Roger la Zouch

Sir Roger la Zouch
Arms of la Zouch of Lubbesthorp: "azure, 10 bezants"
MP for Leicestershire
In office 1324, 1331 & 1337 – 1337
Monarch	Edward II
Sheriff of Warwickshire and Leicestershire
In office 1330–1340
Monarch	Edward II
Personal details
Born	1292
Children	Roger la Zouch Ralph la Zouch

Sir Roger la Zouch was the instigator of the assassination of the corrupt Baron of the Exchequer Roger de Beler and also MP for Leicestershire in 1324, 1331 and 1337 and Sheriff of Warwickshire and Leicestershire during the 1330s.

Roger was the son of Roger la Zouch, Lord of Lubbesthorpe (d.1303), the younger brother of William la Zouche, 1st Baron Zouche of Harringworth. He was the grandson of Eudo la Zouch and Millicent, daughter of William III de Cantilupe, a close friend of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester.

Roger's aunt, Eva, was married to the rebel Maurice de Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley who was imprisoned by the Despencers in Wallingford Castle and died there in 1326. Eva's son, Thomas de Berkeley, 3rd Baron Berkeley was entrusted with guarding the deposed Edward II in his castle but was relieved of his duty when others decided Edward was to be treated "less gentley" and died in suspicious circumstances.

Roger was a supporter of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster for which he received a pardon from the king in August 1318. Zouch fought at the Battle of Boroughbridge in March 1323.

In January 1324 Roger was accused of raiding Hugh Despencer the Elder's lands at Loughborough and elsewhere in Leicestershire, although in a warrant issued the previous year it had been his son Roger, jnr who had been named. The corrupt Baron of the Exchequer Roger de Beler, who was viewed as a traitor by the Contrariants, was one of those appointed to arrest la Zouch.