History ArtisticLicenseHistory / RobinHoodPrinceOfThieves

* The opening credits feature Art/TheBayeuxTapestry, which dates from the 11th century and depicts the [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfNormandy Norman]] conquest of England. The film is set in the 12th century, during the Third Crusade. This is akin to showing images from UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution in the opening to a movie about UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar.

* Richard was only 42 when he died, much younger than Creator/SeanConnery was at the time of filming. He also spoke very little English (which, in fairness, most adaptations leave out). The film also seems to imply that Richard is the standard image of "the good king", making jokes and behaving in a kind and gentle manner, and like most adaptations of this legend, seems to imply that now that he's back in England, everything can return to normal and Richard will make all things well. The reality was that Richard was soon off to war again, and that in fact he did not enjoy ruling, and preferred being off at war, and didn't really care much what was happening in England while he was away. His wife, Queen Berengaria, never even ''set foot'' in England in her entire life.

* The "life debt" that Azeem owes to Robin is treated as a sort of Muslim cultural custom, but it doesn't have much basis in the real world. Had a Moor wanted to accompany the savior of his life until repaying it to him, it would have been completely his own personal decision.
* The presence of barbarian Celts during the era of the Crusades is downright nonsensical. The usage of the term "Celt" to mean a specific ethnicity had stopped after the Romanization of Europe, almost a millennium before the year the film takes place, and it doesn't even make sense geographically: having in mind that the word was meant for the ancient peoples of modern France and United Kingdom, just about every character in this film except for Azeem would be technically a Celt. The barbarians seen in the film are also referred to as Pagans, though all of the former Celts were Christian by this era.

* The bounty the Sheriff puts on Robin's head is in thousands of gold coins. Since the 100,000 gold coin ransom paid to rescue Richard the Lionheart on his way back from the Third Crusade was roughly equal to ''the entire GDP of England'', that would put Robin's bounty at far more than the Sheriff could plausibly afford. (This one is arguably justified, in that the Sheriff probably had no intention of actually ''paying'' the bounty.)

* The presence of barbarian Celts during the era of the Crusades is downright nonsensical. The usage of the term "Celt" to mean a specific ethnicity had stopped after the Romanization of Europe, almost a millennium before the year the film is set on, and it doesn't even make sense geographically: having in mind that the word was meant for the ancient peoples of modern France and United Kingdom, just about every character in this film except for Azeem would be technically a Celt. The barbarians seen in the film are also referred to as Pagans, though all of the former Celts were Christian by this era.

* When UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionheart shows up at the end, Robin greets him as "Your Majesty." The English sovereign wasn't called "Majesty" until the reign of Henry VIII, three centuries later.[[note]]This one can arguably be forgiven, as the average person doesn't know that and might be confused to hear Robin call the King "Your Grace," which was the period-accurate address for the sovereign, especially since in modern usage, "Your Grace" is almost exclusively an ecclesiastical title.[[/note]] Also, there is ''no way in hell'' that Marian, even as King Richard's cousin, would address him so familiarly as "Richard!", or not at least curtsy in his presence.

* Richard was only 42 when he died, much younger than Creator/SeanConnery was at the time of filming. He also spoke very little English (which, in fairness, most adaptations leave out). The film also seems to imply that Richard is the standard image of "the good king", making jokes and behaving in a kind and gentle manner, and like most adaptations of this legend, seems to imply that now that he's back in England, everything can return to normal and Richard will make all things well. The reality was that Richard was soon off to war again, and that in fact he did not enjoy ruling, and preferred being off at war, and didn't really care much what was happening in England while he was away.

* Nobody brings up the fact that Richard had one legitimate brother and a nephew living at the time of the Third Crusade, so Nottingham's plot to get a claim on the throne by becoming a distant relative of the king through marriage wouldn't have gotten him very high in the line of succession. This one could potentially be justified by the idea of Nottingham using his new position within the family to murder his way to the top (probably with Mortiana’s help), but it’s still sketchy at best. Further, he is bribing the barons, and it's likely that he's doing that so that they would support his newly acquired claim; many later really did revolt against Richard's brother John, and proclaimed Louis VIII of France their king.


----

* Richard was only 42 when he died, much younger than Creator/SeanConnery was at the time of filming.

* The presence of barbarian Celts during the era of the Crusades is downright nonsensical. The usage of the term "Celt" to mean a specific ethnicity had stopped after the Romanization of Europe, almost a millennium before the year the film is set on, and it doesn't even make sense geographically: having in mind that the word was meant for the ancient peoples of modern France and United Kingdom, just every character on this film except by Azeem would be technically a Celt. The barbarians seen in the film are also referred to as Pagans, though all of the former Celts were Christian by this era.

!!Culture
* When UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionheart shows up at the end, Robin greets him as "Your Majesty." The English sovereign wasn't called "Majesty" until the reign of Henry VIII, three centuries later.[[note]]This one can arguably be forgiven, as the average person doesn't know that and might be confused to hear Robin call the King "Your Grace," which was the period-accurate address for the sovereign, especially since in modern usage, "Your Grace" is almost exclusively an ecclesiastical title.[[/note]]
* There is ''no way in hell'' that Marian, even as King Richard's cousin, would address him so familiarly as "Richard!", or not at least curtsy in his presence.

* ''WebVideo/{{Shadiversity}}'' has covered the inaccuracies regarding clothing, weaponry and fortifications [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IOUQMjF7l8 here]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO2_hJQoo6U here]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTmlxDNO7oA here]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY-6Tf0x_5k here]].
* The opening credits feature Art/TheBayeuxTapestry, which dates from the 11th century and depicts the [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfNormandy Norman]] conquest of England. The film is set in the 12th century, during the Third Crusade. This is akin to showing images from UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution in the opening to a movie about UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar.

