Robin Hood was a freedom fighter

[Still Waters]

Robin Hood did not rob from the rich to feed the poor in Sherwood Forest, he was a freedom fighter attacking French invaders in Kent, a historian has claimed.

The legendary figure, who is said to have resided in the Nottingham area, may have actually been William of Kensham, according to historian Sean McGlynn.

William conducted a guerrilla war against the French forces of Prince Louis who invaded England in 1216.

http://www.dailymail...ood-Forest.html

[Keel M.]

It's all speculation anyway because there's no real proof of the existence of one man called Robin Hood.

[Ealdwita]

Sorry mate, nice try but you'll have to think up another way to get your grant renewed!

Too much is known of William of Kensham for him to have been morphed into Robyn Hode!

William of Cassingham (now Kensham) also known as Willikin of the Weald (died 1257) was a country squire at the time of the First Barons' War. During that conflict he raised a guerrilla force of archers which opposed the otherwise total occupation of the south-east by Prince Louis of France. A contemporary chronicler, Roger of Wendover, wrote of him:

"A certain youth, William by name, a fighter and a loyalist (to King John) who despised those who were not*, gathered a vast number of archers in the forests and waste places (of the Kent and Sussex Weald), all of them men of the region, and all the time they attacked and disrupted the enemy, and as a result of their intense resistance many thousands of Frenchmen were slain.

Roger of Wendover, Flores Historiarum, II. 182 (Rolls Series, London, 1887).

On the death of John and accession of Henry III in October 1216, much of Louis' English support fell away and he decided to march from London to the south coast to sail to France for reinforcements. On the way, William's force ambushed Louis near Lewes, routing them and pursuing them to Winchelsea, where they only escaped starvation thanks to the arrival of a French fleet. When Louis sailed back to England to renew a siege of Dover Castle in May 1217, he found William attacking and burning the French camp there, and so decided to land instead at Sandwich and march to the castle from there.

At the end of the war, William was granted a pension from the crown and made warden of the Weald and (on 28 May 1241) Sergeant of the Peace (predecessor title to that of Provost Marshal), in reward for his services. Until his death he filled this post, collected his pension and fulfilled minor duties such as fetching logs for the royal household. Holinshead writes of him......"O worthy man of English blood!"

*Doesn't sound much like Russel Crowe's fantasy 'Robin', does it?

[TheLastLazyGun]

It's all speculation anyway because there's no real proof of the existence of one man called Robin Hood.

Robin Hood is first mentioned by name in the official documents for Yorkshire of 1230, where he is described as Robertus Hood fugitivis who has failed to appear in court.

[TheLastLazyGun]

Sorry mate, nice try but you'll have to think up another way to get your grant renewed!

Too much is known of William of Kensham for him to have been morphed into Robyn Hode!

William of Cassingham (now Kensham) also known as Willikin of the Weald (died 1257) was a country squire at the time of the First Barons' War. During that conflict he raised a guerrilla force of archers which opposed the otherwise total occupation of the south-east by Prince Louis of France. A contemporary chronicler, Roger of Wendover, wrote of him:

"A certain youth, William by name, a fighter and a loyalist (to King John) who despised those who were not*, gathered a vast number of archers in the forests and waste places (of the Kent and Sussex Weald), all of them men of the region, and all the time they attacked and disrupted the enemy, and as a result of their intense resistance many thousands of Frenchmen were slain.

Roger of Wendover, Flores Historiarum, II. 182 (Rolls Series, London, 1887).

On the death of John and accession of Henry III in October 1216, much of Louis' English support fell away and he decided to march from London to the south coast to sail to France for reinforcements. On the way, William's force ambushed Louis near Lewes, routing them and pursuing them to Winchelsea, where they only escaped starvation thanks to the arrival of a French fleet. When Louis sailed back to England to renew a siege of Dover Castle in May 1217, he found William attacking and burning the French camp there, and so decided to land instead at Sandwich and march to the castle from there.

At the end of the war, William was granted a pension from the crown and made warden of the Weald and (on 28 May 1241) Sergeant of the Peace (predecessor title to that of Provost Marshal), in reward for his services. Until his death he filled this post, collected his pension and fulfilled minor duties such as fetching logs for the royal household. Holinshead writes of him......"O worthy man of English blood!"

*Doesn't sound much like Russel Crowe's fantasy 'Robin', does it?

I was thinking the same thing. I was thinking it a bid odd that Robin Hood - or the guy who was supposedly the inspiration for him - would support Prince John and fight King Louis of France who supported the barons who rebelled against King John because he refused to abide by Magna Carta which he had signed the year before.

Edited March 12, 2013 by TheLastLazyGun

[Keel M.]

Robin Hood is first mentioned by name in the official documents for Yorkshire of 1230, where he is described as Robertus Hood fugitivis who has failed to appear in court.

Sorry I'm wrong. I'll not comment on anything on which you are an authority.

[TheLastLazyGun]

Sorry I'm wrong. I'll not comment on anything on which you are an authority.

I'm not an authority. I read it in the paper.

[Ealdwita]

The whole Robin Hood story/legend is so fuzzy that it's hardly worth disputing many of the 'facts', but as far as I know, the earliest indisputable reference to 'Robin Hood' appears in the poem Piers Ploughman written in 1377 by William Langland

"I kan noght parfitly my Paternoster as the preest is syngeth

But I kan rymes of Robyn Hode and Randolph, Earl of Chester."

"I don't know my Paternoster perfectly as the priest sings it,

But I know rhymes of Robin Hood and Randolph, Earl of Chester."

That indicates to me that stories of Robin Hood were well-known across the country before the second half of the 14th.Century, but not as early as the crusades of Richard I (so beloved of Hollywood 'Robins). Tales of the Greenwood often make reference to 'Edward, our comely King', (either Edward II 1307-27, or Edward III 1327-77)

Some of the legends are indeed based in the Forest of Barnsdale in Yorkshire.

[TheLastLazyGun]

I don't think we'll ever know the exact origins of the Robin Hood legends.