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These Vicious Crimes Will Make You See the Medieval Period in a New Light

Khalid Elhassan November 25, 2022 31 min

Who Was the Real Life Criminal Behind This Legendary Outlaw?

Criminal - Robin Hood and Maid Marion, as depicted in a seventeenth century woodcut — Robin Hood and Maid Marion, as depicted in a seventeenth century woodcut. Wikimedia

In real life, nobody had performed all the noble deeds of derring-do ascribed to the fictional Robin Hood. However, plenty of outlaws, nearly all commoners, had gained a measure of popularity with the lower classes because they had thumbed their noses at the upper class oppressors. “Robinhood” or “Rabunhod” or “Robehod” were common nicknames for criminals, and appear in numerous twelfth century court records. Those Robin Hoods were not the kinds of criminals who acted based on any highbrow motives.

Instead, they became criminals for the mundane reasons that led most people into crime back then, and that still put people on the paths of criminality today. Even if we set aside that Robin Hood was probably just a generic period nickname for criminals, to identify the original Robin Hood is no easy task. In England, Robin was and remains a diminutive of the name Robert, and Robert was a very common first name back then. Likewise, Hood was a common surname in medieval England.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.