Sean McGlynn

This short book is an exploration of the potential true historical origins of the legend of Robin Hood, covering when, why and how the legend arose and the identity of possible "real Robin Hoods" who may have inspired it. The legend was first referred to in the mid 13th century, though the earliest surviving stories and ballads date from a full two centuries later around 1450. There is little firm basis for many elements of the story such as the Sherwood Forest location, while Friar Tuck and, in particular, Maid Marian were much later additions to the legendary corpus. The element of robbing the rich to pay the poor is also quite a late development and less prevalent than in all the modern filmic and literary portrayals and, while he is a heroic character in many ways, he is also a man depicted as being capable of acts of great violence, and not always against people who might be said to deserve it. The author covers a number of potential candidates as inspirers of the legends, looking at the characteristics of their actions as depicted in various ballads (themselves of course mixtures of fact, possible fact, and definite fiction, including some fantasy). He cover a number of personalities, including Hereward the Wake (surely far too early), the colourful and scurrilous Eustace the Monk, and the renegade knight Fulk Fitzwarin. The candidate he zeroes in on is much less famous, but I agree with him is much more plausible: William of Kensham, an archer who, with his followers, lurked in the Weald of Kent in 1216-17 defending the land against the invading French under Prince Louis, whom most of the barons had preferred on the throne against King John. He became known as Willikin of the Weald, but strangely is scarcely known at all today (as indeed is the whole French invasion of those years, despite how it came much nearer to succeeding in conquering England than did, say, the much more famous Spanish Armada). I think in this William we have a much more plausible candidate than the others. A fascinating read.… (mehr)

This well researched book is somewhat of a misnomer. The forgotten invasion of the title forms only the last part of the book, which overall covers the course of events throughout King John's reign from his loss of the Angevin territories and Normandy in 1204 up to his civil war with the barons at the end of the reign. It is very detailed (sometimes a bit excessively for the general reader) and weighs up the sources of evidence very carefully. Unfortunately, there are rather a lot of typos and errors, and in fact I see the book is currently withdrawn from the Kindle Store to correct these (though I have read books with more errors that do not seem to have been so withdrawn).

This invasion should be better known. In many ways, if Prince Louis's invasion had succeeded, if for example John had not died when he did, and Louis had not lost momentum and support from a critical mass of the English baronage at the accession of the boy king Henry III, the future course of English history could have been very different. When people think of an invasion of Britain, they think of the Norman Conquest, the Spanish Armada, Napoleon or the Nazis. Prince Louis's invasion of 1216-17 succeeded more than all but the first from that list, and yet it is little known, dwarfed in the view of Medieval history by the barons' war against King John that brought about Magna Carta, a development that proved to be of far greater long term significance.

Another diverting minor aspect of this narrative that is explored in a couple of appendices is the role played by William of Kensham, or Willikin of the Weald, who led a group of guerillas in the forests of Kent shooting arrows at Louis's forces to harass and delay them; a very plausible source for the Robin Hood legend, but one that seems to have been overlooked by historians.

Overall, a fascinating read, if perhaps a bit too academic for the general reader.… (mehr)