Margaret de Bohun, Countess of Devon

Margaret de Bohun, Countess of Devon (3 April 1311 – 16 December 1391) was the daughter of Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford, Lord High Constable of England by his wife Elizabeth of Rhuddlan and the wife of Hugh Courtenay, 10th Earl of Devon (1303–1377).

Unlike most women of her day, she received a classical education and was a lifelong scholar and collector of books.

Together with her siblings she received a classical education under a Sicilian Greek, Master Diogenes.

[citation needed] On 11 August 1325, at the age of fourteen, Lady Margaret married Hugh de Courtenay, the future 10th Earl of Devon, to whom she had been betrothed since 27 September 1314.

[5] The first earl of Devon promised that upon the marriage he would enfeoff his son and Margaret jointly with 400 marks' worth of land, assessed at its true value, and in a suitable place.

On 11 August 1325, in accordance with a marriage agreement dated 27 September 1314, she married Hugh Courtenay, 10th Earl of Devon (1303–1377), by whom she had eight sons and nine daughters:[9][10][11]

Effigies of Margaret de Bohun and her husband Hugh de Courtenay, 10th Earl of Devon , south transept, Exeter Cathedral . Two Bohun swans , the heraldic device of Bohun, are shown with their necks intertwined at Margaret's feet.
Bohun heraldic swans collared and chained with necks intertwined at feet of effigy of Margaret de Bohun. [ 2 ] The Bohun swan can be seen above the escutcheon on her father's seal formerly attached to the Barons' Letter, 1301 . A lion serves as the footrest of her husband.
Arms of Bohun: Azure, a bend argent cotised or between six lions rampant or . These arms can be seen (without tinctures) impaled by Courtenay on the monumental brass of Margaret's son Sir Peter Courtenay (d. 1405) in Exeter Cathedral