Image: Courtenay Arms Tiverton Church Porch

Description: Arms of William Courtenay, 10th Earl of Devon (1475-1511) of Tiverton Castle, Devon, above the "Greenway Porch" (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. He possibly erected the arms of the Courtenays on his porch in deference to them as great local magnates, lords of the manor of Tiverton, (patrons of the church?), resident at the adjacent Tiverton Castle. He also shows the Courtenay arms with the same badge on his surviving Greenway Almshouses erected by him in 1517 in Gold Steet, Tiverton. The arms are Courtenay impaling the royal arms of King Edward IV (1461-1483), father of his wife Catherine of York (the sixth daughter of King Edward IV by Elizabeth Woodville): Quarterly 1st: royal arms of England of Edward IV; 2nd & 3rd: Or, a cross gules (de Burgh), 4th: obliterated, usually shows either repeat of 1st quarter or else: Barry of six or and azure on a chief of the first two pallets between two gyrons of the second over all an inescutcheon argent (Mortimer). The sinister (right) supporter appears to be a dolphin, an heraldic emblem usually used by the family of Courtenay of Powderham, a junior branch of the Courtenay family. (Supporters stated as follows by Harding, Lt-Col. William, The History of Tiverton in the County of Devon, Volume II, Book IV, Tiverton, 1847, p.12[1]: Dexter supporter "A man in armour having at his feet what would appear to be intended for a dragon, sinister a female figure") The very rarely seen heraldic badge above of the "Courtenay falcon and faggot" (not the usual ancient Courtenay crest of a plume of ostrich feathers) seems to have been adopted during the Wars of the Roses and depicts A falcon rising holding in its claws a bundle of sticks. The significance of the imagery is unknown. On either side of the falcon is shown a White rose of York, in reference to Courtenay's royal father-in-law. It is possibly a reference to the "Courtenay Fagot" described by Richard Carew (d.1620) in his Survey of Cornwall (pages 132-3)[2], a naturally mis-shapen piece of wood split at the ends into four sticks, one of which again split into two, which was "carefully preserved by those noble men". Carew states: "and in semblable maner the last Earles inheritance accrued unto 4 Cornish gent(lemen): Mohun, Trelawny, Arundell of Talverne and Trethurffe". This is a reference to the heirs of Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon (c.1527-1556), the last of the Courtenay Earls of Devon seated at Tiverton Castle. Alternatively it may be a corrupted version of the well-known classical Greek and Roman image often displayed on ancient coins of the "Eagle of Jupiter" holding in his claws a thunderbolt, the emblem of that deity. Mediaveal nobles frequently kept classical cameos and other valuables in a Cabinet de Medailles as curiosities, and thus the imagery would have been familiar.
Title: Courtenay Arms Tiverton Church Porch
Credit: Self-photographed
Author: own photo
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No