Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon
Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon was an English nobleman during the rule of the Tudor dynasty. Born into a family with close royal connections, he was at various times considered a possible match for the two daughters of Henry VIII, both of whom became queens regnant of England. He was a second cousin to Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I through King Edward IV.
Edward Courtney, Earl of Devon, unknown artist, English School, c. 1555
19th-century copy by Sarah Bazett (d.1838) of portrait of Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon (d.1556) by Steven van der Meulen (d.1564). The Courtenay arms are shown above: Or, 3 torteaux; the escutcheon is surmounted with the Courtenay crest of feathers. On the gothic frame are shown two small figures of the Courtenay supporters, a boar and dolphin
Arms of William Courtenay, 10th Earl of Devon (d.1511), of Tiverton Castle, above the south porch of St Peter's Church, Tiverton, next to the Castle. Part of the Greenway Chapel, built in 1517 by the wealthy Tiverton merchant John Greenway (d.1529), whose initials are seen above the Courtenay arms. Above and between two White Roses of York appears the very rarely seen heraldic badge of the Courtenays: A falcon rising holding in its claws a bundle of sticks. This is possibly
Mary I, also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain and the Habsburg dominions as the wife of King Philip II from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She is best known for her vigorous attempt to reverse the English Reformation, which had begun during the reign of her father, King Henry VIII. Her attempt to restore to the Church the property confiscated in the previous two reigns was largely thwarted by Parliament, but during her five-year reign, Mary had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian persecutions.
Portrait by Antonis Mor, 1554
Catherine of Aragon, 1520, Mary's mother
Mary in 1522, at the time of her engagement to Emperor Charles V. She is aged 6 and wears a rectangular brooch inscribed "The Emperour".
Mary in 1544