Eustace Folville - Later Reputation

Later Reputation

For the generations after Eustace's death, the positive view of the Folville gang only increased. In later sources they are not merely regarded as law-breakers, but agents of an unofficial law, outside human legislation and less susceptible to abuse. In the B-text of Piers Plowman (c.1377-9), William Langland, a Midlander himself, sees them as instruments of the divine order. While he is scathing about popular veneration of 'Robyn Hood and Ralph Erl of Chestre', he speaks approvingly of 'Folvyles lawes'. The crimes of the family are presented as correctives to the 'false' legal establishment. The 'Folvyles' are listed among the 'tresors' that Grace has given to reassert God's pattern against the 'Antecrist'. Langland states: "Forthi," quod Grace, "er I go, I wol gyve yow tresor/ And wepne to fighte with whan Antecrist yow assailleth...some to ryde and to recovere that unrightfully was wonne ('"Therefore," said Grace, "before I go, I will give you treasure and weaponry to fight with when Antichrist attacks you...some men to ride and to recover that which was unjustly taken'). Henry Knighton is no less sympathetic. He portrays Bellere and Willoughby as entirely legitimate targets: Willoughby's ransom is reduced to a less avaricious 90 marks, while Bellere becomes the aggressor of his killers, not only 'heaping threats and injustices' on to his neighbours but coveting their 'possessions'. Most interestingly, the kidnap of Willoughby is portrayed as a direct conflict between the two codes represented by the outlaws and the justice: Sir Richard is abducted as punishment for trespassing on the territory of a rival order, specifically 'because of the trailbaston commissions of 1331'.

For his contemporaries and near-contemporaries, Eustace Folville was clearly more than an acquisitive thug. He was something closer to an enforcer of 'God's law and the common custom, which was different from the state's or the lord's law, but nevertheless a social order'. Whether he in fact merited such a reputation is a matter of debate.