Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex

Walter Devereux
Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex as Earl Marshal of England, 1575
Born	16 September 1541
Died	22 September 1576
Title	Earl of Essex
Tenure	1572–1576
Other titles	Viscount Hereford
Known for	Soldier and courtier
Nationality	English
Wars and battles	Plantations of Ireland
Offices	Earl Marshal
Successor	Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
Spouse(s)	Lettice Knollys
Issue	Penelope Devereux Dorothy Devereux Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex Walter Devereux Francis Devereux
Parents	Sir Richard Devereux Dorothy Hastings

Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, KG (16 September 1541 – 22 September 1576), was an English nobleman and general. From 1573 until his death he fought in Ireland in connection with the Plantation of Ulster, where he ordered the massacre of Rathlin Island. He was the father of Elizabeth I's favourite of her later years, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex.

Walter Devereux was the eldest son of Sir Richard Devereux, who was created a Knight of the Bath on 20 February 1547 and died that same year, in the lifetime of his father, Walter Devereux, 1st Viscount Hereford. Walter Devereux's mother was Dorothy Hastings, daughter of George Hastings, 1st Earl of Huntingdon and Anne Stafford, said to have been a mistress of Henry VIII. Through his paternal ancestry he was related to the Bourchier family, to which previous Earls of Essex had belonged:John Devereux, son of Walter Devereux who died at the Battle of Bosworth, married Cecily Bourchier, sister of Henry Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Essex.

On his grandfather's death, Devereux became on 27 September 1558 the 2nd Viscount Hereford and 10th Baron Ferrers of Chartley. He was entrusted with joint custody of the Queen of Scots in 1568, and appointed Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire in 1569 (which he held through the end of his life). Devereux provided signal service in suppressing the Northern Rebellion of 1569, serving as high marshal of the field under the Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick and Lord Clinton. For his zeal in the service of Queen Elizabeth I on this and other occasions, he was made a knight of the Garter on 17 June 1572 and was created Earl of Essex and Ewe, and Viscount Bourchier on 4 May 1572.