the laws being just or unjust.
It sounds very much like a news-snippet. It may or may not have been that he gave the “proceeds” to the poor, but that he robbed is not in question, is it?
Maybe that is why banks and capital based lending were really invented.
According to legend, Hood roamed 13th-century Britain from a base in central England's Sherwood Forest, plundering from the rich GOVERNMENT to give to the poor.
'taint very recent.
Wouldn’t the monk have referred to him as, “Robin of Loxley”?
Exactly. People usually confuse him with “The Highwayman”.
No, that's just paranoid. If they had been invented in the last 40 years, you might be onto something.
I really don’t care about 13th Century HOODlums; I care more about 21st Century HOODlums such as Pelosi, Reid, Obama, Biden, Murtha, et. al.
Assuming it's legit.... One note by one monk two centuries after the fact, and suddenly we have "Ancient Brits questioned outlaw"??
Kinda like taking the rantings of a few researchers, and spinning it into "Scientists agree that global warming will destroy the world."
“Robin” is a nickname for Robert in that time period I think.
Yes, but it's funny. I bet somebody with a lot more time on their hands, (and talent,) than I have could develop a conspiracy theory with Knights Templars and Builderbergers in order to subvert the Magna Carta...etc. Probably could write a best selling book like the DaVinci Code or something.
Kenyan born man runs for president of the U.S., has all his records sealed and wins.
"Loxley" is a later (16th Century) addition.
Earliest references are to "Robyn Hode", "Robyn Hude", "Robyn Hood". And possibly one Robert Hod, described as a fugitive, who is mentioned in the York assizes record of 1226.
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