The link to the Reynardine article is working this morning. On reading it, I found I was re-reading it. It is wholly clear from it that there was a song of the general nature circulating at least 100 years before the Lloyd text, and given the divergencies of the cited researched texts, apparently long before that. It is that fact, and the fact that the French court in the 1500s and 1600s was adversely noted for its licentiousness plus the curious similarity to the French rebel's name that combine to cause me to favour the idea of a French history for the tale underlying the song.

However that leads to the question of whether the possible mixed fear and joy over female sexual awakening indicates a prior song to which the outlaw, with his rejection of licentiousness, but his succumbing to temptation, came, or whether the outlaw was there first and the inherent contradiction in the sexual theme of the song came later.

I also note that the article seems to have an axe to grind, certainly in its earlier parts.