Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon

Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon

Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon (also Courtney , * around 1526 - † September 18, 1556 in Padua ) was an English nobleman and a prince related to the House of York . As the son of Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter , Edward descended from Princess Katherine of York from the House of Plantagenet and thus had a place in the English line of succession. In the wake of the Exeter conspiracy that cost his father his life, he was imprisoned as a child in the Tower of London and was not regained his freedom until fifteen years later under Queen Mary I. His hope of marrying the Queen or her sister Princess Elisabeth and thus becoming King of England led him to various intrigues that led to another imprisonment. Shadowed by Maria's agents, he was finally allowed to travel to Europe, where he died in Padua in 1556 under mysterious circumstances.

Childhood and youth

Edward Courtenay was the only surviving child of Henry Courtenay and Gertrude Blount , daughter of William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy. His exact date of birth is not known, but traditionally the year 1526 is given. Courtenay's early childhood is known to have spent some time in the household of Mary Tudor , a cousin of his father's. After her death in 1533 he returned to his family and was tutored by the scholar Robert Taylor. His only brother Henry died as a toddler. When his parents were suspected of treason during the Exeter conspiracy , Edward, who was only twelve years old, was imprisoned with them in the Tower. Rumors circulated that his father had planned to marry Edward to Maria , the daughter of Henry VIII who had been declared a bastard . Henry Courtenay was sentenced to death and executed on December 9, 1538, Gertrude was released after eighteen months in prison. Edward, however, a male descendant of the House of York in the maternal line, remained in prison. Under the rule of the young King Edward VI. Courtenay tried to regain his freedom by doing a translation while in prison in 1548.

The Italian work Trattato utilissimo del Beneficio di Giesu Christo, crocifisso, verso i Christiani by Antonio della Paglia was considered to justify the Reformation faith. Courtenay called the translation The Benefit of Christ's Death (German: The Benefit of Christ's Death ) and dedicated it to Anne Seymour , wife of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset . Courtenay, known as a Catholic, may have hoped for a pardon from the king, a staunch supporter of the Protestant faith. However, although the king's notes show that he had read the work, Courtenay remained in custody. Here he made the acquaintance of Stephan Gardiner . The bishop would be a good friend to him throughout his life, and Courtenay himself affectionately called him "father". Even after their release, the two were so close that Courtenay wrote letters concerned about the health of his old friend. The news of Gardiner's death in 1555 was communicated to him personally by an acquaintance, since "they did not dare to write to him that Gardiner was dead, since it would be hard for him".

Ambitions and intrigues

Edward Courtenay was released from the Tower in 1553 under Queen Mary. His mother's friendship with the new queen brought renewed prosperity to the Courtenays. Mary bestowed Edward Courtenay on September 3, 1553 the title of Earl of Devon , which had been revoked from his father at the time. On September 29th she made him Knight of the Bath and for her coronation on October 1st he carried the sword of state before her. The Queen also involved him in political receptions and legal processes. Courtenay received the Spanish ambassadors on behalf of the Queen and was part of the jury that decided on Robert Dudley's fate in January 1554 . It is said that Maria sometimes treated her young relative like a child. She is said to have ordered him not to accept dinner invitations without her permission.

Edward Courtenay by Lady Sarah Malden, Countess of Essex

As the only surviving descendant of the House of York - sometimes also poetically called "the last branch of the White Rose " - Courtenay was seen by many as a potential bridegroom for the Queen. His grandmother, Katherine of York , had been the younger sister of Mary's grandmother, Elizabeth of York , making both Maria and Courtenay great-grandsons of King Edward IV . He was supported by his mother and Stephan Gardiner, among others . However, the Spanish ambassadors were already negotiating a marriage between Maria and the Spanish heir to the throne Philip II. Maria, who always felt close to Philip's father Charles V , preferred Philip's advertising, possibly also because Courtenay was influenced by his fifteen years in prison. To the alarm of his supporters, he led a dissolute life, drank a lot, had affairs and was often found in the presence of the French and Venetian ambassadors, declared enemies of the Spaniards. In addition, there were rumors that he made threats against Reginald Pole's brother Geoffrey Pole, whose statements led to the execution of Henry Courtenay. The Poles were in Mary's favor, so these rumors had a negative impact on Courtenay's reputation.

