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Robin Hood and the Three Estates of Medieval Society

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Robin Hood and the Three Estates of Medieval Society Robin Hood and the Three Estates of Medieval Society Sabina Rahman A thesis submitted in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences The University of Sydney 2016 Abstract This thesis examines the representation of the three estates of medieval society in the early Robin Hood ballads, suggesting that they are echoing and stimulating social change away from the tripartite model of feudalism and towards a more equitable, if still hierarchical, social model. It will look particularly at the early texts “Robin Hood and the Monk”, “Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne”, “Robin Hood and the Potter” and “A Gest of Robyn Hode” examining themes of violence, transgression, and fellowship to lead to a conclusion that the ballads are testing current laws and social norms to reveal their inherent weaknesses and to promote an idealised conception of the free common man. Acknowledgements My thanks go to Margaret Rogerson, who walked me down the beginning of this path and to Jan Shaw, who walked with me to the end. To my friends and family, who put up with incessant ramblings about hooded figures and archers and anachronisms, thank you. The rambling won’t stop, you know. Most of all I am grateful to and for Jean and Asher, my merry men, without whom I could not have entered the Greenwood, and whose presence within made the shawes sheyne. Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter One: Robin Hood and the Second Estate. ............................................................................... 14 Chapter Two: Robin Hood and the First Estate .................................................................................... 48 Chapter Three: Robin Hood and the Third Estate ................................................................................. 77 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 100 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................ 104 Introduction Ritual and literature, in their different ways […] provide ‘metalanguages’ for discussing sociality […] [they are] society talking about itself.1 The legend of Robin Hood has been part of the English cultural landscape for over six centuries, evolving from the yeoman outlaw of the earliest surviving texts to the dispossessed nobleman that we recognise as his more recent incarnation. This thesis will expand upon claims that have been made before, which suggest that Robin Hood texts demonstrate concerns with regard to the social status quo of medieval society, by displaying this focus in four early Robin Hood texts. The introduction continues with a review of scholarship regarding Robin Hood’s position in a historical framework. The binding motif throughout the evolution of this story is that of destabilisation as Robin Hood is historically a destabilising figure. Noted as a ‘good outlaw’2 he has achieved and maintained international appeal3 as someone that ‘wants to or is willing to redress the balance.’4 He is, at the core, an anti-authority figure and thus has political significance. Indeed, his redemption from the social prejudices that held Robin Hood literature as ‘the refuse of a stall’5 at worst and ‘foolish tales’6 at best came about in no small part due to Joseph Ritson, who was himself full of admiration for the Revolution that was occurring in France when his collection of Robin Hood ballads was published in 1795.7 Ritson was convinced, however, that Robin Hood was a historical figure and indeed the majority of the scholarship on Robin Hood prior to the last two decades concerned the historicity of the outlaw, with attempts to authenticate the myth. Sir John Hawkins stated in 1773 that the history of the outlaw was unable to be proved to a scholarly standard due to the nature of the few and scattered fragments of evidence concerning him.8 He wrote of the ballads being ‘totally devoid of historical truth, being in short metrical legends’,9 an assertion dismissed by Joseph Ritson, who 1 Victor Turner, “African Ritual and Literary Mode: Is a Comparative Symbology Possible?”, The Literature of Fact, ed. Angus Fletcher, New York: Columbia University Press, 1976, p. 51. 2 See Thomas H. Ohlgren, Robin Hood: The Early Poems, 1465-1560, Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2007, p. 52, and Stephen Knight, Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003, p. xi. 3 Jeffrey Singman, Robin Hood: The Shaping of a Legend, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1998, p. 1. 4 Russell Crowe in The Real Robin Hood, Dir. M. David Melvin, The History Channel, 2010. 5 Egertons, “Pieces of Ancient Poetry: From Authentic Manuscripts and Old Printed Copies”, Critical Review, Vol. 4, London, 1972, p. 57. 6 R.B. Dobson and J. Taylor, “The Legend Since the Middle Ages”, Robin Hood: An Anthology of Scholarship and Criticism, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1999, p. 172. 