Walter Scott the origin of "Habeas corpus" underlies Scott's next novel, "Ivanhoe", set during the era of the creation of the Magna Carta, which political conservatives like Walter Scott and Edmund Burke regarded as rooted in immemorial British custom and precedent. "Ivanhoe" (1819), set in 12th-century England, marked a move away from Scott's focus on the local history of Scotland. Based partly on Hume's "History of England" and the ballad cycle of Robin Hood, "Ivanhoe" was quickly translated into many languages and inspired countless imitations and theatrical adaptations. "Ivanhoe" depicts the cruel tyranny of the Norman overlords (Norman Yoke) over the impoverished
Friar Tuck a story similar to Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar. (The oldest surviving copy of this ballad is from the 17th century.) The character entered the tradition through these folk plays, and he was orginially partnered with Maid Marian: "She is a trul of trust, to serue a frier at his lust/a prycker a prauncer a terer of shetes/a wagger of ballockes when other men slepes." His appearance in "Robin Hood and the Sheriff" means that he was already part of the legend around the time when the earliest surviving copies of the Robin Hood ballads were being made. A