A Tale of Two Hats

Hat #1.

Sometimes the smallest detail can set one off on an interesting avenue of research, and sometimes it can add an entirely unexpected dimension to a living history portrayal. In 2004, for example, the group I was then involved with was gearing up for the 200^th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar celebrations the following year: my father decided he wanted to portray a captain, but didn’t have a suitable sword. The best he could come up with was an Oriental weapon that looked vaguely like the swords some officers of Nelson’s navy carried. Then I found a portrait of Sir Sidney Smith wearing a sword identical to my father’s, and since Smith was an anti-slavery hero and my father is a lifetime member of Anti-Slavery International, it seemed like Providence. A little deeper digging revealed that in 1805 Smith commanded HMS Antelope which, by chance, was the ship we usually used for our Marlburian navy portrayals. So the whole group ended up portraying members of the ship’s company of HMS Antelope, all because of my father’s sword.

I’ve recently had a similar experience with my 1513 portrayal.

Last week I found myself with nothing to do for an evening so instead of breaking out of the Normandy beachhead on the Playstation I decided to make a Tudor hat, using the ‘great bonnet’ pattern from The King’s Servants. I fancied putting a badge on the front, just to tart it up a bit, and happened to have a pewter boar badge handy, so stitched it on. The boar was only going to be a place marker until I could find something more suitable, preferably a Howard livery badge to signify my membership of Admiral Howard’s retinue. The trouble was, that I ran into some difficulty trying to find out what, if anything, Admiral Howard used as a badge. Later in his life he apparently used a cross crosslet fitchy, which appears on his coat of arms, but at the time of Flodden everyone else in his family (at least, his father and younger brother) seem to have sported a silver lion rampant as their badge. The most abundant and accessible source of metal lion badges is kilt and Scottish clothing suppliers, and the idea of buying a lion from a Scottish company to wear while recreating the Flodden campaign certainly appeals to my impish sense of humour, but there was this nagging doubt that it might be the wrong badge.

So, having come across a list of all the different retinues that provided soldiers for the fleet in the 1513 campaign only a few days previously, I thought I’d have a look through the list and see if there was anyone else whose badge was more certain, and give up the idea of being one of Howard’s own retinue. (Not that it really mattered, it’s just a badge on a hat, right?)

Lots of people provided soldiers for the fleet, but on perusing the list I was quite surprised to find that out of a total strength of 3,550 soldiers in March 1513, only 230 were members of the Howard retinue. The largest single retinue was that of Lord Ferrers, which numbered 400 men, but two others caught my eye: 200 men provided by ‘mylord of Deven’ (I live in Devon), and 200 men of the retinue commanded by a man simply identified as ‘Courtney’. In 1513 the Earl of Devon was Henry Courtenay, but clearly the Earl of Devon and the Captain Courtney mentioned in the list were different men (notwithstanding Wikipedia’s assertion to the contrary). Since both retinues were recruited for the same ship, the Trinity Sovereign, commanded by captains ‘Cornewall and Courtney’ it seemed likely that the unidentified ‘Courtney’ was related, or at least connected, to the Earl of Devon. What is significant, to this blog at least, is that the livery badge of the Courtenays of Devon was a boar.

So, who were Cornewall and Courtney? Was Captain Courtney definitely one of the Devon Courteney clan?

Before the 1513 campaign really kicked off, Cornewall and Courtney were transferred to the command of a new ship, the Maria de Loreta, and in all probability took the bulk of their soldiers with them, since the normal practice appears to have been to keep men and commanders together, and since their replacement in the Trinity Sovereign was Lord Ferrers, who had a substantial retinue of his own. Furthermore, the Maria de Loreta was a new addition to the fleet, and had no pre-embarked retinue of soldiers.

A list of naval expenses drawn up in September 1513 includes receipts for conduct money paid to soldiers in the fleet, two of which relate to the Maria de Loreta. The first is signed by ‘Richard Cornewayll and W. Courtenay’, the second signed by ‘Wm. Courteney’. The clue of the first names of Cornewall and Courtenay leads to a much better identification, for a William Courtenay and a Richard Cornwall were both bound for a recognizance of 500 marks not to travel more than 2 miles from London in January 1512, and were both absolved of their recognizance in March of that year. What they had done to be so bound is unknown, but it’s fortunate for me that they did it, because it means that Captain Courtenay can be positively identified as William Courtenay of Powderham (1485-1535), kinsman of the Earl of Devon. The identification of ‘Captain Courtney’ as William Courtenay of Powderham is made more certain by two grants: one to Edward Cresswell, ‘in William Courtenay’s company’, signed by ‘Wellyam Courtenay, Squer’, and the other to Roger Gyffarde, ‘retained to serve in the war under William Courteney of Ylton, Devon.’ William Courtenay of Powderham also held land at Ilton, near Kingsbridge, and his full title given in some documents was William Courtney of East Coker, Powderham, and Ilton.

Furthermore, the livery badge of the Courtenays of Powderham was also a boar.

Coker Court, Somerset, William Courtenay’s home until 1512

Powderham Castle, Devon, Courtenay’s home from 1512

So having established the identity of Captain Courtenay, my attention turned to another Courtenay in the list of captains in the 1513 fleet, Richard Courtenay of the Michael of Plymouth. Another Courtenay in command of a Devon ship, surely too much of a coincidence not to be a relative? At some point in 1513 command of the Michael (sometimes referred to as the Michael Rote, or Michael Ratt) passed into the hands of another man, and in 1514 Richard Courtenay is found in command of the Margaret of Dartmouth, another Devon ship (which incidentally had a company of 30 soldiers, 37 mariners and 3 gunners).

Dartmouth Castle, virtually brand new when Richard Courtenay commanded the Margaret.

Is there a connection between this Courtenay and the other Courtenays? Of course there is, or I wouldn’t be writing about him now. The man who took command of the Michael of Plymouth after Richard Courtenay was none other than Edward Cresswell who, on 6 June 1513, was appointed ‘captain of a ship called The Mighell Ratt, of Plymouth, in William Courtenay's company.’ Since the Michael was a hired ship the choice of captain fell to the ship’s owner – in this case, apparently, William Courtenay of Powderham. So the fact that William Courtenay earlier appointed Richard Courtenay to command the vessel suggests most strongly that Richard was a relative. I haven’t yet managed to positively identify him, but it’s possible that he was Richard Courtenay of Lostwithiel, a member of a cadet branch of the Powderham family.

So, lots of Courtenays involved in the 1513 fleet, as captains and owners, and at least 400 Courtenay retainers enlisted as soldiers. What’s more, 300 of the Courtenay soldiers were earmarked to join landing parties from the fleet, so they were among the men who saw land service on the various attacks on the defences of Brittany (more about those in a later blog), and were thus probably among the men taken by Howard to fight at Flodden. The pig can stay on the hat.

Hat #2.

My helmet dilemma mentioned in the last entry has been solved. I’ve been offered a second-hand open-faced sallet at a reasonable price…