The New Murrey and Blue blog

The church at Colyton is a handsome building which has a ‘lantern’ tower vaguely reminiscent of that at Fotheringhay. It is packed with interesting monuments, including those of the local Pole family (not, apparently, related to the more famous Poles.) The most intriguing monument, though, lies to the left of the high altar. It is the well-crafted effigy of what appears to be a young girl. A shield on the tomb shows the Royal Arms. On closer inspection, there is a brass plaque above the effigy, added in the Victorian era, stating that this tomb was built for Margaret, daughter of William Courtney, Earl of Devon, and his wife Princess Katherine, the daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. Poor Margaret was supposed to have died young after choking on a fishbone and hence was known as ‘little choke-a-bone.’

However, both the style of the monument and some details of the arms are not exactly correct. It is now thought that the tomb is that of Margaret Beaufort, the wife of Thomas Courtney. Margaret, one of three prominent ladies with the same name, was born in 1409 and died in 1449. She was the daughter of John Beaufort, 1^st earl of Somerset, legitimised son of John of Gaunt, and Margaret Holland. Her siblings included John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, Joan Beaufort, Queen of Scotland, and Edmund Beaufort, 2^nd Duke of Somerset. This makes her the aunt of the two ‘other’ Margaret Beauforts: Margaret, daughter of John, who was the mother of Henry VII, and Margaret, daughter of Edmund, who was the mother of Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham.

Margaret Courtney had eight children, but all three of her sons were killed in the Wars of the Roses. Thomas was taken prisoner after the Battle of Towton and executed in York by Edward IV, Henry was arrested for treason and executed in Salisbury in January 1469, and John was killed in the Battle of Tewkesbury, where he commanded the rear of the Lancastrian forces.