But who is the real Robin Hood?

Nobody can say for sure whether Robin Hood actually existed. But his name has long been a byword for outlawism.

One of the earliest surviving written references to Robin Hood is in a poem dating from about 1400. It contains the line 'Robyn hod in sherewod stod, hodud and hathud and gosu and schod' which translates to 'Robin Hood in Sherwood stood, hooded and hated and hosed and shod.'

In early modern times, English authorities used his name to denote hooliganism - Guy Fawkes was disparagingly described as a 'Robin Hood figure' after his arrest in 1605.

It was not until the early 19th century that he became a more sympathetic figure in the popular imagination, as people imagined him fighting in the last decades of the 12th century from his boltholes in the forests of South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire.

Folklore and ballads recounted how he was robbed of his own land by the evil Sheriff of Nottingham and forced to live on his wits.