Was Robin Hood A Real Person? | Absolute History 

Now I want someone to make a movie based on this more accurate version of Robin Hood and his Merrymen.

These historical documentaries don't get old, very fascinating!

Damn when I heard that dial up modem my stomach knotted! I remember the anxiety of waiting to see if it was going to hook up and then if it did hoping you didn’t get kicked off if someone tried to call out from somewhere else in the house! It was the stone age of the internet for sure.

One of my fondest books when I was learning to read as a child. That boy believed so lets just leave it that. We don’t need to crush everything with science. A little myth and mystery never hurt anyone.

The whole Robin Hood thing has come from such a miasma of old English and even older French legends that there is no separating fact from fiction. All myths have some basis in fact but we will never know for sure if Robin Hood and his Merry men were ever real people or just based on the general culture of the day

When I was a kid I used to watch "Rocket Robin Hood". I can still remember the theme song. There may never be an end to Robin Hood.

It is a little factoid that during the general time period there were at least 3 Sheriffs of Notinghan with the surname of Disney. Which illuminates the well known folk song lyrics: Robin Hood, Robin Hood riding through the grass. Sheriff Disney saw him and shot him in the.....

In the late 13th century, 400 pounds sterling was worth about $600,000 today. That's some legal fees right there. I wonder if he got his son out of prison by bribing the king.

Yes, Robin is real. And so are Marian, Little John and the Sheriff. The church where Robin and Marian were married has been identified. Little John's grave has been found; it's outside the consecrated grounds of the church's cemetery. And the tunnels running under the village that Robin and his men used to escape have been found. These tunnels were always believed to be legend and part of the myth, but several years ago they were found. Most interesting, is that the written dates of death for both Robin and the Sheriff are within weeks of each other. I've always thought, that instead of the famous story of Robin being poisoned, he was actually injured in battle against the Sheriff, and they both succumbed to their injuries.

As a young boy I was fascinated by the story of Robin Hood. Then the old Disney cartoon came out and I was hooked.

All of this was first outlined in the 1995 book "Robin Hood: The Man Behind The Myth" by Graham Phillips and Martin Keatman. I own a copy. Worth a look if anyone wants further information. [even down to the "just when "we" thought we'd found the real Robin Hood": that was in the book, too. ]

Oh damn, I just saw this came out today! Good stuff y'all keep it up

Even us Americans Know about Robin Hood and his Band of Merry Men, and his Hideout in Sherwood Forest, I first learned about him from that Disney Film where he was a Fox, then Time Bandits, then the Looney Tunes, then Kevin Costner and what Followed.

Why nobody is talking about "Robin of Sherwood" 80s series? Kip Carpenter did a marvellous job of joining and playing with all the strands of the legend, and then adding some more. For example the character of a Saracen, which was then kept in later adaptations. Wonderful cinematography, wonderful music by Clannad, great young actors and old stagers (Ugly Sisters).

I think Robert hood of Wakefield was probably the original of the ballads. all these other men who were called Robinhood we're given the moniker more as a way to label them Outlaws

3:10 what is this ancient technology he is using

Tony is awesome and so is this channel.

Up here in the land of hills, mountains and dales, the Briganti still live. Oh they may not come across as crusty types with animal skins for clothes and shoes, but they are still stubborn and proud, strong yet poetic, artistic and welcoming people - but be wary they don't suffer the false!

Love these shows!

An amazing and inspiring production! It opens up so many avenues for exploration and speculation. Oh, and it must have been great fun to make. Thanks to all involved. Stay safe.

Actually Tony, I think most people realised that this programme was about Robin Hood from reading the title, rather than hearing the name 'Sherwood Forest'!

I like how they have photos the Robert and Robin as if they are the real people

5:35 Robin Hood is a Yorkie

Rob the rich, didn’t quite get around to giving it to the poor? Sounds like someone we know?

At 2:43 omg I had a nam flashback with that computer sound.

The last I heard was the "Real Robin Hood" was the Earl of Huntingdon and that after he killed the Shire Reeve of Nottingham, the Shire Reeve's widow poisoned him and he went of and died in Sherwood Forest...…... But I was in old HUNTINGDONSHIRE when I was told that by local TV. Soooo...….

studying the fotos on his pc like they were actual pictures of men from that time XD just kidding Tony, very interesting stuff.

