The Bonville-Courtenay Feud

“The Law serves no other purpose in these days but to do wrong.”
Proclamation of Jack Cade, June 1450

Perhaps one of the most extreme examples of the chaos that blighted Henry VI’s reign in the lead up to the Wars of the Roses was the Bonville-Courtenay feud.

That neighbouring nobles had disagreements was situation normal for medieval England. However, in the case of the Bonville-Courtenay feud, the quarrel degenerated into armed confrontation, pillage, murder and finally open war.

At various times Henry VI, his officers and even Richard of York had all attempted to intervene to resolve the crisis. None of them succeeded. The Bonvilles and Courtenays continued to clash, and with increasing violence.

The two families gravitated to different sides when the Wars of the Roses finally broke out. However, their support for either York or Lancaster was entirely mercenary, born primarily from a calculation as to which faction would best promote their interests.

But how was this feud allowed to get so far out of hand?

A Regime in Crisis

By the early 1450s, England’s Lancastrian regime was in crisis. Defeat at the hands of the French in Normandy had dealt a bitter blow to national prestige. Royal debts were out of control. To cap it all the country suffered a large-scale popular uprising in 1450.

A major criticism of Henry’s government as the Wars of the Roses approached was that law and order was breaking down across the land. The Cade rebels of 1450 complained that an honest man could no longer expect justice. Later Yorkist propaganda echoed these accusations: lawlessness and disorder, they claimed, was plunging the kingdom into chaos.

So, to what extent can it be said that England was suffering from a catastrophic collapse in the rule of law by the early 1450s? And, if it had really got that bad, how had it come to this?

The Courtenays

The Courtenay family had a long heritage in Devon. From the thirteenth century they had been a significant political force in the region, being formally recognised as earls of Devon from 1335. They were, therefore, well established as Devon’s foremost noble family by the mid-C15th.

When the old Earl Courtenay died in 1422, his son, Thomas Courtenay, was just 8 years old. Young Thomas did not easily come into his inheritance. His father bequeathed Thomas’ mother, Anne, control of a substantial share of the Courtenay estates for life. Even on reaching his majority, Thomas was unable to take possession of the main Courtenay residence and had make do with a much-reduced income. He was denied his full inheritance until his mother’s death in 1441.

Thomas was a proud man, who resented the constraints placed upon him by his father’s will. These constraints hampered Courtenay power in the west country and ultimately allowed another powerful local family, the Bonvilles, to gain influence. It was an influence that Thomas increasingly resented.

The Bonvilles

William Bonville, born in 1392, was the rising star of West Country gentry. He inherited significant land and wealth, and proved most capable in building on his inheritance.

William’s big break came in 1415, when he entered the service of the Duke of Clarence (Henry V’s brother) in the Agincourt campaign. He was knighted at around this time and, when Clarence died in 1421, he was granted the honour of acting as an executor for the dead duke’s estate.

Historically, the two families had close ties: the Bonvilles were old retainers of the Courtenays. Indeed, William even married Thomas Courtenay’s aunt, Elizabeth. However, this marriage alliance eventually led to disputes over land ownership and inheritance. It is possible that this may well have been the original cause of souring relations between the two families.

Whilst Thomas Courtenay languished under the constraints of his father’s will, the energetic William continued to gain influence across the West Country. By the mid-1430s, William was almost as wealthy as Thomas, despite lacking any noble title at this point.

The Courtenays may have been the established power across the region. But it was the Bonvilles’ star that was in the ascendant by the mid-1430s. All this inspired a simmering resentment in Thomas Courtenay.

Origins of the feud

1437 would prove to be a pivotal year. William Bonville’s ongoing efforts to climb the social ladder finally bore fruit. Henry VI appointed him to the King’s Council and awarded him the office of Steward of the county of Cornwall. It was a prestigious position and one that brought with it a significant source of income.

