The Coterel gang (also Cotterill, fl. 1328 – 1333) was a 14th-century armed group that flourished in the North Midlands of England. It was led by James Coterel—after whom the gang is named—supported by his brothers Nicholas and John. It was one of several such groups that roamed across the English countryside in the late 1320s and early 1330s, a period of political upheaval with an associated increase in lawlessness in the provinces. Coterel and his immediate supporters were members of the lesser gentry, and according to the tenets of the day were expected to assist the crown in the maintenance of law and order, rather than encourage its collapse.
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. Membership of the Coterel gang increased as its exploits became more widely known; most of the new members were recruited locally, but others came from as far away as Shropshire. 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. They do not seem to have ever been particularly unpopular with the populace, and the secular and ecclesiastical communities provided them with supplies, provisions and logistical support.
Possibly their most famous offence took place in 1332. A royal justice, Richard de Willoughby, was despatched on a commission of oyer and terminer in Leicestershire and Warwickshire, and was kidnapped by a consortium composed of both the Coterels' and the Folvilles' men. Each gang had encountered him in his professional capacity on previous occasions, and probably wanted revenge on him as much as they wanted his money. This they also received, as Willoughby paid 1,300 marks for his freedom. This outrage against a representative of the crown led King Edward III to launch a royal commission into the troubled area to bring the Coterels to justice and restore the King's peace. In the event, many gang members were arraigned, but all but one were acquitted; the Coterel brothers themselves ignored their summonses and did not even attend.
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. As a result, most of the Coterel band received royal pardons following service abroad or in Scotland. James and the remnants of the gang received royal pardons in the aftermath of the battle of Halidon Hill in 1333, and the Coterel brothers all eventually had profitable careers. Modern scholars tend to agree that the activities and members of 14th-century groups such as the Coterels provided the basis for many of the stories later woven around Robin Hood in the 15th century.
Background
Political context
The Coterel gang was active during a period of political factionalism within central government. The king, Edward II, was extremely unpopular with his nobility, because of reliance on favourites, such as Hugh Despenser the Younger, on whom he lavished royal patronage at the expense of other barons. Despenser was hated by the English nobility, particularly those gathered around the King's cousin, Thomas, Earl of Lancaster.
In 1322 Lancaster had rebelled against Edward and his favourites, but had been defeated and executed. 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. The gang at least thrived on the political chaos of the last years of Edward II's reign and the early years of that of Edward III. This was an exceptionally lawless and violent period, says the historian Michael Prestwich, "where a quarrel over a badly cooked herring could end in violent death, as happened in Lincoln in 1353".
Members of their own family were "contrariants"—opposed to the Despensers and Edward II—but this did not prevent the Coterel brothers stealing from members of that party whenever the opportunity arose. 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. On another occasion they stole "a quantity of silver plate", only to be ambushed themselves by a small force of Welsh who in turn relieved them of their loot.
The Coterel family
The Coterel family has been described as "not only numerous, but also litigious". Nicholas, James and John were the sons of a major Derbyshire landowner, Ralph Coterel. Nicholas had been involved—how deeply is unknown—in Lancaster's rebellion in 1322, for which he had received a pardon. James Coterel, in his youth, has been described as a 14th-century juvenile delinquent. He was the eldest—and, says the medievalist Barbara Hanawalt, the dominant personality—among the brothers, ("young men of prys", as they were later called) and was the acknowledged leader of the gang, which was later recorded as the "Society of James Coterel". He became of particularly high standing in the local community. His group has been described as something like a "federation of gangs", due to its fluid membership and interconnectivity with similar groups in the Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland area.
Origins There is no firm evidence as to James Coterel's precise motives for embarking on his career in crime. Perhaps, suggests the medievalist J. G. Bellamy, having started off in a small way, he discovered that he was good at it and that it provided an easy source of income in what was a relatively wealthy area. The Coterel gang was a combination of "criminal gentry", the class on whom—"paradoxically"—the upkeep of law and order usually devolved to in the localities. They were joined by men of lower class, with a few local men forming the kernel of the gang. The group is first mentioned in official records on 2 August 1328, when the three Coterel brothers, allying with Roger le Sauvage and others, attacked the vicar of Bakewell, Walter Can (Newton), in his church, evicted him from it and stole ten shillings from his collection plate. The offence was committed at the instigation of Robert Bernard, who had held several important positions: he had been a clerk for the Westminster chancery, had taught at Oxford University and was, at the time of the offence, registrar of Lichfield Cathedral. Brother Bernard had himself been vicar of Bakewell in 1328 and had been forcibly ejected by his parishioners for embezzling church funds. He was, says Bellamy, "an unsavoury individual" and may have personally participated in the assault on Walter Can.