* The filmmakers also apparently forgot that Richard only spent about six months of his entire reign in England. He focused on regaining territory in UsefulNotes/{{France}}. Also, due to the Angevin Empire's court generally being held at Angers and Chinon, Richard would not have been in England that often even if most of his reign ''wasn't'' made up of military activity.
* There is also ''no way in hell'' that Marian, even as King Richard's cousin, would address him so familiarly as "Richard!", or not at least curtsy in his presence.
* Not to mention that Richard was only 42 when he died, much younger than Creator/SeanConnery was at the time of filming.
* The song Will Scarlet sings to mock Robin when Robin and the Merry Men first meet is set to the melody of "Pop Goes the Weasel," the first recorded mention of which is found in the mid-19th century. Granted, it probably originates from an earlier time, but not ''seven hundred years'' earlier.
* Barbarian Celts, more befitting Roman times, during the era of the Crusades. They are also referred to as Pagans, though all of the Celts were Christian by this era.

* In general, seizing territory from families that are crusading was highly frowned upon, something that was enforced by the Church. After all, who would go out to fight for God if they knew they could return home to find all they owned stolen? The Sheriff likely enlisted the Bishop's help in coming up with the witchcraft charges precisely so that he ''could'' seize the Locksley lands on the grounds that the Church would not be obliged to protest because of Robin's Crusading.
* As mentioned in the page picture, Azeem has a hand-held telescope 400 years before its first recorded uses.

* When UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionheart shows up at the end, Robin greets him as "Your Majesty." The English sovereign wasn't called "Majesty" until the reign of Henry VIII, three centuries later.[[note]]This one can arguably be forgiven, as the average person doesn't know that and might be confused to hear Robin call the King "Your Grace," which was the period-accurate address for the sovereign.[[/note]]

* As mentioned in the page picture, Azeem has a telescope 400 years before its invention.

* As mentioned in the page picture, Azeem has a telescope 400 years before it's invention.

* In general, seizing territory from families that are Crusading was highly frowned upon, something that was enforced by the Church. After all, who would go out to fight for God if they knew they could return home to find all they owned stolen? The Sheriff likely enlisted the Bishop's help in coming up with the witchcraft charges precisely so that he ''could'' seize the Locksley lands on the grounds that the Church would not be obliged to protest because of Robin's Crusading.

* The opening credits feature the Bayeux Tapestry, which dates from the 11th century and depicts the [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfNormandy Norman]] conquest of England. The film is set in the 12th century, during the Third Crusade. This is akin to showing images from UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution in the opening to a movie about UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar.

* When UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionheart shows up at the end, Robin greets him as "Your Majesty." The English sovereign wasn't called "Majesty" until the reign of Henry VIII, three centuries later.

* Nobody brings up the fact that Richard had one legitimate brother and a nephew living at the time of the Third Crusade, so Nottingham's plot to get a claim on the throne by becoming a distant relative of the king through marriage wouldn't have gotten him very high in the line of succession. This one could potentially be justified by the idea of Nottingham using his new position within the family to murder his way to the top (probably with Mortiana’s help), but it’s still sketchy at best. Further, he is bribing the barons, and it's likely that he's doing that so that they would support his newly acquired claim (many later really did revolt against Richard's brother John and proclaimed Louis VIII of France their king).
* In general, seizing territory from families that are Crusading was highly frowned upon, something that was enforced by the Church. After all, who would go out to fight for God if they knew they could return home to find all they owned stolen? The Sheriff likely enlisted the Bishop's help in coming up with the witchcraft charges precisely so that he could seize the Locksley lands on grounds that the Church would not be obliged to protest because of Robin's Crusading.

* Nobody brings up the fact that Richard had one legitimate brother and a nephew living at the time of the Third Crusade, so Nottingham's plot to get a claim on the throne by becoming a distant relative of the king through marriage wouldn't have gotten him very high in the line of succession. This one could potentially be justified by the idea of Nottingham using his new position within the family to murder his way to the top (probably with Mortiana’s help), but it’s still sketchy at best.
** However, the Sheriff is bribing the barons, and it's likely that he's doing that so that they would support his newly acquired claim.

* The filmmakers also apparently forgot that Richard only spent about six months of his entire reign in England. He went on to regaining territory in UsefulNotes/{{France}}. Also due to the Angevin Empire's court generally being held at Angers and Chinon Richard would not have been in England that often even if most of his reign wasn't made up of military activity.

* The bounty the Sheriff puts on Robin's head is in thousands of gold coins. Since the 100,000 gold coin ransom paid to rescue Richard the Lionheart on his way back from the Third Crusade was roughly equal to ''the entire GDP of England'', that would put Robin's bounty at far more than the Sheriff could plausibly afford (this one is arguably justified, in that the Sheriff probably had no intention of actually ''paying'' the bounty.)

** Though the Sheriff is bribing the barons, it's likely that he's doing that so that they would support his newly acquired claim.

* The filmmakers also apparently forgot that Richard only spent about six months of his entire reign in England. He also forgave John and instead focused on regaining territory in UsefulNotes/{{France}}. To be fair, though, this last bit is absent from pretty much ''every single version'' of the Robin Hood legend (along with the fact that John legitimately became king after he died).

[[caption-width-right:350:A hand-held telescope, roughly [[AnachronismStew 400 years before its first recorded uses]].]]

* Not to mention that Richard was only 42 when he died, much younger than [[spoiler: Creator/SeanConnery]] was at the time of filming.

* ''WebVideo/{{Shadiversity}}'' has covered the inaccuracies in clothing, weaponry and fortifications [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IOUQMjF7l8 here]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO2_hJQoo6U here]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTmlxDNO7oA here]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY-6Tf0x_5k here]].