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A Brief History of Robin Hood
The story of Robin Hood contains compelling narratives of crusades and outlaws and has become a symbol for justice in an unjust world. Robin Hood became a hero over the centuries and has been immortalized in books, art, and movies, as well as a figure of admiration, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. This Brief History explores the truth behind the myths and the realities behind the images, and reveals an unexpected story that hits close to home.
222 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
About the author
Nigel Cawthorne
327 books128 followersNigel Cawthorne is an Anglo-American writer of fiction and non-fiction, and an editor. He has written more than 80 books on a wide range of subjects and has contributed to The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph Daily Mail and The New York Times. He has appeared on television and BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Many of Nigel Cawthorne's books are compilations of popular history, without footnotes, references or bibliographies. His own web site refers to a description of his home as a "book-writing factory" and says, "More than half my books were commissioned by publishers and packagers for a flat fee or for a for a reduced royalty".
One of his most notable works was Taking Back My Name, an autobiography of Ike Turner, with whom he spent a number of weeks working with him on, taking up residence in Turner's house. The book caused much controversy, resulting in court cases for three years following its release.
Cawthorne currently lives in Bloomsbury, London with his girlfriend and son, Colin (born 1982).
Many of Nigel Cawthorne's books are compilations of popular history, without footnotes, references or bibliographies. His own web site refers to a description of his home as a "book-writing factory" and says, "More than half my books were commissioned by publishers and packagers for a flat fee or for a for a reduced royalty".
One of his most notable works was Taking Back My Name, an autobiography of Ike Turner, with whom he spent a number of weeks working with him on, taking up residence in Turner's house. The book caused much controversy, resulting in court cases for three years following its release.
Cawthorne currently lives in Bloomsbury, London with his girlfriend and son, Colin (born 1982).
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
July 3, 2022
I almost didn't buy this book in the first place because on the back cover it states:
"The story...found its home in England and Sherwood Forest during the reign of Richard II, the Lionheart."
Richard I was Richard the Lionheart, not Richard II, so if the fact checkers for this book missed this basic error for the back cover, then what else have they missed?
To be fair, I suppose there aren't so many facts connected with Robin Hood. Someone with that name or nickname could well have existed at various times between 1189 and 1347, depending on which story you believe.
There are many stories mentioning Robin Hood or a man with a similar name. The first person to place Robin Hood in the era of Richard I and King John was a man called John Major in his "History of Great Britain" published in 1521. Walter Bower published a book "Scotichronicon" in 1440 in which he indicates Robin Hood was a known outlaw in 1266. Another publication "A Gest of Robyn Hode" published in 1475 indicates Robin Hood died in 1347.
Robin Hood is mentioned in The Vision of Piers Plowman and The Canterbury Tales, so the legend and the myth must have been almost all-pervading at the end of the 1300s, otherwise Robin wouldn't have been mentioned. It's possible that the escapades of real outlaws such as Fulk Fitzwarin and Eustace the Monk, both lived at the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th Centuries, were transferred to Robin Hood in the days when most stories would have been passed down orally.
If I had to make a guess, I'd say the legend of Robin Hood is an amalgamation of myth, embellishment, the real-life escapades of Robin Hood, and the real-life escapades of other outlaws from earlier times, and that the person who forms the core of the legend lived in the time of Edward I to Edward III and died in Kirkless Abbey where he was possibly murdered by the Abbess and her lover Roger of Doncaster.
"The story...found its home in England and Sherwood Forest during the reign of Richard II, the Lionheart."
Richard I was Richard the Lionheart, not Richard II, so if the fact checkers for this book missed this basic error for the back cover, then what else have they missed?
To be fair, I suppose there aren't so many facts connected with Robin Hood. Someone with that name or nickname could well have existed at various times between 1189 and 1347, depending on which story you believe.
There are many stories mentioning Robin Hood or a man with a similar name. The first person to place Robin Hood in the era of Richard I and King John was a man called John Major in his "History of Great Britain" published in 1521. Walter Bower published a book "Scotichronicon" in 1440 in which he indicates Robin Hood was a known outlaw in 1266. Another publication "A Gest of Robyn Hode" published in 1475 indicates Robin Hood died in 1347.
