http://www.celtic-casimir.com/webtree/6/27912.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_de_Courtenay,_2nd_Earl_of_Devon

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8867

http://www.genealogy4u.com/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I2038&tree=william_conq

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http://thepeerage.com/p10696.htm

http://www3.telus.net/hallshome/royalty/englaquhre/h3courtenay.htm -------------------- Sir Hugh de Courtenay (12 July 1303 – 2 May 1377) was the 2nd Earl of Devon. He played an important role in the Hundred Years War in service of King Edward III. His chief seat was Tiverton Castle.

Origins

He was born on 12 July 1303 in England, probably in Devon. He was the son of Hugh de Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon (1275/6-1340), the 1st Courtenay Earl of Devon, by Agnes de St John, daughter of Sir John St John of Basing.[1]

Career

On 11 August 1327, aged 23, was made a knight banneret, and joined the elite group of knights which protected the King's body. Courtenay was summoned to Parliament on the assumption by Edward III of full authority over the usurper Roger Mortimer. The writ of summons issued on 23 April 1337 was addressed to Hugoni de Courteney juniori[2] (Hugh de Courtenay the Younger) styled as Lord Courteney. Two years later he defended the coasts of Cornwall with some distinction from the invasion fleet of France. On the death of his father Hugh in 1340, he was granted livery of his paternal lands in Devon. He was probably present at the Battle of Neville's Cross, in which Henry Percy and Ralph Neville utterly defeated the Scots King David II on 17 October 1346.

Action at Crecy

Courtenay fought at the Battle of Crecy 26 August 1346, and took part in the jousting tournament at Lichfield, one of the many in celebration of Crecy, on 9 April 1347, in which the King himself also took part.[3]

Return to Devon

He received permission to build the White Friars at Fleet Street, London, which became an important religious house near the Palace of Westminster. Following the completion of this project he was appointed in 1352 Joint Warden of Devon and Cornwall and returned to Devon. In 1361 he and his wife benefited from the will of her deceased brother, Humphrey de Bohun, 6th Earl of Hereford, which greatly increased his land holdings.

Action at Poitiers

Courtenay made an important contribution to the outcome of the Battle of Poitiers in 1356.[4] The Black Prince had sent the baggage train under Courtenay to the rear, which proved to be a wise manoeuvre as the long trail of wagons and carts blocked the narrow bridge and the Frenchmen's escape route. The Prince feared a flanking move behind his position over the river, and to the rear. Courtenay played little part in the battle as a result of his defensive role. He was by then an elderly man of 60. He retired with a full pension from the King. In 1373 he was appointed Chief Warden of the Royal Forests of Devon, the income of which in 1374 was assessed by Parliament at £1500 p/a. He was one of the least wealthy of the English earls, and did not compare in this respect with his much wealthier fellow warrior lords such as Arundel, Suffolk, and Warwick.[5] He had nevertheless a retinue of 40 knights, esquires and lawyers in Devon. He also held property by entail, including five manors in Somerset, two in Cornwall, two in Hampshire, one in Dorset and one in Buckinghamshire.[6] The earl had stood as patron in the career of John Grandisson, Bishop of Exeter. He supported the taking-on of debt to build churches in the diocese of Exeter.

Marriage & progeny

Margaret de Bohun (d.1391), detail of her effigy (heavily restored[7]) situated next to that of her husband on a chest tomb, south transept of Exeter Cathedral, Devon

Bohun heraldic swans collared and chained with necks inter-twined at feet of effigy of Margaret de Bohun.[8]The Bohun swan can be seen above the escutcheon on her father's seal formerly attached to the Barons' Letter, 1301. A lion serves as the footrest of her husband

Arms of Bohun: Azure, a bend argent cotised or between six lions rampant or. These arms can be seen (without tinctures) impaled by Courtenay on the monumental brass of her son Sir Peter Courtenay (d.1405) in Exeter Cathedral

Effigy of unknown female, situated under recessed alcove, north wall of chancel, Powderham Church, Devon. Generally assumed to be of Princess Elizabeth (1282-1316),[9] the youngest daughter of King Edward I (1272-1307) by Eleanor of Castile and wife of Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford and Earl of Essex and mother of Margaret de Bohun, wife of Hugh Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Devon. Lysons, writing in 1822, stated this effigy then to be situated "in a window of the north aisle".[10]

Hugh married on 11 August 1325 Margaret de Bohun daughter and heiress of Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford and Earl of Essex by Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, a daughter of King Edward I (1272–1307). He thereby acquired the manor of Powderham, given by Margaret's father as her marriage portion, and given in turn by Margaret to one of her younger sons Sir Philip Courtenay (1340–1406), whose family has occupied it until the present day and who were recognised in 1831 as having been de jure Earls of Devon from 1556. He had been contracted to marry Margaret since 27 September 1314. They had a large family which included:

