A True Tale of Robin Hood is
Child ballad 154, featuring
Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is dep ...
and, indeed, presents a full account of his life, from before his becoming an outlaw, to his death. It describes him as the
Earl of Huntington, which is a fairly late development in the ballads. It definitively places him in
Richard the Lionhearted
Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overl ...
's reign.
This ballad was written by the prominent 17th century broadside balladist
Martin Parker
Martin Parker (c. 1600 – c. 1656) was an English ballad writer, and probably a London tavern-keeper.
Life
About 1625 he seems to have begun publishing ballads, a large number of which bearing his signature or his initials, M.P., are preserved ...
, and published in 1632. By Parker's own account from it was based reliable historical sources, but more probably from the abundant literary and ballad sources then available.
[Stephen Knight, Thomas H. Ohlgren]
"A True Tale of Robin Hood: Introduction"
''Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales'' (1997) This account includes the unusual details that Robin Hood was given to castrating monks and that he operated in Lancashire as well as Yorkshire. Unlike many of the 17th century broadsides it stresses the tradition that Robin Hood actively aided the poor.
In the ballad's narrative, Robin Hood lives well as the Earl of Huntington, but is brought to penury by his spending and the enmity of the abbot of St. Mary's. He is outlawed, and his band lives by robbing, particularly the rich clergy, but they aid the poor. He catches the abbot, who then went to the king. The king offers a reward, but his men are either out-fought, or won over by Robin's courtesy. King Richard goes to Nottingham. Robin begs a pardon by letter, and the king is agreeable. Before he gets it, however, Robin takes a fever. He trusts a friar to bleed him (a common medical practice of the day), and the friar
bleeds him to death. King Richard thinks the friar treacherous, and Robin foolish to have trusted him.
References
*Francis James Child,
A True Tale of Robin Hoodin ''The English and Scottish Popular Ballads'', 5 vols., Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, (1882–98).
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Child Ballads
Robin Hood ballads