Eustace Folville (c. 1288 – 1347)[a] was an English criminal and outlaw who is credited with assassinating the unpopular Sir Roger de Beler, Baron of the Exchequer and henchman of the despised Hugh le Despencer and King Edward II.
Eustace was the second of seven sons of Sir John Folville,[3] a respectable member of the gentry who acted on many occasions as a Commissioner or knight of the shire for both Rutland and Leicestershire.
Edward II promoted a young French knight called Piers Gaveston ahead of the existing aristocracy and his corruption and abusive nature meant that relations between the King and his subjects soon broke down.
[c] Others fled and engaged in outlawry; Sir William Trussell (who later became Speaker of the House of Commons and oversaw Edward's abdication) led a rebel group that raided in Somerset and Dorset in August 1322.
[6] Sir William Trussell was forced to flee to France, where he joined Roger Mortimer and plotted revenge against the Despensers and the King.
By January 1326, English supporters of Isabella, Mortimer, and Trussell, perhaps including the la Zouches, were assembling and equipping troops in preparation for an approaching invasion.
[7] Eustace Folville faced little resistance to his crimes during his lifetime and suffered no form of legal penalty, despite being widely known as a habitual offender for two decades.
This would have meant that the justices and their clerks, reliant as they were on testimonies from local people, found their jobs extremely difficult in Folville's home territory.
As E. L. G. Stones notes, complaints along these lines were 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".
Beler used his office to seize land and siphon money to his patrons, and his murder might be regarded less as a crime by the Folvilles alone and more as a conspiracy by several Leicestershire landowners.
Langland states: Therefore, said Grace, before I go, I will give you treasure and weaponry to fight with when Antichrist attacks you[11] and And some to ride and some to recover what unrightfuly was won; He instructed men to win it back again through strength of hands
The kidnapping 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".