You're correct that all that 12th Century King Richard, Crusades and Locksley business is nonsense. That's not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about lore from a hundred years earlier, during William the Conqueror's 11th century time. When (from the Saxon's view, who had been in England for generations) Normans were dispossessing Saxons left and right following the slaying of their (in the Saxon's minds) rightful king. When I say "humble," I don't mean "nice" or "innocent" but people who (in their view) didn't have a whole lot to spare, and who were getting unreasonably (in their view) taxed, and having their system of law overturned. Among the most hated of which was the Forest Law, restricting what kind of hunting was allowed and who was allowed to do it. Some hold that the Norman Conquest spawned Robin Hood's legends, and some think stories of various bandits more or less congealed during the Conquest. It's hard to say because the first verifiable documents of the stories date around the 15th century.