Robin Hood

Robin Hood was a famous crusader for justice who lived in medieval Nottinghamshire, England. Nobody knows for sure if he existed, but it seems that he might have done! The legend is set in the period of the third crusade, around AD 1190, during which time Richard I was fighting.

His brother, “Bad” Prince John, named because of his cruel and self-motivated ways, oppressed the people of England. Robin fought against this oppression by stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. 

Drawing a longbow required tremendous strength and skill. Robin’s bow would have given him an accurate range of around 370 metres!

The legend of Herne the Hunter, incarnate as a deer, is closely associated with the spirit of the forest. The myth of Robin Hood continues to evolve – in some stories, Robin is granted the spiritual power of Herne to help the people of England.

In many ways, Robin’s battle was about the power balance of England, fought out with one of Prince John’s most trusted advocates: the Sheriff of Nottingham. In our story, the Sheriff is the principal villain as a representative of the oppressive Norman rule in England.

The Sheriff often fell foul of Robin as he tried to capture outlaws, punish locals for poaching the King’s deer (even when they were starving), and ensure the safety of trade routes through Sherwood Forest.

Although the Sheriff had assistants, such as Guy of Gisborne, he was also well known for going into battle himself when the need arose. His feud with Robin Hood resulted in many famous skirmishes. 

The Sheriff wears an expensive cape adorned with fur. Such a cape was a symbol of the Sheriff’s lavish lifestyle. 

The Sheriff brandishes his straight sword – he is arrogant, a normal nobleman who believes himself superior to the native Englishmen. 

Deep in Sherwood Forest lay ancient pathways, known only to the local English. These led to King David’s cave – so-named after King David of Scotland who was held here for many months.

The cave was directly below Nottingham Castle and close to the Sherriff’s jewels and money, which Robin would take and redistribute to the common man. Opposite Robin, you can see his essential tools and weapons for surviving as an outlaw. 

Robin’s sword is kept in a leather scabbard to keep it safe and sharp. In some legends this is Albion, one of the 7 swords of Wayland, which were made by the blacksmith Wayland Smith, a figure who featured in Norse and Anglo-Saxon mythology. 

Robin has a hunting horn that could call his men of Sherwood Forest to action. It also held drinking water.

With so much use, a longbow string could easily break, so Robin kept a spare. The string was made from a crop called hemp. Hemp was used a great deal in medieval times for food, clothing and medicine.

Another of Robin’s weapons for justice was a dagger. He would use this to fight soldiers and hunt animals for food. 

The Sheriff's large treasure chest contains unfair taxes from the common workers. Robin stole this frequently! 

Robin kept a set of skeleton keys – including a key to the Sheriff's chest – which allowed him to break in or out of places he was not meant to be. He was an outlaw!

Robin followed a group of the Sheriff’s men as they escorted a tax collector into Nottingham. After a week collecting monies from the local villagers – and refusing to listen to pleas for leniency after a poor harvest – the tax collector returned to the castle with a chest full of coins

The other men of Sherwood warn Robin that this might be a trap to lure him out of the forest, but Robin is determined to help the starving villagers and has broken in. 

The Sheriff is smug. He has long hoped for this moment and is delighted to face off against his most wanted man. The Sheriff is a fine swordsman, and he lunges at Robin. This could be a duel to the death.

Robin is one of the finest archers in England, but he is also an experienced swordsman and meets and blocks the Sheriff’s attacks. Robin would rather capture the Sheriff and ransom him back to his men than kill him. 

Robin hears that the Sheriff’s troops have been alerted, probably by the sounds of their swords clashing. This trap has been sprung and Robin will have to retreat. 

Robin was fighting for the ordinary working people of medieval Nottingham. There were many Saxon villages throughout Sherwood, where villagers lived off the land. Here, a cook prepares food to be bought and enjoyed by the villagers, including Robin Hood himself.

The cook was one of the people targeted by the Sheriff’s high food taxes. 

The cook worked long hours to prepare food. She wore warm clothing, because she worked outside or in cold tents. Cooks were women who worked in small teams to prepare food for entire villages. 

You can see another cook bent over the medieval stove. There was no electricity in the 13th century, so cooks burned wood. The smell of cooking was delicious and traveled through the whole village. 

