Yeoman

The etymology of yeoman is uncertain, for several reasons. The earliest documented use occurs in Middle English. There are no known Old English words which are considered acceptable parent words for yeoman. Nor are there any readily identifiable cognates of yeoman in Anglo-Norman, Old Frisian, Old Dutch, Old Saxon, or Middle Low German. The four last-named of these languages are West Germanic languages, closely related to Old English at the time they were spoken. Taken together, these facts would indicate that yeoman (1) is a word specific to the regional dialects found in England; and (2) is nothing similar to any word used in continental Europe. Another complicating factor for the etymology is that yeoman is a compound word made by joining two other words: yeo + man. Linguists have been perplexed about the origin of yeo since scholars such as John Mitchell Kemble and Joseph Bosworth began the modern linguistic study of Old English in the early to mid 19th century. Two possible etymologies have been proposed to explain the origin of yeo. Oxford English Dictionary The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has proposed that yeoman is derived from yongerman, which first appeared in a manuscript called ''Pseudo-Cnut's Constitutiones de Foresta. Although the manuscript has been demonstrated to be a forgery (it was produced during the reign of King Henry II of England, rather than during the reign of King Cnut), it is considered authentic to the 11th and 12th-century forest laws. According to the OED, the manuscript refers to 3 social classes: (1) the thegn (noble) at the top; (2) the tunman (townman) at the bottom; and (3) the lesser thegn in the middle. Yongerman is considered a synonym for a lesser thegn. OED suggested that yongerman is related to youngman'', meaning a male youth or young male adult who was in the service of a high-ranking individual or family. This proposed etymology is that youngman is in turn related to Old Norse ungmenni (youths); North Frisian ongman (lad, fellow); Dutch jongeman (youngman); and German Jungmann (deckhand, ordinary seaman); cf. also German Junker ⇐ jung[er] Herr. This etymology provides a plausible semantic link from yongerman to youngman, while at the same time providing most of the earliest definitions of yeoman. Chambers Dictionary of Etymology The Chambers Dictionary of Etymology (CDE) is another well-respected scholarly source, as it is published by the same company which produces The Chambers Dictionary. Their proposed etymology reconstructs a possible Old English word, *ġēamann, as the parent of yeoman. (The asterisk or star as the first letter is a linguistic convention to indicate the word has been reconstructed, and is unattested in any surviving record). The reconstructed word is a compound word made from the root word ġē, ġēa (district, region) + mann (man). To further strengthen their etymology, CDE compares their reconstructed word to Old Frisian gāman (villager), and modern West Frisian gea, goa, Dutch gouw, German Gau (district, region). == Medieval meanings ==

In the history of the English language, the earliest recorded usage of yeoman occurs in the Late Middle English period, and then becoming more widespread in the Early Modern English period. The transition from Middle English to Early Modern English was a gradual process occurring over decades. For the sake of assigning a historical date, OED defines the end of Middle English and the beginning of Early Modern English as occurring in 1500. His infantry included about 10,500–10,900 Welshmen. 2,000 men, including archers, were raised as part of the Lancashire and Cheshire levies under the Commission of Array. At the Battle of Falkirk, the English army archers opened up the Scottish schiltrons with hails of arrows. The Scottish infantrymen fled the battlefield, to be pursued and killed by the English cavalry. In 1333, his grandson, Edward III, undertook his first invasion of Scotland, which culminated with the Battle of Halidon Hill. Halidon Hill is where the 20-year old Edward III learned how to combine archers and dismounted men-at-arms – tactics that he would employ during his Crécy campaign in France. The English victory at the Battle of Crécy was followed by another victory at the Battle of Poitiers, and a final victory at the Siege of Calais. After the Battle of Agincourt, the Yeoman Archer had become as legendary as his bow. By negating the tactical advantage of large numbers of cavalry (mounted knights and men-at-arms) with their ability to rapidly fire volleys of arrows, Yeoman Archers are considered part of the Infantry revolution of the 14th century. They could be deployed as "Archers on horse" (mounted archers who could reach the scene quickly, dismount, & set up a firing line) or as "Archers on foot" (foot archers who followed as reinforcements). Yeoman of the Guard (15th century-present) On 22 August 1485, near the small village of Stoke Golding, Henry Tudor met King Richard III in battle for the Crown of England. The War of the Roses had persisted intermittently for more than 30 years between the