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Maison Deman · Sherwood · Plantagenêt

Robin Hood — Where the legend meets our ancestors

An archer in the forest, two brothers on the throne and a queen in our family tree: behind the adventure, discover the people, relationships and centuries.

Published 7 September 2026

Audio version · English

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A bow, a forest and a sheriff to defy: a few images are enough to recognise Robin Hood. Yet when Richard the Lionheart returns from crusade or John seeks power, the legend brings onstage people who also belong to the Deman–Lebon–Wauthy family story. The connection is striking. We must nevertheless recognise when we are reading an adventure, when we are encountering history and when we are following a line of descent.

Robin Hood imagined by Louis Rhead in 1912. A public-domain literary illustration, not a medieval portrait.
Robin Hood imagined by Louis Rhead in 1912. A public-domain literary illustration, not a medieval portrait. Wikimedia Commons ↗

The adventure we think we know

In the familiar version, Robin lives as an outlaw in Sherwood Forest. He gathers companions, outwits the powerful and protects the vulnerable. The Sheriff of Nottingham wants to capture him; Marian shares his life; Little John and Friar Tuck help him. An archery contest may conceal a trap, a disguise offers a way through and a prisoner is rescued from the gallows. The forest becomes a refuge for those pursued by authority.

Many adaptations place these adventures during the absence of Richard I on crusade, casting his brother John as the would-be usurper. The good king’s return then promises to restore justice. This is a fictional storyline, not a record of established events. Nor is there a single original story of which all others are copies. Robin developed through additions, retellings and transformations.

Valerie B. Johnson · A Gest of Robyn Hode

A hero older than his film costume

Around 1377, William Langland’s Piers Plowman already mentions Robin stories. Ballads preserved later show an outlaw who can be generous or brutal, far from the perpetually smiling hero. In A Gest of Robyn Hode, he helps an indebted knight and meets a king named Edward. Barnsdale in Yorkshire matters as much as Sherwood in the early traditions. These different stories cannot simply be reduced to one twelfth-century biography.

In 1521, John Major placed Robin in the time of Richard and John. In the late sixteenth century, Anthony Munday’s plays helped turn him into a dispossessed nobleman. Novels, illustrations and eventually films strengthened this image. The archer we recognise therefore belongs to several successive ages. Records contain names resembling Robin Hood, but none of these namesakes securely identifies the hero.

Valerie B. Johnson · Valerie B. Johnson · A Gest of Robyn Hode

Who is who in the forest?

Robin Hood is the legendary hero. His historical identity remains unestablished, and no descent linking him to our family has been demonstrated. Little John is his companion, already prominent in the early stories. He must never be confused with King John. One belongs to the forest band; the other is a prince and later a king.

Marian is Robin’s partner in many versions. She is absent from the core of the earliest surviving ballads, and her role grew through successive retellings. Friar Tuck is the band’s religious figure, whose jovial personality also developed over time. Will Scarlet and Much belong to the older traditions. None of these companions is presented here as an ancestor.

The Sheriff of Nottingham holds a real kind of local office, but Robin’s persecutor is a literary character. We cannot automatically identify him with a particular historical officeholder. Guy of Gisborne is another antagonist in the cycle, with a role that varies between versions. A fictional figure may therefore have a plausible name and a genuine office without being an identified person.

Little John · Stephen Knight · Valerie B. Johnson · Sheriff of Nottingham · A Gest of Robyn Hode

Richard the Lionheart: the story’s king, our collateral relative

Richard I reigns from 1189 to 1199. He is the son of Henry II Plantagenet and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the brother of John. He joins the Third Crusade, is imprisoned on his return journey and is not released until 1194, after a heavy ransom. His absence gives storytellers an ideal situation: a distant sovereign, rivalry and the expectation of his return.

But Richard’s friendship with Robin is not an established historical fact. The warrior king cannot simply be equated with the benevolent judge of later adaptations. In our family tree, Richard is a collateral relative: he is the brother of John and Eleanor of England, through whom the branches shown here descend. He is not placed in Johnny’s direct ancestral line.

