Outside the realm of Robin Hood, is there any basis for a social/guerrilla movement like the Brotherhood Without Banners from actual medieval history, or would we have to look to the post medieval era to find a group as complex and organized as this resisting an overlord?
Social movements? Absolutely. There were a whole host of “peasant uprisings” in the 14th century, from the Battle of Golden Spurs to the Jacquerie revolt of 1358 to the Great Peasant Revolt of 1381.
In the 15th century, you had Jack Cade’s rebellion, and then in the 16th century you had the Bauernkrieg.
These uprisings tended to involve at least some organized groups – craft guilds, local notables and local governments, former mercenaries, John Ball’s “Great Society,” Yorkist sympathizers in Cade’s example, the German peasant haufen which were organized along professional military lines, etc.
Guerrilla tactics? See here.
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