A catalogue of notable Middle Templars, with brief biographical notices/Blount, Charles
Admitted 20 June, 1579.
Son of Lord Mountjoy, sixth Lord. He was admitted from Clifford's Inn. His ambition, however, was not for the law, but to repair the family fortunes at Court, and he became a favourite of Queen Elizabeth. In 1586 he was knighted, and in 1588 took part against the Spanish Armada. In 1594 he was appointed Governor of Portsmouth, and in the same year succeeded his brother as eighth Lord Mountjoy. He served under the Earl of Essex in the Low Countries, and subsequently in the Azores, and Ireland, and on his leader's disgrace became Lord-Lieutenant in that country. He ruled the country with success, and was made K.G. in 1597, and Earl of Devon in 1604. Two years later he contracted a marriage with the divorced wife of Robert, Lord Rich, the Stella of Sidney's Sonnets, contrary to the canon law, which attended the King and Queen, and led to mortifications which embittered and shortened his life. He died of a fever 3 April, 1606, having lived, it was said, "too long for his credit." His arms are in the Middle Temple Hall. His death is celebrated by John Ford (q.v.) in a poem entitled Fame's Memorial.