Please read the information below and then answer the questions at the end:

 

This worn and crumbled 14th Century tomb is the resting place of Sir Eustace Folville.  With a tomb like this and a name like that, you might well imagine that Eustace was the sort of knight who played an important part in upholding the King's peace in his local area.  Perhaps he might have been a Lord of the Manor or even a Sheriff.  In fact he was little more than a gangster.

 

The Road to Crime

One reason why Eustace took up a life of crime was that he did not inherit land from his Father.  Sir John Folville was a wealthy land-owner in Leicestershire but when he died, according tot he custom of the time, he left all his lands  to  his oldest son, also called John.  This son took over as the Lord of the Manor and lived honestly and responsibly all his life.

Eustace did not.  Youngest sons of land owners usually became soldiers or found employment in the Church, some even became traders.  None of these appealed to Eustace or to his five younger brothers.  They teamed up and became a gang of ruthless robbers.

 

First Victim

The first known victim of the Folville Gang was Richard Bellers, an important royal judge who had a reputation for corruption.  In 1326, the Folvills and over forty others ambushed Bellers on the road.  Although none of the Folvills delivered the stab that killed him, they were clearly responsible.  A hue and cry went out for their capture but they were not caught.  Instead they seem to have escaped to France.

The Gang returned in 1327 after the new King, Edward III, issued a pardon.  Kings often did this when they took the throne.  If it was supposed to gain the loyalty and obedience of the pardoned men it did not work.  They set about a whole series of robberies and went into hiding as outlaws.

Amazingly the brothers received another pardon when they agreed to fight on the King's side against a rebellious earl.  During that campaign they took time off to raid the town of Leicester, looting goods worth about £90,000 in today's values.

Over the next three years Eustace alone was accused of three robberies, four murders and a rape.  The Gang also did some criminal work for the monks of an abbey in Lincolnshire, burning down the watermill of a landowner against whom the monks had a grudge.

 

Kidnap and Ransom

Eustace Folville's most notorious crime came oin 1332 when he and the Gang kidnapped Sir Richard Willerby, another of the King's judges.  They moved him from place to place as they waited to see if the King would pay the ransom they had demanded.  He did.  He paid a sum worth about £400,000 today.  The Folvilles then let Sir Richard go free but only after Eustace had robbed him of all his personal goods and made him swear an oath of future loyalty to the Folvilles.

The brothers then spent much of the 1300s fighting for the King - after yet another pardon - in Scotland and in France, but they continued to commit all sorts of crimes when they chose to.

 

Death of an Outlaw Priest

The law did catch up with one of the brothers.  In 1340, Richard Folville became the Priest in charge of the Church in the Folville Manor.  Maybe he was after the money that came from the Church lands.  The King sent a local nobleman to capture Richard who sheltered inside the Church and fired arrows at the Lord and his men below him in the churchyard.  He killed one and serously injured many more.  Eventually the Lord broke through the thick church doors and dragged Richard across the churchyard away from the sacred ground, and beheaded him in the street.

Although killing an outlaw was allowed, Richard was a Priest.  The Lord who had killed him was forced to walk around the most important churches in the area to be whipped outside each one.  This was his reward for capturing a killer.

 

Eustace's Last Years

Meanwhile Eustace Folville carried on fighting in wars and committing various crimes until he died in 1345 or 1346.  He was never brought to court for any of his crimes and was laid to rest beneath a fine monument in his local Church.

 

Homework

Now answer the following questions for your homework:

1) Why did Eustace start his own gang?

2) Why were they able to get away with it for so long?

3) Was Medieval Justice always fair?  Support your answer and make a judgement with clear evidence and quotes from the information.