There was just one small problem. This office had often been awarded to the earls of Devon in past times. It was a position which Thomas Courtenay had, no doubt, hoped to assume at some stage in the future. This was the last straw for Courtenay, and it is from this time that the feud between the two families can be traced.

Disputes became increasingly heated, and, by the summer of 1439, things became violent. Courtenay’s armed retainers executed several raids against the tenants of the Bonville estates.

It now became serious enough for the court to get involved. Courtenay had cause to hope for a favourable hearing. After all, he was married to Margaret Beaufort, whose family was highly influential at court. However, his wife’s relatives did little to help him on this occasion. He was sanctioned and bound over to keep the peace under threat of a 2,000-mark fine. It was enough to bring an end to the violence, at least for a time.

Two men, one job

1441 was an important year for Thomas Courtenay. His aging mother finally died, enabling him to come into his full inheritance. He also managed to gain enough favour at court to persuade Henry VI to appoint him as Steward of the Duchy of Cornwall.

Naturally this was a problem. William Bonville already held an office with a virtually identical title; an office to which he had been appointed for life.

It was a mistake. Henry VI’s inattention to detail led him to appoint two bitter rivals to ostensibly the same job! His ministers did not find out for a week. At this point they hastily informed Courtenay and asked him not to assume the new office until the mess was sorted out.

It was too late.

Both men, suspicious of foul play on the part of the other, armed their retainers and prepared for conflict. Bonville seemed to go out of his way to antagonise Courtenay by recruiting men who’d traditionally served the Courtenay family.

Inevitably, violence soon erupted once more.

Henry summoned both men to court and made them promise to refrain from violence whilst the matter was resolved. But Henry did not resolve it. Rather than issuing a clear ruling, he put the matter to arbitration.

Hiatus

To avoid conflict in the meantime, Henry encouraged both men to go overseas to serve in the Hundred Years’ War. It was a temporary, but hardly adequate, solution.

In the end only Bonville followed Henry’s advice and went to serve in France. Courtenay remained but refrained from further fighting. Both men were stripped of the stewardship for the time being. Bonville would remain in France between 1443 and 1447, a situation which acted to prevent any further serious outbreak of violence.

In the meantime, Courtenay sought to build a political powerbase from which he might be able to finally wrest control of the West Country from his rival. He eventually went to France himself only in 1446.

Both men were kept quiet by allowing remittance of some of their debts (conditional on good behaviour). Courtenay was eventually awarded the stewardship in 1444. He was further placated when he was appointed to the position of High Steward at Queen Margaret’s coronation in 1445. Bonville also found himself rewarded for ‘good behaviour’. For his services in France, he was awarded the title of Baron Bonville in 1449. However, Bonville’s elevation to the peerage did not go down well with Courtenay.

Renewed Conflict

1449 and 1450 were disastrous years for Henry VI. The French launched a major offensive in Normandy, overrunning the entire region in less than a year. Struggling with major debts and rocked by the Jack Cade rebellion over the summer of 1450, the regime was in crisis.

By 1451 things seemed quieter at first but the country was still recovering from the aftermath of the Cade uprising. However, that summer the French began another major offensive. This time the aim was to take Gascony in the south. In this febrile atmosphere, with the regime distracted on all fronts, the Courtenays and Bonvilles began to manoeuvre against each other once more.

In his search for political leverage Baron Bonville had allied himself with the Earl of Wiltshire, a powerful political figure at the Lancastrian court. Wiltshire would support him in any future clash with Courtenay. However, in return, Wiltshire wanted Bonville’s help in a dispute with Baron Chobham over land in Somerset.

As far as Courtenay was concerned, this new dispute presented a golden opportunity to bring down Bonville. He raised an army and joined with Chobham. A clash with Wiltshire was avoided only because the Earl withdrew his forces, choosing instead to hurry to Court to seek royal intervention.

Courtenay and Chobham’s army then lay siege to Bonville’s forces at Taunton.

Intervention

Forced into action, Henry VI finally began assembling a royal army to restore order and force the squabbling lords to some kind of compromise. However, in the end royal intervention was not required.

