Sir Philip Courtenay was the fifth son of Hugh Courtenay, 10th Earl of Devon (1303–1377). He was the founder of the cadet dynasty known as "Courtenay of Powderham".

Close Roll, 7 Richard II [Item no. ]14 Kilkenny 27 September 1383

[To the treasurer and chamberlains of the exchequer] The King ordered his cousin Philip Courtenay, lieutenant of Ireland, to rule and govern the said land for ten years [...]. The King granted the lieutenant that for the governance of the land [he might receive] all profits levied for the King's use in that land during those years [... and all] tallages and subsidies granted by the clergy and commons of the land; and all profits and receipts [received] by the exchequer [...] beyond the customary fees and wages of officials and ministers of the King there; taking by his hand from time to time until [...] between the lieutenant [...] as in the indentures [made] between the King and the lieutenant [...] that said lieutenant [...] both of the tallages and subsidies thus granted [...] of officials and ministers of the King from time to time [faded] last, on which day the lieutenant [...] Waterford until the end of the said ten years [...].1

[Attested:] Philip Courtenay, lieutenant [Authorised: ] By petition endorsed by the justiciar and council, and sealed with the privy seal.

From the Calendar of the Close Rolls

To Alexander bishop of Meath, Robert de Crulle clerk and Edmund del Clay. Strict order to arrest Philip de Courtenay late the king's lieutenant in Ireland with his goods there whatsoever, and to keep him under honourable arrest and his goods in safe custody, so that he depart not until a lieutenant be sent thither for governance of Ireland by Robert de Veer marquess of Dublin and earl of Oxford, to whom the king has given for life the land and lordship of Ireland to hold of the king with the royalties, liberties, customs etc. which pertain or may pertain to the king's regality, reserving to the king the homages, resort and sovereignty thereof and all allegiances, which lieutenant shall have authority to make inquisition concerning intolerable oppressions, duresses, excesses etc. committed, as the king is informed, by the said Philip while lieutenant against great number of the king's lieges of Ireland, to which no remedy is applied, to hear and correct the plaints of all who will sue for themselves, and to do justice to the parties, and order so to behave that the king shall have no matter for wrath against them as those who despise his command; as the king's will is that justice be done to every one of such lieges, and that the said Philip be justified before his departure, as law and the custom of Ireland require. By K.

9 RICHARD II. A.D. 1385 PROI PUB/Statutes/1/73

  In a great council of the lord the King, held at Dublin I on Monday next after the feast of St. Luke the Evangelist in the present year, the noble lord, the lord Philip de Courtenay, lieutenant of the lord the King, of Ireland, in the presence of the prelates, magnates, chief men and commons in the said council assembled, publicly and openly made declaration and said that if there were any, of whatever state or condition, who felt that he was aggrieved by the said lieu-tenant by reason of any extortion, oppression, unjust seizure, or imprisonment by the said lieutenant, or by any other cause or mandate of his, they should speak, confess or show it, and he would immediately amend and remedy it; and they all declared, confessed and said that they were aggrieved in none of the premises, nor could they, by reason of the premises, complain of him in anything; and the said lieutenant requested that the Chancellor of Ireland should record the premises and place them of record in the rolls of the Chancery of Ireland.

From the Patent Rolls of Richard II, no 10, 20th of September 1386.

APPOINTMENT of Edmund Clay and John Tyrell to inquire into whose hands came the goods and chattels of Philip Courtenay kt, formerly Lt of Ire. who owed various sums of money to the K. and the lord marquis, as well as various others-, and by what colour, how and in what manner.

Patent Roll, 10 Richard II

[Item no. ]236

Naas 27 January 1387

Rch-Image - 136/205

Philip Courtenay, in the time when he was lieutenant of Ireland, perpetrated various extortions and oppressions, and took very many victuals without payment.

APPOINTMENT by the marquis of John Darcy, sheriff of Meath, and Peter Rowe, pleader of the marquis, to inquire by oath [etc.] concerning all extortions [etc.] perpetrated by the said Philip, and the quantity and value of victuals, and from whom he received them, and also concerning debts he owed. [Authorised: ] By petition endorsed by the justiciar and council, and sealed with the privy seal.

Sir Philip's time in Ireland

From the History of Parliament 1436-1461 L.Clark

Meanwhile, soon after his first appearance in Parliament, Courtenay had been appointed lieutenant of Ireland. His term of office was not uneventful, and seems to have brought out the worst in his already deeply flawed character. His indenture, appointing him in July 1383 for ten years, declared that he should receive £1,152 from profits and issues, including taxes, tallages and subsidies, for which he was not required to account. He duly left for Ireland with a body of troops, and apparently came into friendly contact with James Butler, the young earl of Ormond. Courtenay’s wife probably accompanied him, and she received the manor of ‘Cromelyn’ rent-free while her husband remained lieutenant. As already noted, he was at Salisbury when Parliament met there in April 1384, and in July his duties had to be taken over by deputies. Another visit to England early in 1385, led to his being given considerable powers over members of the Irish administration. He arrived back in Dublin on 6 May, but by the end of the year his position had become untenable. He was then being widely accused of extortion, and was forced to demand, at a great council in December, that such accusations be inquired into so he might clear his name. At the beginning of 1386 he was dismissed, and on 26 Mar. a strict order for his arrest was issued by the Crown. Courtenay was to be kept in honourable custody until his successor, Robert de Vere, newly created marquess of Dublin with quasi-regal powers, could send a lieutenant to make inquisition ‘concerning intolerable oppressions, duresses, excesses [and so forth] committed ... against great numbers of the King’s lieges of Ireland, to which no remedy is applied’, and his goods and chattels were seized.

Nevertheless, Courtenay was able to secure election to the Parliament which assembled that October. Inquiries into his conduct were still proceeding in January 1387, but in the following month Courtenay petitioned the King against the treatment accorded him, complaining that de Vere, now duke of Ireland, had taken money and property due from his office, that his indenture had been unlawfully superseded by de Vere’s appointment, and that the latter had seized Easter rents to which he himself was entitled. As a result the duke was ordered to make recompense, and Courtenay received £66 13s.4d. in part-payment of 1,000 marks damages agreed because of his losses and strict imprisonment. Doubtless he was in accord with the Lords Appellant in their proscription of de Vere at the end of the year, and fully endorsed his attainder in the Merciless Parliament. He had no further administrative connexion with Ireland — indeed, from November 1388 to February 1392 he was duchy steward in Cornwall — but in September 1394 he was preparing to go there again, this time with the King himself. Richard II spent the following Christmas in Dublin, and Courtenay may well have been concerned with arrangements for the royal household. Certainly, he was commissioned to recruit fishermen from Devon and Cornwall to provide the Court with fish.

Philip inherited Powederham castle on the death of his mother in 1391, as well as seven other manors. He was succeeded by his son, Richard, Lord Chancellor and Bishop of Ireland,

Sir Philip was imprisoned in the Tower in November 1402 for clerical abuses against the Church.