The cooks kept their supplies in tents. They could move their stalls around easily to offer their wares on market days and at special events. 

Cooks used root vegetables from the land. The villagers didn’t have any choice but to eat their own vegetables.

Carrots were originally purple, like some of the ones you can see here, but they were crossbred to be orange to celebrate William of Orange, who led the revolt for the Dutch to gain independence from Spain.

The cook used a sharp knife to chop the vegetables. The knife was made in the village by a local blacksmith. 

Among those protected by Robin Hood were the blacksmiths or “smithys” of Sherwood. Blacksmiths made objects by forging metal. Here, a blacksmith prepares weapons and tools: the cook’s knife and weapons and horseshoes for the nobles at the castle.

His “smith” is mounted on a cart so that it can be taken wherever there is work. 

Blacksmiths were tough men who worked long hours in all weathers. They were essential craftsmen, especially when it came to putting shoes on horses. This one wears an apron and tough leather boots so as not to harm his feet with hot, sharp metal. 

Blacksmiths usually worked on commission, which meant that people asked them to make specific items. Here, the blacksmith has been asked to create tools of different sizes. 

Smithys used a very hot forge fire using charcoal or coal to make the metal in the shape that they needed. The Sherwood smithys used wood (from Sherwood Forest) turned into charcoal and coal, which they had to heat up to 1,371°C to melt and work with iron. 

Hand bellows, operated by the smithy, pumped air into the fire to add oxygen and make it blaze.

Retreating from the Sheriff and his men, Robin makes his stand outside the cave near the castle. Here he can use his longbow. Robin and the King’s men have a showdown. Robin did not work alone but had his own team called the Merry Men, who helped him in his quest for justice.

Here, Little John (who is in fact not so little) brandishes a staff to protect Robin. The Sheriff has his own team, made up of the henchmen of Prince John.

The King’s men were the royal soldiers charged with protecting the throne and the nobles. They wore the royal bright red colour, which contrasted with Robin’s common dark-green clothing.

The King’s men were loyal to the crown but misguided, blindly following Prince John and the Sheriff while Richard I fought in the Holy Land. 

Torture was common in medieval England. If enemies of Prince John were caught, they were tortured in very gruesome ways. The torturer was a freelancer, working for the highest bidder.

Robin Hood is once again victorious in his quest for justice. Here, Robin and Little John have defeated the Sheriff again. Robin will be able to ransom the Sheriff back to the castle and redistribute the money to the poor. 

The nobles wore grand jewelry as symbols of their wealth and status. This necklace would probably have been a present from Prince John to the Sheriff for collecting taxes and keeping the peace.

The trap had failed and Robin was once again a thorn in his side.

In the fight, the soldiers tried to kill Robin and Little John on the Sheriff’s orders. The outlaws tried not to kill, merely wounding and knocking out the soldiers. The Sheriff was furious to lose even though Robin was outnumbered.

One of the men – the torturer – is a freelancer. His employer, the Sheriff, has lost. Being a practical man, the torturer has run away from the fight!

Richard the Lionheart has returned to Nottingham. King Richard had been away, and was feared lost or dead, so his brother, Prince John, looked after the throne. Secretly, John did not want Richard to return, as he wanted to be the King himself.

Here, Robin shows his fealty to the true King and explains the horrors that his brother has committed – John raised the already high taxes on common workers to pay for his lavish lifestyle.

Richard forgives Robin for his outlawry and gives him a pardon. With Richard’s blessing, rich and poor can work together.

Richard spent only 7 months in England during his 10-year reign. Most of the time, he was leading the Crusades in Jerusalem. He was not the most popular king, because he imposed high taxes.

However, everyone knew that the alternative, John, was far worse, and so they were pleased when Richard returned from imprisonment in Germany. 

Also part of the King’s staff were the King’s Guards, elite soldiers who fought on behalf of the throne. Prince John used them in his name while the King was abroad. 

While Richard the Lionheart remained in England, Robin was no longer a “wolf’s head” or outlaw. However, Robin knew that Richard’s heart was in battle and that he would soon leave the country in John’s hands. Nottingham was bound to need its champion once more… 

The Magna Carta is a world-famous document. Ratified in 1215, it established for the first time the principle that everybody, including the King, was subject to the law. The Magna Carta remains a cornerstone of the British constitution.