Not long after Taunton Castle was besieged, a small army led by the Duke of York intervened. Courtenay had not stood idly by whilst Bonville had been currying favour with Wiltshire. His alliance with Chobham had brought him more influential patronage in the form of Richard, Duke of York.

Whilst Richard was sympathetic to Chobham and Courtenay, he was not keen to see the West Country torn apart in a baronial war. He also realised that if the pair continued their aggressive campaign, they would potentially face severe royal punishment. He therefore intervened to broker a peace and lift the siege. Both Bonville and Courtenay were cast in prison for a month. The pair were forced to a reconciliation later in the year and to promise to end their feuding. York’s intervention averted serious bloodshed and forced a temporary peace. However, like the earlier interventions of the King, nothing he did ultimately helped resolve the underlying disputes.

To Challenge a King

Bonville and Courtenay’s feud had seen both reach out to more powerful allies. But, by aligning themselves with men like York and Wiltshire, they inevitably embroiled themselves in the political disputes of these powerful magnates.

By 1452, Richard of York had had enough. His disputes with the Duke of Somerset over policy had grown ever more heated. And, by the end of 1451, he was feeling increasingly isolated and threatened by what he saw as a hostile Court faction.

*By 1452, the disagreements between Richard, Duke of York, and Edmund, Duke of Somerset, had reached crisis point*

In early 1452 he acted. He raised an army and marched on London to set things to rights. In his manifesto, written at Ludlow in February of that year, he blamed the Duke of Somerset for the catastrophic defeats in France and his own exclusion from government. He was determined to remove Somerset, whom he accused of “envy, malice and untruth” and of seeking to “to disinherit me and my heirs and such persons as are about me, without any desert or cause”.

York naturally enlisted the aid of his supporters. Amongst them were Chobham and, of course, Courtenay. Each raised a force and joined up with York.

Bonville was also drawn into the conflict, mustering his own retainers to join up with the King.

Bonville Triumphant

York was confronted by the King at Blackheath at the beginning of March 1452. After a tense negotiation York eventually backed down on condition that Somerset should face trial for his alleged crimes. In the end Somerset did not face trial. York’s capitulation, on the contrary, only served to strengthen Somerset’s court faction.

York and his allies, especially Courtenay, were now out of favour. Bonville, having backed the ‘winning horse’ was now very much in the ascendant. He was duly rewarded. He was confirmed as Steward of the Duchy of Cornwall, appointed seneschal of Gascony and lieutenant of Aquitaine. The King granted him land in Devon and appointed him to investigate those sympathetic to York’s failed rebellion in the region.

Courtenay, on the other hand, was briefly imprisoned for his Yorkist sympathies and excluded from holding any office of significance in the West Country.

Shifting Loyalties

Whilst Bonville and Courtenay may have aligned themselves with either York or Lancaster in the early 1450s, these allegiances were entirely self-serving.

After 1452, William Bonville became increasingly close to the Nevilles. The Nevilles, like William, had stood with the Lancastrian faction at Blackheath. However, like William, their loyalties were largely dependent on what they felt they could get out of it. In particular, the Nevilles’ support for the house of Lancaster was largely dependent on Lancastrian support for the Nevilles in their disputes with the Percys.

As the court seemed to increasingly favour the Percys, Neville loyalties shifted to Richard of York. As a result, so too did Bonville’s loyalties (such as these were). Courtenay, on the other hand, was increasingly determined to pursue his vendetta with Bonville. Having benefited little from his association with York he acted increasingly alone. However, he did not immediately jump ship to the Lancastrian faction due to friction between himself and the powerful Duke of Somerset.

On the eve of the first battle of Saint Albans, Courtenay had attempted to mediate between the King and York. However, when battle came Courtenay fought for King Henry. Bonville, true to his new Neville patrons, now fought for Richard of York. The pair had literally swapped sides.

