Two Robin Hood-related events recently put the famous medieval outlaw back in the spotlight: the release on 1er July of They called him Robin Hood (The Death of Robin Hood in VO), with Hugh Jackman in the title role, and the announcement of the disappearance of the “Major Oak”, the emblematic oak of Sherwood Forest which legend presents as one of the hiding places of the famous bandit. But why is Robin Hood known throughout the world, while the names of other medieval outlaws have, for the most part, been forgotten?
The first literary death of Robin Hood occurs quite quickly in A Gest of Robyn Hodea story from the end of the 15th centurye century, when the prioress of Kirklees killed him following an attempted bloodletting that went wrong. This ending partly inspired the darker vision of the hero proposed by director Michael Sarnoski in They called him Robin Hood.
If the first stories dedicated to Robin Hood do not explicitly associate the outlaw with the “Major Oak” of Sherwood Forest, they do show Robin and his companions regularly meeting under a “trystle”, that is to say a tree serving as a meeting place. It’s easy to imagine how these legends came to crystallize around a tree as remarkable as the Sherwood Oak.
Far from Disney’s Robin Hood
Robin Hood’s medieval companions in misfortune have today been largely forgotten. Who still knows the exploits of Fulk FitzWarin, Hereward the Wake, Eustace the Monk, Gamelyn, or even Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough and William Cloudesley?
If Robin Hood has survived the centuries, it is partly because everyone could see in him the hero they wanted, attracting very varied audiences within medieval society. His legend has always been malleable, including in its first versions, and the hero has been reinvented with each new adaptation.
The Robin Hood of the first stories that have come down to us differs significantly from that of modern adaptations. In particular, there is no love story with Marianne. The outlaw is, on the contrary, deeply devoted to the Virgin Mary. Out of love for her, he refused to harm women.
Robin rewards honesty and fights corruption, but without being part of as clear a class opposition as one might imagine. Although it is said that he did “much good to the poor”, he did not distribute alms to the peasants. Instead, he lends money to an honest knight ruined by bad luck.
Robin Hood is also capable of surprising violence. If the scenes of violence in the first stories are often treated in a comic mode, certain stories reveal a much darker side of the character. After confronting Guy of Gisborne, for example, Robin decapitates him, plants his head on the end of his bowstick, and mutilates his face so that no one can identify him. It is this more brutal and tormented version of Robin Hood that the character played by Hugh Jackman intends to revive.
Forgotten medieval outlaws
It is difficult to praise the true outlaws of medieval England, as their existence was marked by a violence which offends contemporary sensibilities. Real bands of outlaws, like the Coterels and the Folvilles of the early 14th century, were guilty of numerous thefts, murders and kidnappings, while practicing racketeering and extortion. Such was the reputation of the Folvilles that their expeditious form of justice became known in England as “Folville’s Law.”
Yet other tales featuring legendary outlaws circulated in medieval England. One of them, Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough and William Cloudesleytells the adventures of three outlaws from Inglewood Forest, in the northwest of England. The three heroes are outlawed for poaching, a crime which probably aroused the sympathy of a large part of the working classes.
After being declared an outlaw, William Cloudesley sneaks into the town of Carlisle to reunite with his wife and their three young children. Betrayed then besieged, he is defended by Alice, his “faithful legitimate wife”, who grabs an ax to protect the front door while William shoots his arrows at the sheriff’s men who have come to arrest him. The sheriff eventually burns down their house, but William manages to hold off his attackers long enough for his family to escape through a window.
Perhaps it is time to take them out of the immense shadow of Robin Hood.
When his bowstring is destroyed by flames, William is eventually captured and sentenced to hang, while the town of Carlisle is placed under surveillance. It is then that the town swineherd intervenes, a young boy who manages to escape to warn the two other outlaws, Adam and Clim, of William’s capture. They organize a spectacular rescue at the foot of the gallows, worthy of a scene from Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. During their flight, they then killed 300 representatives of the authority. In search of a royal pardon, William then demonstrates his incredible talent as an archer by shooting an arrow which hits an apple placed on the head of his seven-year-old son, in a finale reminiscent of the legend of William Tell.
It is therefore in William Cloudesley that the pride of the archers of “Northern England” is most fully expressed. It is through Alice that the difficult destiny of the wife of an outlaw is revealed. It is in the character of the young swineherd that the bonds of solidarity specific to social banditry are embodied. And it is finally in the relationship between the three companions that the ideal of heroic camaraderie is manifested, when, surrounded on all sides by the men of the sheriff of Carlisle, William says to his brothers in arms: “On this day, let us live and die together.”
These scenes have long become inseparable from the legend of Robin Hood. However, many of them do not find their origin there. They first appeared in the adventures of three now largely forgotten outlaws of Inglewood Forest. Perhaps it is time to take them out of the immense shadow of Robin Hood and, in doing so, to rediscover the richness and diversity of the stories dedicated to the outlaws of medieval England.