Robin Hood is mentioned in The Vision of Piers Plowman and The Canterbury Tales, so the legend and the myth must have been almost all-pervading at the end of the 1300s, otherwise Robin wouldn't have been mentioned. It's possible that the escapades of real outlaws such as Fulk Fitzwarin and Eustace the Monk, both lived at the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th Centuries, were transferred to Robin Hood in the days when most stories would have been passed down orally.
If I had to make a guess, I'd say the legend of Robin Hood is an amalgamation of myth, embellishment, the real-life escapades of Robin Hood, and the real-life escapades of other outlaws from earlier times, and that the person who forms the core of the legend lived in the time of Edward I to Edward III and died in Kirkless Abbey where he was possibly murdered by the Abbess and her lover Roger of Doncaster.
December 30, 2024
Not a bad introduction to the legend of Robin Hood... but not a brilliant one either. I have to agree there are a lot of typographical errors and the writing seems rushed and repetitive. Nick Rennison's Robin Hood makes a comparable but better introduction to the development of the legend of Robin Hood. I would recommend J.C. Holt's Robin Hood or Maurice Keen's Outlaws of Medieval Legend for anyone interested in more advanced studies of the legend.
*****
Addendum: Review on second reading. I raised this a star upon listening to the audiobook. Typos were less noticeable except one occasion where Edward III is named instead of Edward II in error. The background on the outlaws of the Merry Men and some of his "rivals" is fairly good. Short and sweet.
*****
Addendum: Review on second reading. I raised this a star upon listening to the audiobook. Typos were less noticeable except one occasion where Edward III is named instead of Edward II in error. The background on the outlaws of the Merry Men and some of his "rivals" is fairly good. Short and sweet.
June 24, 2010
In a word? Dreadful. Poor copyediting made this book even worse than it ought to have been. I was expecting some discussion of the various strains of the Robin Hood legend and some history - instead this was a repetitious set of essays without good connections or solid research.
December 17, 2011
The subtitle of this book promises "the true history behind the legend," and this book delivers on that claim. The book starts with a summary of the Robin Hood legend as commonly understood in the 21st century English-speaking world, and then proceeds to shoot many holes in that story, going back to the 14th century to find the original stories of Robin Hood. I particularly liked how the author also brought in other "contemporary" characters from that time and showed how some of those stories got re-purposed to feature Robin Hood over the years. The most interesting thing to me was how Maid Marian, a staple of the modern stories, is really a quite recent addition to the Robin Hood tales, as in the original stories Robin is instead devoted to the Virgin Mary. He shows it by robbing rich priests, which is wonderfully ironic. This book is a pretty quick read, and recommended to anyone interested in looking the historical facts and early tales about Robin Hood and his Merry Men.
April 29, 2023
Actually, its “A Brief History of Robin Hood: The True History Behind the Legend”. By Nigel Cawthorne. This is a 240 page paperback.
I’m on a Robin Hood kick lately. (I’m also on a Star Trek kick as well, which is really inconvenient, but stuff happens). I’ve watched the silent movie Robin Hood, the classic Errol Flynn Robin Hood (and all the extras!), the animated Disney Robin Hood (for the first time!) and the inexplicably awful “Ghosts of Sherwood” which is so awful I have to see it again to try to figure out how it’s possible to be that awful.
So this is the first book in many books on Robin Hood I’ve got lined up.
The book starts with an amazing tale of Robin Hood from the very beginning and seemingly every event and tale and event, including the commonly know tales of Friar Tuck and Little John as well as several other events and thefts.
It’s incredibly helpful to read all these tales strung together without having to slog through middle-english though there is definitely some words used that are undefined.
The writer credits the one long story of Robin Hood to the author Howard Pyle — the easiest to find of the Robin Hood books. Written in 1883. He also credits him with the illustrations that have formed our most common image of Robin Hood.
The second chapter is the part I was most dreading. It’s the detailed look at the original ballads and origin of Robin Hood and the possible speculation on who he might have been, including all the misleading tales, made up wives, fictionalized lineages, etc, etc, etc.
This stuff has no interest to me personally. Robin Hood might have been real, but we’ll never know because the name has been borrowed by so many people and the story retold and twisted so many times. And does it really matter anyway?
