Eustace Folville - Assessment

Assessment

For a modern reader, it may seem strange that Eustace Folville faced such little resistance in his lifetime, and suffered no form of legal penalty. After all, he was well known as an habitual offender for two full decades. During this time he went wholly unpunished, unlike his unfortunate brother Richard. But two factors may explain Folville's apparent good fortune. Firstly, the political turbulence of the 1320s worked in his favour, particularly in the case of his worst crime, the murder of Bellere. While this was undeniably an outrage, and at least partly an affront to royal authority, Bellere had been closely connected to the Despensers: he was appointed attorney to Hugh Despenser the Younger in 1322, and used the revenues of confiscated lands to curry favour with the family. Owing to the Despensers' proximity to Edward II, after the downfall of that King, official opinion had little sympathy for an ally of the family. In fact Eustace was pardoned for the murder as early as 1327, the same year that Edward was deposed, and again in 1329. Neither pardon seems to have tempted him back to a more honest life, but they did bring an end to the first wave of prosecution against him.

Secondly, and most importantly, there does seem to be a widespread perception that Eustace and others like him were basically honest and forthright, at least more so than the authorities that pursued them. This would mean that the justices and their clerks, reliant as they were on testimonies from local people, would find their job extremely difficult in the Folville's home territory. As E.L.G. Stones notes, complaints along these lines are frequently made by the trailbaston and other commissions: 'in all these things they are aided and abetted by local people, who incite them to their evil deeds and shield them after they are done'. While these laments might seem to excuse the commissions' own failures, there is undoubtedly some truth to them. After all, a tip-off from a local source allowed the Folvilles and Cotterels to elude capture in the Peak District.

This popular support seems to be rooted in a sense that the Folvilles were allies of the common people, combating the crooked establishment which oppressed them. There is at least some justification for this view. Eustace's two principal victims were certainly highly corrupt individuals. Bellere used his office to seize land and syphon money to his patrons, and his murder should be regarded less as a crime by the Folvilles alone, and more a conspiracy by several Leicestershire landowners. Eustace's accomplices were members of the Halewell and Zouche families, which suggests a breadth of ill-feeling against Sir Roger, going well beyond any one group. Willoughby was no more popular. In 1340 he was targeted by a second gang, who trapped him in Thurcaston castle. He was later imprisoned by Edward III on charges of corruption, indicted by several juries across the country, and forced to pay 1200 marks for the king's pardon. Eustace was respected as an opponent of such figures, even if this opposition was not his primary motive.