Friar Tuck

Most Robin Hood stories these days are set in the era of Richard I. There were no friars in England back then. It doesn't help that the early ballads are set in later times, because Tuck's not in them either. But he does pop up as Frere Tuk in a relatively early fragment of Robin Hood drama, circa 1475, but he was not the fat, jolly friar we know today. Perhaps that's because this Tuck might have been inspired by a real person.

Twice in 1417, royal writs demand the arrest of an outlaw who led a band which robbed, murdered and committed other acts of general mayhem. One report says he "assumed the name of Frere Tuk newly so called in the common parlance." As Holt explains "the men who drafted the writs of 1417 had apparently never heard the name Friar Tuck before." A letter in 1429 says Tuck is still at large, and mentions his real identity — Robert Stafford, chaplain of Lindfield, Sussex.

This chaplain may have employed an alias from a pre-existing legend, but it's quite possible that he was the first to use the name of Tuck.

And what of the jolly friar of legend? It was a stock character in the May Games and morris dances, a sometimes partner of Maid Marian. As Dobson and Taylor put it, an "altogether more jovial and buffoon-like character." They suggest that perhaps the stories of a real outlaw were combined with the friar of the May Games to make the outlaw we know and love.

Will Scarlet

The outlaw currently known as Will Scarlet was known by a lot of names in the early stories — Scatheloke, Scarlock, Scadlock, and Scarlett. John Bellamy has found a few real ones.

A William Scarlet was one of many who received a pardon in 1318. And two years earlier, there's a record of a William Schakelock, soldier in the Berwick town garrison in 1316. Both these, and they may be the same person, Scarlets fit nicely with the time period of the 1320's Robin Hood, Bellamy's choice for the outlaw leader.

He dismisses the most interesting Will Scarlet as being too early for his favourite Robin Hood. In 1286-7, William Schirelock (or Shyreloke) was a "novice of St. Mary's Abbey, York, who was allowed to depart because of a crime imputed to him." This Scarlet was at the same Abbey which played a major role in the early tale known as the Gest.

Interesting, but like most "real" candidates for Robin and his band, there aren't enough details to conclude these men were definitely inspirations for the legendary character.

Just as Robin Hood borrowed elements from other outlaw legends, Will Scarlet's 17th century "origin" tale (composed long after Scarlet's first appearance in the Robin Hood legend) winks at other legends too. In the ballad Robin Hood Nezvly Revived, also known by the more descriptive title, Robin Hood and Will Scarlet, Will says that his name is "Young Gamwell". Gamwell, to be named Scarlet at the ballad's end, says that he was outlawed for killing his father's steward. Will is a nephew, or cousin, of Robin Hood. And the hero of different outlaw romance, Gamelyn, could be considered a relative of the Robin Hood legend. Gamelyn was disinherited and outlawed for, among other things, killing his father and brother's porter. Will Scarlet has borrowed from the Gamelyn story, and perhaps another outlaw tale called Robin and Gandelyn.