It’s really only 23 pages, so it’s a slog, but a quick slog and well-written enough that’s not a complete snooze.
Chapter 4 The Literary Tradition is much more interesting. It’s a speedy flight through the various plays, ballads and poems and some of the most interesting variations in them along with notes about which works are known to survive and those only mentioned. It’s very entertaining and thankfully brief. It takes us right up to Howard Pyle’s tale in 1883.
Chapter 5 The Bandit Leader briefly covers a lot of similar historical figures, including Bonny & Clyde, Dillinger and a few others. Interesting and only about 10 pages.
Chapter 6 Fulk Fitzwarin. I thought this was going to be another fairly redundant story of a similar figure from history, but it’s actually a pretty amazing story about a really screwed up family!
In much the same way that the first chapter told the entire story of Robin Hood in summary, this chapter goes through all of the legends and stories about Fulk Fitzwarin. It a fun and crazy story that was well worth reading and of course, there were some similarities to Robin Hood legends.
Chapter 7 is Eustace the Monk and is also told in a continuous tale of his adventures and are similar in many ways to Robin Hood, but unique and entertaining.
Chapter 8 Rebels tells an extended tale of Hereward the Wake and all his Robin-hood like exploits. A fascinating and rousing tale whose familiarity does not diminish the unusual specifics.
It then tells the tale of William Wallace (the ‘Braveheart’ guy) and his real exploits and mythical exploits.
Chapter 9 The Merry Men starts with Little John and then Will Scarlet telling all the possible origins and variations on the characters. It continues with Alan a Dale, Much the miller’s son, Will Stutely, Arthur a Bland and David of Doncaster and tells their stories in a very readable way. Just mentioning the ballad they were written about in.
Chapter 10 tells the tales of Maid Marian and Friar Tuck both of whom appear to have been added much later than the original tales.
In the authors usual engaging fashion he weaves all the tales involving them into a long and wild narrative - including Robin Hood’s first wife!
The usual overview of the different variations in the way Friar Tuck was original written compared to how he is portrait nowadays provides interesting insight. Who let the dogs out?!
Sheriff of Nottingham and Guy of Gisborne are Chapter 11. Apparently the Sheriff of Nottingham has never actually been named. Therefore we are treated to a treasure trove of despicable men who might well be the one. There seems to be no shortage of these.
Terrific tales of the adventures of these two including Sir Guy getting beheaded by Robin Hood!
A Sir Rodger of Doncaster is given as another potential villain with the evidence laid out in a convincing manner.
Chapter 12 is King Richard and King John. This is much more true to history than any of the other characters, but still an amazing tales. King Richard died at 41.
King John’s history is told and though less fanciful is still fascinating in how many wars, scandals and betrayals occur.
Chapter 13 is Robin Hood in Hollywood. In addition to all the usual suspects, it details quite a few movies that I’ve never heard of and will have to track down - including “Miss Robin Hood” and the TV series “Maid Marian and her Merry Men”! The book is current up until the Russel Crowe movie.
The last chapter is an amazing 18 page Chronology from 1066 to 2010!
All in all this is a wonderful book on the history of Robin Hood and I really couldn’t have found a better one. Thorough, yet entertaining, academic yet imminently readable.
I honestly didn’t have much interest in the historical Robin Hood (as opposed to the fictional), but this book has left me very knowledgeable and I will definitely keep it and refer to it as a reference. I give it 5 stars.
I’m on a Robin Hood kick lately. (I’m also on a Star Trek kick as well, which is really inconvenient, but stuff happens). I’ve watched the silent movie Robin Hood, the classic Errol Flynn Robin Hood (and all the extras!), the animated Disney Robin Hood (for the first time!) and the inexplicably awful “Ghosts of Sherwood” which is so awful I have to see it again to try to figure out how it’s possible to be that awful.
So this is the first book in many books on Robin Hood I’ve got lined up.
The book starts with an amazing tale of Robin Hood from the very beginning and seemingly every event and tale and event, including the commonly know tales of Friar Tuck and Little John as well as several other events and thefts.
It’s incredibly helpful to read all these tales strung together without having to slog through middle-english though there is definitely some words used that are undefined.
The writer credits the one long story of Robin Hood to the author Howard Pyle — the easiest to find of the Robin Hood books. Written in 1883. He also credits him with the illustrations that have formed our most common image of Robin Hood.