7 Joseph Ritson, The Letters of Joseph Ritson Esq, Vol. 1, ed. Sir Harris Nicolas, London: William Pickering, 1833, pp. xlvii-xlviii. 8 Sir John Hawkins, General History of the Science and Practice of Music, (Vol. 3) London: J. Alfred Novello, 1853, pp. 410-14. 9 Hawkins, General History of the Science and Practice of Music, 1833, p. 413. 1 makes definite claims for a historical Robin Hood, casually dismissing Hawkins’ reserve about authenticated facts. In his Collection of All the Ancient Poems, Songs, and Ballads, Ritson describes Robin Hood as being born at Locksley, during the reign of King Henry II, at around 1100AD. Ritson gives him a noble lineage and states that his true name was Robert Fitzooth, ‘which vulgar pronunciation easyly corrupted into Robin Hood.’ 10 He also gives him the rights to the title of Earl of Huntingdon, lost to him due to debts owed for his youthful gallivanting and excessive lifestyle. Outlawed due to this, he sought refuge in the woods, later to be joined by other outlaws: ‘Little John, (whose surname is said to have been Nailor), William Scadlock (Scathelock or Scarlet), George A Green, pinder (or pound- keeper) of Wakefield, Much, a millers son, and a certain monk or frier named Tuck.’11 Ritson also envisages Marian as figure of historical accuracy, describing her as ‘a female of whom [Robin] was enamoured’.12 Ritson, for all his claims, provides no historically sound evidence for these postulations, and at one point he uses a portion of the “Gest of Robyn Hode” as sound proof of a religious miracle.13 Thomas Wright, in 1846, attacked Ritson’s work as ‘the barren production of a poor mind’14 as he argued that Robin Hood was entirely mythological, that he belonged ‘among the personages of the early mythology of the Teutonic peoples’.15 John M. Gutch followed on from Ritson’s work in 1847, stating that it is impossible to believe that the principal hero of the ballads and tales of Robin Hood, or the actions contained within them, are entirely fictitious.16 In 1852, Joseph Hunter began an earnest historical enquiry into Robin Hood to prove his historical foundations. Using evidence from exchequer accounts, title deeds and court rolls from the manor of Wakefield, Hunter was able to show that ‘Robyn Hod’ and ‘Robertus Hood’ were living during that time. He claimed that Robin Hood was a real person, the rebel Earl of Lancaster, who lived in the reign of Edward II and served as a member of his court.17 This liberation of the outlaw from the bounds of imagination and fantasy into a real historical figure, and therefore a true English hero, was celebrated for some time but ultimately fell into disrepute as Professor F. J. Child 10 Joseph Ritson, Robin Hood: A Collection of All the Ancient Poems, Songs, and Ballads, London: Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1820, p. iv. 11 Ritson, Robin Hood: A Collection of All the Ancient Poems, Songs, and Ballads, 1820, p. v. 12 Ritson, Robin Hood: A Collection of All the Ancient Poems, Songs, and Ballads, 1820, p. v. 13 Ritson, Robin Hood: A Collection of All the Ancient Poems, Songs, and Ballads, 1820, p. xii. 14 Thomas Wright, Essays on Subjects Connected With the Literature, Popular Superstitions, and History of England in the Middle Ages, Vol. 2, London: John Russell Smith, 1846, p. 201. 15 Wright, Essays on Subjects Connected With the Literature, Popular Superstitions, and History of England in the Middle Ages, Vol. 2. 1846, p. 211. 16 John Mathew Gutch, A Lytell Geste of Robin Hode: With Other Ancient and Modern Ballads and Songs Relating to this Celebrated Yeoman to Which is Prefixed His History and Character, ed. F. W. Fairholt, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1847, p. 2. 17 Joseph Hunter, "The Great Hero of the Ancient Minstrely of English: Robin Hood, His Period, Real Character etc. Investigated", Critical and Historical Tracts IV, London: Smith, 1852, pp. 28-38. 2 failed to be impressed by the series of circumstantial evidence and coincidences, and dismissed Hunter’s study, stating that Robin Hood was the creation of ballad muses.18 However, as P. Valentine Harris notes in The Truth About Robin Hood,19 some historians still support Hunter’s notions and Harris suggests that the vindication of Hunter’s thesis can be found in an examination of some evidence that was unavailable during Hunter and Child’s publications. Examining the Contrariant’s Roll in the Wakefield Manor Office and Court Rolls from the beginning of the fourteenth century, Harris discovers a Robert and Matilda Hood living on and later evicted from land on Bichill in Yorkshire. He adds the discovery of a Roger de Doncastre also living within Yorkshire in that time, within ten miles of Kirklees, thereby leading to the conclusion that the tale of “A Lytell Gest” was grounded in fact. Harris’ case continues on to find names of men similar to those mentioned in Gest and leading him to the conclusion that Robin Hood was real, died at Kirklees and that his death was blamed on the Prioress and her supposed lover.
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