History books love to paint medieval knights as chivalrous protectors, but the 14th-century records of the Pomeroy family tell a vastly different story. Derived from the Old French pommeroie, the surname Pomeroy literally translates to “apple orchard”—a serene, pastoral name for a family lineage that would eventually erupt into a brutal, 200-man tactical siege at Tregony Manor.

At the center of this historical thriller stands Sir Thomas de la Pomeray (c. 1355–1428), a younger son from a minor branch of the family who was never supposed to inherit anything. He was one of the last in the lineage to formally carry the Norman de la prefix before the Hundred Years’ War forced the family to Anglicize their name. But what Thomas lacked in birthright, he more than made up for in raw, ruthless ambition.

The Illicit Wedding that Shocked the Church

Thomas’s rise to power began not on the battlefield, but in absolute secrecy. In September 1388, he pulled off a massive social coup by orchestrating a clandestine marriage to Joan Chudleigh, a wealthy, twice-widowed heiress.

The wedding was performed completely in secret, entirely bypassing the mandatory royal and religious permissions required at the time. The fallout was immediate. The Bishop of Exeter was so outraged by the insolence that he dragged the performing vicar into church court and sentenced him to a harsh public penance. Thomas himself was forced to pay a massive £10 fine directly to King Richard II just to secure a formal royal pardon.

The Great Castle Usurpation

Thomas’s real play for power came in 1416, when the childless head of the family, Sir John de la Pomeroy, passed away. Sir John had left a legally binding settlement explicitly naming his nephew, Edward de la Pomeray, as the rightful heir to the family estates.

Thomas saw his opening. Because his new wife, Joan, was a distant co-heir to the bloodline, Thomas launched an aggressive legal challenge. Leveraging his immense political influence as a “King’s Knight” under King Henry IV, Thomas successfully pressured the Crown to completely set aside the original legal settlement. Thomas effectively overthrew the rightful succession, seizing Berry Pomeroy Castle and freezing Edward out of his own birthright.

The 200-Man Siege of Tregony Manor

But Edward didn’t back down easily, prompting Thomas to escalate from legal corruption to outright warfare. In 1417, Thomas assembled a private militia of roughly 200 armed longbowmen and hirelings, marching them directly onto Edward’s manor at Tregony in Cornwall.

Thomas’s men smashed through the defenses and violently breached the house. Edward was absent, but his wife, Margaret Beville, was trapped inside. In a calculated act of psychological and physical torture, Thomas’s men locked Margaret in a room and withheld all food and water for two consecutive days, attempting to starve her into surrendering the property deeds. The intimidation was so severe that even after her release, the terrified couple didn’t dare sleep anywhere near their own estate.

The King Breaks Up the Feud

The massive 200-man raid caused such a massive public disturbance that it nearly triggered a regional civil war. The King’s Council was forced to step in directly to suppress the riot. To halt the bloodshed, the Crown bound both Sir Thomas and Edward to strict peace agreements, forcing them to sign legal undertakings under the threat of a staggering £100 fine—an absolute fortune at the time.

Thomas managed to hold onto the stolen lands through political maneuvering until his death around 1426. Because his only daughter had tragically passed away before him, his line died with him. With the tyrant gone, the Crown intervention expired, and the barony of Berry Pomeroy finally reverted back to the rightful line under Edward and Margaret.

1. Berry Pomeroy Castle (Devon) = The Legal Usurpation

Sir Thomas seized Berry Pomeroy Castle using political and legal manipulation, not weapons. After the childless Sir John died in 1416, Thomas used his high-ranking status as a Lancastrian “King’s Knight” to convince the Crown to set aside Edward’s rightful inheritance. He moved into the castle by persuading Sir John’s widow to surrender her immediate dower rights. No army was marched on the castle; it was entirely an abuse of political favor. [1, 2, 3, 4] 

2. Tregony Manor (Cornwall) = The 200-Man Armed Assault

The violent tactical assault occurred a year later, in 1417, when Thomas tried to expand his land-grab into Cornwall. Edward and his wife, Margaret, still securely held the family’s Manor of Tregony. Unwilling to rely on the courts for this estate, Thomas raised his private militia of 200 men, marched across the county line into Cornwall, violently breached the manor house, and imprisoned Margaret there without food or water. [1, 2, 5] 

The True Local Legend of a Siege

Interestingly, local folklore does claim that Berry Pomeroy Castlewas once under a historic siege, giving rise to the famous ghost story of “Pomeroy’s Leap” (where two brothers in full armor allegedly rode their horses off the ramparts to avoid capture). However, architectural and military historians from English Heritage have confirmed that Berry Pomeroy Castle itself never actually faced a military siege. The only real, documented tactical violence in this specific inheritance war was the raid at Tregony. [1, 2, 6] 

