John Courtenay, 15th Earl of Devon

Sir John Courtenay (c. 1435 – 4 May 1471) was the third son of Thomas Courtenay, 13th Earl of Devon, and Margaret Beaufort.

Family
Courtenay is said to have been born in 1435, the third son of Thomas Courtenay, 13th Earl of Devon, by Margaret Beaufort, the daughter of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset. Through his mother Courtenay was a great-grandson of King Edward III. He had two brothers and five sisters:


 * Thomas Courtenay, 14th Earl of Devon (1432 - 3 April 1461), who married, shortly after 9 September 1456, Mary of Anjou, illegitimate daughter of Charles, Count of Maine. There were no issue of the marriage. He was taken prisoner at the Battle of Towton, and beheaded at York on 3 April 1461.


 * Henry Courtenay (d. 17 January 1469), esquire, of West Coker, Somerset, de jure 7th Earl of Devon, beheaded for treason in the market place at Salisbury, Wiltshire on 17 January 1469.


 * Joan Courtenay (born c. 1447), who married firstly, Sir Roger Clifford, second son of Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron de Clifford, beheaded after Bosworth in 1485. She married secondly, Sir William Knyvet of Buckenham, Norfolk.


 * Elizabeth Courtenay (born c. 1449), who married, before March 1490, Sir Hugh Conway.


 * Anne Courtenay.


 * Eleanor Courtenay.


 * Maud Courtenay.

Career
Courtenay is said to have been originally intended for a career in the church. He was knighted by his brother, Thomas Courtenay, 14th Earl of Devon, after the Battle of Wakefield. After the Battle of Mortimer's Cross Edward, Earl of March marched and took the capital from the Lancastrians. Parliament voted an attainder on his opposition, and John declared a traitor. The new King, Edward IV, marched north and sealed his reign with the bloody victory at the Battle of Towton.

About 1465, Courtenay was in exile in France with King Henry VI's, Queen, Margaret of Anjou.

At the readeption of King Henry VI on 9 October 1470, Courtenay was briefly restore to his honours. The Yorkists marched south in alliance with Earl of Warwick and defeated the governing house at Battle of Barnet, just outside London on 14 April 1471. The decisive Yorkist victory ended Henry VI's brief return to power and all members of the nobility, including John Courtenay were deprived of their possessions, titles and honours. Still unmarried, Courtenay was slain 4 May 1471 at the Battle of Tewkesbury.

The effect of the attainder was to terminate the Barony of Okehampton (creation 1299), so that the earldom inherited from the Redvers family was in abeyance, passing laterally to the descendants of Courtenay's sisters.