Eighth Baron of Mountjoy, created Earl of Devonshire (1603). He was a favorite of ¤Queen Elizabeth, and a friend and supporter of Essex, whom he succeeded in Ireland. He defeated Hugh O'Neill, 2° Earl of Tyrone and, with Sir George Carew, obtained military possession of nearly the whole of Ireland. NCCN

He wrote against the censorship of the press, and, having fallen in love with his deceased wife's sister, published a defense of marriage between persons so connected (at that time proscribed in England). He wrote Anima mundi (1679), Two books of Philostratus or the Life of Apollonius of Tyanaeus, from the Greek (1680), and others. NCCN

An initmate friend of Alexander Pope. He left her by his will £1000, many books, all his household goods, and made her residuary legatee. He had previously dedicated to her his Epistle on Women. NCCN

Accompanied the ¤Black Prince to Spain (1367) and, probably, ¤John of Gaunt to Castile (1386). He was killed at the battle of Shrewsbury by Archibald, 4th Earl of Douglas, who mistook him for ¤Henry IV. A character in Shakespeare's Henry IV ("Sir Walter Blunt"). NCCN

• Half-brother: ¤BLOUNT, Willie (Wiley)

4th Baron Mountjoy. Studied (~1496) under Erasmus at Paris; brought Erasmus to England (1498). An intimate of Henry Tudor, later ¤Henry VIII of England, he fought against Perkin Warbeck (1497), was bailif of Tournai (1514-17), and served as an attendant of Henry VIII at the meeting of the Field of the Cloth of Gold (1520), and at a meeting with Charles V at Dover (1522). Erasmus lamented his patron's death in his dedications to Ecclesiastes (1535) and to adagia (1536 edition). Blount also befriended Richard Whytforde and Richard Sampson.

Governor of Tennessee from 1809 to 1815. In 1790, he moved to the Southwest Territory and served as ¤William Blount's private secretary, his half-brother. When Tennessee was admitted as a state in 1796, he was one of its first judges, and in 1807 was elected to the state legislature. He was elected governor in 1809, and served three terms, until 1815. During his governorship, he supported the War of 1812. He also sent Tennessee militia to Alabama Territory when the latter was essentially defenseless before attacks by American Indians.

• Half-brother: ¤BLOUNT, William [1749-1800]

5th Baron Mountjoy. He was noted as a patron of learning. NCCN