of the army which were supported by the commons, but on 2 April he anticipated the action of the second self-denying ordinance which passed on the following day, by formally resigning his command in a dignified speech.
Essex died on 14 Sept. 1646, and was buried in great state at the public expense. With him the earldom became extinct.
[The life of Essex in the second volume of Devereux's Lives of the Devereux contains many of the earl's letters and despatches, and the references there given will direct attention to the original authorities on which it is based. See also, especially with respect to the later part of Essex's career, Gardiner's Hist. of England 1603–1642, and Hist. of the Great Civil War.]
DEVEREUX, WALTER, Viscount Hereford (d. 1558), son of John, lord Ferrers, of Chartley, Staffordshire, and Cecily, sister of Henry Bourchier, earl of Essex, was born before 1490 (Doyle), succeeded his father as third baron Ferrers in 1501, and on 7 Dec. 1509 received special livery of the lands of his inheritance, being then under full age (Cal. of Henry VIII, vol. i. No. 736). He was appointed high steward of Tamworth in 1510 (ib. 1354), and joint-constable of Warwick Castle with Sir Edward Belknap in February 1511 (ib. 1499). He accompanied his brother-in-law, the Marquis of Dorset, on the expedition sent to Guipuscoa in 1512, in order to act with the Spaniards in an intended invasion of Guienne (Herbert, History of Henry VIII, p. 127). In the December of that year he was appointed captain of the Imperyall Carrik (Cal. ii. No. 3591), and the next year commanded the Trinitye, receiving 6s. 8d. a day as pay (ib. 4533). While serving under Admiral Sir Edward Howard he took a prominent part in the engagement off Conquêt on 25 April, in which the admiral fell (Herbert, p. 138). On 1 Aug. following he was appointed a member of the council of Wales and the marches. He was made a knight of the Garter in 1523, and served in the ineffectual campaign of the Duke of Suffolk against France. In 1525 he was appointed steward of the household of Mary, princess of Wales, and chief justice of South Wales, and the next year chamberlain of South Wales (Cal. iv. No. 2200), and appears to have been actively engaged in fulfilling the duties of these offices. When Henry made his expedition against France in 1544, he marched in the rear guard of the army under the command of Lord Russell (Herbert, p. 690). He was sworn of the privy council of Edward VI in January, and created Viscount Hereford on 2 Feb. 1550 (Doyle). He died 27 Sept. 1558, and was buried in the parish church of Stowe, near Stafford, under a monument erected during his lifetime (Dugdale). By his first wife, Mary, daughter of Thomas Grey, marquis of Dorset, he had two sons and a daughter. His eldest son, Richard, married Dorothy, daughter of George Hastings, earl of Huntingdon, and predeceased him in 1547, leaving a son Walter, created earl of Essex [q. v.], and other children. His second wife was Margaret, daughter of Robert Garnish of Kenton, Suffolk, by whom he had an only son, Sir Edward Devereux.
[Several notices of Walter Devereux, lord Ferrers, will be found in Calendar of Henry VIII, vols. i–vii.; Lord Herbert's Hist. of the Reign of Henry VIII, ed. 1870; Doyle's Official Baronage, ii. 167, where a portrait of Devereux is given from the Stowe monument; Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 177.]
DEVEREUX, WALTER, first Earl of Essex (1541?–1576), Irish adventurer, was elder son of Sir Richard Devereux by his wife Dorothy, daughter of George Hastings, first earl of Huntingdon. Sir Richard, who was made a knight of the Garter on 20 Feb. 1547–8, died in 1548, in the lifetime of his father, Walter Devereux, viscount Hereford [q. v.] The family, which traced its descent from Robert D'Evreux, a companion of William I, was originally settled in Herefordshire, and for twelve generations was distinguished in border warfare. In 1461 a Sir Walter Devereux, who married the heiress of Lord Ferrers of Chartley, Staffordshire, was summoned to the House of Lords by that title; and met his death while fighting for Richard III at Bosworth, 22 Aug. 1485. His son John succeeded as Lord Ferrers, and married Cecily, granddaughter of Henry Bourchier [q. v.], earl of Essex (cr. 1461), and heiress of her brother, also Henry Bourchier [q. v.], earl of Essex, who died in 1539. The offspring of this marriage, Walter (Lord Bourchier and Lord Lovaine through his mother, Lord Ferrers of Chartley through his father, and Viscount Hereford by his creation in 1550), was, on his death in 1558, succeeded in all his dignities by his grandson, the subject of this memoir, who was born in 1541.
Wales did rejoice her in his birth,
And there a while he spent his youth,
is the account given of him in an elegy written on his death, first printed by J. P. Collier. His family had large estates in Wales and a house at Lamphey (Llanffydd) in Pembrokeshire; the statement may, therefore, be true.
After a careful education at home, young Lord Hereford came to court on Elizabeth's
