Bonville–Courtenay feud
The Bonville–Courtenay feud of 1455 engendered a series of raids, sieges, and attacks between two major
The Bonville–Courtenay feud is often given as an example of the degree to which law and order and respect for the king had broken down in the provinces. As a result, modern historians have often considered it a cause of the later Wars of the Roses; and indeed, the course of the feud often closely followed the sectarian politics of the day. The feud is perhaps most well known for culminating in an armed encounter at Clyst (called the fight, or sometimes the battle, of Clyst), near Exeter, which resulted in loss of life.
The events at Clyst resulted in government intervention in the politics of the
Background
The mid-fifteenth century suffered greatly from the private
National context
In 1966, historian
Professor
Local politics
As noted, the feud between the Bonvilles and Courtenays was rooted in local Devonshire politics. The rivalry between them stemmed from the fact that they were major estate holders in the south west, and further, because both had claims to crown patronage. For example, William Bonville had fought in the Hundred Years' War for both Henry VI and his father, Henry V, whilst Devon through his wife was the king's cousin.[17] Although the earl was both the greatest landowner and the highest ranking nobleman in the county, he had in recent years seen members of the lesser gentry and nobility (such as William Bonville) receive advancement in his stead.[18] Bonville had also furthered his own advancement by successively marrying into the lower nobility (a daughter of the Lord Grey of Ruthin) and then to an aunt of the Earl of Devon himself.[18] The main royal office in the area – and therefore the main source of royal patronage – was the stewardship of the highly profitable Duchy of Cornwall. Both men had held the office alternately over recent years. Tensions between the two have been traced back to 1437, when the stewardship was taken from Courtenay and granted to William Bonville. Courtenay did receive a royal grant of £100 per annum life annuity at this time. But, says Griffiths, this is unlikely to have made up for loss of the main royal office in the county.[19] Certainly, within two years, severe attacks were being launched on Bonville's property, and by 1440, relations between the two were, Griffiths says, "at breaking point." This tension became apparent in open manifestations of military strength; manifestations worrying enough to government to lead to them both being summoned before council.[20] In 1441 the stewardship was returned to the Earl of Devon, although Radford questions whether Bonville actually ever physically surrendered the office, as in November that year an arbitration took place between them to "end all [of their] differences."[17]
There followed a four-year period of peace; but this could simply be accounted for by the fact that Bonville spent that time in service in Gascony, which, it has been suggested, may have been one of the conditions of the arbitration.[20] It was, though, only a temporary peace for the region as by 1449 the earl besieged Bonville (now promoted to the baronage in recognition of his success in France)[21] in his castle of Taunton for a year.[22] Courtenay supported Richard, Duke of York in his 1452 rebellion at Dartford, even joining him in the field against the king. This treason resulted in him forfeiting his royal offices in the south west, including not only the stewardship of the duchy – which was finally granted to Bonville for life – but Lydford Castle, the Forest of Dartmoor, and the Water of Exe.[23] Hence, as his ally the duke was eclipsed in government, Courtenay was eclipsed by Bonville in the south west. Courtenay had – in imitation of his ally – waged a local war against Bonville and Bonville's ally, James Butler, Earl of Wiltshire, between 1451–5. Raising an army of 5–6,000 men, he forced Wiltshire to desert his manor of Lackham, and then returned to the siege of Taunton. The siege was only lifted when the Duke of York arrived unannounced three days later, and took the castle into his own hands, forcing a peace upon the two parties.[21]
Bonville had, then, by April 1455, received much royal favour, including all the offices the earl had lost, as well as the constableship of
The murder of Nicholas Radford
From October 1455, Devon and his sons were committing acts of social disorder, seemingly intending to disrupt the administrative machinery of the county (of which Bonville, of course, was a part), for instance by preventing the local
