Roger Beler was a Baron of the Exchequer and right-hand man of Hugh le Despencer and King Edward II. Beler was killed by the Folville gang in 1326.
Roger Beler was a Baron of the Exchequer and right-hand man of Hugh le Despencer and King Edward II. Beler was killed by the Folville gang in 1326.
Beler was the son of William Beler, and grandson of Roger Beler, sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1256. His mother's name was Amicia. A licence obtained in 1316 by Beler allowed him to grant a lay fee in Kirkby-by-Melton, on the Wrethek in Leicestershire, for a warden and two chantry chaplains for the Parish Church of St. Peter, on condition of their performing religious services for the benefit of the souls of himself and his wife Alicia, his father and mother, and other ancestors in a special chantry chapel on the manorial site. In time this secular chantry college took on the Rule of St Augustine and became the Saint Peter's Priory Kirkby upon the Wreak. Beler is generally credited as the founder of this community and is usually cited as the source for the modern name of the village of Kirby Bellars. [1]
In the civil dissensions over Piers Gaveston, Beler was of the Earl of Lancaster's party, and in October 1318 was included in the amnesty then granted to the earl and his adherents. Shortly afterwards, Beler received a grant of land in Leicestershire as the reward for services for the king. In the same year the offices of bailiff and steward of Stapleford, in Leicestershire, of which apparently he was already the tenant, were entailed upon him. In December 1318 he was one of a commission for the trial of sheriffs and other officers accused of oppression in the counties of Buckingham, Bedford, and Northampton. [2] [ non-primary source needed ]
In 1322 Beler was created baron of the exchequer in the room of John de Foxle, and placed on a special commission to try certain those who had allegedly broken into and pillaged manors belonging to Hugh le Despenser, and upon another commission for the same purpose in the following year. In July 1323 he was one of the justices appointed to investigate the conduct of sheriffs, collectors and bailiffs in Northamptonshire and Rutland. In 1324 he sat on a commission for the trial of persons charged with complicity in a riot at Rochester. [2] [ non-primary source needed ]
Beler was summoned as a justice to Parliaments at Westminster in January 1324 and November 1325. [2] [ non-primary source needed ]
On 29 January 1326, while on his way from Kirkby to Leicester, Beler was killed in a valley near Rearsby by his distant cousin [3] Eustace Folville to whom he had previously made threats of violence. [4] [5] Roger la Zouch, Lord of Lubbesthorpe was named as the instigator of the murder [6] [ non-primary source needed ] and accessories included two of his sons, Ivo/Eudo la Zouch, the eldest son William la Zouche, 1st Baron Zouche of Harringworth and Robert de Hellewell one of William's retainers [7] [8] [ non-primary source needed ] pointing to it having a political element linked to the approaching rebellion against the Despencers and Edward II. [lower-alpha 1] Folville and his gang fled to Paris, and their lands were confiscated.
Folville and his followers returned to England perhaps in Queen Isabella's invasion in September 1326. After the Despencers' executions and Edward II's abdication in early 1327, Folville and his band were pardoned, [7] [ non-primary source needed ] and became celebrated, although they were to flirt with outlawry and vigilantism for many years.
Beler's killing had not been an isolated attack on an official of the Despencer/Edward regime in the run-up to the 1326 invasion; in July 1325 the deputy of the keeper of confiscated Contrariant castles in the Welsh Marches was brutally attacked and had his eyes torn out and limbs broken and in October the Constable of Conisborough Castle, which held imprisoned Contrariants, was besieged in its church. [9]
Sir Roger was buried in the parish church of Saint Peter at Kirby where his alabaster effigy survives to this day. [ citation needed ]
Alicia survived her husband by nearly 20 years, dying in 1344. Beler's heir was Roger, who, being an infant, became a ward of the crown. Alicia was placed in possession of the estates in Leicestershire during her son's minority. The elder Beler was buried at Kirkby in the church of St. Peter, where a monument in alabaster, representing him as a knight in complete armour, was extant at the date of publication of Nichols's History of Leicestershire in 1795.
