Robert Tresilian

Robert Tresilian (died 1388) was a Cornish lawyer, and Chief Justice of the King's Bench between 1381 and 1387. He was born in Cornwall, and held land in Tresillian, near Truro. Tresilian was deeply involved in the struggles between King Richard II and the Lords Appellant, and was eventually executed for his loyalty to the king.

Tresilian appears in the records for the first time in 1354. His early career took place in Oxfordshire and Berkshire; in 1367 he was a Justice of the Peace (JP) in Berkshire and in 1368 in Oxfordshire. He also worked in his home county; in 1369 he was recorded as acting counsel in a Cornish assizes case, was also returned to that year's parliament as a Knight of the Shire for the same county, and in 1370 was a JP for Cornwall. In the 1370s he began working in royal administration, and in 1378 he was made a Justice of the King's Bench. Shortly after he was also knighted. When Chief Justice Sir John Cavendish was killed in the Peasants' Revolt in 1381, Tresilian was appointed to take over the position.

After the rebellion was over, Tresilian was put in charge of punishing the rebels, and did so extremely harshly. He followed King Richard II into Essex, where he led what was described as a 'bloody assize' against the rebels. He pressured jurors into giving up names of suspects, and to maximise sentences, contrived to have charges presented as felonies rather than trespasses. All in all nineteen men were hanged, while another twelve were hanged and drawn. There was a widespread belief in the localities that royal retribution had gone too far, and that reform of government was necessary as well as punishing the rebels, to prevent further uprisings.

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