Robin Hood's situation: showing ring, truly desperate to take a wife (8)
I believe the answer is:
outlawry
'robin hood's situation' is the definition.
'ring truly desperate to take a wife' is the wordplay.
'ring' becomes 'o' (**).
'desperate' indicates anagramming the letters.
'to take' indicates putting letters inside.
'wife' becomes 'w'.
'truly' anagrammed gives 'utlry'.
'a'+'w'='aw'
'utlry' going around 'aw' is 'utlawry'.
'o'+'utlawry'='OUTLAWRY'
'showing' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for outlawry that I've seen before include "Ban" , "Banishment" , "Proscription" , "State of someone on the run or banished" .)