MovieChat Forums > Robin Hood (2010) Discussion > Why did they attack England?

Why did they attack England?

posted 7 years ago by realkillerthing
5 replies | jump to latest

So the French makes their D-Day landing at the cliffs of Dover, however I cant help to think, why there?

England at the time of the 13th centuary wasnt just the isles. Most of the kingdom was actually on modern day France.
In fact, the english part of the kingdom was the poorest, less populated, and less developed. Shouldnt regions like Anjou, Normandie, Bordeaux etc be a much more lucrative target for the french to capture? Actually when I think about it, most of the north modern french coast was English domain (or english vassals/allies), that means the french army pretty much had to sail from an english port in order to invade england...

And if the goal was to sieze power in London, why didnt they just sail up the river Thames like the dutch did and capture the capital, why land thousands of miles south?

[–] syntinen 7 years ago

It's a very, very, very muddled and falsified version of the events of 2016, in which the barons, fed up with John, offered the crown of England to Louis, the son and heir of Philip II of France (the French king we see in RH), provided he came with troops to help them defeat John. Louis did come, landed in Thanet, the far eastern tip of Kent, was proclaimed king at St Paul's Cathedral. (Indeed, as Terry Jones has pointed out, he ought to be counted in the list of kings of England.) But John managed to pull together enough forces and energy to defeat him, and in 2017 he renounced his claim.

The timeline of the movie is hopelessly mixed up, but after 2014 (the Battle of Bouvines) the Angevins no longer held Normandy, Maine or Anjou, and their continental empire had shrunk to the southwest quadrant of France.

[–] silverwhistle 7 years ago

I think you mean 12__. This isn't current affairs, although I would be more than happy for the French to invade right now.

"Active but Odd"

[–] syntinen 7 years ago

Whoops. Ah well, what's 800 years between friends?

[–] silverwhistle 7 years ago

Yeah. I'm generally a few centuries out of kilter, either ahead or behind. Probably Gallifreyan.

"Active but Odd"

[–] Kawada_Kira (7269) 7 years ago

Yeah, it's a fun movie but there's so, so much wrong with it historically and ideologically. When I first saw it I didn't know much about the real history of medieval England and France, but even then I thought the D-Day boats were silly and the whole anti-French theme felt like a film version of "Freedom Fries". Since then as I've learned about the history it's only gotten more ridiculous.

One thing you didn't mention is that the ruling class of England at the time were Normans, i.e. French. They spoke French in court and in their daily life, and much of the royal family spent most of their time in geographical France, particularly Normandy. Eleanor of Aquitaine was from the southwest of France, and was the lifelong duchess of Aquitaine. But in this movie she's portrayed as pure modern British and anti-French.

And that's without even getting into the ideology, remolding Robin Hood from the peasant folk hero of the champion of the poor against the tyranny and exploitation of the ruling class, into some proto-libertarian superhero who's out to defend the property and privileges of the landlords from the evil big government that, horror of horrors, makes them pay taxes...

Like I say, it's a fun movie, but it really does mercilessly butcher both the history of England and France and the legend of Robin Hood.