[1326] ... in the same year, and, to be precise, on 29 January, Master Roger Bellers was murdered in Leicestershire. The self-same Roger founded a chantry of secular priests near Kirby Bellars in Leicestershire ... This Roger was murdered by one Eustace de Folville and his brothers, whom previously he had heaped with threats and injustices; and he was killed by three brothers when he had with him in his retinue fifty and more, in a valley near Rearsby.1 This man had been an oppressor of his neighbours, both those in religious orders and others, on account of his greed for their possessions, which he coveted to bestow upon his chantry.

***

In 1331 the trailbaston judges sat throughout England, and many outlaws were made in every place.2 For this reason Richard de Willoughby, a king’s justice, was taken prisoner after Christmas, while he was travelling towards Grantham, by Richard de Folville, rector of Teigh in Rutland, who was a wild and daring man, and prone to acts of violence.3 He was led into a nearby wood to a company of confederates and there, under compulsion, paid a ransom for his life of ninety marks, after swearing on oath that he would always comply with their instructions.4

***

[1346]... In the same year died Eustace de Folville, who had killed Roger Bellers.5

Henry of Knighton

Context

For more about the Folville brothers, see:

• Stones, E. L. G., ‘The Folvilles of Ashby-Folville, Leicestershire, and their associates in crime, 1326–1347’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th series, vol. 7 (1957), pp. 117–36
• Bellamy, J. G., ‘The Coterel Gang: an Anatomy of a Band of Fourteenth-century Criminals’, English Historical Review, vol. 79 (1964), pp. 698–717
• Spraggs, Gillian, Outlaws and Highwaymen. The Cult of the Robber in England from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century, (London, Pimlico, 2001), Chapter Two.

Textual Note

In the last passage above, about the death of Eustace de Folville, the original has ‘Robertum’, Robert, in error for Roger.

Notes

• three brothers: Eustace, Robert and Walter de Folville. However, although doubtless outnumbered, they were not alone in the attack, and the blow that killed Bellers was struck by an associate of theirs, Ralph la Zouch. Knighton stresses the overwhelming odds faced by the assassins as a way of suggesting that God was on their side, rather than that of the oppressive Bellers. | in a valley near Rearsby: Bellers was on the road, travelling with his retinue between his manor of Kirby Bellars and the city of Leicester.  [return]
• trailbaston: commissions of trailbaston were first given to selected justices in 1304, in the reign of Edward I. Their purpose was to deal with a crisis in public order, by enquiring into violent crime and punishing not only the perpetrators but those more powerful and shadowy figures who instigated such crimes and shielded the criminals from justice. However, complaints of the abuse of these commissions by unscrupulous judges and jurors appear very early in their history. See The Outlaw’s Song.  [return]
• Richard de Willoughby: de Willoughby, like Bellers, was not a popular man. A few years after this incident he was put on trial for corruption; it was said of him then that he had ‘sold the laws as if they were oxen or cows’. | after Christmas: the kidnapping took place on 14 January 1332. | Richard de Folville: brother of Eustace, Robert and Walter, who also took part in this crime, together with a fifth brother, Laurence.  [return]
• a nearby wood: Morkery woods, near Castle Bytham, Lincs. | ninety marks: the ransom mentioned in a document drawn up in the subsequent legal case was a handsome 1,300 marks. | after swearing on oath: the oath that Willoughby was made to swear recalls that which, in rather similar circumstances, Robin Hood extracts from the Sheriff of Nottingham in A Gest of Robyn Hode.  [return]
• [1346]: Stones says that Eustace died in 1347.  [return]