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Page 4 of 10
Atrocity on Clyst Heath
Russell then pitched camp on Clyst Heath, and it was here that one of the worst atrocities in British history was committed. Lord Russell was concerned about the burden of the 900 Cornish prisoners he now had, a matter he discussed with Lord William Grey who was in charge of the German mercenary lanzknechts. It was almost certainly Grey who gave the order and the Germans who carried it out. They had done similar things in their own Peasant’s Revolt and, in response to the order, it took them just 10 minutes to slit the throats of all 900 prisoners, a number that derives not from any Cornish source but from John Hayward, Edward VI’s own chronicler. This kind of callous and murderous streak seemed to run in Grey’s family. His eldest son, Lord Arthur Grey, Governor of Ireland, was to carry out a similar massacre of 600 unarmed men at Smerwick in 1580.
The field at Fenny Bridges, the site of one of the first battles between the Cornish and the English in 1549. The field is known locally as 'Bloody Meadow' and excavations have uncovered Tudor, and other, weaponry.
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