Early life
A Nobleman in the Church
William Courtenay was born around 1342, a younger son of Hugh de Courtenay, Earl of Devon, and Margaret de Bohun, a granddaughter of King Edward I. Royal blood and a powerful family marked him out for high office in the church. He studied law at Oxford, became a doctor of civil and canon law, and in 1367 was chosen chancellor of the university.
Promotion came fast. In 1370, still younger than the church's law required, he became bishop of Hereford, and in 1375 bishop of London. He was known as a defender of the church's rights against both the crown and the pope's tax collectors, and as an opponent of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the king's son and the most powerful man in England.
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