Matter of the Greenwood Figure
John Major (Mair)
- Summary
- Scottish historian whose Historia Majoris Britanniae (1521) relocates Robin to the 1190s, the reign of Richard I - the first time the legend is attached to Richard and John, and the origin of the framing that Scott and Hollywood inherited. Major also supplies the earliest statement that Robin took only from the rich and gave to the poor.
- Dates
- c. 1467-1550
- Kind
- chronicler
- Note
- Important qualification to the Ritson story: Major has the redistribution in 1521. Ritson politicised and popularised it; he did not invent it from nothing.
Worldviews
The Ballad Outlaw, Robert, Earl of Huntington, Ritson's Radical
Provenance
- Source method
- Web research
- Review status
- DRAFT
- Confidence
- HIGH