Table Of ContentYEOMAN
JUSTICE:
THE
ROBIN
HOOD
BALLADS
AND
THE
APPROPRIATION
OF
ARISTOCRATIC
AND
CLERICAL
JUSTICE
A
Dissertation
Presented
to
The
Faculty
of
the
Graduate
School
At
the
University
of
Missouri
In
Partial
Fulfillment
Of
the
Requirements
for
the
Degree
Ph.D
in
English
Literature
By
MEGAN
ELIZABETH
WOOSLEY
EMMA
LIPTON,
Dissertation
Supervisor
JULY
2013
©
Copyright
by
Megan
Woosley
2013
All
Rights
Reserved
The
undersigned,
appointed
by
the
dean
of
the
Graduate
School,
have
examined
the
Dissertation
entitled
YEOMAN
JUSTICE:
THE
ROBIN
HOOD
BALLADS
AND
THE
APPROPRIATION
OF
ARISTOCRATIC
AND
CLERICAL
JUSTICE
Presented
by
Megan
Elizabeth
Woosley
A
candidate
for
the
degree
of
Ph.D
in
English
Literature
And
hereby
certify
that,
in
their
opinion,
it
is
worthy
of
acceptance.
Emma
Lipton
Johanna
Kramer
Anne
Myers
Megan
Moore
___________________________________________________________
Mark
Amos
DEDICATION
This
dissertation
is
dedicated
to
my
parents,
Stephen
and
Candace
Woosley,
whose
love
and
support
allowed
me
to
fulfill
my
wildest
dreams,
something
every
parent
hopes
his
or
her
child
will
one
day
accomplish.
I
thank
them
for
reading
to
me
as
a
child,
which
fed
my
imagination;
exposing
me
to
history
and
museums,
which
grounded
me
in
fact;
and
indulging
my
hunger
for
various
trips
to
see
ruins,
hear
lectures,
study
manuscripts,
examine
artifacts,
and
visit
magical
landscapes,
which
allowed
me
to
become
the
scholar
I
am
today.
I
also
dedicate
this
dissertation
to
my
husband,
Craig
Goodman.
Without
his
patience,
support,
and
understanding
none
of
this
could
have
been
accomplished.
I
thank
him
for
running
to
the
library
for
me
when
I
was
too
busy
to
pick
up
a
book,
for
cooking
dinner
when
I
was
consumed
with
an
idea,
and
for
tolerating
my
absence
when
I
was
writing,
reading,
or
was
swept
away
to
late
medieval
England.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I
thank
those
that
taught
me,
inspired
me,
guided
me,
and
helped
me
achieve
the
completion
of
this
research
project
and
degree.
I
thank
both
Mark
Addison
Amos
and
Anita
Riedinger,
my
first
academic
mentors,
who
helped
awaken
the
medievalist
in
me.
Particularly,
I
thank
Mark
Amos,
whose
excitement
for
late
medieval
studies
in
the
classroom
was
infectious,
and
whose
assignment
to
read
and
present
upon
Robin
Hood
and
the
Guy
of
Guisborne
during
my
M.A.
program
began
a
ten-‐year
long
obsession
that
eventually
led
to
this
dissertation.
I
cannot
adequately
put
into
words
the
gratitude
I
have
for
my
advisor,
Emma
Lipton,
whose
guidance,
patience,
and
direction
went
above
and
beyond
the
calling
of
an
academic
mentor.
I
am
grateful
to
have
been
led
by
her
expertise,
and
I
am
forever
thankful
for
the
challenges
she
extended
and
the
numerous
hours
of
support
she
lent.
I
thank
the
rest
of
my
committee,
Johanna
Kramer,
Megan
Moore,
Anne
Meyers,
and
Mark
Amos
for
feedback
and
conversations
that
helped
shape
this
project.
I
thank
my
fellow
colleagues
Rebecca
Mouser,
Pete
Ramey,
Claire
Schmidt,
Derek
Updegraff,
and
Julie
Christenson
for
reading
early
versions
of
my
work
and
providing
an
excellent
support
system
of
medieval
graduate
students
at
the
University
of
Missouri.
Lastly,
I
am
grateful
to
the
International
Association
for
Robin
Hood
Studies
and
Thomas
Hahn
at
Rochester
for
sponsoring
the
Biennial
Conference,
where
I
was
able
to
debut
my
work
in
front
of
many
prominent
Robin
Hood
scholars.
The
feedback
I
received
and
the
conversations
I
had
there
helped
me
rethink
many
of
my
early
ideas
for
this
project.
ii
TABLE
OF
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
............................................................................................................
ii
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………iv
Introduction
........................................................................................................................