The Radford Murder

Defeat at Saint Albans did not see Courtenay suffer retaliation from York, however. As he’d attempted to mediate, he was still viewed as something of a neutral at this stage.

Nevertheless, the chaos of this initial clash in the Wars of the Roses allowed the Bonville-Courtenay feud to renew with a vengeance. Thomas Courtenay’s son, the junior Thomas, now 23, was keen to bring matters to a head. And the way he chose to do so was far more violent and shocking than any of his father’s previous actions.

On 23^rd October 1455, five months after Saint Albans, the younger Thomas decided to act. He and a group of armed retainers showed up at the Upcott Manor residence of Nicholas Radford. Radford was a respected official with links to both the Courtenays and the Bonvilles. However, his business activities associated him more closely with Bonville interests.

Courtenay’s men proceeded to pillage the manor before forcing Radford to accompany them under the pretext of bringing him before the Earl. However, Radford never made it that far. The younger Courtenay had him brutally murdered on the road.

From this point the feud rapidly degenerated into open war. The Courtenays spent that autumn attacking Bonville estates in a concerted effort to forcibly seize control of the region.

Clyst Heath

The Courtenays eventually seized control of Exeter. However, the chaos of those times is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that a relative of the Earl, Philip Courtenay, chose to side with Baron Bonville.

The Earl’s army marched on Philip’s residence at Powderham castle and lay siege to it. Meanwhile, Bonville raised an army of his own and pillaged the Courtenay estate at Colcombe on November 3^rd. He then marched on Powderham, intent on relieving his ally.

Bonville was beaten back after a brief skirmish in mid-November whilst attempting to cross the River Exe. After a few weeks of manoeuvre and counter-manoeuvre, the two armies eventually clashed on 15^th December 1455, at Clyst Heath just east of Exeter.

Details of the ensuing battle are scant. Both sides fielded a force of several hundreds, with Courtenay bringing the larger force, perhaps over 1,000. The result was a decisive Courtenay victory. With Bonville power in the region broken, Courtenay proceeded to pillage the principal Bonville residence at Shute.

Aftermath

The Bonville-Courtenay feud provided Richard of York with the pretext he needed to assume the office of Protector. Armed with the authority of his new office, York intervened and incarcerated Courtenay in the Tower of London.

By early 1456, however, the period of the second protectorate came to an end. Courtenay was released. For a time, a tenuous peace held. In late 1456, Courtenay found his fortunes partially restored as the Lancastrian court faction gradually re-asserted itself. By this time any enemy of Richard of York was viewed as a potential ally by the beleaguered Lancastrian regime. Bonville presented his grievances to the court but was largely rebuffed. By 1457 the Courtenays had even managed to secure a full royal pardon for the Radford murder.

Both men found their quarrel increasingly ignored during the political manoeuvrings leading up to the second phase of the Wars of the Roses. By the late 1450s the Yorks and Lancastrians were vying with each other for control of the government. The Courtenays sided with Lancaster. Bonville with the Yorks.

War

Earl Courtenay’s failing health would prevent him seeing action during the second phase of the Wars of the Roses. He died on the road to London, on his way to the Loveday parade of 1458.

Bonville would meet an unpleasant end during the war. He was present at the second battle of Saint Albans in early 1461. By this time, at age 68, William was really too old to fight. Instead, he was assigned the task of standing guard over the hapless Henry VI whilst the battle played out. Unfortunately for him, the Yorkists were defeated, and he was taken prisoner.

Even more unfortunately, the bellicose younger Thomas Courtenay, now the new Earl of Devon, was also present at the battle, fighting for Lancaster. Courtenay lobbied for Bonville’s execution after the battle and was not disappointed. By this time, William’s son and grandson had already perished in the fighting.

Nevertheless, Courtenay would not survive long to enjoy his triumph. He fought at the Battle of Towton a few months later at which the Lancastrians were decisively defeated. Courtenay himself survived the battle but was captured and executed by the Yorkists a few days later.