rival claimants of the House of York (white rose) and the House of Lancaster (red rose). In 1483, Richard, of the House of York, had deposed his young nephew, 12-year old Edward V. Henry Tudor, of the House of Lancaster, was the favored candidate to replace Richard. According to Michael Prestwich: "What was necessary was to ensure that every conceivable means of removing the King was adopted, and the procedures combined all possible precedents". Hence, establishing the legitimacy of Edward III was paramount. But it was the Knights of the Shire and Burgesses (hereafter referred to as the commons) who drove the proceedings, both before and after Edward III's coronation. Often it was hard to distinguish minor landed gentry from the wealthier yeomen, and wealthier husbandmen from the poorer yeomen. 1500–1600 As some yeomen overlapped into the newly emerging gentry through wealth and marriage; others merged with the merchants and professions of the towns through education; some became local officials in the counties; and still others maintained their original identity as farmers. Yeomen were often constables of their parish, and sometimes chief constables of the district, shire or hundred. Many yeomen held the positions of bailiffs for the High Sheriff or for the shire or hundred. Other civic duties would include churchwarden, bridge warden, and other warden duties. It was also common for a yeoman to be an overseer for his parish. Yeomen, whether working for a lord, king, shire, knight, district or parish, served in localised or municipal police forces raised by or led by the landed gentry. Some of these roles, in particular those of constable and bailiff, were carried down through families. Yeomen often filled ranging, roaming, surveying, and policing roles. In districts remoter from landed gentry and burgesses, yeomen held more official power: this is attested in statutes of the reign of Henry VIII (reigned 1509–1547), indicating yeomen along with knights and squires as leaders for certain purposes. Yeoman farmer , with yeoman on the right In the United States, yeomen were identified in the 18th and 19th centuries as non-slaveholding, small landowning, family farmers. In areas of the Southern United States where land was poor, like East Tennessee, the landowning yeomen were typically subsistence farmers, but some managed to grow crops for market. Whether they engaged in subsistence or commercial agriculture, they controlled far more modest landholdings than those of the planters, typically in the range of 50–200 acres. In the Northern United States, practically all the farms were operated by yeoman farmers as family farms. Thomas Jefferson was a leading advocate of the yeomen, arguing that the independent farmers formed the basis of republican values. Indeed, Jeffersonian Democracy as a political force was largely built around the yeomen. After the American Civil War (1861–1865), organizations of farmers, especially the Grange, formed to organize and enhance the status of the yeoman farmers. == Modern meanings ==

The Yeomanry During the 1790s, the threat of French invasion of Great Britain appeared genuine. In 1794, The British Volunteer Corps was organized for home defense, composed of local companies of part-time volunteers. Their cavalry troops became known as the Yeomanry Cavalry. The infantry companies were disbanded by 1813, as the threat of Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion evaporated. However, the Yeomanry Cavalry was retained. They were used to quell the food riots of 1794–95 and break up workers' strikes during the 1820s–1840s, as part of their mandate was to maintain the King's Peace. The rise of civilian police forces during this same period (the Metropolitan Police Act 1829, the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, and the County Police Act 1839) replaced the Yeomanry Cavalry as an instrument of law enforcement. In 1899, the Yeomanry Cavalry were deployed overseas during the Second Boer War, after a series of devastating British Army defeats. In 1901, the Yeomanry Cavalry formed the nucleus of the new Imperial Yeomanry. Eight years later, the Imperial Yeomanry and the Volunteer Force were combined as the Territorial Force. United States Navy In the modern Navy, a yeoman is an enlisted service member who performs administrative and clerical work. The Continental Navy was established by the Continental Congress in 1775. The legislation called for officers, warrant officers, and enlisted men. The roster of enlisted men was left open to each ship captain to fill as he deemed necessary. After the Treaty of Paris, the Navy was considered unnecessary by Congress, and it was disbanded in 1785. The surviving ships were sold off. The US Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 14) granted the new US Congress the power to build and maintain a navy. It wasn't until 1794, when the worsening US relations with Great Britain and France, as well as the continuing attacks by Barbary pirates, forced Congress to appropriate funds to construct 6 frigates. The US naval hierarchy established followed