1. The Illicit Marriage Records (1388)

You can find the official records of Sir Thomas’s illegal, unlicensed marriage to the wealthy twice-widowed Joan Chudleigh within the surviving 1388 Episcopal Registers of the Bishop of Exeter. The records explicitly detail the church court pulling the vicar in for reprimand and King Richard II demanding a fine to issue a pardon. [1, 2, 3]

2. The Castle Usurpation Records (1416)

The legal manipulation where Sir Thomas successfully convinced the Crown to set aside the childless Sir John Pomeroy’s chosen successor (Edward) is fully mapped out in the peer-reviewed History of Parliament Online archive for Sir Thomas Pomeroy. It documents how Thomas exploited his status as a “King’s Knight” to leapfrog the rightful bloodline. [1, 2, 3, 4]

3. The 200-Man Siege & Starvation at Tregony (1417)

The violent raid where Thomas brought a private militia to smash through Tregony Manor, cornering and starving Edward’s wife, Margaret Beville, for two consecutive days, is formally preserved in the History of Parliament Online archive for Edward Pomeroy. [1]

4. The £100 Peace Bonds

The intervention by the King’s Council to break up the family warfare and prevent a full regional riot can be read in the translated entries of the 1417 Calendar of Patent Rolls (Henry V), which officially records both men being legally bound to a massive £100 financial peace bond.

Edward Pomeroy and Margaret Beville won the long game, living long, highly prosperous lives and successfully taking back everything that had been stolen from them.

Once the “tyrant” Sir Thomas died childless in 1426, the temporary royal interventions completely collapsed. Edward and Margaret finally stepped out from the shadow of their violent cousin to rebuild the family empire. [1]

The historical timeline for their ultimate vindication reveals exactly what happened next:

1. Taking Back the Castle (1426–1428)

According to the History of Parliament Trust archives, the reunion of the estates did not happen overnight, but it was absolute. [1]

  • The Legal Reclamation: In 1426, Edward took full legal possession of the entire family barony, combining his original lands in Sandridge and Tregony with the vast, stolen properties of Berry Pomeroy and Stockley Pomeroy. [1, 2]
  • Defenestration!: Proving that the bitter family feud died hard, secondary court rolls record that the remnants of Thomas’s faction tried to stall the transition. In 1428, Edward literally had to have his legal rivals “forcibly ejected by way of the windows” out of the house at Berry Pomeroy to secure his physical hold on the castle. [1]

2. High Society and Political Vindications

Once firmly installed as the undisputed Lord of Berry Pomeroy, Edward became one of the most powerful and respected figures in the West Country, erasing the stigma of his earlier defeats:

  • The High Shrievalty: Edward went from being a hunted man to the chief law enforcement officer of the region. He was officially appointed Sheriff of Devon by King Henry VI, serving from 1431 to 1432.[, 2]
  • Royal Commissions: The Crown repeatedly called upon Edward’s expertise, appointing him to high-stakes royal panels to investigate maritime piracy and oversee military musters across Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall. []

3. Margaret’s Matriarchal Victory

Margaret Beville, the woman who had survived being starved in a room for two days by an armed militia, lived to see the ultimate victory of her own bloodline. [1]

  • Edward’s Death: Edward passed away on May 3, 1446, at roughly 70 years old, leaving all of his vast, re-unified estates securely to Margaret and their children. [1, 2]
  • The Long-Lived Matriarch: Margaret survived her husband by 15 years. She moved back into the ancestral lands and lived comfortably as a wealthy dowager until her death on September 10, 1461, passing away peacefully at the ripe old age of 82. [1, 2]

4. Securing the Pomeroy Dynasty

Through Margaret and Edward’s resilience, their direct descendants went on to thrive for generations. Their son, Henry Pomeroy, safely inherited the barony, and their grandson, Sir Richard Pomeroy, went on to become an elite military commander who was formally knighted by King Henry VII. Sir Richard’s massive, elaborate tomb still stands today inside the Berry Pomeroy Church as a permanent monument to the dynasty Thomas failed to destroy. [1, 2]

The complete, verified bibliography for the historical account of Sir Thomas de la Pomeray is detailed below.

These sources comprise primary medieval legal documents and authoritative peer-reviewed parliamentary histories.

Primary Academic Databases

  • Biography of Sir Thomas Pomeroy (d. 1426), published in The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe, 1993.
  • Biography of Edward Pomeroy (d. 1446), detailing the 1417 armed assault on Tregony Manor and the subsequent £100 peace bonds. [1, 2, 3] 

Definitive Family Histories

Medieval Legal Records & Rolls

  • The Patent Rolls of King Henry V (1417): National Archives, Kew. (Contains the official royal intervention records by the King’s Council demanding the £100 security bond from Thomas and Edward to prevent regional rioting). [1, 3] 
  • The Register of the Bishop of Exeter (September 1388): Diocesan Records. (Documents the formal ecclesiastical summons issued to the Vicar of Berry Pomeroy for executing the illegal, clandestine marriage of Thomas and Joan Chudleigh). [7]