Earl of Devon

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Earl of Devon to a hereditary British title of nobility awarded six times in the Peerage of England .

The title should not be confused with the title Earl of Devonshire , which is worn as a subordinate title of the respective Duke of Devonshire , although both certificates contain the Latin term Comes Devon .

The Earls of Devon were suspicious of the Tudors because one of them had married Katherine of York , daughter of King Edward IV of England . All but the last earl were convicted, but the titles were later restored or recreated. The last award concerned the male relatives of the earl, not his male descendants, as was actually customary. When this Earl died unmarried, it was assumed that the title had expired, but a later Courtenay, who could prove that he was related to the late Earl, won the title in 1831. In the meantime the de jure earls of Devon had been made baronets and viscounts.

In the meantime, the earl dignity had also been awarded a second time, which is now called the Earl of Devonshire to distinguish it: first for Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy , who had no legitimate heirs, then for the Cavendishs, now the Dukes of Devonshire. Unlike the Dukes, the Earls are closely associated with Devon . Their family home is Powderham Castle at Starcross on the River Exe .

The Earl of Devon did not inherit the original titles of Baron Courtenay and Viscount Courtenay , but his respective heirs still use the courtesy title of Lord Courtenay .

The old earldom

The first Earl of Devon was Baldwin de Reviers (Redvers, Revieres) of the de Redvers family , son of Richard de Reviers, founder of Twynham Abbey . The chronicles of the abbey also name his father Earl, without there being any contemporary evidence, not even in the charter of the abbey, which has been preserved. Baldwin de Redvers was a powerful nobleman in Devon and the Isle of Wight and among the first to rise up against King Stephen . He seized Exeters , acted as a pirate from Carisbrooke and was expelled from England to Anjou , where he joined Matilda of England . She made him Earl of Devon after she came to power in England, probably at the beginning of 1141.

With William de Reviers, the 5th Earl (and son of the 1st Earl), the difficulties with the succession began. His son Baldwin died on September 1, 1216 at the age of 16, but was already married. His wife was pregnant with the 6th Earl at the time. King Johann Ohneland forced her to marry Falkes de Bréauté . In 1224, after the fall of Bedford Castle , she was divorced as if the marriage had never actually existed; in various reports she is incorrectly listed as the Countess of Devon. Mary, the youngest daughter of the 5th Earl, married Pierre de Préaux and, after his death, Robert de Courtney of the Courtenay family .

The 7th Earl died in 1262 with no offspring; his sister was the widow of William de Forz , and now became the Countess of Devon in her own right. Her children died before her; she had no grandchildren.

Their property went to Hugh de Courtney, great-grandson of Mary and Robert de Courtney. He was appointed to parliament on February 6, 1299 by the Writ of Summons , thereby making him hereditary Baron Courtenay . In 1335 the title Earl of Devon was recreated for him. In some cases, this new creation is also regarded as a confirmation of the earl dignity of 1141 and Hugh is accordingly counted as the 9th Earl.

Three of the 2nd Earl's eight sons had descendants, and another, William Courtenay , was Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor . Sir Hugh de Courtenay (1327-1349) was one of the founding members of the Order of the Garter (Order of the Garter), he and his only son died before the Earl. Sir Edward de Courtenay , the third son, also died prematurely but left two sons, Edward, the 11th Earl, and Hugh. Another son was Philip de Courtenay , who inherited Powderham from his father and who also had offspring.

The 6th Earl fought on the side of the House of Lancaster , with the losers at the Battle of Towton . He was captured, convicted of high treason, and beheaded.

The winners now made Humphrey Stafford , a distant relative of the Earl of Stafford , their representative in the West Country . On May 17, 1469 he was made Earl of Devon - for three months. He was sent to fight Robin of Redesdale , one of Warwick's commanders, also captured and executed in Bridgwater on August 17, 1469. He had no children, the title expired.

After Warwick's victory, the second bestowal title was restored to John Courtenay, a brother of the 6th Earl. When Edward IV regained the upper hand the following year, this award was reversed. The 7th Earl died childless on the side of the losers in the Battle of Tewkesbury a few weeks later.

