Sir Walter Blount (circa 1348-21 July 1403), was a soldier and supporter of
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. He later supported John's son and heir
Henry Bolingbroke
Henry IV ( April 1367 – 20 March 1413), also known as Henry Bolingbroke, was King of England from 1399 to 1413. He asserted the claim of his grandfather King Edward III, a maternal grandson of Philip IV of France, to the Kingdom of Fran ...
in his bid to become King Henry IV and in later battles against his enemies. At the
Battle of Shrewsbury
The Battle of Shrewsbury was a battle fought on 21 July 1403, waged between an army led by the Lancastrian King Henry IV and a rebel army led by Henry "Harry Hotspur" Percy from Northumberland. The battle, the first in which English archers ...
he served as the royal standard-bearer, was mistaken for the king and killed in combat.
He appears as a character in Shakespeare's play ''
Henry IV, part 1'', in which he epitomizes selfless loyalty and chivalry.
Early life
Walter Blount was the third son of Sir John Blount of Sodington, by his first wife, Iseult Mountjoy, and was a child at the death of his father in 1358 (his eldest brother Richard, the heir, was aged 13).
In 1367 Blount participated in
Edward, the Black Prince
Edward of Woodstock, known to history as the Black Prince (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), was the eldest son of King Edward III of England, and the heir apparent to the English throne. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II, suc ...
's expedition to restore
Peter of Castile
Peter ( es, Pedro; 30 August 133423 March 1369), called the Cruel () or the Just (), was King of Castile and León from 1350 to 1369. Peter was the last ruler of the main branch of the House of Ivrea. He was excommunicated by Pope Urban V for ...
to the throne of Leon and Castile. This expedition was terminated by the
Battle of Nájera
The Battle of Nájera, also known as the Battle of Navarrete, was fought on 3 April 1367 to the northeast of Nájera, in the province of La Rioja, Castile. It was an episode of the first Castilian Civil War which confronted King Peter of Casti ...
in 1367, which led to Peter's brief restoration, but also resulted in the fracturing of his English alliance. Blount returned to England.
Blount became a member of the household of
John of Gaunt by 1372, and married by 1374 to Sancha de Ayala, the daughter of Diego Gómez, a high royal official in
Toledo under the Castilian regime, by his wife, Inez de Ayala, sister of chancellor
Pero López de Ayala
Don Pero (or Pedro) López de Ayala (1332–1407) was a Castilian statesman, historian, poet, chronicler, chancellor, and courtier.
Life
Pero López de Ayala was born in 1332 at Vitoria, County of Alava, Kingdom of Castile, as the son of Fe ...
. Sancha had come to England in 1371 as a lady-in-waiting to
Constance
Constance may refer to:
Places
*Konstanz, Germany, sometimes written as Constance in English
*Constance Bay, Ottawa, Canada
* Constance, Kentucky
* Constance, Minnesota
* Constance (Portugal)
* Mount Constance, Washington State
People
* Consta ...
, the elder daughter of Peter of Castile, whom John of Gaunt had married in 1372.
Estate
In 1374 Sir Walter Blount's brother John, who had succeeded his mother Iseult (Isolde) Mountjoy in the
Mountjoy property, made over to Walter the Mountjoy estates in
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
, and to them Walter added by purchase, in 1381, the great estates of the
Bakepuiz family in Derbyshire,
Leicestershire, and
Hertfordshire.
Return to Castile
Blount probably returned to Castile in 1386. Permission had been granted Blount in 1377 to proceed with Duke
John of Gaunt to Castile in order to assert the duke's right by virtue of his marriage to the throne of Leon and Castile; but the expedition did not start till 1386. On 17 April 1393 he, with
Henry Bowet
Henry Bowet (died 20 October 1423) was both Bishop of Bath and Wells and Archbishop of York.
Life
Bowet was a royal clerk to King Richard II of England, and at one point carried letters of recommendation to Pope Urban VI from the king.Chaplais ...
and another, was appointed to negotiate a permanent peace with the king of Castile.
In 1398 Duke John granted to Blount and his wife, with the king's approval, an annuity of 100 marks in consideration of their labours in his service. Blount was an executor of John of Gaunt, who died early in 1399, and received a small legacy.
Later career and death
He represented
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
in
Henry IV's first parliament, which met on 6 Oct 1399. When the rebellion of the Percys broke out, Blount supported the King. At the
Battle of Shrewsbury
The Battle of Shrewsbury was a battle fought on 21 July 1403, waged between an army led by the Lancastrian King Henry IV and a rebel army led by Henry "Harry Hotspur" Percy from Northumberland. The battle, the first in which English archers ...
