I’ll just leave this here…
“… a petition to the parliament of 1439 related some of the misdeeds of Piers Venables of Derbyshire, a criminal who had helped to rescue a prisoner being taken to Tutbury castle: it was alleged that he had gathered around him a large number of misdoers, ‘beyng of his clothinge, and in manere of insurrection wente into the wodes in that county like it hadde be Robyn Hode and his meynee’. This appears to be the first of many recorded occasions when real criminals, rebels and outlaws were given the names of the legendary outlaws of the greenwood, perhaps the most famous example being Sir Robert Cecil’s later condemnation of Guy Fawkes and his associates as ‘Robin Hoods’.”
From:
Dobson, R. B. and Taylor, J. (1997) Rymes of Robin Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw, United Kingdom: Sutton Publishing, pp. 3-4
Toby Venables 