Robert Tresilian

Also known as: Robert Trisilian / Robert Trisilian lord chiefe iustice / Robert Trissillian / lord chéefe iustice / sir Robert Trisilian / sir Robert Trissillian · Family: England · Role: justice · First appears: Richard II 19

Around 1381, Richard II appointed Robert Tresilian to judge the offenders and rebels of Essex, “where he appointed sir Robert Trisilian to sit in iudgement of the offendors and rebels of that countrie”. At Saint Albons, he sat in judgement when John Ball was arraigned and condemned for treason, and at Saint Albons he also presided over proceedings against William Grindecob, William Cadindon, John Barbor and others, many of whom were hanged and drawn.

In 1388, as lord chief justice, Robert Tresilian indicted two thousand people at Coventry. At Nottingham, he joined Robert Belknap, John Holt, Roger Fulthorpe, William Borough and John Lockton in answering Richard II’s questions about royal prerogative, parliamentary statutes and the judgement against Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, declaring the new statute, ordinance and commission harmful to the king’s prerogative. During the same period, he and other counsellors intensified Richard II’s displeasure against Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, Richard FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel and Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who accused him and the other royal counsellors of treason.

When the opposing lords assembled, Robert Tresilian withdrew from public view, “fearing the indignation of the lords”. At the next parliament, he was called to answer the charges brought by Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, Richard FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel, Henry IV and Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, but did not appear; he was banished for life and his lands and goods were forfeited. He was later discovered, taken to Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, and hanged at Tiburne.