Robin Hood and Queen Katherine

"Robin Hood and Queen Katherine" is Child ballad 145. "Robin Hood's Chase", Child ballad 146, takes up after it.

The Queen Katherine of the title is not certainly identified, nor the spelling of the name certain. Up until as recently as the 18th century, people often spelled their own names differently at different times. So while the periods of time with which Robin Hood has normally been associated did not have any queens named Katherine, because the king is sometimes called Henry, she may be meant as Catherine de Valois, the young French princess married to King Henry V of England, hero of Agincourt, or Katherine of Aragon, placing the story in the time of Henry VIII.

Synopsis

Queen Katherine makes a bet about winning an archery contest. She summons Robin Hood and his men, and they win it for her.

Adaptations

Howard Pyle included this tale in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood but, to make the tale historically consistent, made it about Eleanor of Aquitaine making a bet with Henry II. Others have followed his lead in the substitution.