Roger Mortimer, 3rd Baron Mortimer of Wigmore, 1st Earl of March, was an English nobleman and powerful Marcher Lord who gained many estates in the Welsh Marches and Ireland following his advantageous marriage to the wealthy heiress Joan de Geneville, 2nd Baroness Geneville. Her mother was of the Royal House of Lusignan. In November 1316, he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1322 for having led the Marcher lords in a revolt against King Edward II in what became known as the Despenser War.
Hugh le Despenser, sometimes referred to as "the Elder Despenser", was for a time the chief adviser to King Edward II of England. He was created a baron in 1295 and Earl of Winchester in 1322. One day after being captured by forces loyal to Sir Roger Mortimer and Edward's wife, Queen Isabella, who were leading a rebellion against Edward, he was hanged and then beheaded.
Hugh Despenser, 1st Baron Despenser, also referred to as "the Younger Despenser", was the son and heir of Hugh Despenser, Earl of Winchester, and his wife Isabel Beauchamp, daughter of William Beauchamp, 9th Earl of Warwick. He rose to national prominence as royal chamberlain and a favourite of Edward II of England. Despenser made many enemies amongst the nobility of England. After the overthrow of Edward, he was eventually charged with high treason and ultimately hanged, drawn and quartered.
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.
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.
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.
Margaret de Badlesmere, Baroness Badlesmere was an Anglo-Norman noblewoman, suo jure heiress, and the wife of Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Baron Badlesmere.
Alice de Warenne, Countess of Arundel was an English noblewoman and heir apparent to the Earldom of Surrey. In 1305, she married Edmund FitzAlan, 2nd Earl of Arundel.
Isabella de Beauchamp, Lady Kidwelly, Baroness Despenser, was an English noblewoman and wealthy heiress.
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.
The Despenser War (1321–22) was a baronial revolt against Edward II of England led by the Marcher Lords Roger Mortimer and Humphrey de Bohun. The rebellion was fuelled by opposition to Hugh Despenser the Younger, the royal favourite. After the rebels' summer campaign of 1321, Edward was able to take advantage of a temporary peace to rally more support and a successful winter campaign in southern Wales, culminating in royal victory at the Battle of Boroughbridge in the north of England in March 1322. Edward's response to victory was his increasingly harsh rule until his fall from power 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.
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 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.
The Parliament of 1327, which sat at the Palace of Westminster between 7 January and 9 March 1327, was instrumental in the transfer of the English Crown from King Edward II to his son, Edward III. Edward II had become increasingly unpopular with the English nobility due to the excessive influence of unpopular court favourites, the patronage he accorded them, and his perceived ill-treatment of the nobility. By 1325, even his wife, Queen Isabella, despised him. Towards the end of the year, she took the young Edward to her native France, where she entered into an alliance with the powerful and wealthy nobleman Roger Mortimer, who her husband previously had exiled. The following year, they invaded England to depose Edward II. Almost immediately, the King's resistance was beset by betrayal, and he eventually abandoned London and fled west, probably to raise an army in Wales or Ireland. He was soon captured and imprisoned.
