Editing Powderham Castle (section)

===Wars of the Roses===
During the [[Wars of the Roses]] the enemies of the Courtenay Earls of Devon of [[Tiverton Castle]] were the [[Baron Bonville|Bonville]] family of [[Shute, Devon|Shute]]. Their distant cousin at Powderham, Sir William Courtenay (d. 1485) married Margaret Bonville, daughter of [[William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville]] (1392–1461), which confirmed Powderham as a Bonville stronghold against the Earls of Devon. On 3 November 1455 [[Thomas de Courtenay, 5th Earl of Devon]] (1414–1458), at the head of a private army of 1,000 men, seized control of [[Exeter]] and its castle and laid siege to Powderham for two months. Lord Bonville attempted to raise the siege and approached from the east, crossing the River Exe; he was unsuccessful and was driven back by the earl's forces. On 15 December 1455 the Earl of Devon and Lord Bonville met decisively at the [[Clyst Heath|First Battle of Clyst Heath]] in Exeter, where Bonville was defeated and after which the earl sacked and pillaged Shute.<ref>Orme, Nicholas, Representation & Rebellion in the Later Middle Ages, published in Kain, Roger & Ravenhill, William, (eds.) Historical Atlas of South-West England, Exeter, 1999, pp. 141, 144.</ref>