Activities The Coterels and their associates were a "greenwood gang", as they favoured making their hide-outs in the local woods. They cooperated with similar groups, most notably with the Folvilles, and when Eustace Folville hid out in Derbyshire—"during his enforced absences" from Leicestershire—James Coterel was later described as his leader, although strictly the Coterels were of a lower social status (Maurice Keen wrote that James Coterel "might have ranked as a minor gentleman", while Folville was a knight). Either way, the Coterels did not merely have contacts within the gentry class; they were members of it. They were known to hide out on the "wild forests of the High Peak"—James Coterel was called "the king of the Peak"—with spies keeping a look-out for the sheriff's men; they avoided capture this way on at least one occasion. The Coterels had a strategy of never staying more than a month in the same place; they did return, intermittently, to various safe houses. One of the areas they concentrated on was around the village of Stainsby, where the Sauvage family was based and on whose manor the Coterels often made their headquarters.Meanwhile, King Edward II had continued alienating his nobility, and by 1326 both his wife, Queen Isabella, and his eldest son, Edward, Earl of Chester, had gone into French exile. Isabella soon became the focus of opposition to the King, and, with Roger Mortimer, invaded England, deposed King Edward and ruled in his stead. The Coterel gang's continuing violence—and the authorities' failure to suppress it—motivated Mortimer and Isabella to take a robust approach to law and order. This had little effect. James Coterel committed murders in Derby in 1329 and 1330, on the latter occasion killing Sir William Knyveton; in 1330 he also murdered John Matkynson in Bradley. James Coterel was attached at the Derbyshire Eyre for the crime that year, but escaped arrest. Both he and Laurence were accused of ravaging the Derbyshire estates of the dead Earl of Lancaster's brother and heir, Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster. Lancaster later brought suit against the three Coterel brothers for the damage they had done to his park and chase in Duffield, where, he said, they had "hunted and carried away deer and did many other wrongs". The Coterels did not deign to appear in court, but in their absence judgement was given against them and the damage estimated at £60: the cattle that the Coterels stole may have been worth as much as £5,200.
Most of the gang against whom proceedings had been attempted were found to be legally vagabonds, and the sheriff postponed the hearings three times before giving up. Sir Roger de Wennesley, Lord of Mappleton, was then dispatched to arrest them on 18 December that year. De Wennesley was a "sworn enemy" of the Coterels, having stabbed one of their relations—and Coterel gang associate—Laurence Coterel (brother) to death in March the same year. De Wennesley was, supposedly unable to locate the gang, who were then declared outlawed in March 1331. One commentator says their outlawry "seems to have inspired them to expand the range of their criminal behaviour". Soon after de Wennesley's failed commission, the Coterels kidnapped John Staniclyf, a tenant of de Wennesley's. They refused to release Staniclyf until he swore an oath never to oppose the Coterels again, and he was forced to pay a bond of £20 to ensure his compliance.
Peak of activity The high point of the gang's activity was between March 1331 and September 1332. By this time Edward, Earl of Chester (later Edward III), had launched a coup d'état against Mortimer at Nottingham Castle. In November 1330 Mortimer was hanged at Tyburn a month later and Edward III's personal reign began. The Coterels' activities continued unabated. Roaming between the Peak District and Sherwood Forest, where they often sheltered, the group was continually joined by new recruits until it numbered at least fifty. James Coterel was later personally accused of recruiting 20 men in the Peak and Sherwood areas, but recruits could also come from afar: Sir John de Legh, for example, was from Shropshire. Many men—such as Roger le Sauvage—joined after getting into debt and being outlawed when they were unable to pay their creditors. Like Sauvage, some members were already outlawed when they sought membership; many were not, and seem not to have had any previous criminal record. Increased numbers allowed the gang to expand its operations, both geographically and by type. In 1331 they were joined by Sir William Chetulton of Staffordshire (already, says Bellamy, an "infamous gang leader" himself by this point), who had previously operated in Sir James Stafford's gang in Lancashire. 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.