The Making of Robin Hood

Joseph Ritson, Walter Scott and the Robin Hood of Ivanhoe

Few characters have travelled through time quite like Robin Hood.

For centuries, his story has been told and retold, changing with every generation. But an important stage in that journey came with Joseph Ritson, an eighteenth-century antiquary whose work helped preserve the old Robin Hood traditions, and Walter Scott, who later brought the outlaw into his famous historical novel Ivanhoe.

Joseph Ritson — Preserving the Legend

Joseph Ritson (1752–1803) was an English antiquary, writer and collector of old songs, ballads and folklore.

He became fascinated by Robin Hood and, in 1795, published Robin Hood: A Collection of All the Ancient Poems, Songs, and Ballads, Now Extant, Relative to That Celebrated Outlaw.

Ritson gathered together surviving Robin Hood material and attempted to preserve the older traditions rather than simply accepting later additions. His work became an important source for writers who followed him.

Among them was Walter Scott.

Walter Scott — Bringing the Past to Life

Walter Scott (1771–1832) had a lifelong fascination with history, medieval literature and traditional stories.

In 1819, he published Ivanhoe, taking his readers back to England in 1194, during the reign of Richard the Lionheart.

The novel is filled with knights, castles, tournaments and the tensions between Saxons and Normans. At the centre is Wilfred of Ivanhoe, but Scott also introduced another familiar figure — Robin Hood.

Scott's Robin appears primarily as Locksley, a skilled archer and leader of the outlaws. He plays an important part in the attack on Torquilstone Castle and the rescue of the prisoners.

Scott drew upon a number of earlier sources when creating his medieval world, including Joseph Ritson's collection of Robin Hood poems, songs and ballads.

And this is where the story becomes fascinating.

Ritson collected and preserved the fragments of Robin Hood's past. Scott took some of those fragments and turned them into living history.

The Making of Robin Hood

The Robin Hood we recognise today is not simply the character of the medieval ballads. He is the result of centuries of storytelling, reinterpretation and reinvention.

The medieval ballads provided the foundations.

Joseph Ritson helped preserve those traditions for future generations.

Then Walter Scott brought Robin Hood into Ivanhoe, placing him within a dramatic vision of twelfth-century England and introducing him to a huge nineteenth-century readership.

From there, the legend would continue to evolve through books, theatre, illustration, film and television.

But perhaps the most remarkable thing is that Robin Hood has never really belonged to one particular century.

Ritson preserved him. Scott reinvented him. And generation after generation has continued to tell his story.

And so Robin Hood continues his journey through time. 

Could King Edward II Have Met Robin Hood?

 

“Robyn Hod, one of the porters, because he could no longer work, [was] given five shillings by command.”

This intriguing entry appears in the chamber accounts of King Edward II on 22 November 1324. The man named was a porter in the king’s household during 1323 and 1324. The discovery was made by Joseph Hunter (1783–1861), an antiquarian and assistant keeper of the Public Record Office, whose research into medieval Yorkshire led him to investigate the historical origins of Robin Hood.

Hunter’s research culminated in 1852 with the publication of The Great Hero of the Ancient Minstrelsy of England, Robin Hood his Period etc. Investigated and Perhaps Ascertained, the fourth and final volume of his Critical and Historical Tracts.

Hunter rejected the idea that Robin Hood should simply be dismissed as a medieval invention. Instead, he believed that references in the early Robin Hood tradition could be tested against contemporary records and identifiable places.

The Clues in the Geste

Hunter turned particularly to the Geste of Robyn Hode, one of the earliest surviving Robin Hood ballads. Its references to places, roads, kings and events gave him a series of clues that could be compared with the historical record.

The poem places Robin in Barnsdale:

“Robyn stode in Bernesdale,
And lenyd hym to a tre.”

Hunter found documentary evidence that travel through Barnsdale in the early fourteenth century could be dangerous enough to require an armed escort. On one occasion, a guard accompanying prisoners from Scotland was increased to twenty archers “on account of Barnsdale.”