Richard I · Maison Deman

John: the bad prince is also an ancestor

John, born in 1166 and dead in 1216, becomes king after Richard in 1199. During the 1190s, when many versions place Robin’s adventures, he is therefore not yet King John. Keeping that distinction prevents Richard’s absence from being confused with his brother’s later reign.

John’s reign sees the loss of Normandy, conflict with the Church and rebellion by the barons. In 1215 he grants Magna Carta, which is soon challenged, and the kingdom descends into civil war. The historical figure is an active administrator and a contested ruler, much more complicated than the caricature. John belongs to the ancestry confirmed in the family project. Being someone’s ancestor does not require their descendants to admire him or excuse his actions.

John Lackland · Maison Deman

Eleanor: the mother the adventures often leave offstage

Eleanor of Aquitaine, born around 1122 and dead in 1204, was Queen of France beside Louis VII and then Queen of England beside Henry II. Richard and John are two of her sons. Their sister Eleanor of England marries Alfonso VIII of Castile; their daughter Blanche of Castile brings this descent into the French royal family.

Eleanor of Aquitaine plays a major political role and works for Richard’s release. Here she is both an actor in real history and an ancestor confirmed by the family tree. That proves no encounter with Robin. Henry II, her second husband and the father of these children, also belongs to the line shown here. He dies in 1189 and is no longer alive when Richard returns in 1194.

Eleanor of Aquitaine · Blanche of Castile · Maison Deman

Replica of Eleanor of Aquitaine’s effigy, Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Photograph: 14GTR, 2024, CC0. This is a nineteenth-century cast after the Fontevraud monument, not a photograph of the original effigy.
Replica of Eleanor of Aquitaine’s effigy, Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Photograph: 14GTR, 2024, CC0. This is a nineteenth-century cast after the Fontevraud monument, not a photograph of the original effigy. Wikimedia Commons ↗

Two routes meet in Marie of Artois

The first route passes through Richard and John’s sister. Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II have a daughter, Eleanor of England. She is followed by Blanche of Castile, Robert I of Artois, Robert II of Artois and Philip of Artois. The other route passes through John, then his son Henry III, Beatrice of England and Blanche of Brittany. Philip of Artois marries Blanche of Brittany. Their daughter Marie of Artois joins the two lines.

The two Blanches are therefore different people. Blanche of Castile belongs to the route descending through John’s sister, while Blanche of Brittany belongs to the route through John himself. Eleanor of Aquitaine must likewise be distinguished from her daughter Eleanor of England. Repeated names explain many mistakes made when reading a family tree too quickly.

Maison Deman · Blanche of Brittany · Blanche of Castile

The family connections at a glance

Eleanor of Aquitaine × Henry II

Richard: brother of the ancestors, a collateral relative

  1. Eleanor of England
  2. Blanche of Castile
  3. Robert I of Artois
  4. Robert II of Artois
  5. Philip of Artois
  1. John
  2. Henry III of England
  3. Beatrice of England
  4. Blanche of Brittany

Their daughter: Marie of Artois

Then Namur → De La Hamaide → Jacquet → Wauthy → Paula → Annie → Carole, Johnny and Sandrine

Route confirmed in the family tree; records for De La Hamaide–Jacquet still to be completed. Arrows after Namur summarise several generations.

From Namur to family memory

Marie of Artois marries John I of Namur. The accepted route continues through William I of Namur, John III, Jean de Namur of Trivières, Antoine, Philippe and Marie II de Namur, then the De La Hamaide family. It subsequently reaches the Jacquet and Wauthy families, down to Paula Wauthy, Annie Lebon and her children Carole, Johnny and Sandrine Deman.

This route follows the family tree confirmed by Johnny. The detailed documentation for the De La Hamaide–De Becquevort–Jacquet connection still needs completion. That limitation must remain visible: we do not invent a parent to fill an empty box. The diagram selects particular branches rather than presenting a complete family tree, and the grouped names in its later section summarise several generations.

This story does not therefore establish that we descend from Robin Hood. Instead, we recognise ancestors and their relatives in the historical setting chosen by his storytellers. The legend opens a door; genealogy then teaches us to recognise the people. Behind the hated prince, the awaited king and the often-forgotten queen stands one family, with its marriages, conflicts and descendants.

Maison Deman

Read on: from Eleanor to Paula Wauthy ↗