Thomas Courtenay's force attacked Radford's manor that night; they set fire to the wall and gates to draw him out. On their word, including Courtenay's solemn promise to do him no harm if he would speak with them, Radford let them in – although apparently he commented upon their large number. Whilst Radford and Devon's son drank wine, the latter's followers "ransacked"[28] Radford's house, stealing goods up to the value of 1,000 marks, including all his horses and the sheets off his invalid wife's bed.[30] On a pretext of meeting his father the earl, Courtenay persuaded Radford to accompany him when his force withdrew; however, he abandoned Radford on the road a short distance from the house, and six of Courtenay's men killed him.[30] Devon subsequently dispatched a force to the chapel where Radford's body was; they performed, says Storey, a "mock inquest, one of them acting as coroner and others, with assumed names, as jurors. They brought in a verdict of suicide."[30] They then forced Radford's servants to convey his corpse as if he had been a heretic to the graveyard, where it was deposited unceremoniously into an open grave; the stones laid ready to build his memorial were then dropped on the body, crushing it. By making recognition of the body impossible, this prevented an official inquest being held into Radford's death.[30]
Following the murder
The murder of Nicholas Radford, says R. L. Storey, was only "the curtain raiser" for further military activities. Devon proceeded to raise a force and occupy Exeter – "as if they were the city's lawful garrison" – until just before Christmas, seizing the
During the same period, Devon, "in warlike fashion and like an insurrection"[31] also besieged Powderham Castle, which belonged to his distant cousin and Bonville ally, Sir Philip Courtenay; the latter resisted, and Bonville came to his assistance. Prior to doing this, however, he raided the Earl of Devon's house at Colcombe Castle and proceeded to ransack it. Bonville attempted to lift the siege at Powderham on 19 November, but was repulsed by Devon, and lost two men in the fight,[34] which may have involved up to a thousand men.[35] Meanwhile, Devon continued his attempts to persuade the city of Exeter to raise a force on his behalf – which they refused to do – before leaving Exeter on 15 December,[34] as Bonville approached, on his way to Powderham. The two forces met at Clyst, just south west of Exeter.[36]
The fight at Clyst
Devon marched from Exeter to encounter Bonville at Clyst Heath; there are very few extant sources for the event, and only one chronicler provides any details, saying he "departed out of the city with his people into the field of Clyst, and there bickered and fought with the Lord Bonville and put them to flight, and so returned again that night into the city."[37] Many bones were discovered when the site was excavated in 1800, although some, Storey points out, must belong to those killed in the 1549 engagement on the same site. Although difficult to assess the extent to which the engagement can be described as a battle (one chronicler estimated the dead at twelve men)[38] it does appear to have been decisive in Devon's favour. The earl returned to Exeter, where the mayor had "tactfully" laid on a celebration.[37] Hannes Kleineke has described the mayor's decision to illuminate the city walls on the earl's return as "pragmatic",[39] whilst Cherry explains the mayor's behaviour as being due to the fact that the earl, "in his peculiar manner, [had behaved] punctiliously" to the mayor.[38]
The earl subsequently sent a
Response from government
However decisive the Earl of Devon's victory had been, it had also drawn the attention of the government. This was still under the control of Bonville's allies, York, Salisbury, and Warwick, but had up until that point the Yorkists had failed to intervene in this local feud. The feud has been described as an example of local activities influencing parliament itself,[46] and Griffiths said it was used as "a pretext for demanding York's appointment as protector."[47] When parliament reassembled on 12 November it was presented with reports that Devon was leading an army of about 4,000 men and including 400 cavalry to London. The king was still incapacitated. Unable to manage the situation; the Duke of York used the immediate necessity for intervention as a mechanism for being formally appointed Protector. He did not immediately hasten to the south west to punish the Earl of Devon, though. The earl was merely dismissed from his role on the commission of the peace in early December.[48] Soon after, the local gentry were ordered to be ready to assist York. The duke did not set out until news was received of the Clyst confrontation. One chronicler states that following his defeat, Bonville "fled, and came to Grenewiche to the kyng, and the kyng sent him agayne to the lord protectour;"[49] although it is also possible that he was committed to the Fleet Prison for a short time.[50] When finally York left for the south west, he summoned the Earl of Devon to Shaftesbury where the earl was arrested and sent to the Tower of London.[51]
