Definition
In old English law, roberdsmen were brigands and outlaws who committed violent depredations along the border regions of England and Scotland, particularly during the reign of Richard I (1189–1199). The term refers collectively to a class of criminal marauders whose lawless conduct was severe enough to attract legislative and judicial attention. Blackstone records them among the notable categories of dangerous offenders recognized in early English law. They are traditionally said to have been the followers of Robert Hood — identified with the folkloric figure Robin Hood — though the historical basis for this association remains speculative.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Plural of Roberdsman.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not attested.
The term has no meaningful life outside the legal-historical record. Its appearance in modern reference sources simply reflects the legal dictionary tradition rather than any independent common usage. Researchers should treat this as pure legal-historical terminology with no gap between common and legal meaning to navigate — the word survives only in the law books.
Why It Matters in Research
Roberdsmen is a term of almost exclusively antiquarian interest, but it appears in a specific and traceable line of legal authority — running through Blackstone's Commentaries (4 Bl. Comm. 246) — that researchers may encounter when working in medieval English criminal law, vagrancy law history, or the development of outlawry as a legal status.
Several research traps are worth flagging:
First, the entry in both editions of Black's Law Dictionary reflects a print corruption in the first edition, where text about roads intrudes mid-entry. Researchers relying on the first edition should be aware that the definition is garbled by a typesetting error; the second edition corrects this and presents a clean entry.
Second, the Robin Hood association embedded in the definition is Blackstone's, not independent historical fact. Scholars of medieval legal history treat the etymology skeptically. If this connection matters to a research question — for example, in a study of how legal commentators used legendary figures — the claim should be traced to Blackstone and not treated as settled history.
Third, roberdsmen appear in the broader context of early English statutes targeting vagabonds, sturdy beggars, and border outlaws. Researchers working on the history of vagrancy law, the Statute of Winchester (1285), or the legal treatment of outlaws will find roberdsmen cited as a historical exemplar of the category of persons placed outside ordinary legal protection.
Finally, the term is jurisdiction-specific in the sharpest possible sense: it belongs entirely to medieval English law and has no counterpart in American, Scottish, or continental legal systems.
Historical Dictionary Support
Both editions of Black's Law Dictionary agree on the substance: roberdsmen were violent offenders on the Anglo-Scottish border during Richard I's reign, associated with the Robin Hood tradition, and documented through Blackstone. The second edition is the more reliable text — the first edition entry is disrupted by an extraneous passage on roads inserted mid-definition, a clear printing error with no legal significance.
Blackstone's treatment at 4 Bl. Comm. 246 is the root source for both dictionary entries. He groups roberdsmen among classes of criminals whose conduct warranted severe legal response, using them as a historical illustration rather than as the subject of extended legal analysis. No other major historical legal dictionary — not Bouvier, not Tomlin, not Jacob — substantially develops the term beyond this lineage.
What the historical sources collectively miss is any detailed account of the specific legal mechanisms used against roberdsmen: whether they were prosecuted as outlaws, subjected to summary treatment, or addressed by particular statutory authority. The dictionary tradition records the label and the legend; the procedural history is not carried through.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Outlawry in English Law; Vagrancy and the Criminal Poor in Medieval England.