Henry Courtenay (d. 17 January 1469), esquire, of West Coker, Somerset, beheaded for treason in the marketplace at Salisbury, Wiltshire on 17 January 1469.
At the readeption of King Henry VI on 9 October 1470, Courtenay was restored to his ancestral lands,[3] which earlier that year had been granted by King Edward IV to John Neville, along with the title of Marquess of Montagu, as compensation for the loss of his earldom of Northumberland.[5] However, Courtenay gained little political power, being appointed only to "a solitary commission [of the peace] in Devon".[6]
Following Edward IV's return to England to challenge the restored Lancastrian regime in 1471, Courtenay was in London with Henry VI and Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, while King Edward gathered troops in the East Midlands and manoeuvred against the Lancastrians under Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. However, Somerset and Courtenay left the city to rendezvous in the south-west of England with Margaret of Anjou and her son, Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, who were returning from France. This thwarted Warwick's hopes of trapping Edward IV between his own army and the forces in London, and cleared the way for Edward IV to occupy the capital and capture Henry VI.[7] Warwick was defeated and killed by Edward IV at the Battle of Barnet, just outside London, on 14 April.
Queen Margaret landed in England two days later, and met Devon and Somerset in Cerne Abbey,[8] where they "assured her that their cause was far from lost".[9] They received commissions from the Prince of Wales to raise an army in the south-west.[10] Courtenay gathered forces from the traditional Courtenay powerbase in Devon, while Somerset raised troops in Cornwall.[11] Marching to unite with other Lancastrian forces being assembled in the West Midlands and Wales, they were intercepted by King Edward IV and brought to battle at Tewkesbury on 4 May 1471. Courtenay, commanding the Lancastrian left, was among those slain on the field- "in plain battle"[12]—when the division "took to flight".[13] He was buried, with the other noble dead, in Tewkesbury Abbey churchyard.[14]
Hicks, Michael A (2012). The Wars of the Roses. Totton.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Lander, John R (2009). The Wars of the Roses. Stroud.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Richardson, Douglas (2011). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Vol. I (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)ISBN1449966373
Richardson, Douglas (2011). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Vol. IV (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)ISBN1460992709
1 Briefly joined the Lancastrians. 2 Briefly joined the Yorkists. 3 Defected from the Yorkist to the Lancastrian cause. 4 Initially a Yorkist who later supported the Tudor claim. 5 Initially a Lancastrian who later supported the Tudor claim.
