Robin Hood – champion of the poor or simply a criminal?
Ann Boyd
Robin Hood is the hero in the legends bearing his name. Whether or not the story is one of multiple figures or one individual is hidden in history. If you run a google search for Robin Hood you will find numerous citations, even a crucial studies syllabus with 19 pages of references on scholarship about the myths surrounding the legend, the pedagogy of teaching social consciousness.
We live in an age where the heavy hand of hostile takeovers and monopoly looms over governments and businesses. For Robin, it was the same, although what he experienced was the actual restriction of human rights in order to live. Robin Hood is an embodiment of the vigilance of freedom, even if unruly. This raises an important question: is it right to break the law for a higher purpose? We can think of several cases historically when that seemed the right thing to do, the higher moral ground if you will. For example, Harriet Tubman escaped slavery and then was instrumental in rescuing hundreds from slavery on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Hunted by the law, she remained free, and today we honor her efforts with memorials.
Theologically we might ponder the status of the law as posited in Scripture and our moral response to injustice in our time. The editorial in Saturday’s Frederick News Post challenged our practice of capital punishment. If we obey the law, “thou shalt not kill” without exception, we might conclude that capital punishment is contrary to scripture. Likewise, wars would challenge our notion that all human life is sacred. How can a person reconcile the teaching that embryos deserve protection but wars are legitimate use of tax money for “the common good”? Being cleaver we use exceptionalism to bypass the letter of the law in circumstances that warrant taking of human life. For example, in Natural Law teaches that an action is right that supports and promotes the natural inclinations of human beings, life, procreation, social interaction and knowledge. Natural Law then offers two conditional principles to avoid absolutism regarding the natural inclinations of humankind: the principle of forfeiture and the principle of double effect (proportionality). Forfeiture comes into play when a person threatens the life or well being of another and gives license to prevent such intended harm through the use of force (war or loss of freedom and corresponding rights). Proportionality is more complex and requires that the intent to do good cannot be achieved by an action that is harmful or bad. These two principles support the concepts surrounding just war.
Robin Hood broke the law by stealing money from the evil tyrannical king. He gave the money to the poor. In the time of Richard the Lionheart a minor noble of Nottinghamshire, one Robin of Loxley was outlawed for poaching deer. At that time, the deer in a royal forest belonged to the king, and killing of the king’s deer was treason, and punishable by death. So Robin took to the greenwood of Sherwood Forest, making a living by stealing from rich travelers and distributing the loot among the poor of the area. In the process he gained a band of followers and a spouse, Maid Marian. Despite the best efforts of the evil Sheriff of Nottingham he avoided capture until the return of King Richard from the Crusades brought about a full pardon and the restoration of Robin’s lands. One thing to note about the legend is that Robin Hood was not an aristocrat, but a simple man driven to a life of crime by the harsh rule of the law of the rich.
“Robin Hood, in a barbarous age, and under a complicated tyranny, displayed a spirit of freedom and independence which has endeared him to the common people, whose cause he maintained (for all opposition to tyranny is the cause of the people), and, in spite of the malicious endeavors of pitiful monks, by whom history was consecrated to the crimes and follies of titled ruffians and sainted idiots, to suppress all record of his patriotic exertions and virtuous acts, will render his name immortal.” (Joseph Ritson, from Robin Hood by J.C. Holt.)