Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Devon

Origins

Margaret Beaufort was the second and youngest daughter of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset and Margaret Holland, the daughter of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent by his wife Alice Fitzalan.

Marriage and children

At some time after 1421 Margaret married Thomas Courtenay, 13th Earl of Devon (1414–1458), for whom she bore three sons and five daughters. Her sons were all killed or executed during the Wars of the Roses due to their strong adherence to the Lancastrian cause, and left no children, and thus the senior line of the Courtenays was extinguished. Margaret's children included the following:

Thomas Courtenay, 14th Earl of Devon (1432 – 3 April 1461), eldest son and heir, who shortly after 9 September 1456 married Mary of Anjou, illegitimate daughter of Charles, Count of Maine. The marriage was without children. As a Lancastrian supporter during the Wars of the Roses, he was taken prisoner at the Battle of Towton, in which the victor was the Yorkist Edward IV, then attainted and beheaded at York. All his honours, including the original Earldom of Devon, became forfeited.

Henry Courtenay (d. 17 January 1469), Esquire, of West Coker, Somerset. Due to the attainder of his elder brother he did not inherit the Earldom of Devon. Also a Lancastrian supporter, he was beheaded for treason in the market place at Salisbury, Wiltshire on 17 January 1469.