Sir Hugh Courtenay, KG, (1327–1349), pre-deceased father. He married Elizabeth de Vere, daughter of John de Vere, 7th Earl of Oxford. They had a son Hugh Courtenay (d.1373/4), who predeceased his father (and therefore predeceased his grandfather also).
Thomas Courtenay, Prebendary of Cutton, cleric. Died in the Church of Austin Friars, London.
Sir Edward Courtenay(1329–1372), predeceased his father. Born in 1329 at Haccombe, Devon, died: 20 September 1372. He married an heiress, Emmeline Dawney, daughter of Sir John Dawney of Madfordferry, and had the following issue: Edward Courtenay, 3rd Earl of Devon (d.1419), in whose descendants the earldom remained until the death of his great-grandson John Courtenay, 7th Earl of Devon (d.1471), after which the earldom passed in 1485, by a new creation, to Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon (d.1509), the grandson of his brother Sir Hugh Courtenay of Haccombe and Bampton (d.1425).
Sir Hugh Courtenay(d.1425), of Haccombe, whose grandson was Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon (d.1509).

Robert Courtenay of Moreton

William Courtenay, Archbishop of Canterbury. Born: 1342, Died: 31 July 1396, Maidstone, Kent.
Sir Philip Courtenay of Powderham, Born: c.1342, Died: 29 July 1406. Married Ann Wake, daughter of Sir Thomas Wake by Alice Pateshull.
Sir Peter Courtenay (d.1405) of Hardington-Mandeville, born in Somerset, married Margaret Clyvedon, daughter of John de Clyvedon by his wife Elizabeth. His monumental brass, much worn, but still showing the arms of Courtenay impaling Bohun, may be seen in the south aisle, Exeter Cathedral.
Margaret Courtenay married John de Cobham, 3rd Baron Cobham.
Elizabeth Courtenay, Died: 7 August 1395, married Sir Andrew Luttrell of Chilton, [Thorverton], Devon.
Catherine Courtenay, Died: 31 December 1399, married Sir Thomas de Engaine, 2nd Lord Engaine.
Joane Courtenay, married Sir John Cheverston.
John
Humphrey
Anne
Matilda.

Death & burial

He died at Exeter on 2 May 1377 and was buried in Exeter Cathedral on the same day. His estate was approved for probate on 28 Jan 1391.

Sources

Browning, Charles H., Americans of Royal Descent, 6th ed. 1905, p. 105-108
Cokayne, G. E., ed., Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the UK, Extant, Extinct or Dormant revised edition, (London 1910-59). vol. III, p. 324.
Holmes, G. Estates of Higher Nobility in Fourteenth Century England, Cambridge, 1957, p. 58
Mortimer, Ian Edward III (London 2007).
Oliver and Jones's Genealogy of Courtenay (see the website).* Ormrod, W. M. The Reign of Edward III (Tempus Publishing 1999).
Saul, Nigel, ed. The Oxford History of Medieval England (OUP 1997).
Register of Edward, the Black Prince, (ed) A. E. Stamp & M. C. B. Dawes (London 1930-33).
Sumption, Jonathan, The Hundred Years War, 2 vols, Vol.1: Trial by Battle, vol. 2: Trial by Fire (Faber 1999).
Waugh, Scott L., England in the Reign of Edward III (CUP 1991)
Tuck, Anthony, Crown and Nobility; England 1272-1461: political conflict in late medieval England, 2nd ed., (Blackwell 1999).

External links

Lundy, Darryl. "thePeerage.com - Person Page 939". The Peerage.
Lundy, Darryl. "thePeerage.com - Person Page 940". The Peerage.
Powderham Castle
Lundy, Darryl. "thepeerage.com entry". The Peerage.
findagrave.com entry

1.^ Oliver and Jones genealogy of Courtenay

2.^ Expressed in dative case, nominative would be Hugo de Courteney junior
3.^ Richardson, Douglas & Everingham, Kimball G. (2005) Magna Carta Ancestry: a study in colonial and medieval families, p. 236.
4.^ Sumption, vol.2, for Sir Edward's presence at the battle, Rymer's Foedera, III, i, 325, as cited by Hewitt, The Black Prince's Expedition 1355-7 (1958)
5.^ BL Add Mss ch. 13906
6.^ Devon Livery Roll BL Add Mss.64320
7.^ Lysons described the effigies in 1822 as "much mutilated" (Magna Britannia, vol. 6, pp.323-345)
8.^ Heavily restored. Lysons described the swans in 1822 as "the remains of two birds" (Magna Britannia, vol. 6, pp.323-345)
9.^ Pevsner, N, Buildings of England: Devon, p.692, illustrates the typical confusion concerning this female effigy, whom he describes as: "Elizabeth de Bohun (d.1378?) (sic) whose daughter married the third (sic) Earl of Devon. Effigy with the queer headgear of that period". Clearly he is incorrect in two of his details, namely date of death, which he places 62 years too late and identity of husband
10.^ Lysons, Samuel, Magna Britannia