John Courtenay, 15th Earl of Devon
Encyclopedia
John Courtenay was a son of Thomas de Courtenay, 13th Earl of Devon
and Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Devon
.
He was the younger brother of Thomas Courtenay, 14th Earl of Devon
. It was his brother who knighted him on 29 December 1460 after the Battle of Wakefield. After 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 new King Edward IV marched north and sealed his reign with the bloody victory on Towton Field.
At the readeption of Henry VI on 9 October 1470, John was restored to ancestral lands by the Lanastrians. The Yorkists marched south in alliance with Earl of Warwick and defeated the governing house at Battle of Barnet, just outside London on 14 April 1471. The decisive Yorkist victory ended Henry VI's brief return to power and all nobility, including John Courtenay were deprived of their possessions, titles and honours. Still unmarried he died May 4, 1471 in the Battle of Tewkesbury
.
The effect of the attainder was to terminate the Barony of Okehampton (creation 1299), so that the earldom inherited from Reviers family, was in abeyance, passing laterally to the descendants of his sisters.
Thomas de Courtenay, 13th Earl of Devon
Thomas Courtenay, 13th earl of Devon was born, presumably in Devon, in 1414. As the only surviving son of Hugh de Courtenay, 12th Earl of Devon, Courtenay inherited the earldom on his father’s death in 1422. He may have been a ward of the all-powerful Duke of Exeter. In August, a mere teenager, he...
and Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Devon
Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Devon
Margaret Beaufort was a daughter of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset and Margaret Holland.She was a younger sister of Henry Beaufort, 2nd Earl of Somerset, John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, Thomas Beaufort, Count of Perche, Joan Beaufort, Queen of Scotland and Edmund Beaufort, 1st Duke of...
.
He was the younger brother of Thomas Courtenay, 14th Earl of Devon
Thomas Courtenay, 14th Earl of Devon
Sir Thomas Courtenay, 6th Earl of Devon was the eldest son of Thomas de Courtenay, 5th Earl of Devon by Margaret Beaufort, the royal blooded daughter of John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset and Margaret Holland, daughter of Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent....
. It was his brother who knighted him on 29 December 1460 after the Battle of Wakefield. After 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 new King Edward IV marched north and sealed his reign with the bloody victory on Towton Field.
At the readeption of Henry VI on 9 October 1470, John was restored to ancestral lands by the Lanastrians. The Yorkists marched south in alliance with Earl of Warwick and defeated the governing house at Battle of Barnet, just outside London on 14 April 1471. The decisive Yorkist victory ended Henry VI's brief return to power and all nobility, including John Courtenay were deprived of their possessions, titles and honours. Still unmarried he died May 4, 1471 in the Battle of Tewkesbury
Battle of Tewkesbury
The Battle of Tewkesbury, which took place on 4 May 1471, was one of the decisive battles of the Wars of the Roses. The forces loyal to the House of Lancaster were completely defeated by those of the rival House of York under their monarch, King Edward IV...
.
The effect of the attainder was to terminate the Barony of Okehampton (creation 1299), so that the earldom inherited from Reviers family, was in abeyance, passing laterally to the descendants of his sisters.
Sources
- Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Family: A Complete Genealogy (London, UK: The Bodley Head, 1999), page 106
- The Peerage