The Geste also mentions the Saylis and Watling Street:

“And walke up to the Saylis,
And so to Watlinge Strete.”

Hunter identified the Saylis as a small tenancy within the manor of Pontefract and Watling Street as the Roman road crossing Barnsdale.

These details gave Hunter something important: specific clues that could be tested against the historical record.

The Geste then provides an even more significant clue by naming Robin’s king:

“Tyll that I have gete us grace
Of Edwarde, our comly kynge.”

The king later comes to Nottingham:

“The kynge came to Notynghame
With knyghtes in gret araye.”

And the poem describes him travelling through Lancashire and losing many of his deer:

“All the compasse of Lancasshyre
He went both ferre and nere,
Tyll he came to Plomton Parke,
He faylyd many of his dere.”

For Hunter, the combination of a named king, identifiable places, a royal journey and the loss of deer provided a historical framework worth investigating.

Edward II Enters the Story

Hunter’s candidate was Edward II.

In 1323, Edward made a prolonged progress through northern England, travelling through Yorkshire and Lancashire and visiting places including Plumpton Park, Kirkham Abbey, Pickering, Jervaulx and Upholland before reaching Nottingham.

The Geste describes Robin seeking Edward’s favour:

“Thou shalt with me to grene wode,
Without ony leasynge,
Tyll that I have gete us grace
Of Edwarde, our comly kynge.”

Edward reached Nottingham on 9 November 1323 and remained there until 23 November.

The Geste records:

“The kynge came to Notynghame
With knyghtes in gret araye.”

Hunter also noted that Edward’s northern progress involved investigations into forest offences and matters concerning royal venison, which he saw as an interesting parallel with the king’s concern over his deer in the Geste.

But the most remarkable discovery came when Hunter examined Edward II’s household accounts.

The Royal Porter

There he found a man named Robyn Hod, one of the king’s chamber porters, paid three pence a day.

The surviving accounts record his presence, absences and wages during 1324. On several occasions deductions were made because he was absent. Then, on 22 November, came the extraordinary entry:

“To Robyn Hod formerly one of the porters because he can no longer work, five shillings as a gift by commandment.”

Hunter acknowledged that this did not prove the man was the Robin Hood of the ballads:

“Whether he was some other person who chanced to bear the same name... I for my part believe it is the same person.”

For Hunter, the coincidence between the Geste and the royal records was striking. The ballad describes Robin spending time at the king’s court:

“Had Robyn dwelled in the kynges courte,
But twelve monethes and thre.”

It also contains Robin’s complaint:

“Yf I dwele lenger with the kynge,
Sorowe wyll me sloo.”

Hunter believed these passages could reflect the same period of royal service recorded in the household accounts.

Robert Hood of Wakefield

Hunter then looked for a connection between the royal porter and a historical Robert Hood of Wakefield.

In the Wakefield manor court rolls, he found a Robert Hood involved in a dispute over land. The following year, Robert Hood’s wife was recorded as Matilda.

Hunter also drew attention to the Geste’s reference to a “wicked woman” associated with Robin:

“The pryoresse of Kyrkely,
That nye was of hys kynne.”

He believed he had identified a possible connection with Elizabeth de Staynton, who became prioress of Kirklees around 1346–1347.

Taken together, Hunter believed the evidence connected the outlaw of Barnsdale, Robert Hood of Wakefield and the Robyn Hode who served in Edward II’s household.

Hunter’s Theory

Hunter ultimately proposed that Robin Hood was born around 1285–1295 near Wakefield, became involved in the cause of Lancaster, and took to robbery in Barnsdale after the defeat of his lord. He believed Robin remained an outlaw from about April 1322 until December 1323, when Edward II pardoned him and brought him into the royal household as a porter.

After about a year at court, Hunter suggested Robin left the king’s service and returned to the greenwood.

