Battle of Clyst Heath 1455
Approximate location: the point for Clyst Heath, the place Wikidata gives as the battle’s location.
About the battle
The Bonville–Courtenay feud of 1455 engendered a series of raids, sieges, and attacks between two major Devon families, the Courtenays and the Bonvilles, in south west England, in the mid-fifteenth century. One of many such aristocratic feuds of the time, it became entwined with national politics due to the political weight of the protagonists. The Courtenay earls of Devon were the traditional powerbrokers in the region, but by this time a local baronial family, the Bonvilles, had become more powerful and rivalled the Courtenays for royal patronage. Eventually this rivalry spilled over into physical violence, including social disorder, murder, and siege.
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 West Country.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Bonville–Courtenay feud (revision 1369917358), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
See also this battle on Battlefields of Britain.
Quick answers
- When was the Battle of Clyst Heath?
- In 1455.
- Where was the Battle of Clyst Heath fought?
- In what is now England (Europe), at about 50.71, -3.47.
- Which war was it part of?
- The Bonville–Courtenay feud.
From Wikidata (CC0) and Natural Earth; see the sources column in Key facts.
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