Walter Devereux, 1st 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, The 1st Viscount Hereford. Walter Devereux's mother was Lady Dorothy Hastings, daughter of The 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.
Walter Devereux (1387–1419)
In 1406 Welsh raiders damaged Lyonshall Castle in the heart of Devereux territory. Walter Devereux shared a claim on the castle with the family of his distant cousin John Devereux, 1st Baron Devereux. These claims could only be inherited through the male line, and would result in the castle finally passing to his son in the 1430s. When the daughter of John Devereux, Joan 3rd Baroness Devereux and Baroness Fitzwalter, died on 11 May 1409 she still possessed Lyonshall. On 24 May 1409 an order was issued to the escheator and sheriff of Herefordshire to take the castle into the king’s hands, and arrest ‘certain of the king’s lieges’ who had entered and held it with a strong hand to the contempt of the king. This is probably a reference to Walter Devereux trying to assert his claim.