He Could Look Past Robin Having a Posh Accent, But Then...
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I remember my parents had the book but I only skimmed through as a kid and looked at pictures. I have heard the speculation that he may have been real. Interesting.
Some American had him as a direct ancestor of mine for a little while, so I did quite a bit of research to make sure it was fake. Sort of sad, but that's life.
That would be cool if true. The only slightly interesting thing I have with ancestry is having an ancestor that was on the Mayflower but lots of people have that can say that. What did your research show?
Robin Hood was a common name for criminals. Just means guy with a hood. Most original stories have him as a bit of a drunken low life. He would gain and lose a kingdom at cards and then end up asleep on the curb in the same story.
Then the midlands festivals began to include him. A lot of the great legends came form them. Marion was actually the main character from a previous one, so they had Robin marry her eventually. This was awkward because he had a girlfriend before that.
In fact, many of the characters from the story are actually from those fairs. Friar tuck was one year, and Little Jon was another. The evil Sheriff was a villain to a few of them.
The suit we associate with him is the uniform for archers in that time. The colors represent the actual army he belonged to.
Was he real? The people who believe he was do not think there was a Lord Robin of Locksely. There was a Robin Hood who became the basis of the story. The royal fanfare was placed to make him sound better to the upper class types who funded the faires.
The very original stories were written in patois and middle English because those were the major languages for common folk at the time. So Robyn Hode ded want and fue is a line you might find.
Or in short, "Robin Hood" as a set of two names belonging to a scofflaw definitely existed, a good archer who was nobility definitely existed, a group of bandits living in the woods that occasionally poached the King's wildlife also definitely existed, and loyalists to the King over the Prince definitely existed. But all of them in one entity is more doubtful, but also more convenient for fable-telling.