Tudor Earls

Sir Edward Courtenay, great-nephew of the 3rd Earl's second bestowal, stood on the side of the victors in the Battle of Bosworth , and was named Earl of Devon that same year, then by Parliament of Richard III. indicted, but reinstated in the previous honors in 1485 - it is not clear what these honors were, but it can be assumed that the title of Earl of Devon was among them. He died in 1509.

William Courtenay, his only son, married Katherine of York , the younger daughter of Edward IV , around 1495 , which earned him the distrust of King Henry VII , who imprisoned him in 1503 and in 1504 (without evidence) for complicity with Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Condemned Duke of Suffolk . He did not get his father's title, but was partially pardoned under King Henry VIII . The return of title and property had not yet been completed when he suddenly died in June 1511.

Henry Courtenay , his only surviving son, inherited his father's titles. In 1512 his father's conviction was reversed, making him his grandfather's heir. In 1525 he became Marquess of Exeter . In 1538 he was convicted of conspiracy with the Poles and the Nevilles against Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex , executed, which also invalidated all titles.

Edward Courtenay , his only surviving son, sat in the Tower of London for 15 years , from the arrest of his father to the accession of Queen Mary I in 1553: now he has been released and appointed Earl of Devon (with inheritance rights for his male relatives, see above). As a Catholic, he was proposed as a husband to the Queen, but rejected by her (she then married the Spanish Prince Philip ). Edward was involved in the uprising of Thomas Wyatt and therefore locked again in the tower. In 1555 he was allowed to emigrate to Italy, he died the following year in Padua . With his death, unmarried and without descendants, Sir Edward de Courtenay's male line was extinguished and with it the earliest dignity - so it was assumed.

interregnum

Since there was no longer an Earl of Devon, King James I appointed Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy , whose aunt was the mother of the last Earl, as the new Earl of Devon in 1603 . He too died three years later without a legitimate heir, whereupon the king bestowed the title on William Cavendish, 1st Baron Cavendish , or more precisely: sold it.

In the meantime, the heirs of Sir Philip de Courtenay of Powderham had lived inconspicuously as country nobles under the Tudors. They were made baronets in 1645, during the English Civil War , and were given the title of Viscount Courtenay in 1762 ten days before the death of the first Viscount.

In 1831 William Courtenay, 3rd Viscount Courtenay, lived in Paris on the run from a charge. Should he die without legitimate heirs, the title Viscount would have expired and the barony would have gone to another William Courtenay, who was an assistant clerk in Parliament.

However, in 1831 this parliamentary employee was able to convince the Committee for Privileges and Conduct of the House of Lords that at the last award the term "heir male" was to be interpreted as "heir male collateral", making the Viscount, who lives in Paris, the 9th Earl of Devon and whose ancestors are de iure Earls of Devon back to 1556. William Courtenay, the scribe, followed his relative as 10th Earl in 1835, from whom the later Earls of Devon descend. ( John Nichols Thom claimed in 1832 to be "Sir William Courtenay" and thus to have rights to the dignity of an earl; in 1838 he organized a peasant revolt outside Canterbury , in the suppression of which he was shot).

The inadequacy of having two Earls in the same county since 1831 was resolved by the fact that the Cavendish Earls, who had been raised to Dukes in 1694, called themselves Duke of Devonshire , which was now applied retrospectively to the earlier Earls of the line: It has become customary to refer to Charles Blount, the Earl from 1603 to 1606, as the Earl of Devonshire.

List of the Earls of Devon

Earls of Devon, first bestowal (1141)

Earls of Devon, second bestowal (1335)

Earls of Devon, third bestowal (1469)

Earls of Devon, fourth bestowal (1485)

Earls of Devon, fifth bestowal (1511)

Earls of Devon, sixth bestowal (1553)

Heir apparent is the son of the current owner , Jack Haydon Langer Courtenay, Lord Courtenay (* 2009).

See also

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