Today Clyst Heath is a suburb to the south east of the city of

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

, England. An area of relatively high ground to the west of the River Clyst, it remained

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...

until the early nineteenth century when it was cultivated for the first time. Two notable battles took place on the heath, in 1455 and 1549. The 1:25000 Ordnance Survey map shows the conventional symbol for both battles at grid reference SX965912, just north of

Sandy Park Sandy Park is a rugby union stadium and conference and banqueting centre in Exeter, England. It is the home ground of Exeter Chiefs, who from the 2010–11 season have been playing in the Gallagher Premiership, the top flight of the English r ...

rugby stadium. MapBattleOfClystHeath1455

Battle of Clyst Heath (1455)

The Courtenay family of

Tiverton Castle Tiverton Castle is the remains of a medieval castle dismantled after the Civil War and thereafter converted in the 17th century into a country house. It occupies a defensive position above the banks of the River Exe at Tiverton in Devon. Desc ...

and

Colcombe Castle Colcombe Castle was a castle or fortified house situated about a north of the town of Colyton in East Devon. It was a seat of the Courtenay family, Earls of Devon, whose principal seat was Tiverton Castle, about to the north west. It ...

, who had been earls of Devon since 1335, were challenged in the 15th century by the rise of the Bonville family of Shute. The Bonville–Courtenay feud during the

Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the throne of England, English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These w ...

resulted in several acts of violence, culminating on 15 December 1455 when Thomas Courtenay, Earl of Devon and

William Bonville William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville (12 or 31 August 1392 – 18 February 1461), was an English nobleman and an important, powerful landowner in south-west England during the Late Middle Ages. Bonville's father died before Bonville reached ...

met decisively at the Battle of Clyst Heath, where Bonville was defeated and after which the Earl sacked and pillaged Shute.

Battle of Clyst Heath (1549)

In the evening of 5 August 1549, during the

Prayer Book Rebellion The Prayer Book Rebellion or Western Rising was a popular revolt in Cornwall and Devon in 1549. In that year, the ''Book of Common Prayer (1549), Book of Common Prayer'', presenting the theology of the English Reformation, was introduced. The ...

John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford (c. 1485 – 14 March 1555) was an English royal minister in the Tudor era. He served variously as Lord High Admiral and Lord Privy Seal. Among the lands and property he was given by Henry VIII after the D ...

and Lord William Grey and their troops had pitched camp on Clyst Heath. Russell and Grey were concerned about the burden of the large number of rebel prisoners that had been captured from previous encounters at Fenny Bridges, Woodbury Common and

Clyst St Mary Clyst St Mary is a small village and civil parish east of Exeter on the main roads to Exmouth and Sidmouth in East Devon. The name comes from the Celtic languages, Celtic word clyst meaning 'clear stream'. The village is a major part of the el ...

. An order was issued that the prisoners should be killed, which was done. According to John Hayward, more than nine hundred prisoners were slain.Frances Rose-Troup, ''The Western Rebellion of 1549: an Account of the Insurrections in Devonshire and Cornwall against Religious Innovations in the Reign of Edward VI'', London: Smith, Elder, 1913, pp. 273–7. Philip Payton. (1996). ''Cornwall''. Fowey: Alexander Associates. The following day the rebels attacked the camp of the Royal army and the subsequent battle lasted the entire day, with heavy losses on both sides. Lord Russell's troops were finally victorious, but John Hooker later reported:

Great was the slaughter and cruel was the fight and such was the valour and stoutness of these men
he rebels He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
that the Lord Grey reported himself that he never in all the wars he had been did know the like.

References

{{coord, 50.7115, -3.4745, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Military history of Devon Military history of Cornwall Conflicts in 1455 Conflicts in 1549 1455 in England 1549 in England Areas of Exeter

Battle of Clyst Heath (1455)

Battle of Clyst Heath (1549)

See also

References