HE is England’s most famous legend from mediaeval history, but could Robin Hood have been Scottish or at least of Scottish parentage? 

That’s the intriguing claim made by author Thor Ewing whose extensive publications on mediaeval history and literature have just been added to by his latest book, The Original Robin Hood. In the book, Ewing, who in 2014 was appointed commander of Clan Ewing, presents new translations of all medieval sources for the Hood legend. Early chronicles set Robin’s life in the politically turbulent thirteenth century, a date supported by legal records of the time.

Ewing argues that, as the eldest grandson of Prince David of Scotland (1152-1219) Robin Hood was heir to the Earldom of Huntingdon, which was left vacant when his maternal uncle John of Scotland died in 1237, but he was disinherited because his father was a commoner. 

The lands of his ancestral earldom were divided, with a share going to his brother-in-law, John de Balliol, the most notorious of all the Sheriffs of Nottingham and father of John Balliol, King of Scots better known as Toom Tabard.

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Ewing told The National: “Scholars have got so used to saying that Robin was never Earl of Huntingdon that nobody bothers to question it. The scholars like to say that the link with Huntingdon was invented in about 1600 by a playwright called Anthony Munday. But really, that argument just doesn’t stand up. There’s every reason to think Robin Hood was known as Earl of Huntingdon at least fifty years before, and it probably goes right back to the start of the legend.

“In a way the story begins when Robin’s great-great grandfather David married the English countess, Matilda of Huntingdon. David went on to become King of Scots when his big brother Alexander died in 1124 so, for the next hundred years or more, the Earls of Huntingdon were closely related to the Scottish kings.

“The tradition is that Robin’s father was an earl’s steward who seduced his master’s daughter. From other evidence, that daughter would have to be Margaret of Huntingdon, who married Alan of Galloway in 1209. 

“This links Robin closely with two other characters from the medieval legend, Randolf, Earl of Chester (who has been completely forgotten in modern retellings) and John de Balliol who was perhaps the most reviled Sheriff of Nottingham in history.

“From 1219 onwards, the Earl of Huntingdon was Robin’s uncle John of Scotland. So, if we’re right about who Robin Hood was then, when John of Scotland died in 1237, the earldom should have gone to Robin. 

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“If Robin didn’t exist, it would have gone to his cousin, Henry de Hastings. Instead, the earldom was broken up. Perhaps Robin didn’t inherit because although he was rightful heir, his father was a commoner. 

“For me, the clincher was when I realised this family connection between Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham. 
“It also explains why the only three medieval chroniclers to talk about Robin Hood are all Scots. Not only was Robin Hood descended from Scottish kings, he was related to both King John Balliol and King Robert the Bruce. 

“Robin’s feud with Toom Tabard’s father might even have been seen as a mirror to the feud between Balliol and Bruce.”