Aftermath
The Earl of Devon remained imprisoned for only a few months. It is possible that an attempt was made to bring him to trial in February, but if so, it was probably – in Storey's words – "countermanded." This could have been, he suggests, indicative of York's "waning" position, as the protectorate was soon to come to an end:[51] Cherry has said that the king's resumption of personal power in February 1456 must have come as "a considerable relief" to the earl.[52] He seems to have taken the Yorkists' eclipse as a further opportunity to continue the feud, which provoked governmental admonishment in March, when his son John Courtenay, with 500 armed men, again prevented the Exeter justices of the peace from sitting, and evicted them. Commissions of oyer and terminer were issued in August, being led by Bonville's ally the Earl of Wiltshire.[53] Although Bonville presented a long list of offences committed by Devon to the council (whilst mitigating his own involvement), the crown "was obviously unimpressed" by this, and eventually not only restored Devon to commission of the peace (12 September 1456) but also pardoned him and his sons for any involvement in the murder of Radford, eventually even appointing him to the lucrative office of keeper of the forest and park of Clarendon.[52] The region subsequently remained quiet; Bonville was of advanced age and Devon was possibly unwell, as he died in Abingdon within eighteen months.[54] His will was executed by some of the most important men on the Queen's council.[52]
The region took no active part in the ensuing civil wars until the
References
- ^ Radford, G.H., 'The Fight at Clyst in 1455', The Devonshire Association, 44 (1912), 252
- ^ Cokayne, G.E. & Gibbs, V.,(ed.), The Complete Peerage of Great Britain and Ireland, 16 vols, rev. (London, 1916), 323
- ^ Kleineke, H., 'Why the West was Wild: Law and Disorder in Fifteenth-Century Cornwall and Devon', in: Clark, L.S., (ed.), The Fifteenth Century III: Authority and Subversion (Woodbridge, 2003), 76
- ^ Storey, R.L., The End of the House of Lancaster (Guildford, 1966), 165–76.
- ISBN 978-1-85109-358-8.
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- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12953. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.) Retrieved 2017-03-18(subscription required)
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- ^ Hicks, M.A., The Wars of the Roses, (Yale, 2010), 107.
- ^ Goodman, A., The Wars of the Roses: Military Activity and English Society, 1452–97, (London, 1981), 24
- ^ Hicks, M.A., The Wars of the Roses, (Yale, 2010), 110.
- ^ Hicks, M.A., The Wars of the Roses, (Yale, 2010), 114
- ^ Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI, (Berkeley 1981), 577
- ^ Kleineke, H., 'Why the West was Wild: Law and Disorder in Fifteenth-Century Cornwall and Devon', in: Clark, L.S., (ed.), The Fifteenth Century III: Authority and Subversion (Woodbridge, 2003), 77
- ^ Hicks, M.A., The Wars of the Roses (Totton, 2012), 96
- ^ Cherry, M., 'The Struggle for Power in Mid-Fifteenth Century Devonshire', in Griffiths, R.A. (ed.), Patronage, the Crown and the Provinces in Later Medieval England (Gloucester, 1981), 123–4
- ^ a b Radford, G.H., 'The Fight at Clyst in 1455', The Devonshire Association, 44 (1912), 253
- ^ a b Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI, (Berkeley 1981), 574
- ^ Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI, (Berkeley 1981), 574–5
- ^ a b Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI, (Berkeley 1981), 575
- ^ a b Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI, (Berkeley 1981), 576
- ^ Radford, G.H., 'The Fight at Clyst in 1455', The Devonshire Association, 44 (1912), 254
- ^ Radford, G.H., 'The Fight at Clyst in 1455', The Devonshire Association, 44 (1912), 255
- ^ a b Storey, R.L., The End of the House of Lancaster (Guildford, 1966), 165
- ^ Roskell, J.S., The Commons in the Parliament of 1422 (Manchester, 1954), 155.
