ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates some of the spectrum of late medieval south-western aristocratic crime. The wealthiest members of the Cornish gentry had no monopoly on criminal activity. Lesser gentlemen, too, might seek to improve their fortunes and settle their disputes by unlawful means, and two such men were Adam Vivian and Richard Tregoys. Qualitatively rather different from the long criminal careers of men such as Tregoys, Vivian or Henry Bodrugan, was the apparently brief lapse into crime of Sir Ralph Botreaux. In the interim, however, Lord Botreaux had been alerted to the conspiracy to murder him by some of the lesser individuals involved. Yet, interestingly enough, Bodrugan's position as a member of parliament gave him enough influence even at Westminster to see the act against him repealed. Once again, one of the gamekeepers had successfully used his privileged position to avoid the consequences of Bodrugan's poaching.