Maybe Robin does exist but as we all know history repeats itself meaning that the life of Robin hood went on in the form of fate and legacy with destiny choosing different people through out the ages to continue the robin hood legacy without them even knowing what the fabric of time and space had done this .

"The Robin of the ballad is a bit of a thug. In one poem he kills a man, puts the head on his bow staff, and mutilates the face." -As bits of thugs do.

There has already been a cartoon called "Rocket Robin Hood." It was set on the planet Nott.

I’m curious if the cameraman or editors even remotely paid attention to the happenings behind the narrator? Esp: the people in the background when he’s at a table outside a pub? Unless they were hired extras, the pair in the back left look shady, and the pair in the front left are making fools of themselves. Back right simply stares.

Everyone in America loves the legend of Bonnie and Clyde also.But they were no Robin hood,either,

This started out like a normal research documentary then towards the end went VERY weird.

Water is very hard to find in a lush green English forest where it rains all the time?!

34:30 Ad to the fact that, if the story has any basis in fact, Robin was nearly bled out when he fired the arrow. Even an extraordinarily skilled archer would be rubbish when close to death from exsanguination.

I'm more shook about the camcorders people are using than anything else in this

Lookin good Tony!!!🙃🥳🎪

Long live the Green Man.

Robin Hood still alive today. He is camouflaged, he is wearing green robe.

47:15 Intergalactic Robin Hood? Why yes there was already. Rocket Robin Hood in 1966.

A recent hypnotic investigation into Robin Hood suggests that much of the tale is true and that the man was in fact a poor tanner. See The Hypno-Archaeologist by Philip Ditchfield.

19:30 ring-ring.....ring-ring.... Hello, Is this the Tony Robinson who does those amazing history documentaries? No, well sorry to bother you then. Oh, you do? Brilliant, what is it? Great, thanks for your help. Not all that hard. You may want to talk to him about handing out your number like that though.

3:50 HOKAY!!! YEAH!!

Im going with the first theory 👍

O.M.G...Robin Hoods Well..!!! back in 2014 when I did a driving holiday of the UK I stopped overnight in that parking bay...I DID take myself to Sherwood Forrest that next day but I was to early for the visitors centre...damn..!! I was so close and didn't know it...

The passage beginning at 30:00 about Marion is interesting in that it says, albeit in not so many words, that Marion is a meta-character, formed by the merging of a presumed historic Robin Hood figure with the portrayal of him in "revelry", and that the giving to the poor is a meta-story, a story about the story, in which the giving to the poor as a tradition of these historic *portrayals* of Robin Hood merged with the story of Robin Hood himself. It's like behind the 4th wall is a 5th wall; behind the 5th wall is an audience watching the people behind the 4th wall as well as the play *those* people are watching. The closest I can think of conflating different levels of telling was that great gag in the movie of "Gangs of New York", in which Abraham Lincoln is on stage while somebody else is shot in the audience. The Abraham Lincoln on stage is a character in "Uncle Tom's Cabin", but symbolically he represents the real Abraham Lincoln, meaning they were taking turns being on stage and getting shot in the audience! That one took so long to sink in, I busted out laughing only as I was leaving the theater. Ach, how did I forget a few minutes ago the entire Deadpool movie, in which it's hard to know at any point which "level of reality" is communicating with us.

“Kevin Hicks, here!”

When you mentioned the possibility of a future homosexual Robin hood all I could think of is Worf in star trek saying "captain I protest I am not a merry man."

Even in the Disney Version, Phil Harris's Little John Called Robin Hood, Robert.

Did any of y’all play with the Forestmen LEGO sets back in the day??

Could his name not be Robin Hood but Robbing Hood because he robbed people and he wore a hood? Robbing was shortened to Robin?

What's that guitar-flute music called??

in most of versions they present Lady Marion as a dumbshell on distress but she wasnt like that

I know Robin as........ a........ cartoon fox .......

No credits at the beginning and end being included made me wonder whether Digital Rights Group was the real Robin Hood here!

I like all these comments criticizing the technology and audio in a public access show from 2002.

The music and background sounds were so obnoxious and drowned the voice so often that it spoiled my enjoyment.

