Forth then went Robin Hood
Until he came to our king;
‘My Lord the king of England,
Grant me what I ask.
I made a chapel in Barnsdale,
That lovely is to see;
It is of Mary Magdalene,
And that’s where I would be
Robin Hood built a church dedicated to Mary Magdalene. Since 2016, the Catholic Church now acknowledges Mary Magdalene as equal par as a disciple of Jesus with the other apostles, but this has not always been the case, since 1591 AD Pope Gregory identifies her as the Sinful Woman. In the Middle Ages, Mary Magdalene was in parts of Christendom held in reverence.
At Vezelay Abbey in 1050 AD Benedictine Monks began to claim that they held relics of Magdalene recovered from the Holy Land by their founder Badilo in the 9th Century, and the fame of the Abbey spread, as it became a embarkation for Pilgrims to Santiago. In 1190 Richard I the Lionheart and the French King Philip II met there and spent 3 months at the Abbey before leaving for the Third Crusade.
Richard the Lionheart is closely associated with the Forest of Barnsdale in 1194 and to the Robin Hood story, fitting into the chronology of the Twelfth Century Robin Hood from 1160-1247.
