Charles Blount (pr. blunt), 1st Earl of Devonshire and 8th Baron Mountjoy (1563 – April 3, 1606) served as Lord Deputy, then as Lord Lieutenant, of Ireland under Queen Elizabeth I and King James I.

Early life

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The grandson of William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy, Charles became the most notable of the later holders of the barony. The favour which his youthful good looks procured for him from Queen Elizabeth I of England aroused the jealousy of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and led to a duel 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. He joined Essex and Sir Walter Raleigh in their expedition to the Azores in 1597, along with his distant cousin, Sir Christopher Blount (1565–1601). (Christopher had married Essex's mother, Lettice Knollys, the Countess of Essex, and he was afterwards executed for complicity in Essex's treason.)

Ireland

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In 1600 Mountjoy went to Ireland as lord deputy in succession to Essex, where he succeeded in suppressing the rebellion of Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, whom Essex had failed to subdue. Mountjoy brought the Nine Years War to an end with ruthless scorched-earth tactics in the rebel's stronghold of Ulster. In July 1601 he had successfully ordered an amphibious landing at Lough Foyle near Derry, which penetrated the north of the province and undermined the Ulster rebels. In the following December he defeated O'Neill's Spanish allies at Kinsale, and drove them out of the country. In 1603 the Earl of Tyrone made his submission to Mountjoy ay Melifont, near Dundalk, after the accession of James I. Mountjoy continued in office with the more distinguished title of Lord-Lieutenant (1603–1604). He declared an amnesty for the former rebels and granted them honourable terms, leading to some severe criticism from his fellow Englishmen.

Later life

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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 ordnance and created him Earl of Devon, also granting him extensive estates.

This title was granted as a recreation of the old Earldom of Devon, held by the Courtenays, which was then believed to be extinct. In 1831, the House of Lords decided that the Courtenay Earldom had existed de jure for the preceding two and a half centuries. To avoid making this situation more confusing, Mountjoy has usually been called the Earl of Devonshire.

Mountjoy took as his mistress the renowned beauty, Penelope, wife of Lord Rich and sister of Essex. After the execution of her brother in 1601, Lady Rich divorced her husband in the ecclesiastical courts. Mountjoy, by whom she had already had several children, married her in 1605 in a ceremony conducted by his chaplain, William Laud, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury.

Legacy

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Mountjoy left no legitimate children, and so the hereditary titles became extinct at his death.

References

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• Richard Bagwell, Ireland under the Tudors vol. 3 (London, 1885-1890); Calendar of State Papers: Carew MSS. i., ii., (6 vols., 1867-1873).

1563 births | 1606 deaths | Earls in the Peerage of England | Knights of the Garter | People of Elizabethan Ireland