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ROBIN HOOD

Robin Hood was a legendary English folk hero who led a band of outlaws in Sherwood forest and opposed the tyranny and excessive taxes of King John.
Robin Hood is first mentioned by the Scottish historian Fordun, who died in 1386. According to Stow, he was an outlaw in the reign of Richard I (twelfth century). He entertained one hundred tall men, all good archers, with the spoil he took, but 'he suffered no woman to be oppressed, violated, or otherwise molested; poore men's goods he spared, abundantly relieving them with that which by theft he got from abbeys and houses of rich carles'. He was an immense favourite with the common people, who have dubbed him an earl. Stukeley says he was Robert Fitzooth, Earl of Huntingdon.

According to one tradition, Robin Hood and Little John were two heroes defeated with Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham, in 1265. Fuller, in his Worthies, considers him an historical character, but Thierry says he simply represents a class - that is the remnant of the old Saxon race, which lived in perpetual defiance of the Norman oppressors from the time of Hereward.

Other examples of similar combinations are the Cumberland bandits, headed by Adam Bell, Olym of the Clough, and William of Cloudesley.

An old sporting magazine of December, 1808, says the true name of Robin Hood was Fitzooth, and Fitz being omitted leaves Ooth, and converting th into d it became 'Ood'. He was grandson of Ralph Fitzooth, Earl of Kyme, a Norman, who came to England in the reign of William Rufus. His maternal grandfather was Gilbert de Gaunt, Earl of Lincoln, and his grandmother was Lady Roisia de Bere, sister to the Earl of Oxford. His father was under the guardianship of Robert, Earl of Oxford, who, by the king's, order, gave him in marriage the third daughter of Lady Boisia.

The traditions about Fulk Fitz-Warine, great-grandson of Warine of Metz, so greatly resemble those connected with 'Robin Hood', that some suppose them to be both one. Fitz-Warine quarreled with John, and when John was king he banished Fulk, who became a bold forester.

The traditional bow and arrow of Robin Hood are religiously preserved at Kirklees Hall, Yorkshire, the seat of Sir George Armytage; and the site of his grave is pointed out in the park.

It is generally thought that Robin Hood died in 1325, which would bring him into the reign of Edward II., not Richard I., according to Sir Walter Scott.

In the accounts of King Edward II's household is an item which states that Robin Hood received his wages as king's valet, and a gratuity on leaving the service'. One of the ballads relates how Robin Hood took service under this king.
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