Eustace Folville - The Folville Gang

The Folville Gang

Eustace, named for his grandfather, was the second oldest of the Folville brothers. His criminal career apparently began in 1326 when, on 19 January, he led an ambush against Sir Roger Bellere, in which the victim was cruelly murdered. Bellere was attacked in a 'small valley' near Rearsby, Leicestershire, apparently with a retinue of fifty men. With Eustace were his brothers Roger and Walter, and fellow local landowners Roger la Zouche and Robert Halewell. While la Zouche may have inflicted the death-blow, the blame was squarely laid with Eustace: the chronicler Henry Knighton, a native of Leicestershire himself, refers to him as Eustachius de Fuluyle qui Robertum Bellere interfecerat ('Eustace de Folville who assassinated Roger Bellere'). Even by contemporary standards the crime was one of extreme audacity, made all the more shocking by the standing of the victim. Bellere was not only a local nobleman of some repute, the possessor of some nine manors and the founder of the chantry chapel at Kirby Bellars (later to become Kirby Bellars Priory), he was also a baron of the exchequer, and at one stage its chief treasurer. The so-called Folville Cross, a 1 m (3 ft 3 in) high fragment of an ancient crucifix, is supposed to mark the site of the murder.

The Folvilles were immediately summoned to stand trial for Bellere's death. However, like many other medieval felons, they could not be traced by the authorities: they may have fled to Wales or France. They were declared outlaws in their absence. This new status seems to have suited them, as within a few years petitions were issued to the Sheriff of Nottingham, 'complaining that two of the Folville brothers were roaming abroad again at the head of a band, waylaying persons whom they spoiled and held to ransom'. In the period of 1327-1330, Eustace was either directly accused of, or mentioned in connection with, three robberies, four murders, and a rape. This last charge, it should be noted, may not necessarily imply sexual violation. The medieval term raptus is notoriously slippery, and contained a range of meanings, from bodily violence to abduction. The Folvilles also seem to have allied themselves with the infamous Cotterel gang. The Cotterels certainly gave the Folvilles shelter in their territory, the Peak District, Derbyshire. They were at one stage pursued here by officers of the crown, but managed to evade capture after a local informer warned them of the danger.

Various indictments from the period portray Eustace and his brothers as freelance mercenaries, hired 'by the ostensibly law-abiding...to commit acts of violence on their behalf'. Members of Sempringham Priory and Haverholm Abbey, both in Lincolnshire, seem to have made use of their services, and at one stage they were under the patronage of Sir Robert Tuchet, a major lord of Derbyshire and Cheshire. In 1332 the Folvilles launched what may be seen as a sequel to the murder of Roger Bellere, and attacked another agent of the crown, the justice Sir Richard Willoughby. This time the victim was ransomed for the sum of 1300 marks, close to £900. Willoughby was easily able to raise this substantial amount, and was freed within twenty-four hours.