Basing themselves in the peaks of Derbyshire and the heavily wooded areas of north Nottinghamshire (such as Sherwood Forest) the Coterels frequently cooperated with other groups, including the Folvilles.

Despite repeated attempts by the crown to suppress the Coterels, their criminal activities increased; by 1330 they had committed murder, extortion, kidnap, and ran protection rackets across the Peak District.

The King was politically distracted by the outbreak of the Second War of Scottish Independence; this provided him with the opportunity to recruit seasoned men to his army while appearing to solve the local disorder.

The king, Edward II, was extremely unpopular with his nobility,[4] because of reliance on favourites,[5] such as Hugh Despenser the Younger, on whom he lavished royal patronage at the expense of other barons.

[6] One of the Coterel brothers and their later allies from the Bradbourne family were also involved, so it is likely, says the historian J. R. Maddicott, that there was a political dimension to the band's activities as part of general opposition to the King.

For example, after the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322—when the contrariant nobles fought Edward II and lost—the Coterels ambushed fleeing survivors of the losing side, and robbed them of horses and armour.

[14] He was the eldest—and, says the medievalist Barbara Hanawalt, the dominant personality—among the brothers,[15] ("young men of prys", as they were later called)[16] and was the acknowledged leader of the gang, which was later recorded as the "Society of James Coterel".

[25] The group is first mentioned in official records on 2 August 1328, when the three Coterel brothers, allying with Roger le Sauvage[note 2] and others, attacked the vicar of Bakewell,[17] Walter Can,[27] in his church, evicted him from it[28] and stole ten shillings from his collection plate.

These were no common criminals but "gentlemen," probably the younger sons of landed gentry, who, when they were not committing crimes such as robbery, extortion, and murder, often by hire, were serving in Edward III's wars in Scotland and France while holding public office as bailiffs and even MPs.

[56] In December 1331, the group was joined by John Boson, an esquire from Nottingham who held land off William, Lord Ros; Bosun's father not only had been an outlaw himself but had been an early associate of James Coterel.

The Coterel gang were the subject of multiple presentments throughout their short career,[57] and committed at least two murders as well as extortions[note 12] and kidnappings around the Peak District,[7] running protection rackets,[19] and generally involving themselves in the feuds of their neighbours.

[30] It is likely that the Coterels and their associates were motivated at least in part by the fact that many of them would have come up against Willoughby on previous occasions[71] in his capacity as a puisne judge[72] who was regularly active on commissions of oyer and terminer in the region.

[2] In the event, many indictments were presented and heard, but "hardly any of the principals were brought into court, much less convicted", even though King Edward personally attended the sessions held at Stamford, Lincolnshire.

[82] A jury of presentment, composed of men from the hundreds of Wirksworth and Appeltree, sat in September 1332,[note 17] and claimed that the gang was known to collaborate with Robert Bernard, backed by the Chapter of Lichfield Cathedral.

[17] This commission documented the Coterels' activities minutely, and, Anthony Musson says, it is "a tribute to the functioning of the judicial machinery" of the county in the midst of a severe break down in order that it was able to do so.

[87][note 18] The Coterels poached, ambushed, had a spy in Nottingham, ill-treated clerics, were pursued by bounty hunters and the sheriff, operated in Sherwood, entered royal service, had as an ally a member of the gentry who had lost his inheritance, were retained at one time by a local magnate and wore his livery, and were pardoned by the King.

Within Lichfield Cathedral, apart from Robert Bernard, there were seven canons[8] including John Kinnersley, who were all later accused of being supporters of the Coterels and of providing James with "protection, succour and provisions".

[18] Also among the Coterel's local supporters was the Cluniac prior of Lenton, Nottinghamshire, who on at least one occasion gave them advance warning of an intended trailbaston commission[18][note 20] led by Richard de Grey.

[95] Such support was not wholly based on fear,[96] but neither did people believe that outlaws were romantic figures out to help the community; perhaps, says Hanawalt, "respect and a reluctant admiration" was the prevailing attitude of the populace.

[102] Not everyone supported them; in 1331, a petition was presented to parliament which complained about members of the gentry uniting to kidnap and kill the king's loyal officials—almost certainly an oblique reference to the Coterel gang.

[18][note 22] The few members of the gang who were eventually brought before the King's Bench in 1333 were acquitted, and the three Coterel brothers seem to have continued receiving the patronage of Lichfield Cathedral, while Barnard retained both his employment at Oxford University[8] and his church living until his death in 1341.

[105] The crown, for its part, withdrew its commissions from the region claiming that the king's peace had been restored; in reality, it had been distracted by the renewal of war with Scotland the previous year, and, writes E. L. G. Stones, "the impetus of the general attack on disorder, which had seemed so strong in March 1332, rapidly declined".

[102] Bellamy notes how usual this was: "expenditure of royal energy meant temporary success"; but, with the King preoccupied with projects abroad, the status quo ante soon returned.

[108] One of the last occurrences of James Coterel's name in official records indicates that he too regained the King's trust, as in November 1336, "he was on the right side of law",[45] having been commissioned to arrest a "miscreant Leicestershire parson".

[54][108][note 23] The Coterel gang has been described by a late 20th-century historian as being the locus of an "apparent disregard for the law which has been shown as emanating from the Midlands",[111] demonstrating the degree to which the crown lacked control over the provinces.

[116] While much of the gang warfare that plagued England in the early 14th century can be put down to the return of unemployed soldiery from the north, as contemporary chroniclers were prone to assume, organised crime such as that of the Coterels'—which does not seem to have contained this element of demobilization—were, suggest the historians Musson and Ormrod, "the product more of the disturbed state of domestic politics in the 1320s than of the crown's war policies".

[117] The medievalist John Bellamy has drawn attention to the degree to which the tales of Robin Hood and Gamelyn intersect in detail with known historical events such as those the Coterels were involved in; he also notes that there are probably an equal number of points on which the stories diverge from history.

[121] R. B. Dobson and John Taylor suggested that there was only a limited connection between the invention of Robin Hood and the criminal activities of the Coterels, who do not, summarises Maurice Keen, "seem to offer very promising matter for romanticization".

[122] However, contemporaries were aware of such a link: in 1439 a petition against another Derbyshire gangster, Piers Venables, complained that he robbed and stole with many others and then disappeared into the woods "like as it had been Robin Hood and his meiny".

[2]Maddicott describes the capture of Willoughby as very much "a feat reminiscent of the world of ballads"[2] and the gang's popularity as "close to the standing of Robin Hood and his men as folk heroes".