Henry Courtenay (1498 - 1539)

Born 1498 in Devon, England

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Grey) Courtenay — married about Jun 1515 (to 12 May 1519) in England

Died 9 Jan 1539 at about age 41 in Tower of London, Middlesex, England

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Biography

Henry Courtenay was a member of the aristocracy in England.

Summary

Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter, KG, PC (c. 1498 – 9 December 1538) was the eldest son of William Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon, and Catherine of York, and grandson of King Edward IV of England. He was an older brother of Margaret Courtenay. Their maternal first cousins included among others Arthur, Prince of Wales, Margaret, queen consort of Scotland, Henry VIII of England, and Mary, queen consort of France.^[1]

Birth and Parentage

At the time of his birth his paternal grandfather Edward Courtenay was still the Earl of Devon and his father was his eldest son and heir. But in 1504, William Courtenay was accused of maintaining correspondence with Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk, the leading Yorkist claimant to the throne, and Henry VII of England had him incarcerated in the Tower of London. Henry VII died on 22 April 1509 and Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon, on 28 May 1509. Henry VIII had succeeded to the throne and released William Courtenay from the Tower. On 24 June 1509, William took part in the coronation of Henry VIII. He carried the sword for his royal nephew. He enjoyed some favor with Henry VIII who created him Earl of Devon on 10 May 1511. However William died on 9 June 1511. Henry Courtenay was his heir. Earl of Devon ^[1]

The attainder had not been fully removed but Henry was allowed to succeed his father as the Earl of Devon. In 1512, the attainder was fully removed and Henry was acknowledged as the proper heir of his paternal grandfather and inheritor of his lands and rights. His first cousin Henry VIII was at the time involved in the War of the League of Cambrai against Louis XII of France. The new Earl of Devon experienced his first battles in 1513 as second captain of a man of war. He seems to have gained the further favour of his royal cousin during the 1510s. He became a member of the Privy Council in May 1520. He accompanied Henry VIII for his meeting with Francis I of France on the Field of the Cloth of Gold (7 – 24 June 1520) and became one of the debauched and athletic friends on the King's hunting trips with Charles Brandon.^[1]

In 1521, Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, was executed on charges of treason. The Earl of Devon replaced him as a Knight of the Garter on 9 June and received part of his lands and properties as a gift from Henry VIII. He was granted the administrations of the vacant Duchies of Exeter, Somerset and Cornwall over the following two years. In April he was made Keeper of Burling Park, Kent, during which period he reached his great height of power in the King's inner council, this may have been when he met the Boleyn family. He continued in hereditary traditional offices of the Courtenays as Warden of the Stannaries and the King's Steward in the Duchy of Cornwall from April 1523. But it was on the occasion as Constable of the Royal Castle of Windsor that he was elevated to the Marquissate of Exeter at the heart of government.^[1]

Marquess of Exeter

The Earl of Devon was created Marquess of Exeter on 18 June 1525.[3] At the time Francis I of France had lost the Battle of Pavia and was under the captivity of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Henry VIII was allied with his nephew-by-marriage but sent the new Marquess of Exeter to secure an agreement with Regent Louise of Savoy and promise the assistance of Henry VIII in negotiations for the return of Francis.^[1]

The Marquess of Exeter further served the interests of the King in the proceedings for the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. He was only second to the King at the Privy Council when Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was charged with treason. He signed the documents for his prosecution. His signature is also present in the formal papers requesting the annulment from Pope Clement VII. He served as a commissioner for the formal deposition of Catherine in 1533.^[1]

He was granted stewardship over several monasteries in 1535. Henry VIII was already preparing the Dissolution of the Monasteries and had placed his favoured cousin in a key position for this process. Exeter was also a commissioner in the trial of Anne Boleyn in 1536. She was the second wife of Henry VIII and had been accused of adultery, incest and high treason. Exeter and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, were sent into Yorkshire to face the Pilgrimage of Grace, a Roman Catholic uprising that broke out on 15 October 1536. Exeter was not able to achieve victory and had to retreat to Devonshire. He was however Lord High Steward during the trial of Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Darcy, for treason on 15 May 1537.^[1]

Downfall and death

By the late 1530s, Exeter was an influential figure at court and was administering most of Western England in his own name and that of King Henry VIII. He was also was a political rival of Thomas Cromwell and the two men reportedly had little sympathy for each other.^[1]

However, his second wife Gertrude Blount was still a Roman Catholic. She had supported Elizabeth Barton to her downfall. She continued to maintain correspondence with Catherine of Aragon to her death. Cromwell used these connections to point suspicion at Exeter's loyalties.^[1]

At St Keverne on the Lizard peninsula of Cornwall a painted banner was reportedly created that toured the local villages and called the population to revolt—the stated demand was to have Henry VIII name Exeter his Heir Apparent, thus disinheriting his own children.^[1]

Then Courtenay himself was found in correspondence with the self-exiled Cardinal Reginald Pole. Sir Geoffrey Pole, younger brother of the Cardinal, came to London with the information that a Roman Catholic conspiracy was preparing a new uprising. Both Poles were accused of heading this conspiracy and Cromwell convinced Henry VIII that Exeter was part of it.^[1]

In early November 1538, Exeter, his wife and their son Edward Courtenay were all arrested and incarcerated at the Tower of London. On 3 December 1538, Exeter was put on trial in Westminster Hall. There was little evidence for his involvement in the so-called Exeter Conspiracy.^[1]

