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Auction: 14035 - Postal History, Autographs and Historical Documents
Lot: 3003

Historical Documents
Henry Courtenay, First Marquis of Exeter
1534 (29 Dec.) a neat indenture signed at foot, "H Exetar" by Henry Courtenay, the first marquis of Exeter. The indenture, written in a highly mannered 'common-law' hand, confirms one John Edlyn as a tenant of the manor of Lowthtys and dated on the feast of St. Thomas the Martyr, 26 Henry VIII (the feast day of the martyrdom of Thomas Becket was 29th December). There is a slit along the bottom of the document where the seal would have been attached. There is some creasing but still quite fresh with very little soiling

Henry Courtenay, first Marquis of Exeter, c.1496- 1539, was the son of Henry VII's friend Sir William Courtenay and Princess Catherine, Edward IV's youngest daughter. He was Henry VIII's first cousin through his mother, and could have held a Plantagenet claim to the throne. At first he was high in the King's favor and attended him at the Field of the Cloth of Gold (This is the name given to a place in France, near Calais, that was the site of a meeting that took place from 7 June to 24 June 1520, between King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France). Henry came to resent Courtenay's extensive power base in the West of England, where it was occasionally said that he was the 'true heir' to the throne. At the end of 1538 he was charged with treason, found guilty on the flimsiest of evidence, and beheaded on Tower Hill

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Estimate
£400 to £500