Charles Blount, 1st Earl of Devonshire
Encyclopedia
Baron Mountjoy
The titles of Baron Mountjoy and Viscount Mountjoy have been created several times for members of two separate families: the Blounts and their descendants and the Stewarts of Ramelton and their descendants....
and 1st Earl of Devonshire (1563 – 3 April 1606) was an English nobleman and soldier who served as Lord Deputy
Lord Deputy of Ireland
The Lord Deputy was the King's representative and head of the Irish executive under English rule, during the Lordship of Ireland and later the Kingdom of Ireland...
of Ireland under Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
, then as Lord Lieutenant under King James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
.
Early life
The second son of James Blount, 6th Baron MountjoyJames Blount, 6th Baron Mountjoy
-Life:James Blount was born circa 1533 in Newport, Devon, the eldest son of Charles Blount, 5th Baron Mountjoy and Ann Willoughby. He inherited his title on the death of his father...
, Charles became the most notable of the later holders of the barony, inheriting the title in 1594 on the death of his unmarried elder brother William
William Blount, 7th Baron Mountjoy
William Blount, 7th Baron Mountjoy, was an English peer.William Blount was born circa 1561, the eldest son of James Blount, 6th Baron Mountjoy and Catherine Leigh. He inherited his title on the death of his father...
. The favour which his youthful good looks procured for him from Queen Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
aroused the jealousy of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, KG was an English nobleman and a favourite of Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during the Nine Years' War in 1599...
, and led to a duel
Duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...
between the two courtiers, who later became close friends. Between 1586 and 1598 Charles spent a lot of time on the continent, serving in the Netherlands and in Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
. He joined Essex and Sir Walter Raleigh
Walter Raleigh
Sir Walter Raleigh was an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer. He is also well known for popularising tobacco in England....
in their expedition to the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
in 1597, along with his distant cousin, Sir Christopher Blount
Sir Christopher Blount
Sir Christopher Blount was an English soldier, secret agent, and rebel. He served as a leading household officer of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. A Catholic, Blount corresponded with Mary, Queen of Scots's Paris agent, Thomas Morgan, probably as a double agent...
. (Sir Christopher had married Essex's mother, Lettice Knollys
Lettice Knollys
Lettice Knollys , Countess of Essex and Countess of Leicester , was an English noblewoman and mother to the courtiers Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex and Lady Penelope Rich; through her marriage to Elizabeth I's favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, she incurred the Queen's undying...
, the Dowager Countess of Leicester, and he was afterwards executed for complicity in Essex's treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
.)
Ireland
In 1600 Mountjoy went to IrelandIreland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
as Lord Deputy in succession to Essex and, with the able assistance of Sir George Carew, brought the Nine Years War to an end with ruthless scorched-earth tactics in the stronghold of the rebel Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone in Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
. In July 1601 he had successfully ordered an amphibious landing at Lough Foyle
Lough Foyle
Lough Foyle, sometimes Loch Foyle , is the estuary of the River Foyle in Ulster. It starts where the Foyle leaves Derry. It separates the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal, Republic of Ireland from County Londonderry in Northern Ireland.-Transport:...
, near Derry
Derry
Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...
, which penetrated the north of the province and undermined the rebels. In the following December he defeated O'Neill's Spanish allies at Kinsale, and drove them out of the country. On 30 March 1603, six days after the death of Elizabeth and the accession of James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
, O'Neill made peace with Mountjoy, signing the Treaty of Mellifont
Treaty of Mellifont
The Treaty of Mellifont , also known as the Articles of Mellifont was signed in 1603 ending the Nine Years' War which took place in the Kingdom of Ireland from 1594 to 1603.- The end of the war :...
.Mountjoy continued in office with the more distinguished title of Lord-Lieutenant (1603–1604). He declared an amnesty for the rebels and granted them honourable terms, which caused some severe criticism from England.
Later life
On his return to England, Lord Mountjoy served as one of Sir Walter Raleigh's judges in 1603; and in the same year James I made him master of the ordnanceMaster-General of the Ordnance
The Master-General of the Ordnance was a very senior British military position before 1855, when the Board of Ordnance was abolished.-Responsibilities:...
and created him Earl of Devonshire, also granting him extensive estates.
Mountjoy took as his mistress Penelope Devereux, wife of Lord Rich and sister of Essex. After the execution of her brother in 1601, Lady Rich's husband divorced her in the ecclesiastical courts. Mountjoy, by whom she had already had several children, married her on 26 December 1605 at Wanstead House in London, in a ceremony conducted by his chaplain, William Laud
William Laud
William Laud was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to 1645. One of the High Church Caroline divines, he opposed radical forms of Puritanism...
, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
. This proceeding, carried out in defiance of canon law
Canon law
Canon law is the body of laws & regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...
, was followed by the disgrace of both parties, who were banished from court by King James. The couple continued to live together as husband and wife with their children until his death a few months later. Blount died on 3 April 1606 and Penelope on 7 July 1607.
Penelope Rich's illegitimate children acknowledged by Charles Blount were:
- Mountjoy BlountMountjoy Blount, 1st Earl of NewportMountjoy Blount, 1st Earl of Newport , created Baron Mountjoy in the Irish peerage , baron Mountjoy of Thurveston in the English peerage and Earl of Newport was appointed master of ordnance to Charles I of England and played an ambiguous part in the early years of the English Civil War.He was...
(1597–1663), later 1st Earl of Newport - Elizabeth Blount
- John Blount
- Ruth Blount (d. 1690), married Christopher Tilghman