Biography of Christopher Blount 1565-1601

On 17th May 1558 [his father] James Blount 6th Baron Mountjoy (age 25) and [his mother] Catherine Leigh Baroness Mountjoy (age 26) were married. She by marriage Baroness Mountjoy.

Around 1561 Walter Devereux 1st Earl Essex (age 19) and [his future wife] Lettice Knollys Countess Essex (age 17) were married. She by marriage Viscountess Hereford. They were fourth cousins.

Around 1565 Christopher Blount was born to James Blount 6th Baron Mountjoy (age 32) and Catherine Leigh Baroness Mountjoy (age 33).

Before 25th June 1576 [his mother] Catherine Leigh Baroness Mountjoy (age 44) died.

On 21st September 1578 Robert Dudley 1st Earl of Leicester (age 46) and [his future wife] Lettice Knollys Countess Essex (age 34) were married secretly much to the anguish of Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland (age 45) who developed a deep hatred of Lettice Knollys Countess Essex. She by marriage Countess of Leicester. Roger North 2nd Baron North (age 48) was present. He the son of John Dudley 1st Duke Northumberland and Jane Guildford Duchess Northumberland. They were fifth cousins.

On 10th October 1582 [his father] James Blount 6th Baron Mountjoy (age 49) died in Hook Okehampton, Devon. His son [his brother] William (age 21) succeeded 7th Baron Mountjoy.

Around April 1589 Christopher Blount (age 24) and Lettice Knollys Countess Essex (age 45) were married. The difference in their ages was 21 years; she, unusually, being older than him.

In 1590 [his step-son] Robert Devereux 2nd Earl Essex (age 24) and Frances Walsingham Countess Essex (age 23) were married. She by marriage Countess Essex. He the son of Walter Devereux 1st Earl Essex and [his wife] Lettice Knollys Countess Essex (age 46). They were half fourth cousin once removed.

In 1593 [his step-son] Robert Devereux 2nd Earl Essex (age 27) was appointed Privy Council.

In 1594 Henry "Wizard Earl" Percy 9th Earl of Northumberland (age 29) and [his step-daughter] Dorothy Devereux Countess Northumberland (age 30) were married. She the daughter of Walter Devereux 1st Earl Essex and [his wife] Lettice Knollys Countess Essex (age 50). He the son of Henry Percy 8th Earl of Northumberland and Katherine Neville Countess Northumberland (age 49). They were third cousin once removed.

Before 1595 [his brother-in-law] William Knollys 1st Earl Banbury (age 50) and Dorothy Braye Baroness Chandos and Knollys (age 70) were married. The difference in their ages was 20 years; she, unusually, being older than him.

Around 1595 Mary Fitton (age 16) was appointed Maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland (age 61). Her father Edward Fitton (age 47) recommended her to the care of the married [his brother-in-law] William Knollys 1st Earl Banbury (age 51) who developed a crush on her to the amusement of the court. In Jan 1599 she left court.

In 1596 [his brother-in-law] William Knollys 1st Earl Banbury (age 52) was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire.

In 1599 [his step-son] Robert Devereux 2nd Earl Essex (age 33) was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

On 5th August 1599 Alexander Radclyffe of Ordsall Hall (age 26) died of wounds and fever in Ulster while campaigning with the [his step-son] Robert Devereux 2nd Earl Essex (age 33) during the unsuccessful attempt to bring Ireland under English control. The Queen (age 65) herself informed his twin sister of her brother's death.

Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts. The 19th of February [1601] the [his former step-son] Earl [of Essex] was arraigned (together with Southampton) in Westminster Hall before 25 peers, the Lord Treasurer (age 66) [Buckhurst] sitting as Lord Steward. At the bar the Earl laboured to extenuate his ftiult, by denying that ever he meant any harm to her Majesty's person, and by pretending that he took arms principally to save himself from my Lord Cobham (age 37) and Sir Walter Ralegh (age 48), who (he gave out) should have murdered him in his house on Saturday night. He pretended also an intention he had to have removed me with some others from the Queen, as one who would sell the kingdom of England to the Infant of Spain, with such other hyperbolical inventions. But before he went out of the Hall, when he saw himself condemned, and found that Sir John Davys (age 40), Sir Ferdinando Gorges (age 37), Sir Charles Davers, and Sir Christopher Blunt had confessed all the conferences that were held at Drury House, by his directions, for the surprising of the Queen and the Tower, which argued a premeditated treason (which he laboured to have had it prove only a sudden putting himself into strength, and flying into the city for fear of being committed over night when the Lords sent for him, which upon my faith to you, to whom I will not lie, was only to have reproved him for his unlawful assemblies, and to have wislied him to leave the city and retire into the country), he then break out to divers gentlemen in these words, that his confederates wlio now had accused him had been principal inciters of him, and not he of them, even ever since August last, to work his access to the Queen with force.

On 25th December 1634 [his former wife] Lettice Knollys Countess Essex (age 91) died. She was buried at the Beauchamp Chapel, St Mary's Church, Warwick [Map] with her husband Robert Dudley 1st Earl of Leicester - see Monument [Map] and Inscription [Map].