Penelope Blount, Countess of Devonshire
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Penelope Devereux, Countess of Devonshire (1562-1607), was the elder daughter of Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex and his wife Lettice Knollys, daughter of Sir Francis Knollys and Lady Catherine Carey. Catherine was daughter of Lady Mary Boleyn by either her husband Sir William Carey, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber or her lover Henry VIII of England.
Her brother Robert inherited the Earldom of Essex when their father died in 1576. Their mother Lettice, in 1580, married the Queen's favorite Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who died in 1588.
In 1581, she married Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick. They were parents of Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick and Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland.
Some critics speculate that she, in part, inspired "Stella" in the work Astrophel and Stella (1591) by Philip Sidney, her stepfather Robert's nephew.
Penelope married Charles Blount, 1st Earl of Devonshire, as her second husband.
