William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy

Arms of Sir William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy, KG: Barry nebulée of six or and sable

William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy (c. 1478 – 8 November 1534), KG, 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. 1450 – 1485) 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 1497 he commanded part of a force sent to fight and suppress the rebellion of Perkin Warbeck. Mountjoy was appointed and served as King Henry VIII's boyhood tutor. In 1509 he was appointed Master of the Mint. In 1513 he was appointed Governor of Tournai (1513–1519), and his letters to Cardinal Wolsey and King Henry VIII describing his vigorous government of the town are preserved in the British Library.

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 Catherine 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. Sir William Blount, 4th Lord Mountjoy died on 8 November 1534 at Sutton-on-the-Hill, Derbyshire, England. Mountjoy was never disgraced, nor out of royal favour. His son Charles Blount, 5th Baron Mountjoy (1516–1544), was also a patron of learning.

Family

Mountjoy married four times:


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