It was an ambitious theory, and it was not universally accepted. Francis Child, the editor of English and Scottish Ballads, dismissed Hunter’s attempt to find a “remarkable coincidence between the ballad and the record,” accusing him of “theoretical prepossession.”

The debate continued. J. W. Walker revisited the Wakefield evidence in 1944, P. V. Harris continued the investigation in 1954, and John Bellamy reassessed the historical evidence in his 1985 book Robin Hood: An Historical Enquiry, including possible historical counterparts for other characters in the Geste.

The Search Continues

Since Hunter ignited the debate over the possibility of a historical Robin Hood, many archivists and historians have continued the search, bringing forward new discoveries, documentary evidence and suggestions. Among the approaches explored has been the study of “Robin Hood” surnames, looking for individuals whose names or records might offer further clues to the origins of the legend.

The evidence does not prove that the Robyn Hode in the royal accounts was the legendary outlaw. He may have been another man who happened to bear the same name.

Yet Hunter’s discovery created an intriguing historical possibility: that behind the medieval legend was a real man from Yorkshire who spent time in Barnsdale, entered the service of Edward II, and later returned to the greenwood.

That possibility has kept the search alive. Each new archival discovery, however tentative, adds another piece to the larger puzzle of whether the Robin Hood of medieval legend was based on a real historical figure.

For me, that is what makes Hunter’s research so compelling. As a young student, brought up on the multitude of films and television series about the outlaw, and with a growing love of history, I was fascinated by the possibility that the Robin Hood of legend might have been a real person. Hunter’s work brought those two interests together: the Robin Hood of popular culture and the Robin Hood who might be found hidden within medieval records.

It is that possibility that makes the search so compelling. What begins with stories of an outlaw in the greenwood becomes a journey through ballads, ancient roads, medieval documents, manor court rolls and royal accounts. It turns the search for Robin Hood into a historical quest, following a trail from the Geste, through Barnsdale and Wakefield, and finally into the household of Edward II—the “comly kynge.”

Could King Edward II really have met the legendary Robin Hood?

Robin Hood's Family Tree

From an early age, my fascination with history and a deep love for the legend of Robin Hood naturally led me to embark on a quest to uncover the true story behind the legendary outlaw. Over fifty years later, this pursuit has shaped my career and culminated in a successful genealogical business.

The origins of Robin Hood have sparked centuries of debate. Historians and antiquarians have long struggled to find concrete evidence of his existence, with many theories evolving without definitive proof.

One such theory was the pedigree published by William Stukeley (1687–1765). It linked the earls of Huntingdon with the descendants of a man called Ralph Fitz Ooth, who he claimed became lords of Kyme.

When I first encountered this family tree in the 1970s, I was thrilled by the possibility. There he was, Robin Fitzooth, alias Robin Hood! However, this pedigree, first presented in Stukeley's Paleographica Britannica in 1746, has since been thoroughly debunked by scholars like Professor J. C. Holt. They have argued that Stukeley’s claims were not only fabricated but that Stukeley himself, known for his eccentricities and romanticism, may have been more interested in myth-making than historical accuracy.

Although scholars have debunked it, the idea that Robin Hood was once an Earl of Huntingdon became firmly embedded in his legend. Centuries later, this version of the tale was embraced by Walt Disney, who depicted Robin as Robin FitzOoth in his 1952 live-action film The Story of Robin Hood.

Ivanhoe & The Lionheart’s Ballad

I was pleased to recieve a comment recently by Laurence, regarding my article about the ‘medieval' chant used during one of the scenes of Walt Disney’s Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952). 

You can view my post here:- The Chant of the Crusaders.

Prince John (Hubert Gregg) watches his brother King Richard leave for the Holy  Land

Laurence says:

“Interestingly, the same theme is used for background music to the prologue in ‘Ivanhoe’, scored, of course, by Miklos Rózsa. It is reputed to be based on a tune written by Richard the Lionheart himself. Rózsa's sleeve notes for 'Ivanhoe' state, “ Under the opening narration I introduced a theme from a ballad actually written by Richard the Lionhearted”.