the precedent set by the British Royal Navy. To which the US Navy added Petty Officers, which included the jobs traditionally assigned to naval yeomen. The first US Navy yeomen were Yeoman of the Gunroom and the ''Captain's Clerk''. Petty officers were appointed by the ship's captain, and served at his pleasure. They did not retain their rank when they moved to another ship. As the US Navy transformed from sail to steam, and from wood to steel, the yeoman's duties gradually changed to more administrative tasks. The ''Gunner's Yeoman was eliminated in 1838, the Boatswain's Yeoman in 1864, the Engineer's Yeoman and the Equipment Yeoman in 1893. The Captain's Clerk of 1798 became a Yeoman'' in 1893, which makes today's Yeoman a descendant of one of the original rates and ratings in the US Navy. == Yeomen in Late Middle/Early Modern English literature ==

Until the 16th century, yeomen were mentioned either as servants in Norman French-speaking aristocratic households, or as members of the English army or navy in the Anglo-Norman kings' military expeditions across the English Channel. It was not until Middle English became England's official language during the 14th century and the new social stratum of yeoman freeholders gained respectability during the 15th century, that the oral ballads repeated by previous generations of English-speaking yeomen were written down and distributed to a wider audience. The best-known ballads were about the yeoman outlaw Robyn Hode (Robin Hood, in modern spelling). A J Pollard, in his book Imagining Robin Hood: The Late Medieval Stories in Historical Context, proposed that the first Robin Hood was a literary fiction of the 15th and early 16th centuries. This does not mean that Pollard claims that Robin Hood was not historical. He considers that what modern popular culture thinks it knows about Robin is actually based upon how previous generations over the last 500 years have viewed him. The historical Robyn Hode was (or were, in the case of there possibly being several men whose exploits were melded into the single individual of the ballads) of secondary importance to his cultural symbolism for succeeding generations. In his review of Pollard's book, Thomas Ohlgren, one of the editors of the University of Rochester's The Robin Hood Project, agreed with this assessment. Because A Gest of Robyn Hode is a 16th-century collective memory of a fictional past, it can also be seen as a reflection of the century in which it was written. Following in the footsteps of Pollard and Ohlgren, this section examines some of the literature written in Late Middle English and Early Modern English to explore how the historical Yeoman was slowly transformed by succeeding generations into a legend for their own times. A Gest of Robyn Hode Rhymes (ballads) of Robin Hood were being sung as early as the 1370s. William Langland, the author of Piers Plowman, has Sloth say that he does not know his Pater Noster (Latin for the Our Father prayer) as perfectly as the priest sings it, but he does know the rhymes of Robin Hood. Unfortunately, the rhymes that William Langland heard have not survived. The earliest surviving ballads are Robin Hood and the Monk (dated to 1450), Robin Hood and the Potter (dated to about 1500), and A Gest of Robyn Hode. The oldest copies of A Gest of Robyn Hode are print editions dated between 1510 and 1530. These early rhymes are witnesses to a crucial time in English history. The 14th–15th centuries saw the rise of the common people's Middle English over the decline of the aristocrats' Norman French, the military prowess of the yeoman longbowmen during the Hundred Years War (see Yeoman Archers), and the beginnings of a yeoman class (see Social Class of Small Freeholders). In the Gest, Robin is an outlaw (meaning "outside the law"); someone who was summoned to a law court, but failed to appear. He has gathered around himself a fellowship of "sevenscore men", that is, 140 skilled bowmen. Nevertheless, Robin is the King's Man: "I love no man in all the world/So well as I do my king;". Disguised as a monk carrying the King's Seal, King Edward finally meets Robin, and is invited to a feast. During the archery contest afterwards, Robin suddenly recognizes Edward. He immediately kneels to offer homage, asking for mercy for his men. Edward grants pardon, and invites Robin to court. Robin agrees, and offers his men as a retinue. Note how Robin's behavior fits a commander of men. This entire scene is reminiscent of the contracted indenture offered by Edward III, where pardons were granted for war service (see Yeoman Archers). It is interesting that this historical detail had been preserved in the Gest of Robyn Hode. These earliest ballads contain clues to the changes in the English social structure which elevated the yeoman to a more powerful and influential level (see A Chivalric Rank). In the box to the left is the opening of Robin Hood and the Potter. (Note that all quotations have modern spelling, and obsolete words have been substituted.) The audience is addressed as "good yeomen", and yeoman Robin is described as possessing the "knightly virtues" of courtesy (good manners), goodness, generosity, and a devotion to the Virgin Mary. Thomas Ohlgren, a Robin Hood scholar, considers this to be an indication of the social changes the yeomen were undergoing. The yeomen may be lower in social rank to the knight, but they see themselves as possessing the traits of the knightly class. In the box to the right, the opening lines of Gest of Robyn Hode offer confirmation that yeomen now consider themselves as part of the gentry. The audience is now composed of "gentlemen". Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren suggest that the "Gest" audience was a literate audience interested in political resistance. This interpretation appears to be supported by the rise of the new social class of yeoman (see Social Class of Small Freeholders). Chaucer's Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales include several characters described as yeoman, shedding light on the nature of the yeoman in the late 14th century when the work was written. General Prologue: The Yeoman In the General Prologue, Chaucer describes The Yeoman as being the only servant The Knight wanted on the pilgrimage. From the way he was dressed, Chaucer supposes he is a forester. The man is wearing a green tunic and hood. His hair is closely cropped, his face is tanned and weather-beaten, and his horn is slung from a green baldric. The Yeoman is well-armed. He carries a "mighty bow" in his hand with a sheaf of arrows hung from his belt. Chaucer points out that the peacock feather fletching was well-made. The archer obviously took great care when making his arrows. He also carries a sword, a buckler, and a small dagger. (Note the similarity between this yeoman's accoutrements and those of the ''Yeomen of the King's Crown''.) The forester's final protection is a medal of Saint Christopher, the patron saint of travelers. Chaucer's description of a forester is based upon his experiences as a deputy forester of North Petherton Park in Somersetshire. The very first line of The Yeoman's description is the statement the Knight wanted no other servant. Kenneth J Thompson quoted Earle Birney as saying that a forester was the only attendant the Knight needed; he was a "huntsman-forester, knight's bodyguard, squire's attendant, lord's retainer, king's foot-soldier". The forester's job was to protect the vert and venison – the deer and the Royal forest they inhabited. The foresters not only discouraged poaching, but provided winter feed, and cared for newly born calves. The medieval English foresters also provided basic woodland management by preventing unauthorized grazing, and illegal logging. Another function of the forester was assist the King's Huntsmen in planning the royal hunts. The foresters knew the game animals, and where to find them. When his lord was campaigning in wartime, the forester was capable of providing additional meat for the lord's table. During the 1358–60 campaign in France, Edward III had 30 falconers on horseback, and 60 couples (or pairs) of hounds. The Yeoman has his "mighty bow" (most probably a longbow) at the ready, implying he is on duty serving as bodyguard against highwaymen and robbers. He carries a sheaf of arrows under his belt, which implies an arrow bag suspended from his belt. Chaucer's description of The Yeoman has been interpreted as an iconographic representation of the dutiful servant, diligent and always ready to serve. In other words, the very picture of yeoman service. Thompson quotes an interesting excerpt from the Anonimalle Chronicle. It is part of the description of King John II's journey to London, after he had been captured by the Black Prince at the Battle of Poitiers: :"On their way through England, the King of England aforesaid caused many lords and other people of the countryside to meet them, in a forest, dressed in coats and mantles of green. And when the said King of France passed through the said forest, the said men showed themselves in front of the King of France and his company, like robbers or malefactors with bows and arrows and with swords and bucklers; and the King of France marveled greatly at the sight, asking what manner of men these were. And the prince answered that these were men of England, forest-dweller, living as they pleased in the wild; and it was their custom to be arrayed thus every day." The encounter was obviously some political posturing staged by Edward III for the benefit of the French king. It displayed the opposition the French army would face should the King decide to invade England. The Friar's Tale In the tale told by the Friar, the devil assumes the disguise of a yeoman dressed in a green tunic, a hat with black fringes, and carrying a bow and some arrows. The devil meets a summoner on his rounds. The tale continues as a scathing condemnation of the vile corruption of the summoner, whom the devil eventually takes to hell: :"And with that word this foul fiend seized him; :Body and soul he with the devil went :Where summoners have their heritage." The Canon's Yeoman's Prologue Chaucer constructed this tale