Margaret de Bohun, Countess of Devon (3 April 1311 – 16 December 1391) was the granddaughter of King Edward I and Eleanor of Castile, and the wife of Hugh Courtenay, 10th Earl of Devon (1303–1377). Her seventeen children included an Archbishop of Canterbury and six knights, of whom two were founder knights of the Order of the Garter. Unlike most women of her day, she received a classical education and was a lifelong scholar and collector of books.
Sir Hugh Courtenay, KG Thomas Courtenay Sir Edward Courtenay Robert Courtenay William Courtenay, Archbishop of Canterbury Sir Philip Courtenay Sir Peter Courtenay, KG Humphrey Courtenay Margaret Courtenay (the elder) Elizabeth Courtenay Katherine Courtenay Anne Courtenay Joan Courtenay Margaret Courtenay (the younger) ______ Courtenay (7th daughter) ______ Courtenay (8th daughter) ______ Courtenay (9th daughter)
Effigies of Margaret de Bohun and her husband Hugh de Courtenay, 10th Earl of Devon, south transept, Exeter Cathedral. Two Bohun swans, the heraldic device of Bohun, are shown with their necks intertwined at Margaret's feet.Bohun heraldic swans collared and chained with necks intertwined at feet of effigy of Margaret de Bohun.[2] 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.
Effigy of unknown female, situated under recessed alcove, north wall of chancel, Powderham Church, Devon. Generally assumed to be of Elizabeth of Rhuddlan,[3] the youngest daughter of King Edward I and mother of Margaret de Bohun, wife of Hugh de Courtenay, 10th Earl of Devon. Samuel Lysons, writing in 1822, stated this effigy then to be situated 'in a window of the north aisle'.[4]
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 Margaret's son Sir Peter Courtenay (d. 1405) in Exeter Cathedral
Margaret was left an orphan shortly before her eleventh birthday. On 16 March 1322 at the Battle of Boroughbridge, her father was slain in an ambush by the Welsh. Her mother had died six years previously in childbirth.
Together with her siblings she received a classical education under a Sicilian Greek, Master Diogenes. As a result, Margaret became a lifelong scholar and avid book collector.[citation needed]
On 11 August 1325, at the age of fourteen, Lady Margaret married Hugh de Courtenay, the future 10th Earl of Devon, to whom she had been betrothed since 27 September 1314. Her dowry included the manor of Powderham near Exeter. The marriage agreement was formally made on 28 February 1315, when she was not quite four years old.[5] The first earl of Devon 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.[6]
Her eldest brother John de Bohun (23 November 1306 – 20 January 1336) succeeded as 5th Earl of Hereford in 1326, having married Alice Fitzalan, daughter of the 9th Earl 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 queens Anne Boleyn and Catherine Parr.
Hugh and Margaret had 17 known children, most of whom reached adulthood. Their descendants include members of the British royal family and former British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill.[8]
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.
Margaret died on 16 December 1391 at the age of eighty. She is buried in Exeter Cathedral.
On 11 August 1325, in accordance with a marriage agreement dated 27 September 1314, she married Hugh Courtenay, 10th Earl of Devon (1303–1377), by whom she had eight sons and nine daughters:[9][10][11]
Sir Edward Courtenay (c. 1331 – 1368/71), who was born about 1331 at Haccombe, Devon, and died between 2 February 1368 and 1 April 1371, having predeceased his father. He married Emeline Dawney (c. 1329 – 28 February 1371) in or before 1346,[16] daughter and heiress of Sir John Dawney (d. 1346/47) of Mudford Terry, Somerset, and had issue:[17][18]
Sir Philip Courtenay (c. 1345 – 29 July 1406), of Powderham, who married Ann Wake, daughter of Sir Thomas Wake by Alice Patteshull, daughter of Sir John de Patteshull.[21]
Sir Peter Courtenay (d. 2 February 1405), KG, of Hardington Mandeville, Somerset, who married Margaret Clyvedon, widow of Sir John de Saint Loe (d. 8 November 1375), and daughter and heiress of John de Clyvedon.[22]
Humphrey Courtenay, who died young without issue.[23]
Margaret Courtenay (the elder) (born c. 1328 – died 2 Aug 1395), who married John de Cobham, 3rd Baron Cobham.[23]
Katherine Courtenay (d. 31 December 1399), who married, before 18 October 1353, Thomas Engaine, 2nd Baron Engaine (d. 29 June 1367), by whom she had no issue.[23]
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 the date of her death, which he places 62 years too late, and the identity of her husband.