In my opinion, the 1950’s were a golden era for films such as these. Ivanhoe is another of my favourite movies, released the same year as Walt Disney’s live action film The Story of Robin Hood.  Our regular contributor Neil Vessey, has a fantastic web site dedicated to Films of the Fifties. Take a look!

MGM’s Ivanhoe (1952) starred Robert Taylor as the Saxon knight, loyal to King Richard the Lionheart who has been captured and ransomed. Also appearing in this epic adventure are Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Fontaine and George Sanders. The film is based on the novel by Sir Walter Scott, first published in 1819.

Ivanhoe lobby card

Richard the Lionheart’s Ballad
As Laurence says, it was Miklos Rózsa (1907-1995) who scored the music for MGM's Ivanhoe and in 1953 he was nominated for both Academy and Golden Globe awards for his work. Rózsa is known for composing the music for nearly a hundred films. 

In 1987 Rózsa described to Bruce Duffie the medieval sources that inspired him to write the soundtrack for Ivanhoe:

“The various themes in Ivanhoe are partly based on authentic Twelfth Century music, or at least influenced by them. Under the opening narration I introduced a theme from a ballad actually written by Richard the Lionhearted. The principle Norman theme I developed from a Latin hymn by the troubadour Giraut de Bornelh. This appears the first time with the approaching Normans in Sherwood Forest. Later during the film, it undergoes various contrapuntal treatments. The love theme for Ivanhoe and Rowena is a free adaptation of an old popular song from the north of France. The manuscript of this I found in a collection of songs in the Royal Library of Brussels. It’s a lovely melody, breathing the innocently amorous atmosphere of the middle ages, and I gave it modal harmonizations. Rebecca needed a Jewish theme, reflecting not only the tragedy of this beautiful character but also the persecution of her race. Fragments of medieval Jewish motives suggested a melody to me. My most difficult job was the scoring of the extensive battle in the castle because the producers wanted music to accompany almost all of it. I devised a new theme for the Saxons, along with a motive for the battering ram sequence, thereby giving a rhythmic beat which contrapuntally and polytonally worked out with the previous thematic material, forming a tonal background to this exciting battle scene. Scoring battles in films is very difficult, and sadly one for which the composer seldom gets much credit. The visuals and the emotional excitement are so arresting that the viewer tends not to be aware that he or she is also being influenced by what is heard.”         (Movie Music UK) 

Ivanhoe sings King Richard's ballad outside the castle walls.

As my regular readers know, I have posted many times on various aspects on the life of Richard the Lionheart. He is a king who has always interested me. So I was keen to investigate this ballad that has been attributed to him and used in Ivanhoe. 

The Lionheart is Captured
On his way back from the third Crusade in 1192, King Richard I (1157-1199) was captured by Leopold V, Duke of Austria and sent to a strong castle built high on a mountain-slope over-looking the Danube: the castle of Durnstein. Legend states that Blondel, King Richard's faithful minstrel, travelled the length and breadth of Germany in search of his missing lord. He visited castle after castle and outside each one sang the first lines of a song which he and Richard had composed together.

One day while resting in a garden at the foot of a tower in which Richard was held, the king saw him and sang, ‘ for he sang very well- the first part of a song which they had composed and which was known only to the two of them’ . This was the inspiration for the opening scene of the film, Ivanhoe (1952).

Blondel’s Song
In its earliest known form, this story was told in a Rheims prose chronicle written in about 1260. But it wasn’t until the eighteenth century that the legend took off. There was a troubadour known as Blondel de Nesle who lived at the same time as King Richard I. He was a native of Picardy whose work showed the influence of Gregorian chant. Twenty three of his songs have survived. But sadly, there is not a shred of evidence to link him to the legend or that he ever met the Lionheart.

Blondel outside the castle in Durnstein

So what was this ballad ‘actually written’  by King Richard the Lionheart, that Rózsa used?