quite differently than the other ones. The Canon and his Yeoman are not part of the original party. They are introduced when the group reaches Boughton under Blean, only 5 miles from Canterbury. From the top of Boughton Hill, those traveling along the Pilgrim's Way from London can see the towers of Canterbury Cathedral for the first time. This close proximity to Canterbury makes the entrance of the Canon and his Yeoman suspicious. Even more suspicious is the sudden exit of the Canon, leaving his Yeoman to tell the tale himself. Two Chaucerian scholars have different but complementary interpretations, and neither concern a satire on alchemy. Albert E Hartung proposes that the ''Canon's Yeoman's Prologue is a device to include a previously written story into the Canterbury Tales as the Pars Secunda''. Jackson J. Campbell proposes the interruption of the pilgrims' journey by the Canon and his yeoman so near to Canterbury is a device to prepare for the Parson's Tale, which is actually a sermon. Both interpretations place importance on the characterization of the Yeoman. Hartung proposes that the real reason the Canon rode so fast and so hard to join the pilgrims is that he was seeking new victims. The Yeoman urges that it would be to the pilgrims' advantage to know the Canon better; that he is a remarkable man. The Canon knows the secret of turning the road they are traveling upside down, and repaving it with silver and gold. When The Host asks why The Canon is dressed in dirty rags, when he can afford clothes of the finest material, the Yeoman deftly replies that the Canon will never prosper, because his faith will not allow him to enrich himself though his knowledge. The impression that it was time for the Canon and his Yeoman to move on is reinforced by the Yeoman's description of where they lived: :"In the outskirts of a town," said he, :"Lurking in hiding places and in dead-end alleys, :Where these robbers and these thieves by nature :Hold their private fearful residence, ..." (lines 657–660) At this point the Canon reins his horse in beside his Yeoman, demanding that he not reveal any secrets. The Host dismisses the Canon's threats as mere bluster, and the Canon gallops away. The Yeoman's reaction implies that he may have hoped that this would happen. It was the Yeoman who noticed the Pilgrims leaving the hostelry that morning, and informed the Canon. At this point, at the beginning of the Prima Pars ("First Part"), Campbell draws attention to the Yeoman's manner of speaking. He notes that the Yeoman rambles on impulsively in an unorganized fashion. His speech is full of free association and stream of consciousness.(p 174, 176) Seeing the Canon ride off unleashes a torrent of inventive against the Canon – and against himself. He sorrowfully remembers when his face was fresh and ruddy; now it is the color of lead. He used to wear fine clothing and have "splendid furnishings", now he wears a legging on his head. When their experiments failed to convert one gold coin into two, he borrowed the gold to pay the customer. Campbell describes the self-revulsion felt by the Yeoman for the futility of alchemy, and the deception and dishonesty employed while searching for the philosopher's stone. He hates it, but is fascinated by it at the same time. Hartung agrees that Chaucer is presenting the pursuit of the philosopher's stone as an affliction He contrasts the Yeoman's Canon in the Prima Parta with the charlatan alchemist in the Pars Secunda ("Second Part") of the ''Yeoman's Tale''. Huntung proposes that this part of the Tale was composed for an audience of clergymen. The alchemist is compared with the devil, and the "worshipful canons" who pursue the study of alchemy are no better than Judas, who betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. But the tirade is not against alchemy itself. The penitent Yeoman reinforces the overall theme of pilgrimage, with its emphasis on repentance, and forgiveness. Chaucer is preparing the reader (or listener) for the ''Parson's Tale'', which a sermon about penitence, "which can not fail to man nor to woman who through sin has gone astray from the right way to Jerusalem celestial". Shakespeare's Henry V The initial performance of William Shakespeare's play Henry V was in 1599. The focus of the play was the Battle of Agincourt, which had occurred 184 years before. It is a rousing patriotic play, but it was also propaganda. Elizabeth I sat upon a shaky throne. The Catholic threat from Spain and at home, war with Spain, concern over who she would marry, concern over the succession. The Nine Years War was underway. The English army had suffered defeat by the Irish at the Battle of the Yellow Ford in 1598. Elizabeth and her counsellors were preparing an invasion in 1599. However, her Privy Council was no longer composed of her most trusted advisors. Most of them – Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Sir Francis Walsingham, and Sir Christopher Hatton had died by 1591. William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley died in 1598. The council was split between Robert Cecil (Burghley's son) and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, who were locked in a bitter rivalry. In 1599, Elizabeth was 66 years old, and her personal power was waning. She could not prevent the execution of her personal physician, Roderigo Lopez on a false charge of treason brought by the Earl of Essex. In spite of his irresponsibility, the Earl of Essex was appointed Lord Lord Lieutenant, and given command of the 16,000-man Irish invasion force. Shakespeare wrote Henry V to rally support for the Ireland invasion. The play followed naturally after his Henry IV, Part 2, written between 1576 and 1599. Henry's victory at Agincourt in spite of overwhelming odds was the perfect plot. Shakespeare presented Henry's invasion of France and his Agincourt victory in all its complexity. The play can be interpreted either as a celebration of Henry's military skill, or as an examination of the moral and human cost of war. In the famous rousing call to action in act 3, scene 1, Henry urges his yeomen to show the French what fine bowmen are raised in England. His yeomen are not "mean and base", but possess a "noble luster" in their eyes. "Unto the breach, dear friends, once more", he almost pleads. The yeomen have been besieging Harfleur for over a month; they are suffering from dysentery. "Follow your spirit" and charge, Henry commands. But Shakespeare's ultimate speech comes on 25 October in act 4, scene 3. Henry now calls his army a "band of brothers". The camaraderie of combat has made gentlemen of them all. When they hear a veteran speak of what happened on St Crispin's Day, "gentlemen in England" will be ashamed of being asleep in bed at the time such deeds were done. == Yeomen in 19th century Romanticism ==

Sir Walter Scott Walter Scott's Ivanhoe: a Romance was published to an English audience that was experiencing a medieval revival. His notes show that he had read much of the medieval poetry and chronicles which were reprinted during the 17th and 18th centuries. Ivanhoe was "... an historical reconstruction of 12th century England in the spiritual image of the 19th." Scott's highly detailed medieval setting attracts the interest of his reading audience; but his characters behave in a 19th-century manner in order to retain that interest. It was a device Scott employed to explore the struggle between good and evil in the guise of the struggle between the Anglo-Saxons and their Norman overlords shortly after the Conquest. (1922) Scott invented The Captain/Locksley/Robin Hood (hereafter referred to as Locksley) by drawing from Thomas Percy's Reliques (1765) and Joseph Ritson's Robin Hood (1795), which contained all that was known at the time about the heroic outlaw. However, Scott's Locksley is closest to the yeoman depicted in A Gest of Robyn Hode. Simeone points out that Scott deliberately made Robin Hood a yeoman as well as an outcast in order to show that ordinary men, and not just the rich and powerful, have an important part to play in the making of a nation. Scott re-inforced his point by having Gurth and Wamba, thralls of Cedric, play pivotal roles as well. This was a new concept at the time, as it was during this period (1775–1779) that the American Revolution and the French Revolution occurred. Scott refashioned the traditional hero of the Robin Hood ballads into an ancestral hero who would crush the misrule of evil men and restore the rightful rule of law.He demonstrates Locksley's physical superiority with the victory in the archery contest at the Tournament of Ashby. Locksley's ability to lead men in the field is displayed at the attack on Torquilstone castle. At the victory feast under the Tryst Tree, Locksley shares his high table with Cedric, the Saxon franklin, and the Norman Black Knight. His sense of justice supports the democratic system set up by the outlaws concerning the division of the spoils. Locksley's insistence on the Black Knight taking the horn as protection against Prince John's evil henchman Fitzurse demonstrates that he bows to the lawful authority of the King. In turn, the King himself bows to the noble spirit of the Yeoman: Howard Pyle Howard Pyle's contribution to the Robin Hood revival of the 19th century was his richly illustrated children's book The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood. Pyle is the author who first portrayed Robin as a kind-hearted outlaw who "robs from the rich to give to the poor". Each chapter covered one of the Robin Hood tales and the chapter sequence was arranged to present a coherent narrative. The resulting storyline was reused in early films such as Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood and Errol Flynn's The Adventures of Robin Hood. Pyle's visual and verbal depiction of the outlaw yeoman Robin Hood has become a 20th-century popular culture icon. Any resemblance to the yeoman of Gest, or with any possible historical persons who may have inspired the 15th–16th century ballads, is strictly coincidental. Pyle's storyline has been adapted to appeal to 20th century film audiences as a romanticized rousing action-adventure. ==See also==