COURTENAY, WILLIAM (c. 1342-1396), English pre late, son of Hugh Courtenay, earl of Devon (d. 1377), and great grandson of Edward I., studied law at Stapledon Hall, Oxford, and became chancellor of the university in 1367. Having been made prebendary of Exeter, of Wells and of York, he was con secrated bishop of Hereford in 1370, translated to the see of London in 1375, and became archbishop of Canterbury in 1381. From the first Courtenay opposed John of Gaunt, duke of Lan caster; he upheld the rights of the English Church, and was eager to root out Lollardry. In 1373 he declared in convocation that he would not contribute to a subsidy until the evils from which the Church suffered were removed; in 1375 he incurred the dis pleasure of the king by publishing a papal bull against all Floren tines; and in 1377 his decided action during the quarrel between John of Gaunt and William of Wykeham ended in a temporary triumph for the bishop. Wycliffe was another cause of difference between Lancaster and Courtenay. In 1377 the reformer appeared before Archbishop Sudbury and Courtenay, when an altercation between the duke and the bishop led to the dispersal of the court, and during the ensuing riot Lancaster probably owed his safety to the good offices of his foe. Having become archbishop of Canterbury in 1381, Courtenay summoned a council which con demned the opinions of Wycliffe ; he then attacked the Lollards at Oxford, and urged the bishops to imprison heretics. He was for a short time Chancellor of England during 1381. He upheld the papal authority in England, although not to the injury of the English Church. He protested against the confirmation of the statute of provisors in 1390, and he was successful in slightly modifying the statute of praemunire in 1393. In 1386 he was one of the commissioners appointed to reform the kingdom and the royal household. Courtenay died at Maidstone on July 31, 1396, and was buried in Canterbury cathedral.
See W. F. Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, vol. iv. (186o-76) ; and W. Stubbs, Constitutional History, vols. ii. and iii. (1$95-96).