2:41 waiting to search yahoo using free aol

My god! a video about the equipment of Richard Rutherford-Moore... i want more details; please, can anyone say me where i can find some material about this? Thanks in advance

Feared by the bad, loved by the good.

That dial up noise, tho...

I looked ta my family tree and traced back years and an ancestor of mine was robin hood, it stated it was either him or another guy, it wasn`t clear which was the real guy between the two apparently

Part One------THE PRINCE OF ROBBERS “He was the most humane and prince of robbers, ” writes John Major, a sixteenth century historian. The Outlaw Robin Hood --His Yorkshire Legend The popular image of Robin Hood is well known. He lived in Sherwood Forest with a band of Merry Men in the time of Richard the Lionheart. He was a dispossessed nobleman , the Earl of Huntington, who robbed to the rich to give to the poor. His closest friend was the giant ,Little John, and his sweetheart the beautiful Maid Marian. The outlaws all wore smart tunics and tights of Lincoln Green and spent most of their time fighting the evil Sheriff of Nottingham. Robin eventually came to a very sticky end in sleazy and mysterious circumstances at the hand of his kinswoman, the Wicked Prioress of Kirklees, who bled him to death. He fired an arrow from his deathbed and is buried where the arrow fell, on the hillside at Kirklees. Most of this tale is untrue. This distorted image of Robin Hood has come about from centuries of poetic licence at the hand of playwrights , children’s writers and filmmakers , who “sexed him up” as the modern saying goes. Up until recently, also, Robin was not a subject for serious historical study, so the legend grew into more of a romantic myth which distanced the true identity of Robin more and more away from reality. However, there are numerous references to Robin in historical documents as well as ballads written about his exploits, as well as a fair amount of circumstantial evidence. My own interest in the legend began around twenty years ago when I came to Brighouse as a district nurse, and in the course of my work, visited Kirklees Hall, two miles outside the town; I had read that Robin was buried somewhere on this land and was subsequently allowed to see the famous , but little known grave , hidden in the Kirklees woods. Like most people, I wondered why Robin was buried in Yorkshire when everyone knew, he came from Nottinghamshire. This started me on a treasure hunt to discover Robin’s Yorkshire connections, and these will be explored more deeply in the forthcoming weeks. But first we need to try and find out who this elusive character actually was. The earliest references to Robin are in the fourteenth century. In the Vision of Piers Plowman, the rhymester says, “I do not know my paternoster perfectly, but I know rhymes of Robin Hood.......” John Major described Robin’s chivalrous character: “----he never allowed harm to be done to a woman, nor the goods of poor men, but seized the rich oblations of abbots.” Camden described him as “the gentlest of thieves.” Robin was also noted for his devotion to the Virgin Mary and his regular attendance at Mass. He was not a Pagan, as some films have depicted him. Robin was only one of the innumerable outlaws who roamed England in medieval times, but it is only Robin’s name which has been so well preserved in history . Everyone has heard of of Robin Hood ! In this our spacious isle, I think there is not one But he of Robin Hood hath heard and Little John And to the end of time the tale shall ne’er be done Of Scathlock, George a Green and Much the Miller’s Son Of Tuck, the merry friar, which many a sermon made In praise of Robin Hood, the outlaws and their trade. Drayton, Polyolbion So who was Robin Hood and when did he live ? Many people have questioned his actual existence but the evidence does support his historical reality. However, the late Canon Isaac Taylor stated that Robin was a solar myth, identified with Hotherus of Saxo Grammaticus. Jacob Grimm went on to say that Robin was Hodekin, a wood sprite of German mythology. Another unidentified writer suggests that Maid Marian is Morgen, the Maiden of the Dawn, and Robin a wood elf, or Woden, the God of War. Others claim that he was Robin o’the Wood, a Green man, Puck, Robin Goodfellow, a Scandinavian warrior deity called Hodt and, in Robin of Sherwood, a television series in the 1980s, a reincarnating will ’o-the wisp shamanic wizard. 2) The 1950’s Wakefield historian, J.W. Walker,who wrote several books about the outlaw, had no time for these fanciful notions and declared, “Yorkshire folk will have none of these theories that would make Robin a solar myth, a forest elf or hobgoblin!” Good for him! The late Reverend Harold Pobjoy who was vicar of Hartshead in the 1930s and author of the wonderful book,The Story of the Ancient Parish of Hartshead cum Clifton wrote: “Robin’s character clearly emerges from the ballads and the traditional picture does not change. It is of a character of great warmth, a born leader, brave beyond the ordinary, skilled, witty, rebellious against the Norman tyrants and willing to risk his life extracting from them some of the wealth be believed belonged to the oppressed poor. There is no suggestion whatsoever of the supernatural. The portrait is of a very human one. There is nothing ethereal about Robin. He is very much a person of flesh and blood........a man, beloved of himself, unbetrayed by people for whom the reward of his apprehension would have seemed a fortune. ” In conclusion Pobjoy writes, “ It is gratifying to think that Robin might have gone to our own St Peter’s on the Hill to say his prayers and hear Mass; and might perhaps re-armed himself from the sturdy bows of the ancient yew tree whose long dead remains still occupy an honoured place near the church door. ********************************************** Next Month: A history of Robin Hood of Wakefield and other claimants. The Yorkshire Robin Hood Society was investigating the legend at Kirklees--and Robin's Grave--well before Tony Robinsons visit there! See www.robinhoodyorkshire.co.uk

