Robin Hood, the legendary outlaw of england : a name for a role (1215-1485)

The aim of this thesis is to prove that Robin Hood, the name, covers not only one concrete historical figure, but it is rather a masque, a title, a mark, which appeared several times in the medieval history of England. Using contemporary court assizes, the Pipe Roll of Yorkshire, Scottish Chronicles and other historical sources, together with literary sources from the fifteenth century like early ballads from the Robin Hood ballad-cycle, I will demonstrate the contrariety of the biographical information concerning one concrete Robin Hood. I have confronted several historians' variant readings of the manuscripts and documents and the diversity of theories and proofs of the documents led me to the conclusion that outlaws in the late medieval England (1215-1485) were often labelled `Robin Hood'.