King Richard's Ballads?
Two songs do exist that are attributed to King Richard I in early troubadour manuscripts, the ‘ rotrouenge’  said to have been composed in captivity and a ‘sirventes’  aimed at Dauphin of Auvergne. It is impossible to to be absolutely certain that Richard did write them, but the evidence that he was unusually interested in music is overwhelming. Richard was well educated, his upbringing would have included music. His mother was Eleanor of Aquitaine and a generous patron of poets and musicians. Richard grew up almost exclusively in Eleanor’s court. He was surrounded by the poetry and troubadour culture throughout his childhood.

The incredibly beautiful song, written in captivity, Ja nus hons pris, translates as "no man who is imprisoned' and is said to have been addressed to Richard's half-sister, Marie de Champagne, expressing the feeling that he had been abandoned by her and his barons to an unfair fate. 

Is this what Rózsa based his opening theme on for Ivanhoe?

Ja Nus Hons Pris
Original Old French
I
Ja nus hons pris ne dira sa raison
Adroitement, se dolantement non;
Mais par effort puet il faire chançon.
Mout ai amis, mais povre sont li don;
Honte i avront se por ma reançon
—
Sui ça deus yvers pris.

II
Ce sevent bien mi home et mi baron–
Ynglois, Normant, Poitevin et Gascon–
Que je n’ai nul si povre compaignon
Que je lessaisse por avoir en prison;
Je nou di mie por nule retraçon,
—
Mais encor sui [je] pris.

III
Or sai je bien de voir certeinnement
Que morz ne pris n’a ami ne parent,
Quant on me faut por or ne por argent.
Mout m’est de moi, mes plus m’est de ma gent,
Qu’aprés ma mort avront reprochement
—
Se longuement sui pris.

IV
N’est pas mervoille se j’ai le cuer dolant,
Quant mes sires met ma terre en torment.
S’il li membrast de nostre soirement
Quo nos feïsmes andui communement,
Je sai de voir que ja trop longuement
—
Ne seroie ça pris.

V

Ce sevent bien Angevin et Torain–
Cil bacheler qui or sont riche et sain–
Qu’encombrez sui loing d’aus en autre main.
Forment m’amoient, mais or ne m’ainment grain.
De beles armes sont ore vuit li plain,
—
Por ce que je sui pris

VI
Mes compaignons que j’amoie et que j’ain–
Ces de Cahen et ces de Percherain–
Di lor, chançon, qu’il ne sunt pas certain,
C’onques vers aus ne oi faus cuer ne vain;
S’il me guerroient, il feront que vilain
—
Tant con je serai pris.

VII

Contesse suer, vostre pris soverain
Vos saut et gart cil a cui je m’en clain
—
Et por cui je sui pris.

VIII
Je ne di mie a cele de Chartain,
—

La mere Loës.


Translation:

I
No prisoner can tell his honest thought
Unless he speaks as one who suffers wrong;
But for his comfort as he may make a song.
My friends are many, but their gifts are naught.
Shame will be theirs, if, for my ransom, here
—
I lie another year.

II

They know this well, my barons and my men,
Normandy, England, Gascony, Poitou,
That I had never follower so low
Whom I would leave in prison to my gain.
I say it not for a reproach to them,
—
But prisoner I am!

III

The ancient proverb now I know for sure;
Death and a prison know nor kind nor tie,
Since for mere lack of gold they let me lie.
Much for myself I grieve; for them still more.
After my death they will have grievous wrong
—
If I am a prisoner long.

IV

What marvel that my heart is sad and sore
When my own lord torments my helpless lands!
Well do I know that, if he held his hands,
Remembering the common oath we swore,
I should not here imprisoned with my song,
—
Remain a prisoner long.

V

They know this well who now are rich and strong
Young gentlemen of Anjou and Touraine,
That far from them, on hostile bonds I strain.
They loved me much, but have not loved me long.
Their plans will see no more fair lists arrayed
—
While I lie here betrayed.