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This is super interesting to watch but DAMN is it hard to hear. The audio mix is TERRIBLE - nats and music are drowning out the VO. 😢

I think we love Robin Hood because like all the great characters in English literature we don't care whether he's real or not , we LOVE to think he's real and we don't care. Like Merlin , King Arthur and Beowulf he may not be real but we love to think they are and that they represent the things and qualities that made Britain what it is.

ng to what I read their was at least 38 of them over a span of three hundred years or so the story goes

Short answer yes, long answer no.

so littlejohn was legolas?! i might have heard wrong, i heard greenleaf. 😶

The problem is everyone is searching for a human when clearly Robin is a fox! 🦊

What? You can't possibly call Erol Flynn a lair!!

Great vid!!! Watch Morning D.E.W. for great daily world info on weather!!! Great channel!!!

Coming up next....who was Sherlock Holmes.....

Honestly is Robin Hood really a hero was he a person

Warin and Robin are similar sounds

when...when was this filmed?

Isn't this the same as the Timeline production?

Baldrick

Better thumbnails will work

11:40 Sounds no different to religions today if you ask me

"In Robin's day, religious communities were notorious for their greed, lax morals, and hypocritical lifestyle." 'twould seem that some things never change.

Baldrick.

Waaaaytoo many ads. Unsubscribing!

WHAT ABOUT GOTHAM ?

I wonder if there is a Robin Hood story version created around the Reformation in England. Protestant spin may have been used to habituate the ordinary people (through the hijacking of songs, myth and legend) to the new type of Christianity verses the evil clergy who could only have been Catholic at the times referred to in those songs and legends.

excuse me sir where I am from I don't think you will actually called it a rabbit Hood . however what would you call it a man walks away from millions and millions of dollars so that he can find his self barely surviving

Kingdom Come Deliverance

Down with all the phony kings !!!!

"men of the cloth", more like reprobates and fools.

I think there was already a gay Robin Hood, well he certainly did a lot of camping.

Hardback DORLING KINDERSLEY DK EYEWITNESS GUIDES Book of MEDIEVAL LIFE. Discover medieval Europe - from life in a country manor to the streets of a developing town.

Have to gives thumbs down for sound. Why is it necessary for background music to overpower the story?

reated 16 sep 2013

What year is this why the technology looks so old?

William Wallace

*Very Soon now, JeHoVah GOD, WiLL CaLL an END to ALL this!!!* *Those who are Accepted to GOD, wiLL Then Know Every Mystery!!!* *Not just in One Blinding Hour, But in 1,000nds of leisurely Years!* *At that Point, wuts the HuRRy??? We've GOT ETERNITY to Live!*

Maybe I was attracted to bad boys all my life🌹❣❤️❣🌹

42:44 OMG that guy widened his mouth in a near smile and he's got Austin Powers teeth

First

An otherwise a great presentation, ruined by "Background Music". Its constant over riding of Mr. Robinson's voice was enough to cause me to stop watching. On to the next video.