John Courtenay, 15th Earl of Devon
| Sir John Courtenay | |
|---|---|
 Ruins of Tiverton Castle, seat of the Earls of Devon | |
| Noble family | Courtenay |
| Father | Thomas Courtenay, 13th Earl of Devon |
| Mother | Margaret Beaufort |
| Born | c.1435 |
| Died |
4 May 1471 Tewkesbury |
Sir John Courtenay (c. 1435 – 4 May 1471) was the third son of Thomas Courtenay, 13th Earl of Devon, and Margaret Beaufort, and was styled "earl of Devon" by Lancastrians in exile, following the execution of his brother the 14th earl in 1461.[1]
Family
Courtenay is said to have been born in 1435, the third son of Thomas Courtenay, 13th Earl of Devon, by Margaret Beaufort, the daughter of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset. Through his mother Courtenay was a great-grandson of King Edward III. He had two brothers and five sisters:[2]
- Thomas Courtenay, 14th Earl of Devon (1432 - 3 April 1461), who married, shortly after 9 September 1456, Mary of Anjou, illegitimate daughter of Charles, Count of Maine. There were no issue of the marriage. He was taken prisoner at the Battle of Towton, and beheaded at York on 3 April 1461.
- Henry Courtenay (d. 17 January 1469), esquire, of West Coker, Somerset, de jure 7th Earl of Devon, beheaded for treason in the market place at Salisbury, Wiltshire on 17 January 1469.
- Joan Courtenay (born c. 1447), who married firstly, Sir Roger Clifford, second son of Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron de Clifford, beheaded after Bosworth in 1485. She married secondly, Sir William Knyvet of Buckenham, Norfolk.
- Elizabeth Courtenay (born c. 1449), who married, before March 1490, Sir Hugh Conway.
- Anne Courtenay.
- Eleanor Courtenay.
- Maud Courtenay.
Career
Courtenay is said to have been originally intended for a career in the church.[3] He was knighted by his brother, Thomas Courtenay, 14th Earl of Devon, after the Battle of Wakefield. After the Battle of Mortimer's Cross Edward, Earl of March marched and took the capital from the Lancastrians. Parliament voted an attainder on his opposition, and John declared a traitor. The effect of the attainder was to terminate the Barony of Okehampton (creation 1299), so that the earldom inherited from the Redvers family was in abeyance, passing laterally to the descendants of Courtenay's sisters [4] The new King, Edward IV, marched north and sealed his reign with the bloody victory at the Battle of Towton, following which his brother was beheaded. About 1465, Courtenay was in exile in France with King Henry VI's, Queen, Margaret of Anjou.[5] he was titular earl of Devon from 1469.
At the readeption of King Henry VI on 9 October 1470, Courtenay was briefly restore to his honours,[6] which had been granted by Edward to Warwick's brother John Neville earlier in the year as compensation for the loss of his earldom of Northumberland.[7] However, he gained little political power, being appointed only to "a solitary commission [of the peace] in Devon."[8] The recently-returned Yorkist King, Edward IV, who landed in Yorkshire following his exile in Burgundy marched south to challenge Warwick the Kingmaker; Courtenay, although nominally Warwick's ally, left London and made his may to the south west to await the landing of Margaret of Anjou, a decision which has been described as 'fatal' to Warwick's strategy.[9] Warwick was defeated by Edward at the Battle of Barnet, just outside London on 14 April 1471. Margaret landed in England two days later, and met Courtenay, alongside the duke of Somerset in Cerne Abbey,[10] where they "assured her that their cause was far from lost,"[11] and Courtenay brought a Commission for the Prince of Wales to raise a royal army.[12] Together, they appear to have responsible for raising much of Margaret's English (rather than the French force which had accompanied her) in the south west, Somerset in Cornwall and Courtenay in Devon,[13] mostly from traditional Courtenay family retainers.[14] Both Lancastrian and Yorkist armies finally confronted each other at the Battle of Tewkesbury, on 4 May 1471.
The decisive Yorkist victory at Barnet ended Henry VI's brief return to power and all members of the nobility, including John Courtenay were deprived of their possessions, titles and honours. Courtenay, commanding the Lancastrian left battle, was among those slain on the field- "in plain battle"[15]- when the division "took to flight".[16] He was buried, with other noble dead, in Tewkesbury Abbey churchyard.[17]
Footnotes
- ↑ Ross, C., Edward IV, Trowbridge 1975, p. 157
- ↑ Richardson I 2011, p. 547; Richardson IV 2011, pp. 38–43.
- ↑ Richardson IV 2011, p. 41.
- ↑ Cokayne 1916, p. 327.
- ↑ Richardson IV 2011, p. 41;
- ↑ Richardson IV 2011, p. 41
- ↑ Lander, J.R., The Wars of the Roses, Stroud (repr.) 2009, p. 302
- ↑ Ross, C., Edward IV, Trowbridge 1975, p. 157
- ↑ Hicks, M.A., The Wars of the Roses, Totton 2012, p. 204
- ↑ Ross, C., Edward IV, Trowbridge 1975, p. 169
- ↑ Lander, J.R., Government and Community: England 1450-1509, Great Britain (repr,) 1988, p. 272
- ↑ Scofield, C. L., The Life and Reign of Edward IV Vol. I, London 1923, p. 575
- ↑ Ross, C., Edward IV, Trowbridge 1975, p. 169
- ↑ Hicks, M.A., The Wars of the Roses, Totton 2012, p. 204
- ↑ Scofield, C. L., The Life and Reign of Edward IV Vol. I, London 1923, p. 587
- ↑ Ross, C., Edward IV, Trowbridge 1975, p. 172
- ↑ Scofield, C. L., The Life and Reign of Edward IV Vol. I, London 1923, p. 88
References
- Cokayne, George Edward (1916). The Complete Peerage, edited by Vicary Gibbs IV. London: St. Catherine Press.
- Hicks, Michael A (2012). The Wars of the Roses. Totton.
- Lander, John R (2009). The Wars of the Roses. Stroud.
- Richardson, Douglas (2011). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham I (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City. ISBN 1449966373
- Richardson, Douglas (2011). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham IV (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City. ISBN 1460992709
- Ross, Charles (1975). Edward IV. Trowbridge.
- Weir, Alison (1999). Britain's Royal Family: A Complete Genealogy. London: The Bodley Head. p. 106.