It could be done for failing to answer a court summons or for serious felonies, the most heinous being treason.
A mound in Kirklees Park still exists, purporting to be the site, but there is no evidence of a grave.Īs medieval England had no institutional police force, declaring a man an outlaw (for women, the term was ‘waived’) was designed to bring quick and unforgiving justice. Knowing he was about to die at Kirklees Priory near Huddersfield, he supposedly fired an arrow out of the window and asked Little John to bury him where it landed.
This may suggest that Robin Hood was already so established in the public consciousness that his name was a byword for outlawry.Īnother tactic has been to try and confirm details from the ballads, especially the account of Robin Hood’s death. Neither offer anything conclusive, however,and it seems more likely that names like Robehod were being used as common monikers for outlaws – in a similar way to how the name ‘John Doe’ is used today. Variations of the name ‘Robin Hood’ were recorded at an assizes in York in 1225, where a fine of 32 shillings and sixpence was handed down to a fugitive called ‘Robert Hod’, and the King’s Remembrancer’s Memoranda Roll of 1262, which documented an incident involving an outlaw named ‘William Robehod’.
While the ballads of the 15th century were intended more for entertainment than historical record, there are a number of references in earlier legal documents that have long intrigued theorists hoping to prove Robin Hood’s existence.
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