And on the first anniversary of his coronation, 16 July 1378, Richard [II] attended the wedding of Anne Wake and his second cousin Sir Philip Courtenay, son of the late earl of Devon and a great-grandson of Edward I, and gave them two silver cups and two silver-gilt ewers as a gift, at a cost of over £22.

The eventual upshot was the appointment of Sir John Holland, the king's half-brother, as lieutenant [of Ireland] and in the spring of 1383 he began to prepare for his departure. But on 1st July 1383 the king cancelled his appointment, for reasons at which we can only guess, and in his place nominated Sir Philip Courtenay, the uncle of Edward Courtenay Earl of Devon and the nephew [sic, actually brother] of the archbishop of Canterbury. Courtenay's career illustrates the opportunities open to a younger son: he had served the Black Prince with distinction, and had been knighted at Najera; in the 1370s he had served as Admiral west of Thames, and in 1383 he and his brother Peter, who was one of Richard's chamber knights but went over to the Appellants—perhaps because of the treatment his brother received—strongly supported the Bishop of Norwich's crusade. His military reputation and his connection with the court through his brother probably explain his appointment. He held no land in Ireland and had no known connections there: in fact he was the first lieutenant since William of Windsor to have no interests or possessions there, and this undoubtedly placed him at a disadvantage. Since the fall of Windsor, the government of Ireland had been in the hands of the Irish Earls, the Earl of March, or the Dublin administration, and this initial weakness in Courtenay's position helps to explain the tensions which arose during his period of office.

THE 'PRINCESS' OF COLYTON