When it finally became clear that Maria Philipp would marry, the disappointed Courtenay began to court her younger sister Elisabeth instead . Shortly after the announcement of the engagement of Mary and Philip, the first resistance to this marriage arose. The English viewed the marriage of a foreigner into their royal house with suspicion, fearing that Philip would turn England into a vassal of Spain and involve their country in costly wars. For many, Courtenay and Elisabeth were a more tempting alternative since they were both born in England. To prevent Mary's wedding and to become King of England at Elizabeth's side, Courtenay joined the rebels of the Wyatt conspiracy . However, his comrades soon regarded him as a procrastinator and a coward, and on January 21, 1554, when the first rumors were already circulating, he finally confessed to the planned uprising to Gardiner.

Although his ambitions for the throne were long believed to be the only motive for Courtenay's participation in the uprising, recent research suggests that he harbored certain sympathies for Protestantism. Charles V wrote to his ambassador Renard in England: "When it comes to religion, no great trust can be placed in him because, according to rumors, he was almost seduced in prison." Although he was outwardly Catholic and also made sure that his servants were “good Catholics” made his contemporaries suspicious of his close contacts with Protestants. Courtenay commanded some of the Queen's forces during the fighting in London, but found himself again in the Tower a little later. According to contemporary reports, on the way to the scaffold , Thomas Wyatt personally asked Edward Courtenay for forgiveness for bearing false testimony against him. On the scaffold, Wyatt stated again that his statements against Elisabeth and Courtenay had been extorted under torture and were not true. Courtenay was then taken to Fotheringhay Castle , Northamptonshire , and was under house arrest for several months.

journey to Italy

Courtenay was finally regained his freedom on April 6, 1555. Soon after, the Spaniards speculated about a possible marriage between him and the widowed Frances Brandon , the royal cousin of Mary and mother of the executed Lady Jane Gray . Children from that marriage would have had a strong claim to the throne, but neither Frances nor Courtenay were interested in such an association. Courtenay told the Queen that he would sooner leave the country than marry Frances and Frances had already chosen Adrian Stokes as her second husband. In May, Maria gave Courtenay the official permission to travel to the continent and Courtenay then traveled to Brussels and Leuven , where he spent some time as a guest of Charles V. However, there were regular arguments between Charles' Spanish servants and Courtenay's entourage. In October he was finally allowed to travel to Italy. At the same time, Ruy Gómez, advisor to Philip II, was plotting to assassinate Courtenay in Italy.

Towards the end of the year, shortly after Gardiner's death, Courtenay once more aroused the suspicion of the Catholic nobility, as he was increasingly moving in Protestant circles. His contacts included Sir Peter Carew, his old ally in the Wyatt conspiracy. However, Courtenay claimed to the suspicious Cardinal Reginald Pole that he was merely trying to influence Carew favorably and to induce him to return to Catholicism. Historians therefore consider it possible that Courtenay himself was secretly inclined to the Protestant faith, but outwardly still played the good Catholics. Evidence for this are his trips to Venice and Padua , which were considered the preferred refuge of the English exiles from the persecution of heretics. Courtenay therefore had to promise the Queen and the Privy Council not to establish contact with known, exiled Protestants, such as Sir Francis Russell. The planned assassination attempt on him failed because the hired assassin had informed the authorities of Venice.

