Robin Hood: the English Outlaw Unmasked by David Baldwin

Description

Everyone has heard of Robin Hood, the brilliant archer who ‘robbed the rich to give to the poor’ and who always triumphed over the forces of evil, but the man behind the legend has always remained a mystery. There were outlaws who lived in the royal forests preying on unwary travellers, and Robin Hoods whose names are recorded in historical documents: but no one has been able to prove that one of these real Robins was the individual whose exploits were commemorated in ballad and song – until now. In this book David Baldwin sets out to find the real Robin Hood, looking for clues in the earliest ballads and in official and legal documents of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, arguing that he wasn’t actually called Robin in his own day and he didn’t even come from Nottingham. 288pp illus.