The second chapter is the part I was most dreading. It’s the detailed look at the original ballads and origin of Robin Hood and the possible speculation on who he might have been, including all the misleading tales, made up wives, fictionalized lineages, etc, etc, etc.
This stuff has no interest to me personally. Robin Hood might have been real, but we’ll never know because the name has been borrowed by so many people and the story retold and twisted so many times. And does it really matter anyway?
It’s really only 23 pages, so it’s a slog, but a quick slog and well-written enough that’s not a complete snooze.
Chapter 4 The Literary Tradition is much more interesting. It’s a speedy flight through the various plays, ballads and poems and some of the most interesting variations in them along with notes about which works are known to survive and those only mentioned. It’s very entertaining and thankfully brief. It takes us right up to Howard Pyle’s tale in 1883.
Chapter 5 The Bandit Leader briefly covers a lot of similar historical figures, including Bonny & Clyde, Dillinger and a few others. Interesting and only about 10 pages.
Chapter 6 Fulk Fitzwarin. I thought this was going to be another fairly redundant story of a similar figure from history, but it’s actually a pretty amazing story about a really screwed up family!
In much the same way that the first chapter told the entire story of Robin Hood in summary, this chapter goes through all of the legends and stories about Fulk Fitzwarin. It a fun and crazy story that was well worth reading and of course, there were some similarities to Robin Hood legends.
Chapter 7 is Eustace the Monk and is also told in a continuous tale of his adventures and are similar in many ways to Robin Hood, but unique and entertaining.
Chapter 8 Rebels tells an extended tale of Hereward the Wake and all his Robin-hood like exploits. A fascinating and rousing tale whose familiarity does not diminish the unusual specifics.
It then tells the tale of William Wallace (the ‘Braveheart’ guy) and his real exploits and mythical exploits.
Chapter 9 The Merry Men starts with Little John and then Will Scarlet telling all the possible origins and variations on the characters. It continues with Alan a Dale, Much the miller’s son, Will Stutely, Arthur a Bland and David of Doncaster and tells their stories in a very readable way. Just mentioning the ballad they were written about in.
Chapter 10 tells the tales of Maid Marian and Friar Tuck both of whom appear to have been added much later than the original tales.
In the authors usual engaging fashion he weaves all the tales involving them into a long and wild narrative - including Robin Hood’s first wife!
The usual overview of the different variations in the way Friar Tuck was original written compared to how he is portrait nowadays provides interesting insight. Who let the dogs out?!
Sheriff of Nottingham and Guy of Gisborne are Chapter 11. Apparently the Sheriff of Nottingham has never actually been named. Therefore we are treated to a treasure trove of despicable men who might well be the one. There seems to be no shortage of these.
Terrific tales of the adventures of these two including Sir Guy getting beheaded by Robin Hood!
A Sir Rodger of Doncaster is given as another potential villain with the evidence laid out in a convincing manner.
Chapter 12 is King Richard and King John. This is much more true to history than any of the other characters, but still an amazing tales. King Richard died at 41.
King John’s history is told and though less fanciful is still fascinating in how many wars, scandals and betrayals occur.
Chapter 13 is Robin Hood in Hollywood. In addition to all the usual suspects, it details quite a few movies that I’ve never heard of and will have to track down - including “Miss Robin Hood” and the TV series “Maid Marian and her Merry Men”! The book is current up until the Russel Crowe movie.
The last chapter is an amazing 18 page Chronology from 1066 to 2010!
All in all this is a wonderful book on the history of Robin Hood and I really couldn’t have found a better one. Thorough, yet entertaining, academic yet imminently readable.
I honestly didn’t have much interest in the historical Robin Hood (as opposed to the fictional), but this book has left me very knowledgeable and I will definitely keep it and refer to it as a reference. I give it 5 stars.
March 25, 2019
A decent overview of the history of Robin Hood, And how several people and stories contributed to the legend. The editing of this book definitely left something to be desired and at times could be a bit distracting from the general story. I will say I much prefer the fictional movie version of Robin Hood, who was vastly more heroic ( and less violent)than any of these outlaws.