Baron Zouche is a title which has been created three times, all in the Peerage of England.
Eleanor de Clare, suo jure 6th Lady of Glamorgan was a powerful Anglo-Welsh noblewoman who married Hugh Despenser the Younger, the future favourite of Edward II of England, and was a granddaughter of Edward I of England. With her sisters, Elizabeth de Clare and Margaret de Clare, she inherited her father's estates after the death of her brother, Gilbert de Clare, 8th Earl of Gloucester, 7th Earl of Hereford at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. She was born in 1292 at Caerphilly Castle in Glamorgan, Wales and was the eldest daughter of Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, 7th Earl of Gloucester, 5th Lord of Glamorgan and Princess Joan of Acre.
Robert de Holland, 1st Baron Holand was an English nobleman, born in Lancashire.
William de la Zouche (1299–1352) was Lord Treasurer of England and served as Archbishop of York from 1342 until his death.
Eustace Folville 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. He was the most active member of the Folville Gang, which engaged in acts of vigilantism and outlawry in Leicestershire in the early 1300s, often on the behalf of others.
The Folville gang was an armed band of criminals and outlaws active in the English county of Leicestershire in the early 14th century, led by Eustace Folville.
Maurice de Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley, The Magnanimous, feudal baron of Berkeley, of Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, England, was a peer. He rebelled against King Edward II and the Despencers. His epithet, and that of each previous and subsequent head of his family, was coined by John Smyth of Nibley, steward of the Berkeley estates, the biographer of the family and author of Lives of the Berkeleys.
Events from the 1320s in England.
Ashby Folville is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Gaddesby, in the Melton district of Leicestershire, England, south west of Melton Mowbray. In 1931 the parish had a population of 123.
Kirby Bellars Priory was a small priory of Canons Regular of Saint Augustine in Leicestershire, England. It is now the Church of England Parish Church of Saint Peter's serving the village of Kirby Bellars.
The invasion of England in 1326 by the country's queen, Isabella of France, and her lover, Roger Mortimer, led to the capture and executions of Hugh Despenser the Younger and Hugh Despenser the Elder and the abdication of Isabella's husband, King Edward II. It brought an end to the insurrection and civil war.
Zouch is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
Alan la Zouche (1205–1270) was an Anglo-Norman nobleman and soldier of Breton descent. He built the Zouches Manor in Cambridgeshire. He was High Sheriff of Northamptonshire from 1261 to 1266.
Sir John Marmion, Baron Marmion of Winteringham was an Anglo-Norman baron who represented Lincolnshire in Parliament and fought in the Wars of Scottish Independence.
Sir William de Paris was a Member of Parliament for Lincolnshire and soldier of the Wars of Scottish Independence.
Sir Roger la Zouch was the instigator of the murder of Roger de Beler and also MP for Leicestershire in 1324, 1331 and 1337 and Sheriff of Warwickshire and Leicestershire during the 1330s.
Sir John Folville was an member of parliament (MP) for Rutland and Leicestershire and father of Eustace Folville, the leader of the Folville Gang. More recent research shows Farnham's Folville pedigree is flawed. The leader of the Folville gang was the issue of Sir Eustace by Dame Alice.
Sir William Trussell was an English politician and leading rebel in Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March's rebellion against Edward II. William acted as Speaker of the House of Commons and renounced the allegiance of England to Edward II, forcing his abdication, and became King Edward III's Secretary.
Sir Robert de Hellewell was a member of the Folville Gang that slew the corrupt Baron of the Exchequer, Sir Roger de Beler and was Rutland's MP in 1340.
William la Zouche, 1st Baron Zouche (1276/86–1352), lord of the manor of Harringworth in Northamptonshire, was an English baron and soldier who fought in the Wars of Scottish Independence. He is referred to in history as "of Harringworth" to distinguish him from his first cousin Alan la Zouche, 1st Baron la Zouche (1267–1314) of Ashby de la Zouch in Leicestershire.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : "Beler, Roger de". Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.