Noble family Bohun Died December 16, 1391 Name Margaret Bohun, | ||
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Spouse Hugh de Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Devon (m. 1325–1377), Hugh de Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Devon (m. 1314) Children Philip I Courtenay, Hugh Courtenay, William Courtenay Parents Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford, Elizabeth of Rhuddlan Siblings William de Bohun, 1st Earl of Northampton Similar People | ||
Margaret de Bohun, Countess of Devon (3 April 1311 – 16 December 1391) was the granddaughter of King Edward I and Eleanor of Castile, and the wife of Hugh Courtenay, 10th Earl of Devon (1303-1377). Her thirteen children included an Archbishop of Canterbury and six knights, of whom two were founder knights of the Order of the Garter. Unlike most women of her day, she received a classical education and was a lifelong scholar and collector of books.
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Early life
Lady Margaret de Bohun was born on 3 April 1311 at Caldecote, Northamptonshire, the third daughter and seventh child of Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford, Lord Constable of England by his wife Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, the youngest daughter of King Edward I and Eleanor of Castile. Her paternal grandparents were Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford and Maud de Fiennes. She was named after her maternal step-grandmother, Margaret of France, the second queen consort of Edward I.
Margaret was left an orphan shortly before her eleventh birthday. On 16 March 1322 at the Battle of Boroughbridge, her father was slain in an ambush by the Welsh. Her mother had died six years previously in childbirth.
Together with her siblings she received a classical education under a Sicilian Greek, Master Diogenes. As a result, Margaret became a lifelong scholar and avid book collector.
On 11 August 1325, at the age of fourteen, Lady Margaret married Hugh de Courtenay, the future 10th Earl of Devon, to whom she had been betrothed since 27 September 1314. Her dowry included the manor of Powderham near Exeter. The marriage agreement was formally made on 28 February 1315, when she was not quite four years old. The first Earl of Devon promised that upon the marriage he would enfeoff his son and Margaret jointly with 400 marks worth of land, assessed at its true value, and in a suitable place.
Margaret assumed the title of Countess of Devon on 23 December 1340.
Her eldest brother John de Bohun (23 November 1306 – 20 January 1336) succeeded as 5th Earl of Hereford in 1326, having married Alice Fitzalan, daughter of the 9th Earl of Arundel in 1325. She had a younger brother William de Bohun (1312–1360), who was created 1st Earl of Northampton in 1337 by King Edward III. He married Elizabeth de Badlesmere, by whom he had two children. Margaret's elder sister Lady Eleanor de Bohun (17 October 1304 – 7 October 1363), married in 1327, her first husband, James Butler, 1st Earl of Ormonde. They were the ancestors of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Parr.
Hugh and Margaret had thirteen children, most of whom reached adulthood. Their descendants include members of the British royal family and former British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill.
Their family chantry was expanded at Naish Priory in the family's manor of Coker in Somerset, at the end of the 14th century when it was owned by her most notable son, William Courtenay, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Margaret died on 16 December 1391 at the age of eighty. She is buried in Exeter Cathedral.
Marriage and issue
On 11 August 1325, in accordance with a marriage agreement dated 27 September 1314, she married Hugh Courtenay, 10th Earl of Devon (1303-1377), by whom she had eight sons and five daughters:
[Note: Margaret Courtenay being the daughter of Sir Hugh Courtenay of Haccombe and Bampton (b. 1358 - d. 1425) is chronologically impossible. There are two other explanations for the identity of Margaret Courtenay, wife of Sir Theobald Grenville. The first is the possibility that Margaret Courtenay's first name was wrongly identified in Vivian, The Visitation of the County of Cornwall in the year 1620: p. 84 (Grenvile ped.). Second, the Margaret Courtenay who married John, Lord Cobham in 1332/3 and predeceased her husband, dying 2 Aug 1385was the eldest daughter named Margaret, and the Margaret who married Sir Theobald Grenville was Margaret (the younger). Margaret, wife of Sir Theobald Grenville was probably still the daughter of Hugh de Courtenay, 10th Earl of Devon, 2nd Lord Courtenay (b. 12 July 1303 - d. 2 May 1377) and his wife, Margaret de Bohun (b. 3 April 1311 - d. 16 Dec. 1391), but most likely one of their lesser known younger daughters. Hugh de Courtenay, 10th Earl of Devon and Margaret de Bohun had 17 known children. Name-sharing is more likely to occur in large families or where the pool of available names is restricted. Eamon Duffy’s study of the Devon parish of Morebath showed that it was common practice to give the same name to living siblings, citing examples as late as the early 16th century.].