Nicholas Radford

During the anarchic times of the Wars of the Roses he was caught up in the dynastic West Country rivalry between Thomas de Courtenay, 5th Earl of Devon, of Tiverton Castle, for whom during his minority he had acted as steward, and William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville, of Shute.

His murder in 1455 by the Earl's faction "ranks among the most notorious crimes of the century",[3] and was the precursor of the Battle of Clyst Heath (1455) fought shortly thereafter near Exeter by the private armies of the two magnates.

[3] At some time before 1431, he married a certain Thomasina Wyke,[4] by whom he had a son, Nicholas Jnr, born in 1437 in Poughill, Devon.

[8][9] The facts surrounding Radford's murder are recorded in the petition for justice made by his executor John Radford to King Henry VI, preserved in the National Archives at Kew and summarised contemporaneously as follows:[10] The petition is endorsed by the king in the standard form of acceptance: "Let it be done as he requests".

[15] Several contemporary accounts record in tones of shock and horror, unusual during the times of blunted sensitivities of the fifteenth century, this murder and the following mock-funeral and coroner's inquest accompanied by the singing of highly inappropriate songs.