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Sir John Courtenay
Ruins of Tiverton Castle, seat of the Earls of Devon
Born	c. 1435
Died	4 May 1471 Tewkesbury, England
Noble family	Courtenay
Father	Thomas Courtenay, 13th Earl of Devon
Mother	Margaret Beaufort

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.

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-great-grandson of King Edward III. He had two brothers and five sisters:

• 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, beheaded for treason in the marketplace 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

John Courtenay is said to have been originally intended for a career in the church. He was knighted by his brother, Thomas Courtenay, 6th/14th Earl of Devon, after the Battle of Wakefield. After the Battle of Mortimer's Cross, the future King Edward IV of England 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 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 Queen Margaret of Anjou (wife of King Henry VI of England). He was titular Earl of Devon from 1469.

At the readeption of King Henry VI on 9 October 1470, Courtenay was restored to his ancestral lands, which earlier that year had been granted by King Edward IV to John Neville, along with the title of Marquess of Montagu, as compensation for the loss of his earldom of Northumberland. However, Courtenay gained little political power, being appointed only to "a solitary commission in Devon".

Following Edward IV's return to England to challenge the restored Lancastrian regime in 1471, Courtenay was in London with Henry VI and Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, while King Edward gathered troops in the East Midlands and manoeuvred against the Lancastrians under Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. However, Somerset and Courtenay left the city to rendezvous in the south-west of England with Margaret of Anjou and her son, Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, who were returning from France. This thwarted Warwick's hopes of trapping Edward IV between his own army and the forces in London, and cleared the way for Edward IV to occupy the capital and capture Henry VI. Warwick was defeated and killed by Edward IV at the Battle of Barnet, just outside London, on 14 April.

Queen Margaret landed in England two days later, and met Devon and Somerset in Cerne Abbey, where they "assured her that their cause was far from lost". They received commissions from the Prince of Wales to raise an army in the south-west. Courtenay gathered forces from the traditional Courtenay powerbase in Devon, while Somerset raised troops in Cornwall. Marching to unite with other Lancastrian forces being assembled in the West Midlands and Wales, they were intercepted by King Edward IV and brought to battle at Tewkesbury on 4 May 1471. Courtenay, commanding the Lancastrian left, was among those slain on the field- "in plain battle"—when the division "took to flight". He was buried, with the other noble dead, in Tewkesbury Abbey churchyard.

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. Lander, J.R., The Wars of the Roses, Stroud (repr.) 2009, p. 302
6. Ross, C., Edward IV, Trowbridge 1975, p. 157
7. Hicks, M.A., The Wars of the Roses, Totton 2012, p. 204
8. Ross, C., Edward IV, Trowbridge 1975, p. 169
9. Lander, J.R., Government and Community: England 1450–1509, Great Britain (repr.) 1988, p. 272
10. Scofield, C. L., The Life and Reign of Edward IV Vol. I, London 1923, p. 575
11. Hicks, M.A., The Wars of the Roses, Totton 2012, p. 204; Ross, C., Edward IV, Trowbridge 1975, p. 169
12. Scofield, C. L., The Life and Reign of Edward IV Vol. I, London 1923, p. 587
13. Ross, C., Edward IV, Trowbridge 1975, p. 172
14. 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. Vol. IV. London: St. Catherine Press.
• Hicks, Michael A (2012). The Wars of the Roses. Totton.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Lander, John R (2009). The Wars of the Roses. Stroud.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Richardson, Douglas (2011). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Vol. I (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) ISBN 1449966373
• Richardson, Douglas (2011). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Vol. IV (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) ISBN 1460992709
• Ross, Charles (1975). Edward IV. Trowbridge.
• Weir, Alison (1999). Britain's Royal Family: A Complete Genealogy. London: The Bodley Head. p. 106.

v t e Wars of the Roses
Red Rose of Lancaster White Rose of York Tudor rose Family tree
Key figures	Monarchs Henry VI Edward IV Edward V Richard III Henry VII Lancaster Tudor Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England Elizabeth Woodville, Queen of England Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset John Beaumont, Viscount Beaumont Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset John Sutton, 1st Baron Dudley James Butler, Earl of Ormond John Butler, Earl of Ormond John Clifford, Baron Clifford John Courtenay, Earl of Devon Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter John Neville, Baron Neville John Neville, Marquess of Montagu Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick Thomas Neville, Bastard of Fauconberg Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland Thomas Ros, Baron Ros Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham Humphrey Stafford, Duke of Buckingham Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby George Stanley, Baron Strange William Stanley George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury Andrew Trollope Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron Clifford James Tuchet, Baron Audley Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke Margaret Beaufort Owen Tudor Edward Woodville, Lord Scales York Anne Neville, Queen of England John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln Thomas FitzGerald, Earl of Desmond William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke William Hastings, Baron Hastings John Howard, Duke of Norfolk Francis Lovell, Viscount Lovell John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury Sir Thomas Neville William Neville, Earl of Kent Sir Richard Herbert Edmund Plantagenet, Earl of Rutland George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Devon Margaret of York Richard of York
Events	St Albans (First) Loveday (1458) Blore Heath Ludford Bridge Sandwich Siege of the Tower of London Northampton Worksop Wakefield Mortimer's Cross St Albans (Second) Ferrybridge Towton Piltown Hedgeley Moor Hexham Edgcote 1470 Lincolnshire Rebellion Losecoat Field Readeption of Henry VI Barnet Tewkesbury Siege of London Buckingham's rebellion Bosworth Field Stafford and Lovell rebellion Stoke Field
See also	Act of Accord Issue of Edward III of England Titulus Regius Princes in the Tower Bonville–Courtenay feud Percy–Neville feud Neville–Neville feud Perkin Warbeck Battle of Deal Second Cornish uprising of 1497
Briefly joined the Lancastrians. Briefly joined the Yorkists. Defected from the Yorkist to the Lancastrian cause. Initially a Yorkist who later supported the Tudor claim. Initially a Lancastrian who later supported the Tudor claim. Category

External links

• The Peerage

• 1430s births
• 1471 deaths
• 1st house of Courtenay
• English military personnel killed in action
• Earls of Devon
• People of the Wars of the Roses