What I found most interesting were the side characters: including King John, and The Merry Men. Maid Marion was a more recent addition to the story of Robin Hood. If you’re a fan of Robin Hood it certainly is an interesting compilation of how the legend of Robin Hood was born. Just don’t go in with too high of expectation.
What I found most interesting were the side characters: including King John, and The Merry Men. Maid Marion was a more recent addition to the story of Robin Hood. If you’re a fan of Robin Hood it certainly is an interesting compilation of how the legend of Robin Hood was born. Just don’t go in with too high of expectation.
December 2, 2021
A good overview of the legend. Whilst I did enjoy the tales, many of them have common themes so it can be quite repetitive. The history is well researched though and some convincing points are put across for the real life protagonists. You do hope for more discussion, but apart from that it is a good introduction to the legend and circumstances of those living during that turbulent period of English history.
August 31, 2017
I've veal the reviews about this book. I still liked it as it wasn't a dry "textbook" read. and it did expand on my own knowledge on the subject
January 25, 2018
I wanted to read this book because I love the story of Robin Hood. The book did have some interesting facts but it was SO boring to read! Also, this book was in desperate need of a good editor.
September 15, 2022
This book is an interesting overview on the archer of English legend. However, I believe it's best used as reference material, rather than entertainment.
December 29, 2022
I was really excited to read this book...unfortunately it put me to sleep instead. It went off on tangents and there were spelling errors and in the end I just gave up.
January 9, 2023
The information presented is helpful and interesting. However, it's mostly just a long series of facts and stories without much analysis. As a resource it's good, as a read, not.
September 6, 2025
As a fan of the legend of Robin Hood I though this was a good addition
February 25, 2017
In all honesty, I'm not entirely sure what I made of this book.
I chose it because I was interested in learning a bit more about the tales that all come together to form our modern interpretation of the legend of Robin Hood. This book happened to be in a 3 for 2 sale, so I decided to go for it.
The main problem, I think, is that there is an awful lot of repetition throughout the book. The author uses this repetition as a basis that serves to underline the similarities between the current tale we know nowadays, and the tales of other historical persons that were set down many years ago (most of whom we have not heard of in this day and age). However, it also makes the reading very hard-going and pretty heavy-handed.
Though it was quite an interesting read, for me personally it wasn't an engaging read.
I chose it because I was interested in learning a bit more about the tales that all come together to form our modern interpretation of the legend of Robin Hood. This book happened to be in a 3 for 2 sale, so I decided to go for it.
The main problem, I think, is that there is an awful lot of repetition throughout the book. The author uses this repetition as a basis that serves to underline the similarities between the current tale we know nowadays, and the tales of other historical persons that were set down many years ago (most of whom we have not heard of in this day and age). However, it also makes the reading very hard-going and pretty heavy-handed.
Though it was quite an interesting read, for me personally it wasn't an engaging read.
July 8, 2015
Poorly edited (it suggests to a certain point that Cawthorne might even have copy-and-pasted from other sources, hastily rewording along the way) and spends too much time summarizing and repeating itself, but otherwise a good way to discover exactly what the title suggests. Most disappointingly, even though obviously published in advance of Ridley Scott's film, offers no insight into it, nor much for Costner's Prince of Thieves. Although I guess the goal wasn't analysis at any stage, except in discussing the prospects of historic figures to be various characters, from Robin Hood to the Sheriff of Nottingham.
July 11, 2016
I think that this is a great book to read if you are interested in learning about Robin Hood and the history behind it. Nigel Cawthorne presents his information with lots of research behind what he writes. I cited his book in a paper that I wrote about Robin Hood. I loved his explanations of possible origins of Robin Hood though I wish there was more. This book definitely fueled my interest in Robin Hood and I bought another book because of this one. I actually liked my second book better (this is why i gave this book 3 stars) but this was great book to find the brief history of Robin Hood.
~Megan~
~Megan~
August 16, 2014
This book is clearly well researched and I am glad that someone took the time to pull together all of the possible sources of the Robin Hood legend. It just wasn't as much fun to read as I thought it would be.
February 21, 2011
This is an excellent historical and literary overview of the Robin Hood legend. Unfortunately, there are some typos throughout the text that better editing would have addressed.
August 4, 2012
A good read.
September 12, 2013
Exhaustive
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews