thumb|243px|Arms of Sir William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy, KG: Quarterly 1st Argent two wolves passant in pale Sable on a border Or eight saltires Gules for Ayala; 2nd Or a tower triple towered portcullis raised Azure port Sable for Suarez de Toledo; 3rd barry nebully of six Or and Sable for Blount; 4th Vair for Beauchamp of Hache.

William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy KG (; 8 November 1534), 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.

Origins

William Blount was born circa 1478 in Barton Blount, Derbyshire, the eldest son of John Blount, 3rd Baron Mountjoy (c. 14501485) by his wife Lora Berkeley (died 1501), daughter of Edward Berkeley (died 1506) of Beverston Castle, Gloucestershire. After her husband's death in 1485, Lora Berkeley remarried first Sir Thomas Montgomery (died 1495), and secondly Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond (died 1515), grandfather of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, father of Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII.

Biography

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.

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 Katherine 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. one of the Spanish attendants or chamberers of Katherine 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. to Lady Jane Grey:
  • John Blount
  • Mary Blount, who married (as his first wife) Sir Robert Dennis, Knight (died 1592), of Holcombe Burnell in Devon.
  • Dorothy Blount, who married John Blewett, Esq. (died 1585) of Holcombe Rogus in Devon.

Notes

References

  • Berkeley family tree