 VI

Companions whom I love, and still do love, Geoffroi du Perche and Ansel de Caieux, Tell them, my song, that they are friends untrue. Never to them did I false-hearted prove; But they do villainy if they war on me,
—While I lie here, unfree. 

Tell them, my song, that they are friends untrue.
Never to them did I false-hearted prove;
But they do villainy if they war on me,
—
While I lie here, unfree.

VII

Countess sister! Your sovereign fame
May he preserve whose help I claim,
—
Victim for whom am I!

VIII

I say not this of Chartres’ dame,
—
Mother of Louis!

Click here to hear Ja Nus Hons Pris

Ivanhoe (Robert Taylor) sings to King Richard the Lionheart

My Heart Was A Lion
As Ivanhoe (Robert Taylor) rides past several castles, in search of his king, he sings:

My heart was a lion, but now it is chained,
Far do I travel, and will travel and sing
I travel, I travel in search of my heart
I vowed me a vow and I pledged this to be, 
Far will I travel until thou art free.

I think John Haines, in his book, ‘Music in Films on the Middle Ages’, sums it all up very well:

“As it turns out, ‘My Heart Was A Lion,’ is not based on any surviving medieval melody. It does not even occur in Sir Walter Scott’s ‘Ivanhoe.’ It does, however, resemble a modern folk song. Both music and text are apparently new to the 1952 film. It is possible that someone other than Rózsa wrote the music for this song. In the composers sketches for the film, dated November 1951 to January 1952, the music for ‘My Heart Is A Lion’ is nowhere to be found. If Rózsa did not write the song, then quite possibly his orchestrator, fellow Hungarian Eugene Zador - whose daughter once accused Rózsa of not giving enough credit to, ‘young former friend and colleague, the glorified copyist’ - made it up.

Whoever composed it, the song exhibits a few vaguely medieval touches, namely its use of a minor scale and its stepwise approach to cadences. But, in the main, it is a patently modern creation. . .The minstrel song in Ivanhoe bears only the slightest resemblance to the medieval ‘Ja Nus Hon Pris’. The word ‘chained’ vaguely matches Richard’s description of himself as a prisoner (hons pris), but that is all. And its melody has little to do with the music that survives in medieval manuscripts for ‘Ja Nus Hons Pris.’  In short, rather than medieval influences, Ivanhoes’s horseback song bears the marks of modern musical traditions, including that of a singing cowboy”.

John Haines: Music in Films on the Middle Ages Routledge (2013)


Many thanks to Laurence for getting in touch.

Edward II: The Unconventional King by Kathryn Warner (and how I met Jules)

Edward II: The Unconventional King by Kathryn Warner

My review:

Jules read Kathryn's book first (of course), and loved it. When I finally managed to pick it up, it felt a privilege to hold such ground-breaking material.

As regular readers of Kathryn's blog will know, Edward II: The Unconventional King is the culmination of many years of intensive research, driven by her tireless passion to get to the truth.  That passion is immediately apparent, as you witness her steadily dismantle centuries of myths surrounding Edward II's reign.  

The tomb of Edward II

One example of this is the traditional story of Edward's murder by the use of a 'red-hot poker'. Kathryn has forensically examined the contemporary records, one by one, to reject it as a lurid invention. Kathryn's close analysis of contemporary manuscripts also provides fascinating details of Edward's household. These include the names and costs of his minstrels and entertainers, something which I found particularly interesting.

Kathryn Warner

Kathryn gives fresh insight into the life of this maligned monarch. Her research reveals a fiercely emotional king who not only enjoyed the company of  his 'common subjects' and their pastimes, but who was also remarkably generous and kind to the people who pleased him. Edward II was also openly a lover of men, and this unconventional and often eccentric behaviour led to the utter failure of his reign. But, paradoxically, Edward was ahead of his time, and that was the tragedy of his life. 

Kathryn's work has a special place on our bookshelf. It is superbly written, meticulously researched and is a much needed re-assessment of Edward's reign. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in the Plantagenet kings of England.

