http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_de_Bohun,_2nd_Countess_of_Devon

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http://www.stepneyrobarts.co.uk/6107.htm -------------------- Margaret de Bohun, Countess of Devon (3 April 1311 – 16 December 1391), was an English noblewoman who lived most of her life in the county of Devonshire as the wife of Hugh Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Devon. She was a granddaughter of King Edward I of England and Eleanor of Castile. Her eighteen children included an Archbishop of Canterbury and six knights.

Unlike most women of her day, she had received a classical education, and as a result was a lifelong scholar and collector of books.

Family and marriage

Lady Margaret de Bohun was born on 3 April 1311 at Caldecote, Northamptonshire, the third daughter and seventh child of Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford, Lord Constable of England and Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, herself the youngest daughter of King Edward I of England and Eleanor of Castile. Her paternal grandparents were Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford and Maud de Fiennes. She was named for her maternal stepgrandmother, Margaret of France, the second queen consort of Edward I.

Margaret was left an orphan shortly before her tenth birthday. On 16 March 1321 at The Battle of Boroughbridge, her father was slain in an ambush by the Welsh. Her mother had died five years previously in childbirth.

She, along with her siblings, received a classical education under a Sicilian Greek, Master Diogenes. As a result, Margaret became a lifelong scholar, and avid book collector.

At the age of fourteen, on 11 August 1325 Lady Margaret married Hugh Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Devon (12 July 1303 – 2 May 1377). She had been betrothed to him since 27 September 1314. He was the son of Hugh Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon and Agnes St.John. Part of her dowry were the manors of Powderham, near Exeter and Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe. The agreement for the marriage had been formally made on 28 February 1315, when she was not quite four years old.[1] The first Earl of Devon had promised that upon the marriage, he would enfeoff his son and Margaret jointly with 400 marks worth of land, assessed at its true value, and in a suitable place.[2]

Margaret assumed the title of Countess of Devon on 23 December 1340.[3]

Her eldest brother John de Bohun (23 November 1306 – 20 January 1336) succeeded as 5th Earl of Hereford in 1326, having married Alice Fitzalan of Arundel in 1325. She had a younger brother William de Bohun (1312–1360), who was created 1st Earl of Northampton in 1337 by King Edward III. He married Elizabeth de Badlesmere, by whom he had two children. Margaret's elder sister Lady Eleanor de Bohun (17 October 1304 – 7 October 1363), married in 1327, her first husband, James Butler, 1st Earl of Ormonde. They were the ancestors of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Parr.

Hugh and Margaret had a total of eighteen children. More than half reached adulthood. Their notable descendants include the current British Royal Family, and British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill. Their family chantry was expanded at Naish Priory in the family's manor of Coker in Somerset, at the end of the 14th century when it was owned by her most notable son William Courtenay, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Issue

Hugh III (de) Courtenay, KG. Born: 22 March 1327, Died: 1 September 1349. He married Elizabeth de Vere, daughter of John de Vere, 7th Earl of Oxford.
Thomas Courtenay, Prebendary of Cutton. Died in the Church of Austin Friars, London.
Sir Edward Courtenay, Born: 1329, Haccombe, Devon, Died: 20 September 1372. He married heiress, Emmeline Dawney, daughter of Sir John Dawney of Madfordferry; his son inherited the earldom. He is an ancestor of James Garfield, 20th President of the USA.
Robert Courtenay of Moreton
William Courtenay the Archbishop of Canterbury. Born: 1342, Died: 31 July 1396, Maidstone, Kent.
Sir Philip Courtenay of Powderham Castle, Born: c.1342, Died: 29 July 1406. Married Ann Wake, daughter of Sir Thomas Wake by Alice Pateshull.
Sir Peter Courtenay of Hardington-Mandeville, Born: in Somerset, Died: 2 Feb 1405. Married Margaret Clyvedon, daughter of John de Clyvedon by Elizabeth.
Margaret Courtenay married John de Cobham, 3rd Baron Cobham.
Elizabeth Courtenay, Died: 7 August 1395, married Sir Andrew Luttrell of Chilton, [Thorverton], Devon. Ancestors of William Henry Harrison,[4] 9th President of the U.S.A. through Andrew Windsor, 1st Baron Windsor, and Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the USA.
Catherine Courtenay, Died: 31 December 1399, married Sir Thomas de Engaine, 2nd Lord Engaine.
Joane Courtenay, married Sir John Cheverston.
Other children: John, Humphrey, Anne and Matilda.

Death

Margaret died on 16 December 1391 at the age of eighty. She is buried in Exeter Cathedral

References

1.^ Note:This agreement, written in French, is from the Public Record Office, London DL27/13

2.^ Jennifer C. Ward, Women of the English Nobility and Gentry, 1066-1500, pp.29-30, Google Books, retrieved on 4 November 2009
3.^ www.thePeerage.com/p10696.htm#106957
4.^ Descent of William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison from Edward I (Longshanks)
Charles Cawley, Medieval Lands, Earls of Hereford, 1200–1373, Bohun
Tristram Risdon, The Chorographical Description or Survey of the County of Devon, pp. 357–360, Google Books, retrieved on 4 November 2009
www.thePeerage.com/p10696.htm#106957