Despite the invitation of an old friend of his mother's, Michael Throckmorton, to stay with him in Mantua , Courtenay moved to Ferrara at the end of March 1556 , where many Protestant exiles were making plans against Maria's regime. In his absence, another conspiracy occurred in England. In July 1556, a young headmaster in Yaxley, Suffolk , posed as Edward Courtenay and published a false proclamation stating that Mary was dead and that Courtenay and Elizabeth now ruled England. The impostor was executed before another rebellion could break out, but the incident showed how dangerous Courtenay could still be to Maria. Several of his servants were arrested, whereupon Courtenay protested that they could not be conspirators because, after all, they were Catholic. However, Maria's agents were convinced that Courtenay would soon join the rebels. Despite everything, Courtenay could not be proven to be actively involved in conspiracies, as he always refused to openly oppose the queen. Instead, he ended up enrolling at the University of Padua as a law student.

death

Courtenay's death on September 18, 1556 in Padua is still a mystery to historians. According to Anne Overell, there are some indications that Courtenay was the victim of political murder. His post office opened regularly, his servants in England were under arrest, and his friend John Cheke had been kidnapped. Contemporaries also viewed the death of his kitchen boy as a dark announcement. The only eyewitness of his death who sent Maria a detailed report was Sir Peter Vannes, the English ambassador in Venice. He says Courtenay died on a chain of unfortunate events. First, according to Vannes, he caught a cold during a storm, then fell down the stairs in his own house and finally chose an uncomfortable carriage for his trip to Padua, which shook him on the bumpy paths so that he was "very weak" arrived in Padua. There his condition worsened daily and eventually he developed a high fever. On September 18, according to Vannes, he finally received the sacraments and accepted the Church as the most important thing on earth before he died of the Catholic faith.

Basilica of Saint Anthony , final resting place of Edward Courtenay

How reliable this reporting was, however, is questionable, since Vannes' career was quite unusual. Originally ambassador for Henry VIII and his successor Edward, he was the Protestant Dean of Salisbury before entering the service of Catholic Mary. A year before Courtenay's death he had tried to murder Courtenay's old acquaintance, Sir Peter Carew. What also makes historians suspicious is Vannes' desire, expressed immediately after Courtenay's death, to return to England. Some parties therefore suspect that Vannes had Courtenay killed on behalf of the English government. This assumption is supported by the statement of a contemporary, the humanist Pietro Bizarri. In a work published in 1579 he writes that Courtenay was killed "by the hand of a patricide" and it is possible that he too stood at Courtenay's deathbed.

If it was a murder, there are several suspects. Peter Vannes as the representative of Maria's regime is one possibility. The behavior of the Venetian authorities also puzzles historians, as it has been proven that they opened Courtenay's letter box, removed some letters that have been lost to this day and then resealed the box. In addition, it is certain that the Habsburgs also tried to assassinate Courtenay. However, neither party can be clearly proven to have committed murder. What is certain is that Courtenay had his possessions listed by his servants before his death and asked them to put his letters in order. Vannes organized his funeral, evidently angry that Queen Mary and her advisors had provided Courtenay with too few resources for a dignified funeral. The funeral took place on September 21st in the Basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua. The funeral oration for the officially Catholic Courtenay was delivered at Vannes' express request by the die-hard Protestant Thomas Wilson, who named Courtenay's cause of death as malaria .

Since Courtenay had no children and no other legitimate heir made a claim to the title, his title was deemed to have expired upon his death. King James I bestowed the title of Earl of Devonshire on a relative on his mother's side in 1603 and again after his childless death in 1613, this time on a non-relative. It was not until 1831 that Courtenay's great-great-great-great-nephew, sixth degree William Courtenay, 3rd Viscount Courtenay , succeeded in proving to the Committee for Privileges and Conduct of the House of Lords that the award document of 1553 contained a special addition, according to which the succession to his male heirs and not, as is usually the case, limited to his biological male descendants. On May 14, 1831 he was confirmed as 9th Earl of Devon and retrospectively his line of ancestors as de iure 2nd to 8th Earl.

literature

• James D. Taylor: The Shadow of the White Rose. Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon, 1526–1556 . Algora Publishing, New York 2006, ISBN 0875864740 ( Google Books ).
• Anne Overell: A Nicodemite in England and Italy. Edward Courtenay (1548-56). In: David M. Loads (Ed.): John Foxe at home and abroad. Ashgate, Aldershot 2004, ISBN 0754632393 ( Google Books ).

