Gay poet created Robin Hood

Even if Robin Hood wasn't gay, the man who wrote the famous ballads was. And this writer, poet Sir John Clanvowe, was also "married" to Sir William Neville, Constable of Nottingham Castle from 1381.

The first mention of Robin Hood as a subject of ballads is in 1377, but these ballads are not recorded - no Merry Men, no Nottingham. The earliest surviving ballads date between 1380 and 1400. Sir John was ideally placed to write these later ballads, which a century after his death were printed as "The Geste of Robyn Hode" - the source of all the legends we know today.
Sir John and Sir William met before 1370 and were renowned as a close, loyal couple. Almost certainly they recognised their relationship in a church ceremony. Their tombstone even shows their coats of arms as a married couple - ignoring William's real wife! As an aristocrat's youngest son, William married an heiress (Elizabeth le Waleys) to provide an income.

John and William were friends of King Richard II, who came to Nottingham many times. He was also a patron of art and literature. Perhaps, on one of his visits, bored with the old Robin Hood stories, Richard asked John to come up with some new ones.

Just like modern writers, medieval poets used real people on which to base characters, and John flattered his partner by using elements from William's and Elizabeth's family history to create new stories of Robin Hood. These coded elements would be recognised by the audience, and enjoyed as in-jokes.

In "The Geste", Robin Hood lives in Barnsdale, Yorkshire, where the le Waleys family owned many manors. The king in "The Geste" is Edward, not Richard the Lionheart. Edward II came to Nottingham many times, and in 1324 came to deal with outlaws. He made his lover Piers Gaveston Constable of the castle (William's uncle married Gaveston's widow). The sheriff in 1324 was Henry Fauconberg (William's aunt married into this family), and legend says that the Sheriff was Little John's brother.

The Merry Men live in a typical all-male community much favoured by Richard II. Even any homoerotic readings may be Sir John's coded sexual fantasies. "The Geste" is also anti-church, which fits with John's support for the religious reformer John Wycliff.

Using these elements and more, John could have woven new characters and plots into older stories and in the process create the basis of the legends we know today.