Walter DE BLOUNT^[1]

1350 - 1403  (53 years)

• Name	Walter DE BLOUNT  [2]
  Birth	1350	Elvaston, Derbyshire, England   [2]
  Gender	Male
  Fact	1367  [2]
  	was sent by the Black Prince and John Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (sons of King Edward III) to Spain to aid Peter the Cruel, King of Castile
  Occupation	1399  [2]
  	Sheriff of Needwood Forest
  Parliament	6 Oct 1399  [2]
  	Represented Derbyshire in Henry IV's first parliament
  Will	16 Dec 1401	Liverpool, Lancashire, England   [2]
  	dated
  Cause of Death	21 Jul 1403  [2]
  	died in the Battle of Shrewsbury
  FamilySearch ID	LBJ1-7RM
  Name	Sir Walter Blount  [2]
  Name	Walter  [2]
  Death	21 Jul 1403	Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England   [2]
  Burial	Aft 21 Jul 1403	St. Mary's, Newark, Leicester, Leicestershire, England   [2]
  Probate	1 Aug 1403  [2]
  Person ID	I594782380	Carney Wehofer 2024 Genealogy
  Last Modified	24 Nov 2024

  
  

  Father	John DE BLOUNT,   b. 1298, Sodington, Worcestershire, England d. 8 Mar 1358, Mamble, Worcestershire, England (Age 60 years)
  Mother	Eleanor DE BEAUCHAMP,   b. 1300, Hatch, Somerset, England d. 13 Jun 1391, England (Age 91 years)
  Marriage	1327	Sodington, Worcestershire, England
  Family ID	F536733124	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Sancha de Ayala DE TOLEDO,   b. 1 Jun 1360, Toledo, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain d. 8 Jan 1418, Newark, Nottinghamshire, England (Age 57 years)
  Marriage	1371	Elvaston, Derbyshire, England
  Children	1. Elizabeth BLOUNT,   b. 1372, England d. 23 Sep 1432, Northampton, Northamptonshire, England (Age 60 years)   2. Walter BLOUNT,   b. Abt 1377, Elvaston, Derbyshire, England d. Between 1378 (Age ~ 1 years)   3. Thomas BLOUNT, Baronet Elvaston,   b. Abt 1378, Elvaston, Derbyshire, England d. 13 Mar 1456, Ambaston, Derbyshire, England (Age ~ 78 years)   4. Constance BLOUNT,   b. 1380, Barton Blount, Derbyshire, England d. 23 Sep 1432, Northamptonshire, England (Age 52 years)   5. James BLOUNT,   b. 1382, Elvaston, Derbyshire, England d. 1414, Grendon Warren, Herefordshire, England (Age 32 years)   6. Peter BLOUNT,   b. 1384, Elvaston, Derbyshire, England d. 1403, Derby, Derbyshire, England (Age 19 years)   7. Anna DE BLOUNT,   b. 1386, Elvaston, Derbyshire, England d. 17 Nov 1415, Elvaston, Derbyshire, England (Age 29 years)   8. John BLOUNT,   b. 1388, Elvaston, Derbyshire, England d. 1414, (Sp) (Age 26 years)
  Family ID	F536733116	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Nov 2024

  
  

