England is in turmoil, with nobles once again settling scores with private armies (in episodes such as the Battle of Nibley Green), and Lancastrians being encouraged to rebel.

Thomas Talbot, 2nd Viscount Lisle, and William Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley, have long been engaged in a dispute over the inheritance of Berkeley Castle and the other Berkeley lands, Lisle being heir-general to Thomas de Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley and Berkeley heir-male.

Lisle impetuously challenges Berkeley to a battle, and the latter agrees, the battle to be fought the next day at Nibley Green.

In the little time available, Lisle can only raise a force among his ill-equipped local tenants.

Berkeley, however, can draw upon a garrison from Berkeley Castle as well as his local levies, and he is reinforced by men led by his brother Maurice and miners from the Forest of Dean.

This gives him a considerable advantage in numbers, about one thousand to three hundred.

Philip Mead (or Mede) of Wraxall an Alderman and Mayor of Bristol in 1459, 1462 and 1469, sends some men on the Berkeley side.

Maurice Berkeley had married Isabel Mead, Philip's daughter, for which act of marrying beneath his social status he had been disinherited of the Berkeley lands by his elder brother, William.

This is hardly a mark of gratitude for Mead's assistance.

Lisle leads his men in a charge against Berkeley's troops as they emerge from a stand of woods.

Berkeley's archers open fire and breaks up the charge.

One of the Dean Foresters, an archer named "Black Will", shoots Lisle in the left temple through his open visor and unhorses him.

A few dagger-strokes from the archers ensure Lisle's death, and his leaderless army breaks and flees.

As Lisle's army disperses, Berkeley advances to Lisle's manor of Wotton-under-Edge and sacks it.