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]

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

  1. Ross, C., Edward IV, Trowbridge 1975, p. 157
  2. Richardson I 2011, p. 547; Richardson IV 2011, pp. 38–43.
  3. Richardson IV 2011, p. 41.
  4. Cokayne 1916, p. 327.
  5. Richardson IV 2011, p. 41;
  6. Richardson IV 2011, p. 41
  7. Lander, J.R., The Wars of the Roses, Stroud (repr.) 2009, p. 302
  8. Ross, C., Edward IV, Trowbridge 1975, p. 157
  9. Hicks, M.A., The Wars of the Roses, Totton 2012, p. 204
  10. Ross, C., Edward IV, Trowbridge 1975, p. 169
  11. Lander, J.R., Government and Community: England 1450-1509, Great Britain (repr,) 1988, p. 272
  12. Scofield, C. L., The Life and Reign of Edward IV Vol. I, London 1923, p. 575
  13. Ross, C., Edward IV, Trowbridge 1975, p. 169
  14. Hicks, M.A., The Wars of the Roses, Totton 2012, p. 204
  15. Scofield, C. L., The Life and Reign of Edward IV Vol. I, London 1923, p. 587
  16. Ross, C., Edward IV, Trowbridge 1975, p. 172
  17. Scofield, C. L., The Life and Reign of Edward IV Vol. I, London 1923, p. 88

References

External links

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