his grandfather's earldom of 1485, having obtained from Parliament in December 1512 a (more formal) reversal of his father's 1504 attainder. His first cousin King Henry VIII was at the time involved in the War of the League of Cambrai against King Louis XII of France. The new earl of Devon experienced his first battles in 1513 as second captain of a man-of-war. He seems to have gained the further favour of his royal cousin during the 1510s. He became a gentleman of the privy chamber and member of the Privy Council in 1520. In June 1520 he accompanied Henry VIII to Calais for his meeting with King Francis I of France at the Field of the Cloth of Gold and became one of the debauched and athletic friends of the king's, frequently going on hunting trips with the king and his favourite, Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. In 1521 Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, KG, was executed on charges of treason, and a place having become vacant in the Order, the king appointed Courtenay a Knight of the Garter on 9 June 1521 and granted him part of Stafford's forfeited lands and properties. He was granted the administrations of the vacant dukedoms of Exeter, Somerset, and Cornwall over the following two years. In April 1522 he was made keeper of Burling Park in Kent, during which period he reached his greatest height of power in the king's inner council. It was possibly at that time he met the Boleyn family. He continued in the traditional hereditary offices of the Courtenays, as warden of the Stannaries and as the high steward of the Duchy of Cornwall from May 1523. He was appointed constable of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in 1525. Marquess of Exeter On 18 June 1525 Henry VIII created Henry Courtenay, as "Earl of Devon, Dominus of Okehampton and Plympton" (i.e. feudal baron of Okehampton and feudal baron of Plympton), Marquess of Exeter. At that time Francis I of France had lost the Battle of Pavia and was held captive by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Henry VIII sent the new Marquess of Exeter to secure an agreement with French regent Louise of Savoy and to pledge the assistance of the English king in negotiations for the return of Francis. The Marquess of Exeter further served the interests of the King in the proceedings for