Cleaveland, E. A Genealogical History of the Noble and Illustrious Family of Courtenay. (1735): pp. 151–153. (author states, "Hugh Courtenay, third Baron of Okehampton and second Earl of Devonshire ... he had by his Countess six sons and five daughters, saith Sir William Dugdale; but Sir Peter Ball, Sir William Pole, and Mr. Westcot do say, he had eight sons and nine daughters.") [It appears that the majority of British antiquaries concurred that Sir Hugh Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Devon and Margaret de Bohun had 17 known children.]
Vivian, Lt.Col. J. L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p. 244, pedigree of Courtenay
Weis, Frederick Lewis (2004). Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700. Baltimore, Maryland 21211-1953: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. p.9. ISBN978-0-8063-1752-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
Richardson, Douglas. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, vol. 2, (2013), p. 326. (author states, "HUGH DE COURTENAY, Knt., 10th Earl of Devon, 2nd Lord Courtenay ... He married 11 August 1325 (by marriage agreement dated 27 Sept. 1314) MARGARET DE BOHUN ... They had eight sons, Hugh, K.G., Thomas [Canon of Crediton and Exeter], Edward, Knt., Robert, [Master] William [Bishop of Hereford and London, Archbishop of Canterbury, Chancellor of England], Philip, Knt., Peter, K.G., and Humprey ...")
Vivian, J. L. The Visitations of Cornwall of 1530, 1573, & 1620. (1887): p. 190 (Grenvile ped.) (author states, "Sr. Theobald Grenvile, Kt., temp. Rich II. = Margaret, da. of Hugh Courtenay, Earl of Devon.").
Roskell. The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1386–1421. Vol. 2. (1992): (biog. of Sir John Grenville (d. 1412), of Stow in Kilkhampton, Cornw. and Bideford, Devon): "s. and h. of Sir Theobald Grenville of Stow and Bideford by Margaret, da. of Hugh Courtenay, earl of Devon, and Margaret de Bohun ..." [Roskell identifies Margaret Courtenay, wife of Sir Theobald Grenville, as the daughter of Hugh Courtenay, Earl of Devon and Margaret de Bohun.]
Duffy, Eamon. The voices of Morebath: Reformation and rebellion in an English village. (New Haven, 2001): p. 14. [Duffy states that name-sharing was more likely to have occurred in large families or where the pool of available names was restricted. Duffy's study of the Devon parish of Morebath showed that it was common practice to give the same name to living siblings, citing examples as late as the early 16th century.]
Burls, Robin J. Society, economy and lordship in Devon in the age of the first two Courtenay earls, c. 1297-1377. Dphil. (University of Oxford, 2002): p. 133 (author states, "Sir Edward Courtenay (d. c. 1371) married Emmeline Dauney, daughter and sole heiress of a Cornish knight, while his sister, Margaret (d. 1385), took as a husband Sir Theobald Grenville, the head of a north Devon family whose members were already well entrenched in the Courtenay affinity.").
Cokayne, George Edward (1916). The Complete Peerage, edited by H.A. Doubleday. Vol.IV. London: St. Catherine Press.
Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G. (ed.). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. Vol.I (2nded.). Salt Lake City. ISBN9781461045205.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G. (ed.). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. Vol.II (2nded.). Salt Lake City. ISBN9781449966386.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G. (ed.). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. Vol.IV (2nded.). Salt Lake City. ISBN9781460992708.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Risdon, Tristram, The Chorographical Description or Survey of the County of Devon, pp.357–360, Google Books, retrieved on 4 November 2009
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