Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy

Charles Brooke Blount was born in 1563, the second son of James Blount, 6th Baron Mountjoy, and Catherine Leigh. His paternal grandfather was courtier Charles Blount, 5th Baron Mountjoy. of the four Inns of Court. When his father died in 1581, the title of Baron Mountjoy passed to Blount's elder brother William. His father's poor business ventures had greatly diminished the Blount family's estates. From youth, Charles Blount aimed to recover his family's reputation and wealth. When he had his portrait painted as a boy, he insisted on it being inscribed with the motto "ad reædificandam antiquam domum" ("to rebuild an old house"). == At court ==

, was Mountjoy's rival and later close friend. Charles Blount was introduced to court around 1583, and he quickly found favour with Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth is said to have rewarded Blount with "a queen at chesse of gold richly enamelled" for his skill in a tilting match "which his servant had the next day fastened on his arme with a crimson ribband". Essex noticed the token and angrily remarked at court to Sir Fulk Greville, "Now I perceive every fool must have a favour." The speech was reported to Blount, and a duel followed, near Marybone Park, in which Essex was wounded. Blount was knighted in 1586. He was created M.A. from Oxford on 16 June 1589. He was made a Knight of the Garter. == Military career ==

Between 1586 and 1598, Charles spent most of his time on the Continent, serving in the Netherlands and Brittany. He joined Essex and Walter Raleigh in their expedition to the Azores in 1597, along with his cousin Christopher. He was frequently absent from court to further his military career. In response, the Queen states to him that "you shall go when I send you; in the mean time, see that you lodge in the court where you may follow your books, read, and discourse of warre". as Lord Mountjoy, KG (after 1597), viz: Barry nebuly of six Or and Sable == Ireland ==

The downfall of Lord Essex did no damage to Lord Mountjoy's career. After the failure of his rebellion, Essex shocked many by denouncing his sister Penelope, who was Mountjoy's mistress, as a traitor, which inevitably raised the question of his own possible involvement; but the Crown, anxious to retain Mountjoy's services, and also to show as much leniency as possible to the defeated rebels, simply ignored the accusation. On 24 February 1600, Mountjoy landed in Ireland as Lord Deputy following Lord Essex and in the ensuing years brought the Nine Years' War to an end. The leader of the rebellion, Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, wrote about Mountjoy's "refined manners" that he would lose a whole season of campaigning "while waiting until breakfast is prepared to his mind!". Despite this, Mountjoy proved that he was quite qualified to pursue the war. In early 1600, Mountjoy had dispatched Sir Henry Docwra with an army of 4,200 troops to land at Culmore to erect a fortress commanding the shores of Lough Foyle in the north-west of Ulster. To prevent Hugh O'Neill from sending a strong force to repulse Dowcra's forces, Mountjoy advanced in force from Dublin to Newry causing O'Neill to fear a southern advance into Tyrone.Mountjoy advanced to the location he found the previous summer at the River Blackwater, which commanded safe and secure passage into Tyrone, previously inaccessible, and set about erecting a new fort. O'Neill having observed this burnt his capital at Dungannon and fled to his last refuge in Glenconkeyne. He showed similar moderation in putting down the abortive risings in Cork, Waterford and Wexford, where the aldermen, apparently with some vague idea of gaining greater toleration for Roman Catholics, refused to proclaim the new King: in Cork, three insurgents were hanged after a summary trial, but the rest were acquitted or pardoned. As part of the Plantation of Ulster, the majority of the barony of Loughinsholin was detached from County Tyrone and made part of the newly created County Londonderry. The rest of Loughinsholin along with the northern parts of Dungannon barony were merged to create the short-lived barony of Mountjoy. It would later be amalgamated with the barony of Dungannon. ==Later life==

, after a portrait by Paul van Somer I On his return to England, Lord Mountjoy served as one of Sir Walter Raleigh's judges in 1603, and in the same year King James I appointed him Master of the Ordnance as well as creating him Earl of Devonshire, granting him extensive estates. He was one of the founder members of the Spanish Company re-founded by royal charter in 1605. Mountjoy's long-term successor in Ireland was Sir Arthur Chichester. Ireland remained in a state of some tension, with a number of disgruntled Gaelic Irish allies of the Crown angered by Mountjoy's generous terms to the Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell which meant land that had been promised to them had now been restored to the earls. In 1607, a year after Mountjoy's death, the flight of the Earls took place. The following year a former government ally Sir Cahir O'Doherty attacked and burned Derry, launching O'Doherty's Rebellion. The flight and the rebellion led to the Plantation of Ulster, something that had not been envisaged by Mountjoy when he had made peace in 1603. ==Marriage==

Towards the end of his life, on 26 December 1605 at Wanstead Hall near London, in a ceremony conducted by his chaplain William Laud, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, he married his long-time mistress Lady Penelope (died 7 July 1607), formerly wife of Robert, 3rd Baron Rich (later 1st Earl of Warwick) and sister of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex. After the execution of her brother in 1601, Lord Rich divorced her in the ecclesiastical courts. The marriage was carried out in defiance of canon law and resulted in the disgrace of both parties, who were banished from King James I's court circles. The Earl and Countess of Devonshire continued to live together as husband and wife with their illegitimate children until his death a few months later in the following year. ==Illegitimate progeny==

miniature thought to be of Penelope Rich His illegitimate children by his mistress Lady Rich, of whom he acknowledged the paternity, included: • Penelope Rich (1592–?) – baptised at St Clement Danes as ‘Penelope Riche ye daughter of ye H. Lord Riche’ on 30 March. 1592, despite her surname, she was a daughter of Penelope by Blount • Mountjoy Blount, 1st Earl of Newport (1597–1666) • Sir Saint John Blount – baptized at St Clement Danes with the name 'Scipio Rich', 8 December 1597. Saint John Blount, being described as the brother of Mountjoy, Lord Mountjoy, was made a Knight of the Bath on 1 February 1625 at the coronation of King Charles I, along with his nephew Robert Rich, son of his half brother the 2nd Earl of Warwick. His daughter Penelope (died probably before 1651) was the wife of Dr. Stephen Goffe. • Isabella (Elizabeth) Blount (1595) - baptised at St Clement Danes as ‘Isabella Rich ye daughter of ye Lord Riche’ on 30 February 1594/5, despite her surname, she was a daughter of Penelope by Blount. • Charles Blount (1605–1627) ==Legacy==

Lord Devonshire left no legitimate children, and so his hereditary titles became extinct at his death from pneumonia on 3 April 1606 at Savoy House, London. His young contemporary, John Ford wrote one of his two earliest works, ''Fame's Memorial'', as an elegy of 1169 lines on the recently deceased Charles Blount, 1st Earl of Devonshire. Ford has an acrostic – a series of lines whose first letters spell a word or name – in his prefatory dedication of the elegiac poem to Penelope Devereux, countess of Devonshire. == Character ==

Fynes Moryson described Mountjoy's physical appearance: "He was of stature tall, and of very comely proportion, his skin faire, with little haire on his body, which haire was of colour blackish (or inclining to blacke) and thinne on his head, where he wore it short, except a locke under his left eare, which he nourished the time of this [Irish] warre, and being woven up, hid it in his necke, under his ruffe. ... His forehead was broad and high, his eyes great, black, and lovely, ... and his countenance cheerful. ... He was undoubtedly valiant and wise." Camden described Blount as "a person famous for conduct, and so eminent in courage and learning that in these respects he had no superior, and but few equals". == Ancestry ==