See also

Family of Hugh + of COURTENAY and Agnes + of SAINT JOHN

Husband: Hugh + of COURTENAY (1275-1340)
Wife: Agnes + of SAINT JOHN (c. 1280- )
Children: Hugh + of COURTENAY (1303-1377)

Husband: Hugh + of COURTENAY

Name: Hugh + of COURTENAY
Sex: Male
Father: Hugh + of COURTENAY (1248-1291)
Mother: Alianore + of DESPENSER (c. 1250- )
Birth 14 Sep 1275
Occupation Earl of Devon
Death 23 Dec 1340 (age 65)

Wife: Agnes + of SAINT JOHN

Name: Agnes + of SAINT JOHN
Sex: Female
Father: -
Mother: -
Birth 1280 (est)

Child 1: Hugh + of COURTENAY

picture

Spouse: Margaret + of BOHUN

Name: Hugh + of COURTENAY
Sex: Male
Spouse: Margaret + of BOHUN (1311-1391)
Birth 12 Jul 1303 Okehampton, Devonshire, England
Occupation Earl of Devon
Title Earl of Devon
Death 2 May 1377 (age 73) Exeter, Devonshire, England
Burial Cathedral Exeter, Devonshire, England

Note on Husband: Hugh + of COURTENAY

Hugh de Courtenay (14 Sept 1275/6--23 Dec 1340) was the son of Hugh de Courtenay of Okehampton and Eleanor le Despenser, daughter of Lord Hugh le Despenser, the significant advisers to King Edward II. He was grandson of John de Courtenay of Okehampton by Isabel de Vere, daughter of Hugh, Earl of Oxford. John's father Robert had married Mary, the youngest daughter of William de Redvers, who had died in 1293. According to the Complete Peerage, Hugh became 9th Earl of Devon through the maternal line on extinction of the de Redvers inheritance.

 

On 28 Feb 1292, about the time of his marriage, Hugh succeeded to the Okehampton estate and to those de Reviers estates that had not yet been alienated to the Crown. He may have been styled Earl of Devon, the first of the Courtenay family, although was not recognised in the de facto Earldom until 1333.

 

[edit] Campaign against Scotland, 1297-1300He did homage to Edward I on 20 June 1297 and was granted his own livery stable. At the time the King was with his army crossing the Tweed into Scotland. It is probable that the honour was in acknowledgement of Hugh's military achievements. That July the English defeated and humiliated the Scots at Irvine. However the following year the tables were turned on the advent of the remarkable campaign of William Wallace.

 

The following February 6th, 1298 he was summoned as a Lord in Parliament, and sat throughout the reign of Edward II and into the Mortimer Regency for Edward's son. He remained an important noble at Parliaments into the reign of Edward III. He was summoned as Hugoni de Curtenay with the confusing suffix of senior being known as Lord Courtenay.

 

Courtenay joined King Edward at the long siege of Caerlaverock Castle, just over the Solway Firth for a fortnight in July 1300. He proved himself a fine soldier and loyal adherent to the English crown. He had not been present at the disastrous encounter outside Stirling Castle in 1298, during which half the English contingent were killed, including commander Hugh Cressingham. But Edward was determined to march into Ayrshire to devastate Robert Bruce's estates. Unfortunately the English army melted away into the forests as the army moved further northwards. Courtenay may have been with the English King when he sat down in Sweetheart Abbey to receive Winchelsea, Archbishop of Canterbury who had travelled north with a demanding missive from Pope Boniface to cease hostilities. The King could not ignore this order. In September he disbanded troops and withdrew over the Solway Firth to Carlisle. The campaign had failed due to a shortage of money, so Parliament was recalled for January 1301. Before returning to London the English drew up a six months truce.

 

[edit] Parliament of 1301Parliament met at Lincoln. The agenda included redrafting the Royal Forest Charter, which had no precedent since it was first introduced in the reign of Henry II, 150 years earlier. Local juries were expected to "perambulate the forests" to gather evidence. But the King needed money and was required by Parliament to surrender his absolute authority and ownership of what became community forests.

 

[edit] Campaigns against Scotland, 1301-1308In 1306 the Prince of Wales was despatched into Scotland; the vanguard led by Aymer de Valence, the King's half uncle. On 22 May, Courtenay was knighted by the Prince, presumably for his efforts against the Scots. In June the English occupied Perth. On 19 June, Valence, who had cut a swathe through the Lowlands fell on the Scots army at Methven in the early dawn. The Bruce fled into the hills. Edward I was merciless as many prisoners were punished. That autumn the army returned to Hexham. The war was all but over: there were however sieges at Mull of Kintyre and Kildrummy Castle, Aberdeenshire. Edward I committed many atrocities rounding up the Scots aristocracy and their women.

 

Then as Robert Bruce returned from exile in Ireland the English army started losing battles. The ailing King had one last campaign in which Courtenay played a major part. Struggling into the saddle to the Solway Firth, Edward I died at Burgh-on-Sands awaiting a crossing. In 1308 a new campaign was sent to quell Robert Bruce, and Courtenay was made a knight banneret, one of the King's elite household.

 

During the reign of Edward II he was made a Lord Ordainer, one of the ruling council in the Lords. He was appointed to the King's Council on 9 Aug 1318. He was appointed the Warden of the coast of Devon and Cornwall in 1324 and then again in 1336, because his estates stretched across what is now Exmoor and Dartmoor. But he took the honours reluctantly and played a guarded game with King and Parliament. A veteran campaigner he aimed to ingratiate himself with the young Edward III, and so refused the Third Penny from the Exchequer. He was investigated; and on 22 Feb 1335 elevated to the Earldom of Devon, restored to his ancestral line.

 

[edit] InheritanceThe styling of Hugh is often confused, but Edward III declared him to be Earl of Devon on 22 February 1334/5. He was the 9th Earl, but the first in the Courtenay creation. He died at Cowick near Exeter on 23 December 1340, and was buried there on 5 Feb 1341. It is possible that his body lay in state for royal visitors to come to pay respects to a great soldier and statesman because his honours and titles were confirmed by Parliamentary writ on 3 Jan 1341.

 

He married Agnes de St John, daughter of John St John of Basing, Hampshire by Alice, daughter of Reynold FitzPiers. They had six children:

 

1.John Courtenay (1300—1349), Prior of Lewes and Abbot of Tavistock Abbey.

2.Sir Hugh (12 July 1303 — 2 May 1377), 10th Earl of Devon, a founding Knight of the Garter. He married Margaret de Bohun, daughter of Humphrey, 4th Earl of Hereford, and 3rd Earl of Essex by Princess Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, daughter of King Edward Longshanks by Eleanor of Castile.

3.Robert Courtenay(1309—1334), of Moreton

4.Eleanor Courtenay (c.1309, Wootton, Devon — c.1330). She married John de Grey, 3rd Baron Grey of Codnor.

5.Thomas Courtenay (1311 — c.1362). He married Muriel de Moels, daughter of Sir John, 4th Lord Moels.

6.Elizabeth Courtenay (c.1313 — ?). She married Bartholomew de Lisle, Lord Lisle.