1
Chapter
One:
The
Justice
of
Religious
Poverty
.................................................................
33
Chapter
Two:
The
Justice
of
Yeoman
Fellowship
.............................................................
75
Chapter
Three:
The
Justice
of
the
Body
..........................................................................
131
Chapter
Four:
The
Justice
of
God
...................................................................................
173
Bibliography
....................................................................................................................
217
Vita
.................................................................................................................................
226
iii
ABSTRACT
YEOMAN
JUSTICE:
THE
ROBIN
HOOD
BALLADS
AND
THE
APPROPRIATION
OF
ARISTOCRATIC
AND
CLERICAL
JUSTICE
Megan
Elizabeth
Woosley
Dr.
Emma
Lipton,
Dissertation
Supervisor
ABSTRACT
This
dissertation
examines
the
formation
of
yeoman
identity
through
the
lens
of
justice
in
four
late
medieval
English
ballads:
Robin
Hood
and
the
Monk,
Robin
Hood
and
the
Potter,
A
Gest
of
Robyn
Hode,
and
Robin
Hood
and
the
Guy
of
Guisborne.
I
argue
the
Robin
Hood
texts
critique
common
medieval
conceptions
of
justice
by
creating
new
ones
through
the
appropriation
of
recognizable
literary
vocabularies
related
to
the
first
and
second
estates.
Instead
of
presenting
a
fully
developed
portrait
of
identity,
the
Robin
Hood
corpus
displays
ambivalence,
which
is
further
evidence
that
identity
for
the
yeoman,
and
its
operating
system
of
justice,
is
still
being
worked
out
in
the
text
itself.
The
yeoman
is
celebrated
due
to
his
ability
to
manipulate
and
appropriate
cultural
practices
in
order
to
gain
wealth
and
social
prestige.
This
parallels
a
broad
historical
trend
of
middle
strata
economic
and
social
mobility
in
the
late
Middle
Ages
and
the
Early
Modern
period.
iv
INTRODUCTION
Each
Robin
Hood
production,
both
literary
and
cinematic,
speaks
more
clearly
to
the
historical
period
in
which
it
was
produced
than
it
attempts
to
interpret
the
figure
of
Robin
Hood
himself.
Robin
is
a
character
upon
which
we
superimpose
our
desires.
As
Robin
Hood
scholars
often
say,
“each
generation
gets
their
own
Robin
Hood,”
and
this
is
largely
true
in
reference
to
film
adaptations.
The
legend
we
are
most
likely
familiar
with,
that
of
a
dispossessed
gentleman
fighting
against
the
evil
usurper
King
John,
has
little
in
common
with
its
roots
in
medieval
literature.
In
the
six-‐hundred
year
history
of
his
popularity,
Robin
Hood
has
been
featured
in
literature
and
film
as
a
knight,
a
crusading
warrior,
a
rebellious
peasant,
and
a
yeoman
trickster.
These
fluid
representations
of
Robin
are
not
unique
to
film
adaptations;
they
also
apply
to
his
literary
history,
and
specifically
in
reference
to
his
appearance
beyond
the
Early
Modern
period,
the
literary
period
in
which
he
is
first
gentrified.
The
Early
Modern
gentrification
of
Robin
is
a
stretch
from
his
medieval
roots
as
a
yeoman.
However,
this
social
elevation
engages
the
rising
social
importance
of
the
yeoman
in
the
latter
part
of
the
Middle
Ages
and
transforms
the
medieval
potential
for
social
advancement
through
the
appropriation
of
aristocratic
identity
into
a
literary
reality,
something
the
medieval
ballads
merely
fantasize
about.
Nonetheless,
it
is
neither
the
intent
of
this
dissertation
to
look
at
each
successive
generational
portrayal
of
Robin
Hood,
nor
to
chart
how
the
1
legend
changed
from
the
medieval
period
to
the
modern.1
I
draw
attention
to
this
phenomenon
for
one
reason:
to
point
out
the
Robin
Hood
legend’s
ability
to
morph
and
reflect
social
preoccupations
and
anxieties,
whether
of
class,
justice,
war,
or
nationalism.2
The
medieval
legends
engage
the
socio-‐economic
concerns
of
the
period,
when
burgeoning
middle
strata
tried
to
make
sense
of
its
new
found
importance
in
a
social
classification
system
that
afforded
it
neither
social
space
nor
identity
in
the
three
estates
system.
The
ballads
bear
witness
to
this
phenomenon
recognizing
the
anxiety
of
the
aristocracy
over
cultural
appropriation,
the
weakened
aristocracy,
and
the
localization
of
government.
