Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletterīritain’s civil wars of the 1640s saw a real-life figure take on the propaganda guise of Robin Hood in the form of James (sometimes John) Hind, a royalist soldier and famous highwayman.Ī resurgence of antiquarian interest in all things medieval kept the legend very much alive in the 18th and 19th centuries. Unsurprisingly, Robin was appropriated by and into the upper classes for their entertainment. This elevation stems from two plays by Anthony Munday in 1598, which reflect the late Elizabethan era’s rediscovered enthusiasm for chivalry, fixed around the cult of “Gloriana” and service to a noble lady. This is a pattern that is repeated over the centuries.īy the end of the Tudor period, Robin became forever firmly fixed in the popular imagination as the Earl of Huntingdon - quite a social climb for our yeoman hero of the Middle Ages. And from 1455 until 1487 we are in the era of the Wars of the Roses, adding to the country’s problems and possibly fueling the heroic legend.īut by the time the tales were set down in the Gest the story of Robin was probably over 200 years old and had already been developed and adapted to meet the times. Not only did the justice system suffer from a widespread perception of its corruption (a central theme of the first Robin Hood cultural manifestations in plays, poems and ballads), but law and order was generally considered to be in a state of disarray. This was a period of national crisis for England: the loss of Normandy and the Hundred Years War exacerbated existing problems, compounded and even caused by the failing kingship of Henry VI. Our main source is the lengthy poem The Gest of Robin Hood, compiled sometime after 1450. The earliest Robin Hood tales survive from late 15th-century England. But Robin’s enduring longevity is also owed to his great adaptability, a hero who can be endlessly reinvented for the times in which his audience live.

This chivalric aspect was certainly important to the early development of the legend, in which a yeoman figure takes on knightly attributes in his quest for justice. In one sense, this is easy to answer: whatever the age, we always need a hero, someone who will stand up for the poor, the weak, the oppressed and those without a voice. Why is he one of the most enduring legends of all? Clearly, Robin is a cultural icon, a character who keeps on giving - and not just to the poor.

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