|
 1. The often quoted play by William Langland called “Piers Plowman” has one of the characters called Sloth saying, “I do not know my Paternoster perfectly as the priest sings it but I know the rhymes of Robin Hood and Ranulf Earl of Chester” That was written in 1377AD and people take it to mean that Robin Hood was living before that date. (Paternoster is the Lord’s Prayer when recited in Latin and included all the 150 Psalms in the Old Testament requiring considerable effort to learn.)
2. There have always been highwaymen (Roberdsmen) and in 1285AD Edward I was so concerned about the activities of highway robbers that he passed a law requiring that no ditch, bush or tree capable of hiding a man should be left within 200 feet of any highway.
3. The Earldom of Huntingdon with which Robin Hood has been linked became extinct in 1237AD.
4. By the mid 1200's Robin Hood’s name had spread throughout England and into France with Robin Hood games being played in Sussex, Worcestershire, and Somerset.
5. Ranulf de Blundeville the 6th earl of Chester was a close ally of King John who included him in his will for serving him faithfully through his last stormy years. He died in 1232AD and some people think he may be the Ranulf of the rhyme.
6. Ranulf the 4th earl of Chester was Ranulf de Gernons. He was promised the lands that belonged to William Peveril who was the Sheriff of Nottingham. This caused William Peveril to invite Ranulf to Nottingham on a pretext where gave Ranulf and his men poisoned wine. Some lived but others didn’t including Ranulf. This was 1153AD and when Henry II ascended the throne he dispossessed and exiled the Sheriff of Nottingham who had fled to his priory at Lenton.
7. The effects of the Norman Conquest forced some people into living rough. Some of the nobility were dispossessed of their homes other poorer people who were living in areas designated “Royal Forrest had to leave their homes and people like Eadric the Wild who fought against the invaders got his name because he was "living in the wild" and he was only one of many, another was Hereward the Wake. These people were known as TILVATID i.e. living in a tent and for that the Normans branded them “Outlaws.” Orderic Vitalis says in his description of the English risings of that MANY OF THE REBELS LIVED IN TENTS, disdaining to sleep in houses lest they should become soft, so that certain of them were called by the Norman’s, SILVATICI (ONE THAT LIVES IN OR FREQUENTS THE WOODS.) | 
