William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy (c. 1478 – 8 November 1534),
KG, of
Barton Blount,
Derbyshire, was an extremely influential English courtier, a respected humanistic scholar and patron of learning. He was one of the most influential and perhaps the wealthiest English noble courtier of his time. Mountjoy was known internationally as a humanist writer and scholar and patron of the arts.
Blount was a pupil of
Erasmus, who called him inter nobiles doctissimus ("The most learned amongst the nobles"). His friends included
John Colet,
Thomas More and
William Grocyn.[2]
In 1497 he commanded part of a force sent to fight and suppress the rebellion of
Perkin Warbeck. Mountjoy was appointed and served as
King Henry VIII's boyhood tutor. In 1509 he was appointed
Master of the Mint. In 1513 he was appointed Governor of
Tournai (1513–1519), and his letters to
Cardinal Wolsey and King
Henry VIII describing his vigorous government of the town are preserved in the
British Library.[2]
In 1520 he was present with Henry VIII at the
Field of the Cloth of Gold, and in 1522 at the king's meeting with
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Having served since 1512 as Chamberlain to Queen
Catherine of Aragon, it fell to him in that office to announce to her the intention of Henry VIII to
divorce her. He also signed the letter to the Pope conveying the king's threat to repudiate papal supremacy unless the divorce was granted. Mountjoy was one of the most influential and perhaps the wealthiest English noble courtier of his time.[2] Sir William Blount, 4th Lord Mountjoy died on 8 November 1534 at Sutton-on-the-Hill, Derbyshire, England. Mountjoy was never disgraced, nor out of royal favour. His son
Charles Blount, 5th Baron Mountjoy (1516–1544), was also a patron of learning.
Family
Mountjoy married four times:
Firstly, about Easter 1497, Elizabeth Saye (died before 1506[1]), daughter and co-heiress of Sir William Saye of
Essenden,
Hertfordshire, by whom he had a daughter:
Secondly, before the end of July 1509, Mountjoy married Inés de Venegas,[3] one of the Spanish attendants or
chamberers of Catherine of Aragon while she was Princess of Wales.
Thirdly, before February 1515, Mountjoy married Alice Keble (died 8 June 1521), daughter of
Henry Keble, Lord Mayor of London in 1510 and widow of Sir William Browne (died 1514),
Lord Mayor of London in 1513. She died in 1521 and was buried at the
Greyfriars, London.[4][5] By Alice, he had children as follows:
Charles Blount, 5th Baron Mountjoy (28 June 1516 – 10 October 1544), eldest son and heir, like his father also a successful
English courtier and patron of learning.[2]
^The date of death of Inez de Venegas is unknown, however Carley, James P. (2004). "Blount, William, fourth Baron Mountjoy (c. 1478–1534)" suggests that, as William had remarried by 1515 and was not divorced from Inez, her death was before February 1515.
^Emerson, Kathy Lynn.
"Catherine Blount (c. 1518 – 25 February 1558/9)". A Who's Who of Tudor Women: B-Bl. Archived from
the original on 22 June 2013. Retrieved 6 July 2013. An update and correct Wives and Daughters: The Women of Sixteenth-Century England (1984)
Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G. (ed.). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. Vol. I (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City.
ISBN978-1449966379.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)
Vivian, J.L., ed. (1895). The Visitations of the County of Devon, Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564, & 1620. With additions by Lieutenant-Colonel J. L. Vivian. Exeter: Henry S. Eland.