Being a powerful landowner in the west country did not make him blind to the sufferings of his tenants. Many lay and clerical alike were turned out of their lands and homes by the dissolution, notably of Glastonbury Abbey, the largest ecclesiastical estate in England, and home of the legend of King Arthur's burial. ^[1]

The Marquess, Henry came to hate Vicar-General Cromwell and his Protestantism. He joined the Catholic Poles in the Western Rebellion during 1538, and perhaps anticipating the end wrote a will on 25 September 1538.[4] Captured as his support collapsed, he was taken in chains to the Tower. He was tried by his Peers only one of two Marquess in the kingdom, on 3 December 1538 in Westminster Hall. He was found guilty by his correspondence with Cardinal Pole from Rome. He was executed by decapitation with a sword on Tower Hill on 9 December 1538.[5] The earldom of Devon became forfeit, and his lands in Cornwall annexed by the Duchy.^[1]

His wife and son were both attainted. His wife was, however, released in 1540 and maintained a friendship with Princess Mary Tudor for the rest of her life. ^[1]

Their son was released on 3 August 1553 on the orders of Mary, now Mary I of England, as she had become Queen Regnant.^[1]

Marriages and children

Henry Courtenay married first Elizabeth Grey, Viscountess Lisle (1505–1519). She was the only daughter of John Grey, 2nd Viscount Lisle, and Muriel Howard. Her maternal grandparents were Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, and his first wife Elizabeth Tilney.^[1]

Elizabeth was heir to her father but had previously entered a marriage contract with Charles Brandon who had been created Viscount Lisle in her right in 1513. Elizabeth had refused to marry him when she came of age. She instead married Henry Courtenay.^[1]

He married secondly Gertrude Blount (c. 1499 - 1502 – 5 September 1558). She was a daughter of William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy, and his first wife Elisabeth Say.

They were parents to two children,

1. Henry who died young and
2. Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon (c. 1527 – 18 September 1556).

Some genealogies show an additional child. No evidence has been found, however, for such a child:

1. Elizabeth Courteney, b. 1539, who married David Ashels. If this information is correct, Elizabeth would have been born after her father's death on 9 Dec 1538.

Property

Lawford Hall

"Lawford Hall belonged to Harold and William the Conqueror, and for some time continued part of the domains of the Crown. It belonged in the 12th century to the family of le Breton, and passed in the end of the 13th to Sir Benet Cockfield, in whose heirs it remained until sold in 1424 to the famous Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester. Upon his death it came to Henry VI. as his heir, and was granted by that King to Sir John Say, who was Speaker of the House of Commons in 1449. His granddaughter Elizabeth brought this estate to her husband, Sir Wm. Blount, Lord Mountjoy, the protector of Erasmus, "the noblest of the learned, and the most learned of the noble." Lord Mountjoy's daughter and heir, Gertrude, married Henry Courtenay, Earl of Devon and Marquis of Exeter ; and upon the attainder of the Marquis and his wife, their property was forfeited to the Crown. This Manor was purchased from Queen Elizabeth by Edward Waldegrave, third son of George Waldegrave, of Smallbridge, Suffolk."^[2]

Bedwell Manor

"Sir William Say had two daughters, Elizabeth, who married William Blount Lord Mountjoy, (fn. 55) and Mary, who married Henry Bourchier second Earl of Essex. On the death of Sir William Say in 1529 the manor of Bedwell, in accordance with a settlement made in 1506, passed to Lord Mountjoy, who was to hold it for life and to be succeeded by his daughter Gertrude wife of Henry Courtenay Marquess of Exeter. On the attainder of Gertrude Marchioness of Exeter in 1539 the manor came into the hands of the Crown. (fn. 56)"^[3]

Manor of Hooks and Pinnacles

"In 1449 William Say, clerk, John Say and Lawrence Cheyne his [father]-in-law (fn. 233) were listed as tenants of a group of manors including Hooks. (fn. 234) Sir John Say died in 1478 holding Hooks and Pinnacles of the Abbot of Waltham. (fn. 235) He was succeeded by his son Sir William. (fn. 236) In 1515 Robert Turbervyl, at the request of Sir William Say, granted this manor to Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, steward of Waltham Forest during the minority of John de Vere, Earl of Oxford. (fn. 237) Dorothy, daughter and heir of Sir William Say, brought this manor to her husband William, Lord Mountjoy. (fn. 238) Their only daughter Gertrude married Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter, in 1519, and the manor subsequently came into Exeter's possession. (fn. 239) In 1539 he was attainted and this manor was forfeit to the Crown. (fn. 240)"^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17} Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Courtenay,_1st_Marquess_of_Exeter Accessed Aug 11, 2015
2. ↑ The Tendring Hundred in the olden time, pg 80 [1]
3. ↑ 'Parishes: Essendon,' in A History of the County of Hertford: Volume 3, ed. William Page (London: Victoria County History, 1912), 458-462, accessed March 15, 2016, [2]
4. ↑ 'Waltham Holy Cross: Introduction and manors,' in A History of the County of Essex: Volume 5, ed. W R Powell (London: Victoria County History, 1966), 151-162, accessed March 16, 2016, [3]

• Royal Ancestry by Douglas Richardson Vol. II p. 335
• Royal Ancestry D. Richardson 2013 Vol. V p. 468