Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Question from Jacque - Mother of Gertrude Courtenay, Marchioness of Exeter

I have seen conflicting information regarding Gertrude Courtenay, Marchioness of Exeter (the daughter of William Blount, Lord Mountjoy)'s mother. Apparently Lord Mountjoy was married four times, to Elizabeth Say, to Inez de Vanegas, to Alice Kebel and to Dorothy Grey. There appears to be some confusion regarding which of his children had which mother, but I am mostly interested in who Gertrude's mother was, since I have seen her listed as both Elizabeth Say and Inez de Vanegas. In Weir's "Henry VIII: The King and His Court," it says Gertrude's mother was Maria de Salinas, but I think she must have mixed Maria up with Inez de Vanegas because as far as I know Maria de Salinas was never married to Lord Mountjoy!

6 comments:

Lara said...

Gertrude's entry in the ODNB lists her mother as Elizabeth Say, but I don't know what the source of that information is. There are sources in the entry, but there aren't specific notes attached to passages so it's hard to know which of the sources that may have come from.

Kathy said...

This is an interesting problem. If we are talking about the same Gertrude Courtney -- the one who married John Chichester c. 1568, most of the sources I find (including thepeeerage.com and some genealogical data on ancestry.com say that Sir William Courtney was married twice, first to Margaret Edgecombe and secondly to Mary Gainsford. They list Gertrude's mother as being the latter. Is this the same Gertrude Courtenay?

(The listing of her mother as Maria de Salinas is obviously a mistake. Maria was the mother of Katherine Willoughby who married Charles Brandon after Mary Tudor's death.)

Jacque said...

Kathy, I think you mean a different Gertrude. I am talking about the one who married Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter, the mother of Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon.

I am inclined to think her mother was Elizabeth Say, but I have also read that it she was close to Katherine of Aragon because she was supposedly half-Spanish -that which would mean her mother was Inez de Vanegas.

Kathy said...

Okay, I think I got it worked out now. From the genealogical records I can find (quite a few of them incidentally), William Blount, Lord Mountjoy was married three times.

1. Elizabeth Say in 1497 at Newport, Devonshire
2. Alice Kebel between July 1506 and 1510
3. Dorothy Grey in 1523

Gertrude Blount was born about 1502 so her mother was Elizabeth Say.

BTW, I couldn't find any records at all indicating a marriage between William Blount and Inez de Vanegas. These are genealogical records though, so if they were married, it's likely there were no surviving children.

Diane said...

There are entries on Gertrude Blount, Inez de Vanegas (and many others) on a site called "Who's Who Among Tudor Women." I don't know about the veracity of the entries however because sources aren't cited.

Find it at:
kateemersonhistoricals.com/TudorWomenIndex.htm

Diane said...

Now that I am heavily researching the Marchioness of Exeter I am convinced that her mother is Elizabeth Say. In order for it to be Inez her birth date after 1509. She married Henry Courtenay on October 25,,1519 and appeared as Coutess of Devonshire at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520