Medieval Outlaws
As the greenwood turns yellow, orange and red, let's look at medieval English outlaws.
You've probably heard some tales of Robin Hood, but do you know about his medieval predecessors Hereward the Wake, Eustache the Monk, Fulk Fitz Warin and Gamelyn? These stories were later subsumed into the legends about the Merry Men of Sherwood. The Robin Hood Project at the University of Rochester has posted editions of the early poems along with a lot of other interesting out-of-copyright material relating to the Robin Hood legends.
To find out more about the historical context of yeomen, robbers, greenwoods and fraternities, check out A.J. Pollard's book Imagining Robin Hood. The Google version is cut up pretty badly, so you'll have to track down a physical copy to get more than a taste of the text.
If you're ready for some advanced outlaw studies, a great collection of articles came out just last year. Outlaws in Medieval and Early Modern England: Crime, Government and Society, c. 1066-c. 1600 has pieces about local judicial officials, criminal soldiers, poachers, pirates and more.
There's also a classic article by John Bellamy: "The Coterel Gang: an Anatomy of a Band of Fourteenth-century Criminals" in the English Historical Review from 1964. The Coterels were a real robber band in the neighbourhood of Sherwood Forest who grew so powerful, they became a kind of medieval mafia. The article is hidden behind a paywall, but the highlights are summarized on this page from a genealogical website.
ETA: You can now get the Bellamy article at medievalists.net.
And speaking of the greenwood, don't forget about my post from last year on medieval woodland.
Howard Pyle, Robin Hood Slayeth Guy of Gisbourne, 1883. Image gacked from the Robin Hood Project.
You've probably heard some tales of Robin Hood, but do you know about his medieval predecessors Hereward the Wake, Eustache the Monk, Fulk Fitz Warin and Gamelyn? These stories were later subsumed into the legends about the Merry Men of Sherwood. The Robin Hood Project at the University of Rochester has posted editions of the early poems along with a lot of other interesting out-of-copyright material relating to the Robin Hood legends.
To find out more about the historical context of yeomen, robbers, greenwoods and fraternities, check out A.J. Pollard's book Imagining Robin Hood. The Google version is cut up pretty badly, so you'll have to track down a physical copy to get more than a taste of the text.
If you're ready for some advanced outlaw studies, a great collection of articles came out just last year. Outlaws in Medieval and Early Modern England: Crime, Government and Society, c. 1066-c. 1600 has pieces about local judicial officials, criminal soldiers, poachers, pirates and more.
There's also a classic article by John Bellamy: "The Coterel Gang: an Anatomy of a Band of Fourteenth-century Criminals" in the English Historical Review from 1964. The Coterels were a real robber band in the neighbourhood of Sherwood Forest who grew so powerful, they became a kind of medieval mafia. The article is hidden behind a paywall, but the highlights are summarized on this page from a genealogical website.
ETA: You can now get the Bellamy article at medievalists.net.
And speaking of the greenwood, don't forget about my post from last year on medieval woodland.
Howard Pyle, Robin Hood Slayeth Guy of Gisbourne, 1883. Image gacked from the Robin Hood Project.