***

Edward II and Robin Hood 

When I was at school, I wasn't taught anything about Edward II. I heard about Richard the Lionheart, Henry VIII and Edward III of course, but not Edward II. After all, he was considered to be just a weak king who brought about an English civil war. It wasn't until I was thumbing through a book in my college library during a dinner break that I became fascinated by his reign.

An early image of Robin Hood

The book was a version of Winston Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples. Included in the great statesman's account of the Lancastrian revolt during the reign of Edward II, was a feature about the findings of the 19th century antiquary called Joseph Hunter. The article included details of his discoveries of a Robin/Robert Hood recorded in Edward II's household chamber accounts. Hunter's ground-breaking research also uncovered a Robert Hood living in Wakefield, part of Lancastrian lands during the time of the Battle of Boroughbridge (1322). After the battle, Hunter believed that this Robert Hood, a tenant of Thomas Earl of Lancaster, would not have only been outlawed, but may also have been the same Robert Hood brought to court by Edward II during his progress through the northern counties in 1323. 

Joseph Hunter (1783-1861)

Remarkably, Hunter's findings mirrored details in one of the earliest ballads about the outlaw, the Geste of Robyn Hode, written circa 1500, which describes a 'comely' King Edward who travelled though 'all the pass of Lancasshyre'' to capture him. 
I was transfixed.

Court rolls of Edward II

Books and More Books

I had always enjoyed watching Robin Hood films (particularly Walt Disney's live-action Story of Robin Hood) and the classic Richard Greene tv series, but never dreamed there may have been some historical fact in the legend. So, from that moment on, like a manic magpie I began to accumulate books and more books on the origins of Robin Hood. Eventually, I compiled a chronological list of all the important discoveries regarding the celebrated outlaw.

'Some' of my collection of books on Robin Hood

The Computer Age

As the computer age dawned I soon realised that the possibilities for research were endless. Now, it was not necessary to join various libraries and trawl through the dusty shelves of secondhand bookshops. (Although I still do!) The excitement of owning my own computer was palpable. Soon, doors (or should that be windows?) began to open. Kathryn Warner's very informative website on Edward II was one of the first places I discovered.

As 'Clement Glen', I joined several forums and found myself entering into long-winded discussions about the origins of the Robin Hood legend. But, sadly they often became over-heated. So, I decided to step back from it all and, inspired by Kathryn's site, I started my own Robin Hood blog. But how could I make it different from all the others? 

My blog header

The Story of Robin Hood

In my opinion, Walt Disney's Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952) is the best film version of the legend ever-made. From the first time I saw it at my local cinema, I was awe-struck by its wonderful actors, colourful pageantry and thrilling action. So, I decided to create a web page that combined information about this movie with the facts I had discovered about the ancient tradition that inspired it. After ten years, my blog has had world wide popularity.

Jules Frusher

In 2010, I posted an article about Joseph Hunter's discoveries. I received many kind comments afterwards, never realising at the time that one of those messages would change my life forever! One came from Kathryn Warner (whose successful website about Edward II I had discovered a few months earlier). Kathryn kindly congratulated me on a 'fascinating post' and the excellent research. Following that came a message from a certain Jules Frusher who described my piece as an 'interesting read,' and 'lots of food for thought.' 

Jules and Kathryn knew each other through their investigations into Edward's reign, with Jules specialising in the life and times of Hugh Despenser. Jules's tremendous website about Hugh can be seen here.

Five years later Kathryn had her first book, 'Edward II: The Unconventional King' , published and . . .  Jules and I got engaged!

Jules Frusher

Did this 'comely' monarch who enjoyed the company of lowborn subjects meet Robin Hood? After decades of debate, many historians agree that Edward's northern progress of 1323 is a rare factual element in one of the earliest ballads about the outlaw. There is a lot more information on my website. So perhaps the 'Edward our comely king' referred to in the Geste of Robyn Hode was Edward II. Ironic, then, that such a reviled king influenced the legend of such an adored hero.