As everybody knows, Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (plus Maid
Marion) romped through Sherwood Forest robbing from the rich and giving to the
poor during the reign of King Richard I (1189-99), wearing clothes made from
Lincoln Green cloth.
Of course, what everybody knows may not be true at all, and
there are serious doubts about the Robin Hood story at a number of levels.
However, one aspect of the legend may surprise people more
than others, namely that the Merrie Men, had they existed at all, would have worn
red cloth, not green!
There was a cloth made in Lincoln that was known as Lincoln
Green, but this was only made after 1510 (when it was first mentioned in
documents), which was centuries later than Robin Hood’s time.
There was a much earlier cloth that was called Lincoln
Greyne (or Grene), but this was a bright red product that used grains of
carmine dye to achieve the colour. The word for grain at that time was
“greyne”. The resulting cloth was highly desirable and expensive.
There is clearly room for confusion between “greyne” and
“green”, especially as there really was a Lincoln Green cloth at around the
time that the Robin Hood legends were being restored by balladeers in the 17th
century. Earlier ballads, dating from the 14th century, would have used
“greyne” and it was a natural transition to “green”.
But would the woodland outlaws really have worn expensive
red cloth? That’s a different question altogether!