I
wish
to
complicate
the
assumption
that
the
Robin
Hood
literature
morphs
into
something
new
each
generation.
Instead,
I
suggest
the
thematic
continuity
of
Robin
Hood
literature
spanning
the
fourteenth
to
sixteenth
centuries,
which
shares
similar
socio-‐economic
concerns
that
are
evident
in
the
depiction
of
justice.
This
dissertation
argues
that
the
Robin
Hood
ballads
document
an
emergent
yeoman
socio-‐economic
identity
by
appropriating
and
manipulating
well-‐established
literary
and
socially-‐classed
concepts
of
justice.
The
yeomen
in
the
Robin
Hood
ballads
look
outward
to
aristocratic,
1
For
an
overview
of
the
legend,
which
breaks
the
character
of
Robin
into
several
different
2
As
evidence
of
such
shifts,
I
draw
attention
to
the
first
blockbuster
Robin
Hood
film
starring
Douglas
Fairbanks
(1922),
three
years
after
the
start
of
World
War
I.
The
backdrop
of
the
Crusades,
and
the
usurpation
of
Richard’s
crown
by
King
John
serve
as
political
commentary
on
the
rising
American
nationalism
and
military
engagements
with
foreign
countries.
Furthermore,
Ridley
Scott’s
newest
depiction
of
Robin
Hood
(2010)
returns
him
to
the
status
of
yeoman
fighting
against
power
hungry
and
greedy
barons
during
the
backdrop
of
the
First
Barons’
War.
This
served
as
socio-‐political
commentary
on
American
politics.
During
the
Occupy
Wall
Street
movement
in
2011,
some
protestors
took
on
the
figure
of
Robin
Hood
as
a
figure
of
resistance
to
corporate
greed.
2
bourgeois,
and
religious
forms
of
justice
that
appear
in
literature
in
order
to
justify
the
recognition
of
themselves
as
socio-‐economically
separate,
and
in
some
cases,
similar
to
other
recognized
estates,
and
therefore
legitimized.
From
there,
the
texts
determines
the
yeoman
value
system
by
privileging
distributive
and
retributive
justice
for
the
yeoman
and
project
the
socio-‐economic
tension
of
the
late
Middle
Ages
while
simultaneously
writing
a
literary
narrative
of
the
yeoman
identity.
Social
Strata
Robin’s
place
in
the
medieval
social
strata
is
what
both
fascinates
and
compels
me
to
study
the
medieval
ballads
in
which
he
is
featured.
Several
scholars
have
debated
the
social
setting
of
the
audience
of
the
medieval
ballads.
Although
audience
is
problematic
when
it
comes
to
the
early
ballads,
as
we
have
no
clear
idea
for
whom
they
were
written,
many
critics
have
tried
to
tie
the
audience
to
a
variety
of
social
stations.
Maurice
Keen
and
Rodney
Hilton
once
argued
the
Robin
Hood
texts
were
obsessed
with
“agrarian”
concerns
and
tied
the
Robin
Hood
ballads
to
“peasant
discontent,”3
but
these
tales
are
not
likely
to
be
concerned
with
peasant
matters
since
there
is
a
lack
of
tenurial
issues
critiqued
in
the
text.
Like
other
critics,
I
argue
the
political,
economic,
and
3
Maurice
Keen
writes
that
the
Robin
Hood
ballads
are
situated
in
a
fourteenth
century
social
context
and
posits
that
they
are
a
form
of
peasant
discontent
(but
his
argument
differs
from
Hilton,
who
sees
it
as
an
expression
of
the
Revolt
of
1381)
in
that
it
is
in
the
abuse
of
power
against
the
peasants.
In
this
argument
he
frames
the
audience
for
Robin
Hood
as
rural
peasants
because
of
the
ballad
form.
He
admits
in
his
newer
introduction
that
he
was
mistaken
and
that
the
ballads
have
more
in
common
with
metrical
romances
and
the
form
says
nothing
about
the
audience.
Like
Holt,
he
argues
that
the
audience
is
yeomen,
specifically
the
one
that
shares
space
with
the
aristocrat.
See
the
entire
debate
between
J.C.
Holt,
R.H.
Hilton,
and
Maurice
Keen
in
R.
H.
Hilton,
ed.,
Peasants,
Knights,
and
Heretics:
Studies
in
Medieval
English
History
(Cambridge:
Cambridge
University
Press,
1976).
3
Description:He argues these ballads were adapted in the fourteenth to reflect social .. corrupt officials responsible for administration of justice, and never on the noteworthy are the Lettersnijder edition printed in Antwerp (1510) and Similarly, in Medieval Market Morality: Life, Law, and Ethics in the Eng
