Richard Folville

Richard Folville (d.1340-1) was a member of the infamous robber band captained by his older brother Eustace.

Biography

Richard was the fourth of seven sons born to Sir John Folville (d.1310) of Ashby Folville, Leicestershire. In 1321 he was created rector to the small country parish of Teigh, about 12 km east of Melton Mowbray. However, like his near-contemporaries Thomas De L'Isle or John Rippinghale, his vocation did not deter him from indulging in serious organised crime. Although he is not named in connection with the murder of Sir Roger Bellere in 1326, he certainly participated in many of his siblings' later outrages.

Richard seems to have masterminded the gang's most brazen plot, the abduction and ransom of the justice Sir Richard Willoughby, later Chief Justice of the King's Bench. The chronicler Henry Knighton, our principal witness to the activities of the Folvilles, claims that the 'savage, audacious' Richard was in charge of the "socialem comitivam" ('allied company') which attacked Willoughby. [Henry Knighton, [http://www.outlawsandhighwaymen.com/knighton.htm/ "Chronicon Henrici Knighton, vel Cnitthon, monachi Leycenstris"] , ed. by Joseph Rawson Lumby, 2 vols (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1889-95), I (1889), pp.460-1.] The kidnap occurred in January 1332. Willoughby was seized on the road to Grantham, and escorted into nearby woodland. One indictment claims that he was carried from here to numerous dens and hideouts across the county, 'from wood to wood'. [Maurice Keen, "The Outlaws of Medieval Legend", rev. ed. (London: Routledge, 2000), p.199: ISBN 0-8020-1612-X] He was at length made to pay 1300 marks (nearly £900) for his release, and forced to swear an oath of loyalty to the Folvilles.

The underlying reasons for this attack are obscure. What at first glance looks like casual opportunism may in fact be rooted in local politics, since Willoughby had estates in Leicestershire; the abduction may even have been intended as a challenge to royal authority. Knighton clearly regards it as the latter, conceiving the whole episode as revenge for the trailbaston sessions of 1331, which 'made several outlaws in many places'. As Richard Firth Green comments: 'We may never be able to establish Richard Folville's motives precisely - was he paying off an old debt with a local rival, expressing his contempt for royal justice, or merely indulging in a spot of profitable brigandage?' [Richard Firth Green, "A Crisis of Truth: literature and law in Ricardian England" (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), p.171: ISBN 0-8122-3463-4]

Capture and death

Richard did not only distinguish himself in this enterprise. He is also notable for being the only member of the Folville gang to suffer official retribution. In either 1340 or 1341, he and some of his retinue were cornered in the church of Teigh by Sir Robert Coalville, a keeper of the King's peace. After a prolonged struggle, which resulted in at least one fatality as Richard fired arrows from the church, Sir Robert succeeded in drawing Richard from the building. Once in custody Folville was summarily beheaded, in his own churchyard. After the event Pope Clement VI instructed Thomas Bek, Bishop of Lincoln, to absolve Robert and his men for killing the priest, on condition that they were whipped at each of main churches in the area, by way of penance. [E.L.G. Stones, 'The Folvilles of Ashby-Folville, Leicestershire, and Their Associates in Crime, 1326-1347', "Transactions of the Royal Historical Society" 77 (1957), pp.117-36.] This is clearly reminiscent of Henry II's penance before the cathedral of Avranches, after the death of Thomas Becket.

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