Margaret Courtenay, Baroness Herbert

Who was Margaret Courtenay, Baroness Herbert?

Margaret Courtenay was the only daughter of William Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon and Catherine of York. Her maternal grandparents were Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville.

Margaret was a younger sister of Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter. Their maternal first cousins included among others Arthur, Prince of Wales, Margaret Tudor, queen of Scotland, Henry VIII of England, and Mary Tudor, queen consort of France.

She was married to Henry Somerset, elder son and heir of Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester and Elizabeth Herbert, 3rd Baroness Herbert. Local tradition at Devon mentioned her choking on a fishbone at Holcombe in 1512. An inscription on her tomb would seem to confirm this.

However, there is information of her still living in Richmond after that date. She is mentioned attending to her young first cousin, once removed, Princess Mary Tudor on 2 July 1520. Which seems to be the last record mentioning her alive. Her husband became Earl of Worcester in 1526. But by this time his Countess was his second wife Elizabeth Browne, allegedly an ex-mistress of Henry VIII's. Margaret seems to have died in the 1520s but no more specific date is known.