• Notes

  Sir Walter Blount (died 21 July 1403), was a soldier and supporter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. He later supported John's son and heir Henry Bolingbroke in his bid to become king Henry IV and in later battles against his enemies. At the Battle of Shrewsbury he served as the royal standard bearer, was mistaken for the king and killed in combat. He appears as a character in Shakespeare's play Henry IV, part 1, in which he epitomises selfless loyalty and chivalry. Early life According to his biography in The History Of Parliament, Sir Walter Blount was the 3rd son of Sir John Blount of Sodington, by his 1st wife, Iseult Mountjoy. In 1367 Blount participated in Edward, the Black Prince's expedition to restore Peter of Castile to the throne of Leon and Castile. This expedition was successfully terminated by the Battle of Nájera in 1367. Blount returned to England. As a result of his role in the campaign, Blount married Sancha de Ayála, the daughter of Diego Gómez, who held high office in Toledo under the Castilian regime, by his wife, Inez Alfonso de Ayála, sister of Pero López de Ayala. Sancha came to England in 1371 as a lady-in-waiting to Constance, the elder daughter of Peter of Castile, whom John of Gaunt married in 1372. Estate In 1374 Sir Walter Blount's brother John, who had succeeded his mother Iseult (Isolde) Mountjoy in the Mountjoy property, made over to Walter the Mountjoy estates in Derbyshire, and to them Walter added by purchase, in 1381, the great estates of the Bakepuiz family in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Hertfordshire. Return to Castile Blount probably returned to Castile in 1386. Permission had been granted Blount in 1377 to proceed with Duke John of Gaunt to Castile in order to assert the duke's right by virtue of his marriage to the throne of Leon and Castile; but the expedition did not start till 1386. On 17 April 1393 he, with Henry Bowet and another, was appointed to negotiate a permanent peace with the king of Castile. In 1398 Duke John granted to Blount and his wife, with the king's approval, an annuity of 100 marks in consideration of their labours in his service. Blount was an executor of John of Gaunt, who died early in 1399, and received a small legacy. Later career and death He represented Derbyshire in Henry IV's first parliament, which met on 6 Oct 1399. When the rebellion of the Percys broke out, Blount supported the King. At the Battle of Shrewsbury (21 July 1403) he was the king's standard-bearer. In the decisive struggle of the battle, the rebel leader Henry Percy attempted to break the royal army by a direct attack on the King. In the struggle Blount was killed by Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas, one of the most powerful and feared noblemen of Scotland, and a privileged hostage in Percy's entourage, following his earlier capture at Homildon Hill. According to later chronicles, Blount was dressed in armour resembling that worn by Henry IV, and was mistaken by Douglas for the king. He was buried in the church St. Mary 'of Newark', Leicester. His widow Sancha survived him until 1418. In 1406 she founded the hospital of St. Leonards, situated between Alkmonton and Hungry-Bentley, Derbyshire. A good account of the life and career of Sir Walter Blount may be found in THE COMPLETE PEERAGE VOL. IX sub MOUNTJOY pp. 331-333. Eulogised in Shakespeare's Henry IV Shakespeare gives Blount, whom he calls Sir Walter Blunt, a prominent place in the first part of his Henry IV, and represents both Hotspur and Henry IV as eulogising his military prowess and manly character. In the play he deliberately misidentifies himself as the King in order to draw the attack onto himself. Falstaff, finding his body, undercuts the eulogies by presenting his death as proof of the uselessness of "honour". Descendants Sir Walter Blount's will, made 16 Dec 1401, named: his wife; sons John, Thomas, and James; and daughters Constantia and Anna Griffith. 1.) Sir John Blount was at one time governor of Calais; was besieged in a castle of Aquitaine by a great French army, which he defeated with a small force (Walsingham, Ypodigma Neustriæ, Rolls Ser., p. 437); was created knight of the Garter in 1413; and was present at the siege of Rouen in 1418: Sir John died without male issue. 2.) Sir Thomas Blount was Treasurer of Calais during Henry VI's wars in France (Stevenson's Letters, &c., illustrating the wars in France temp. Henry VI, Rolls Ser., ii. passim), and founded a chantry at Newark in 1422 (at the expense of the Duke of Exeter) in memory of his father and mother. Sir Thomas was the father (by Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Gresley of Gresley, Derbyshire) of Sir Walter Blount, 1st Baron Mountjoy. 3) James Blount was the ancestor of the Blounts of Grendon, Orleton, and other places in Herefordshire. (Croke, Vol. II, Book III, p. 196.) 4.) Constantia (Constance) Blount married John de Sutton V of Dudley Castle, Staffordshire. They were the parents of John Sutton, 1st Baron Dudley. 5.) Anna (Anne) Blount married Thomas Griffith of Wichenor in Staffordshire, England. (Croke, Vol. II, Book III, p. 196.)

  
  

• Sources

  [SAuth] compiled by James H Carney, Jim Carney. [S1160] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, FamilySearch Family Tree (http://www.familysearch.org), ((http://www.familysearch.org)), accessed 24 Nov 2024), entry for Walter de Blount, person ID LBJ1-7RM. (Reliability: 3).