From what I've gatehred, and I could easily be wrong, Robin Hood was a character based on a few archer crooks who fled to some bit of woods as a worst-case-scenario. They were poor archers, and lived by poaching (usually small game?) and theft. Of course, this led to the wonderful legend that we know, and that has been twisted.
On a side note, I have a book,
Robin Hood, written about the time of Pope's
Hunting with the Bow and Arrow, which in iteself is kinda neat (whilst the Brits were still singing their old legends we were living new ones
- just joking). But moreso, Pope's book was dedicated to Robin Hood, who was still in vogue in seems!
Also, even in the story Robin Hood (Robert Fitzooth) was just a poor kid, decent with the bow, who was sorta tricked into being a poacher. Anyway, he was just some peasent who wanted ot be a forrester, not a noble who had everything taked away by the Sherrif.
Sorry for butting in