Earl of Devon - Fifth Creation, 1553

Fifth Creation, 1553

Edward Courtenay, his second but only surviving son, was a prisoner in the Tower for fifteen years, from the time of his father's arrest to the beginning of Queen Mary's reign, when he was released and created Earl of Devon. The patent differed from earlier patents in granting the earldom to his heirs male forever, rather than to the heirs male of his body. He was proposed as a prospective bridegroom for the Queen, who was his cousin, and after Queen Mary married Philip II of Spain he was considered as a possible husband for her sister, the future Queen Elizabeth. This made him a threat to Mary's reign. He was also implicated in Wyatt's rebellion, and again locked up in the Tower. In 1555 he was permitted to go to Italy, where he died in Padua in 1556, possibly poisoned. The male line of Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon (1553 creation), was extinguished with his death, and the earldom with it, or so it was considered.

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