Robin Hood?

Much celebrity attached centuries ago to the name of Fulk FitzWarine. There was a line of barons of Shropshire with that name ---- four of them. To them were attributed notable exploits, and in time they were mixed into a legend of one person named Fulk. The second of the four, and perhaps the one that made the biggest contribution of grist for the legend mill, grew up in the Plantagenet court of Henry II, that most remarkable of medieval kings of England. I didn’t say he was the best (perhaps that accolade belongs to his great grandson, Edward I) but Henry was the most notable. This second Fulk grew up with Prince John. During a chess game, John broke the chess board over Fulk’s head, and Fulk retaliated by kicking the prince in the stomach. With the tale of Robin Hood having been set in the time of John, I have wondered if Fulk was the basis of that legend. He became an outcast and outlaw, having wisely ensconced himself in the woods once John became king. Appearing from time to time in various disguises (monk, juggler, minstrel, merchant), he had a reputation for forcefully redistributing wealth with impunity. He finally went on Crusade and gained an international celebrity status. It is written that when the commander of the opposing forces cried to his comrades “Now, my lords, all at Fulk!” Fulk replied “And Fulk at all!” 

The fourth Fulk drowned fleeing from the Battle of Lewes, that great conflict between the barons who wanted a new government under the leadership of the Earl of Leicester, Simon de Montford, brother-in-law to King Henry III (the son of the worst of kings and the father of the best) and the royalist forces of Prince Edward.  Fulk’s horse got stuck in a swamp and he suffocated in his heavy body armor.