edwardslovelyelizabeth:The date of Katherine Courtney (Katherine of York), Countess of Devon’s dea
edwardslovelyelizabeth: The date of Katherine Courtney (Katherine of York), Countess of Devon’s death is given as Friday, 15th of November 1527 and the time as three o’clock in the afternoon. Katherine was the 6th surviving daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. On the 2d of May 1527 the Countess made her will setting out her wishes for the arrangements to be made after her death. She named Henry, Lord Marquis of Exeter, ‘our dearest and well-beloved son’ as her sole executor, and directed him to use the revenues from certain of her estates to bury her ‘as it shall beseem and become our estate and degree to be’. All her household and that of her son were to be provided with black mourning gowns or coats, and were to be supported for a year after her death, unless take into service after Marquis. A sum of 21 pounds was to be set aside to pay the stipends of 3 honest priests to say tree masses daily, either in St.Peter’s church or in the chapel of Our Blessed Lady standing in the churchyard. After the Gospel at every mass the priest was to pray for the souls of ‘late King of England and France, of famous memory, Edward the Fourth, our father, and Elizabeth, his wife, our mother, Late Queen of England, and for the souls of the said Edward Courtney, and for the aforesaid William Courtney, his son, and our late husband, and for the soul of Margaret, our daughter, and for our soul and all Christian souls, and for the good preservation, health, good and prosperous estate of our said well beloved son of Henry, Lord Marquis of Exeter and Earl of Devonshire, long to endure, to God’s pleasure’. Three poor men living in Tiverton were to be paid weekly to sit about the tomb during the masses and pray for the souls of the departed, with preference being given to any family servants who had ‘fallen into decay, by casualty of wars of otherwise’. Katherine received and elaborate funeral in Tiverton Castle, Devon. The coffin was covered with the pall of cloth of gold, decorated with the silver tissue cross and coats of arms accompanied with mourners carrying banners depicting saints. In the account of the funeral by a contemporary she is referred as ‘the princess Katherine, youngest daughter of King Edward IV and widow of William Courtney, Earl of Devon and lord of this manor’. pictured: part of the will of Katherine Courtney, Countess of Devon, 1527, showing her signature. source -- source link