Battle of Clyst Heath (1455)

Battle of Clyst Heath
Map of Battle of Clyst Heath 1455
Date 15 December 1455 Location Clyst Heath, near Exeter, Devon Result Courtenay victory
Belligerents
Retainers and tenants of Thomas de Courtenay, 5th Earl of Devon (1414–1458)	Retainers and tenants of William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville (1392–1461)
Commanders and leaders
Thomas de Courtenay, 5th Earl of Devon (1414–1458)	William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville (1392–1461)
Strength
1,000	1,000 (?)

The Battle of Clyst Heath (1455) was a private battle fought on 15 December 1455 at Clyst Heath, now a suburb to the south east of Exeter in Devon.

During the Wars of the Roses the mortal enemies of the Courtenay Earls of Devon of Tiverton Castle and Colcombe Castle were the Bonville family of Shute.^[1] The earl's cousin Sir Philip II Courtenay (d.1463) of Powderham Castle however sided against him with Bonville and his son Sir William Courtenay (d.1485) of Powderham married Margaret Bonville, daughter of William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville (1392–1461), which confirmed Powderham as a Bonville stronghold against the Earls of Devon. The prelude to the battle seems to have been the notorious murder on 23 October 1455 of Nicholas Radford, lawyer to Bonville, at his home at Upcott in the parish of Cheriton Fitzpaine, by a mob directed by the Earl of Devon. On 3 November 1455 Thomas de Courtenay, 5th Earl of Devon (1414–1458) at the head of a private army of 1,000 men seized control of Exeter and its royal castle, of which the Earls had for many generations considered themselves custodians as hereditary Sheriffs of Devon,^[2] but of which Bonville now also claimed the sheriffdom. The Earl then laid siege to Powderham, a pro-Bonville stronghold, for two months. Lord Bonville attempted to raise the siege and approached from the east, crossing the River Exe, but was unsuccessful and was driven back by the Earl's forces. On 15 December 1455 the Earl of Devon and Lord Bonville met decisively at the Battle of Clyst Heath, where Bonville was defeated and after which the Earl sacked and pillaged Shute.^[3]

Sources

• Transactions of the Devonshire Association, Volume 44, Exeter, 1912, pp. 252–265

References

1. Hoskins, p.75: "The Courtenays were pre-eminent in the West until the rise of the Bonvilles in the 15th century"
2. Hoskins, p.75
3. Orme, Nicholas, Representation & Rebellion in the Later Middle Ages, published in Kain, Roger & Ravenhill, William, (eds.) Historical Atlas of South-West England, Exeter, 1999, pp. 141, 144