The Coterels were a family of lesser gentry from Derbyshire who emerged as the leaders of one of the most notorious criminal networks in fourteenth-century England. Active during the troubled reign of Edward II and Edward III, James Coterel and his brothers exploited local disorder, weak law enforcement, and powerful social connections to build a reputation for violence, extortion, theft, and intimidation.

Far from being isolated outlaws, the Coterels operated within a broad network that included the gentry, clergy, royal officials, and ordinary men and women. Their activities reveal how easily the boundaries between respectability and criminality could blur in medieval society. Through surviving legal and administrative records, the Coterels provide a glimpse into the realities of organised crime, local power, and the administration of justice in medieval England.