Lincoln Green and Robin Hood

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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!