The feud was finally over. Its primary protagonists were all dead.

A Breakdown of Order

Ever since the mid-1430s the Bonville-Courtenay feud had continued to cause problems across the West Country. Sporadically it flared up into violence and eventually open war. All attempts made to arbitrate or settle the dispute failed.

Henry VI himself had tended to avoid becoming directly involved in the dispute until his hand was forced. His inattention to detail even led him to promote both men to the same job, greatly inflaming the situation. Rather than imposing a clear final settlement, he preferred to fudge the issue and delegate the decision to arbitration.

Subsequent efforts by Richard of York to de-escalate the situation were also ultimately ineffective. But Richard was not the king and was only ever Protector for short periods. He simply lacked the authority to resolve the conflict. As a result, by the mid-1450s, the feud had been allowed to rumble on, unresolved, for two decades.

But what could the regime have done differently? Could the terrible violence unleashed across the West Country have been avoided?

Law and Order in Medieval England

The truth is that even well-regarded kings faced their share of these problems throughout the Middle Ages. Banditry was endemic and most kings found themselves having to deal with violent disputes either with or between their nobles.

There was nothing new or surprising about baronial disputes such as the Bonville-Courtenay feud. The key, however, was in how successful a regime was in managing such problems.

Henry V was a king very unlike his son and, unsurprisingly, his approach to managing baronial disputes was very different. His reputation for tackling such problems as corruption and lawlessness was formidable. One Burgundian chronicler even dubbed him “a prince of justice” because he never allowed a wrong to go unpunished.

So, how might Henry V have dealt with the Bonville-Courtenay feud? Fortunately for us, an anecdote from an English Chronicle illustrates precisely how the elder Henry approached such problems.

A Prince of Justice

We are told that during the reign of Henry V, a feud arose between two northern knights. Just like the Bonville-Courtenay feud, things began to turn violent. The two lords armed their retainers and prepared for open conflict.

When King Henry came to hear of this, he summoned both men to come and dine with him.

As soon as the pair arrived in his presence Henry asked them who they served. Both men declared that they served King Henry. He then asked them to tell him whose subjects they had raised in arms to fight their quarrel. They had little option but to agree that their retainers were all Henry’s subjects.

Henry then asked them to explain “by what authority or whose command do you dare raise up my subjects to fight each other to settle your quarrel?” Before they could answer, he added casually, “for this alone you both deserve death.”

Both knights immediately begged for the king’s mercy. Henry coldly informed them that if they could not resolve their quarrel before he finished his dish of oysters, he would have both men hanged.

The quarrel was swiftly resolved, and the knights made to swear oaths as to their future good behaviour on pain of death.

The Failings of Henry VI

Henry VI’s disengagement from tackling difficult issues head on, coupled with his inattention to detail and aversion to conflict stood in sharp contrast to his father. These failings ultimately explain why the Bonville-Courtenay feud was allowed to spiral so far out of control.

A successful medieval English king could not afford to seek to avoid conflict by placating rather than punishing wayward lords. The unpleasant truth is that the fifteenth century English nobility simply saw such behaviour as weakness.

Henry V was only able to maintain order because he was respected. His meticulous attention to detail, his willingness to tackle difficult problems head on and his intolerance of dissent all reinforced respect for his royal authority. However, be under no illusions, Henry V was respected primarily because he was greatly feared. He was a king who went so far as to forbid his subjects from looking him directly in the eye. He was also a king with a ruthless reputation for making good on his threats. Dissent of any kind was simply not tolerated.

The more passive approach of Henry VI, with his arbitrations and Loveday parades, well-meaning though they may have been, simply did not cut it in fifteenth century England. And that, ultimately, was the tragedy of Henry VI.

Keep up to date with our stories…

If you like reading our work and would like to keep up to date with the latest stories and news from our blog page, you can follow us on Facebook. We always announce any news and promote new stories as they are published here:

https://www.facebook.com/MedievalHistorian