Noble Families square up for a fight in Gloucestershire, 1469

 The two armies that fought each other at Nibley Green were led by two of the more powerful local noblemen in Gloucestershire. They were related to each other, and it was the nature of that relationship that led to the battle.

Back in 1417, Thomas Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley died without a male heir. The will that he left was complex and far from clear, meaning that the vast Berkeley lands and the powerful Berkeley Castle itself did not clearly belong to anyone. His daughter Elizabeth laid claim to most of the lands, supported by her husband Richard de Beauchamp. The claim was disputed by Thomas's nephew James Berkeley, backed by his father in law the powerful Duke of Norfolk. 

 

The tomb of Thomas Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley.

 

At first it was Elizabeth who gained possession of the lands and castle. However, in 1421 the courts decided in favour of James, who was then given the title of Baron Berkeley. Elizabeth was given a consolation prize consisting of five manors, the most wealthy of which was Wootton-under-Edge. She may have accepted the decision, but the loss rankled with her family. In 1452 Elizabeth's grandson John Talbot, Baron Lisle, led a body of armed men in a surprise assault on Berkeley Castle. He took the castle, and imprisoned Baron James and his sons. Talbot then left for the wars in France where he died in heroic circumstances at the Battle of Castillon.

Back in England, Talbot's son the 9 year old Thomas Talbot, 2nd Baron Lisle, inherited his father's lands and claims to the Berkeley Estates. Baron James Berkeley had meanwhile got free and again gone to court, where he had again secured title to the Berkeley Estates and title. He also tried to get the five manors given to Elizabeth on the apparently spurious grounds that the grant had been for her lifetime only.

Baron James died in 1463 and was succeeded by his 37 year old son William who had neither forgiven nor forgotten his short imprisonment in Berkeley Castle at the hands of John, Baron Lisle. So the William, the new Baron Berkeley, and John, Baron Lisle, resented and disliked each other from the first. In 1468 William, Baron Berkeley, married for a second time and married into the powerful Neville family, the most famous member of which was the Earl of Warwick. John, Baron Lisle, meanwhile, had married Margaret Herbert, sister of the Earl of Pembroke. Pembroke was an ardent supporter of Edward IV, just as he had been of Richard Duke of York.

The two marriage alliances thus put Lisle and Berkeley on opposite sides of the growing rift between King Edward IV and the Earl of Warwick.