3644 x 4620 px | 30,9 x 39,1 cm | 12,1 x 15,4 inches | 300dpi
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Charles Blount (pr. blunt), 8th Baron Mountjoy and 1st Earl of Devonshire (1563 – 3 April 1606) was an English nobleman and soldier who served as Lord Deputy of Ireland under Queen Elizabeth I, then as Lord Lieutenant under King James I. The grandson of William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy, Charles became the most notable of the later holders of the barony. The favour which his youthful good looks procured for him from Queen Elizabeth I of England aroused the jealousy of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and led to a duel between the two courtiers, who later became close friends. Between 1586 and 1598 Charles spent a lot of time on the continent, serving in the Netherlands and in Brittany. He joined Essex and Sir Walter Raleigh in their expedition to the Azores in 1597, along with his distant cousin, Sir Christopher Blount (1565–1601). (Sir Christopher had married Essex's mother, Lettice Knollys, the Countess of Essex, and he was afterwards executed for complicity in Essex's treason.) In 1600 Mountjoy went to Ireland as lord deputy, in succession to Essex, and brought the Nine Years War to an end with ruthless scorched-earth tactics in the stronghold of the rebel Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone in Ulster. In July 1601 he had successfully ordered an amphibious landing at Lough Foyle, near Derry, which penetrated the north of the province and undermined the rebels. In the following December he defeated O'Neill's Spanish allies at Kinsale, and drove them out of the country. On 30 March 1603, six days after the death of Elizabeth and the accession of James I, O'Neill made his submission to Mountjoy at Melifont, near Dundalk. Mountjoy continued in office with the more distinguished title of Lord-Lieutenant (1603–1604). He declared an amnesty for the rebels and granted them honourable terms, which caused some severe criticism from England.