Web links

Commons : Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon  - collection of images

• Edward Courtenay on Luminarium.org

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} J. PD Cooper: Courtenay, Gertrude. In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Volume 13, Oxford University Press, 2004.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Ian W. Archer: Courtenay, Edward. In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Volume 13, Oxford University Press, 2004.
3. ^ ^{A b c} Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devonshire at luminarium.org
4. ↑ ^{a b} Anne Overell: A Nicodemite in England and Italy: Edward Courtenay (1548-56) . In: DM Loads: John Foxe at home and abroad. 2004, p. 123.
5. ↑ Linda Porter: Mary Tudor. The first queen. Paperback edition 2009, ISBN 978-0-7499-0982-6 , p. 271.
6. ↑ Linda Porter: Mary Tudor. The first queen. Paperback edition 2009, ISBN 978-0-7499-0982-6 , p. 272.
7. ↑ Linda Porter: Mary Tudor. The first queen. Paperback edition 2009, ISBN 978-0-7499-0982-6 , p. 291.
8. ^ Anna Whitelock: Mary Tudor. England's first queen. Bloomsbury 2010, p. 213.
9. ↑ Anne Overell: A Nicodemite in England and Italy: Edward Courtenay (1548-56) . In: DM Loads: John Foxe at home and abroad. 2004, p. 124: "no well-founded reliance can be placed on him in matters of religion and his firm adherence to it, as rumor has it that he was half seduced in prison."
10. ↑ Linda Porter: Mary Tudor. The first queen. Paperback edition 2009, ISBN 978-0-7499-0982-6 , p. 202.
11. ↑ Leanda de Lisle: The Sisters who would be Queen. Mary, Katherine, and Lady Jane Gray. A Tudor Tragedy. Ballantine Books, 2009, p. 167.
12. ↑ Anne Overell: A Nicodemite in England and Italy: Edward Courtenay (1548-56) . In: DM Loads: John Foxe at home and abroad. 2004, p. 127.
13. ↑ Anne Overell: A Nicodemite in England and Italy: Edward Courtenay (1548-56) . In: DM Loads: John Foxe at home and abroad. 2004, p. 129.
14. ↑ ^{a b} Anne Overell: A Nicodemite in England and Italy: Edward Courtenay (1548-56) . In: DM Loads: John Foxe at home and abroad. 2004, p. 131.
15. ^ Anna Whitelock: Mary Tudor. England's first queen. Bloomsbury 2010, p. 283.
16. ↑ ^{a b c} Anne Overell: A Nicodemite in England and Italy: Edward Courtenay (1548-56) . In: DM Loads: John Foxe at home and abroad. 2004, p. 132.
17. ↑ Anne Overell: A Nicodemite in England and Italy: Edward Courtenay (1548-56) . In: DM Loads: John Foxe at home and abroad. 2004, p. 130.
18. ↑ Anne Overell: A Nicodemite in England and Italy: Edward Courtenay (1548-56) . In: DM Loads: John Foxe at home and abroad. 2004, p. 133.
19. ↑ James D. Taylor: The Shadow of the White Rose. Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon, 1526–1556. Algora Publishing, 2006, p. 160.
20. ↑ James D. Taylor: The Shadow of the White Rose. Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon, 1526–1556. Algora Publishing, 2006, p. 163.
21. ^ Devon, Earl of (E, 1553) at Cracroft's Peerage

predecessor	Office	successor
New title awarded	Earl of Devon 1553-1556	Title rests (de iure: William Courtenay )