- ^ Storey, R.L., The End of the House of Lancaster (Guildford, 1966), 166
- ^ Storey, R. L., The End of the House of Lancaster (Guildford, 1966), 167
- ^ a b Storey, R. L., The End of the House of Lancaster (Guildford, 1966), 168
- ^ a b Cherry, M., 'The Struggle for Power in Mid-Fifteenth Century Devonshire', in Griffiths, R.A. (ed.), Patronage, the Crown and the Provinces in Later Medieval England (Gloucester, 1981), 136
- ^ a b c d Storey, R. L., The End of the House of Lancaster (Guildford, 1966), 169
- ^ a b Radford, G.H., 'The Fight at Clyst in 1455', The Devonshire Association, 44 (1912), 257
- ^ Attreed, L., 'Arbitration and the Growth of Urban Liberties in Late Medieval England', Journal of British Studies, 31 (1992), 227–8
- ^ Storey, R.L., The End of the House of Lancaster (Guildford, 1966), 170
- ^ a b Storey, R.L., The End of the House of Lancaster (Guildford, 1966), 171
- ^ Radford, G.H., 'The Fight at Clyst in 1455', The Devonshire Association, 44 (1912), 258
- ^ Radford, G.H., 'The Fight at Clyst in 1455', The Devonshire Association, 44 (1912), 260
- ^ a b Storey, R.L., The End of the House of Lancaster (Guildford, 1966), 171–2
- ^ a b c Cherry, M., 'The Crown & Political Society in Devon' (PhD thesis, University of Wales (Swansea), 1981), 307
- ^ Kleineke, H., '"þe Kynges Cite"– Exeter in the Wars of the Roses', in Clarke, L. (ed.), Conflicts, Consequences and the Crown in the Later Middle Ages: The Fifteenth Century VII (Woodbridge, 2007), 156
- ^ Storey, R.L., The End of the House of Lancaster (Guildford, 1966), 172
- ^ Orme, N., 'Representation and Rebellion in the Later Middle Ages', in Kain, R. & W. Ravenhill (eds.), Historical Atlas of South-West England (Exeter, 1999), 141, 144.
- ^ Hicks, M.A., The Wars of the Roses, (Yale, 2010), 116
- ^ Cherry, M. 'The Courtenay Earls of Devon: The Formation and Disintegration of a Late Medieval Aristocratic Affinity', Southern History, 1 (1979), 95
- ^ Cherry, M., 'The Struggle for Power in Mid-Fifteenth Century Devonshire', in Griffiths, R.A. (ed.), Patronage, the Crown and the Provinces in Later Medieval England (Glourcester, 1981), 123
- ^ Powderham Castle guide book, p. 9.
- ^ Lander, J.R., 'Henry Vl and the Duke of York's Second Protectorate, 1455-6', Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 3 (1960), 59
- ^ Griffiths, R.A., The Reign of Henry VI, (Berkeley 1981), 755
- ^ Storey, R.L., The End of the House of Lancaster (Guildford, 1966), 172–3
- ^ Lander, J.R., 'Henry Vl and the Duke of York's Second Protectorate, 1455-6', Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 3 (1960), 64
- ^ Cherry, M., 'The Crown & Political Society in Devon' (Ph.D thesis, University of Wales (Swansea) 1981), 303
- ^ a b Storey, R.L., The End of the House of Lancaster (Guildford, 1966), 173
- ^ a b c d Cherry, M., 'The Struggle for Power in Mid-Fifteenth Century Devonshire', in Griffiths, R.A. (ed.), Patronage, the Crown and the Provinces in Later Medieval England (Gloucester, 1981), 138
- ^ Storey, R.L., The End of the House of Lancaster (Guildford, 1966), 173–4
- ^ Storey, R.L., The End of the House of Lancaster (Guildford, 1966), 174
- ^ Storey, R.L., The End of the House of Lancaster (Guildford, 1966), 174–5
- ^ Cherry, M., 'The Struggle for Power in Mid-Fifteenth Century Devonshire', in Griffiths, R.A. (ed.), Patronage, the Crown and the Provinces in Later Medieval England (Gloucester, 1981), 138–9
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