(21 July 1403) he was the king's standard-bearer. In the decisive struggle of the battle, the rebel leader
Henry Percy attempted to break the royal army by a direct attack on the King. In the struggle Blount was killed by
Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas, one of the most powerful and feared noblemen of Scotland, and a privileged hostage in Percy's entourage, following his earlier capture at Homildon Hill. According to later chronicles, Blount was dressed in armour resembling that worn by Henry IV, and was mistaken by Douglas for the king.
[Walsingham, Hist. Anglicana, ed. Riley, ii. 258; Annales Henrici Quarti, 367, 369]
He was buried in the church St. Mary 'of Newark', Leicester. His widow Sancha survived him until 1418. In 1406 she founded the
hospital of St. Leonards, situated between Alkmonton and Hungry-Bentley, Derbyshire.
Eulogised in Shakespeare's ''Henry IV''
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
gives Blount, whom he calls Sir Walter Blunt, a prominent place in the first part of his ''
Henry IV,'' and represents both Hotspur and Henry IV as eulogising his military prowess and manly character. In the play he deliberately misidentifies himself as the King in order to draw the attack onto himself.
Falstaff
Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays '' Henry IV, Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', w ...
, finding his body, undercuts the eulogies by presenting his death as proof of the uselessness of "honour".
Descendants
Sir Walter Blount's will, made 16 Dec 1401, named: his wife; sons John, Thomas, and James; and daughters Constance and Anne Griffith.
Sir John Blount was at one time governor of
Calais; was besieged in a castle of
Aquitaine
Aquitaine ( , , ; oc, Aquitània ; eu, Akitania; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiéne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne ( oc, Guiana), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former administrative region of the country. Since 1 Janu ...
by a great French army, which he defeated with a small force (Walsingham, Ypodigma Neustriæ, Rolls Ser., p. 437); was created
knight of the Garter
The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. It is the most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, outranked in precedence only by the Victoria Cross and the George ...
in 1413; and was present at the
siege of Rouen in 1418: Sir John died without male issue.
Sir Thomas Blount was
Treasurer of Calais
The town of Calais, France, was in English hands from 1347 to 1558. During this historical period the task of the treasurer, in conjunction with the Captain of Calais, was keeping the defences in order, supplying victuals and paying the garrison ...
during
Henry VI's wars in France (Stevenson's Letters, &c., illustrating the wars in France temp. Henry VI, Rolls Ser., ii. passim), and founded a
chantry
A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings:
# a chantry service, a Christian liturgy of prayers for the dead, which historically was an obiit, or
# a chantry chapel, a building on private land, or an area i ...
at Newark in 1422 (at the expense of the
Duke of Exeter
The title Duke of Exeter was created several times in England in the later Middle Ages. Exeter is the main town of Devon. It was first created for John Holland, the half-brother of King Richard II in 1397. That title was rescinded upon Henry I ...
) in memory of his father and mother. Sir Thomas was the father (by Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Gresley of Gresley, Derbyshire) of Sir
Walter Blount, 1st Baron Mountjoy
Walter Blount, 1st Baron Mountjoy, KG (1 August 1474) was an English politician.
Early life and family
Walter Blount was born about 1416, the eldest son of Sir Thomas Blount (1378–1456) and Margery Gresley and grandson of Sir Walter Bloun ...
.
James Blount was the ancestor of the Blounts of Grendon, Orleton, and other places in Herefordshire. (Croke, Vol. II, Book III, p. 196.)
Peter Blount, named as Sancha and Walter's son in a genealogy written by her uncle (Dacosta, 175)
Walter Blount, died young, named as Sancha and Walter's son in a genealogy written by her uncle (Dacosta, 175)
Constance Blount married
John de Sutton V of Dudley Castle, Staffordshire. They were the parents of
John Sutton, 1st Baron Dudley
John Sutton VI, 1st Baron Dudley, KG, (25 December 1400 – 30 September 1487) was an English nobleman, a diplomat, and councillor of King Henry VI. He fought in several battles during the Hundred Years War and the Wars of the Roses, as well as ...
.
Anne Blount married Thomas Griffith, Esq., of Wichnor (in Tatenhill), Staffordshire. (Croke, Vol. II, Book III, p. 196.)
References
Sources
G. E. Cokayne, ''The Complete Peerage'', vol. IX, pp. 331–333
Burke, Sir Bernard, "A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire," New Edition, pp. 54–55, https://archive.org/details/agenealogicalhi00burkgoog/page/n74
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blount, Walter
Year of birth missing
1403 deaths
English soldiers
Members of the Parliament of England for Derbyshire
Male Shakespearean characters