Jaime el Barbudo and Robin Hood: bandit narratives in comparative perspective

Late medieval England and nineteenth-century Spain produced similar stories about bandits. Some may have been celebrations of bandit heroes by oppressed peasants, but surviving versions of narratives did not emerge from the rural poor. Just as Hobsbawm's ideas on social bandits were based on broad comparative study, so this article attempts to establish the historical significance of the literary bandit in different countries and at different periods. It uses the cases of Robin Hood and Jaime el Barbudo to argue that the bandit was a powerful vehicle for the expression of political and social agendas among wealthier groups in society. Contemporaries' perception that the bandit was a popular hero meant he could be used to explore questions concerning the structure of society, including social mobility and the relationship between governors and governed.