Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/341

  many tracts on the subject, but public interest was not excited.

COURTEN, WILLIAM (1642–1702), naturalist, grandson of Sir William Courten [q. v.], and son of William Courten, who died insolvent at Florence in 1655, was born in London on 28 March 1642. His mother was Catharine Egerton, daughter of John, first earl of Bridgewater. Courten seems to have had a good education. He travelled to Montpelier and there fell in with Tournefort and Sloane. It was here that he began his botanic studies. In 1663 he left to attend to his private affairs at home, probably on his attaining his majority. He lived in England till 1670 with his aunt, Lady Knightly, at Fawsley Lodge, Northamptonshire. After this he went abroad again for fourteen years. Much doubt hangs over his movements, but he is supposed to have spent some of the time at Montpelier. He was a close friend of William Sherard, afterwards consul at Smyrna and benefactor to the chair of botany at Oxford, other friends being Dr. Tancred Robinson, Martin Lister, Plukenet, Ilwyd the antiquary, and Sloane. During many years he lived under the assumed name of Charleton, and in 1684 he opened a suite of rooms in the Temple containing his museum, estimated then to be worth 50,000l. Sloane succeeded to this splendid collection, which forms no small part of the original foundation of the British Museum treasures. His dried plants are now at the Natural History Museum in Cromwell Road. Courten died at Kensington on 29 March 1702, and was buried there, with an epitaph written by Sir Hans Sloane. His name is perpetuated in Courtenia, a genus founded by Robert Brown upon a plant from Java. 

COURTENAY. [See also .]

 COURTENAY, EDWARD, (1526?–1556), born about 1526, was only son of Henry Courtenay [q. v.], marquis of Exeter and earl of Devonshire, by his second wife, Gertrude. With his father and mother he was imprisoned in the Tower in November 1538, at the age of twelve; was attainted in 1539; was specially excepted from Edward VI's amnesty in 1547, and was not released till 3 Aug. 1553, after an incarceration of nearly fifteen years. The greater part of his imprisonment was spent in solitary confinement, his father having been executed soon after his arrest, and his mother released. Queen Mary showed him much favour on her accession. He was created Earl of Devonshire on 3 Sept. 1553, and knight of the Bath on 29 Sept. At the coronation he carried the sword of state, 1 Oct. 1553, and he was formally restored in blood on 10 Oct. He received the Spanish ambassadors on their arrival in London on 2 Jan. 1553–4, and acted as special commissioner for the trial of Sir Robert Dudley on 19 Jan. 1553–4. But Courtenay was encouraged to seek higher dignities. Although Queen Mary affected to treat him as a child, ordering him to accept no invitations to dinner without her permission, she regarded him with real affection, and Bishop Gardiner led him to hope for her hand in marriage. Elated with this prospect he maintained a princely household, and induced many courtiers to kneel in his presence. The projected match was popular with the people, but the offer of Philip II proved superior in Mary's eyes. Princess Elizabeth was, on the other hand, not blind to Courtenay's attractions, and he was urged to propose marriage to Elizabeth as soon as Mary showed herself indifferent to him. The national hatred of the Spaniard, it was openly suggested, would soon serve to place Elizabeth and Courtenay on the throne in Mary and Philip's place. At the end of 1553 a plot with this object was fully matured, and Devonshire and Cornwall were fully prepared to give Courtenay active support. Wyatt joined in the conspiracy, and undertook to raise Kent. In March 1553–4 Wyatt's rebellion was suppressed and its ramifications known. Courtenay was sent back to the Tower and in May removed to Fotheringay. At Easter 1555 he was released on parole and exiled. He travelled to Brussels, whence he begged permission to return home in November 1555 to pay his respects to his mother and the queen, but this request was refused. He then proceeded to Padua, where he died suddenly and was buried in September 1556.