Walter Erle (c.1515/20–1581) (alias Erley, Erell, etc.Sandon, p.86, note 56: "I have chosen Erle because it is the most common spelling in documents referring to Walter himself") of Colcombe in the parish of Colyton, of Bindon in the parish of Axmouth, both in Devon, and of Charborough in Dorset, England, was a courtier and servant of the Royal Household to two of the wives of King Henry VIII, namely Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr, and successively to his son King Edward VISandon; Pole, Sir William (d.1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, p.123. Erle's service to King Edward VI, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth is mentioned by Pole, whose sister married Erle's son, and who therefore appears to have particular authority (1547–1553) and two daughters, Queen Mary I (1553–1558) and Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) during their successive reigns.

According to Sandon (1983) his popularity as a royal courtier was in part due to his ability as a musician, particularly as a player of the virginal. He is known to have composed at least one work of church music, namely Ave Vulnus Lateris ("Hail, O Wound of the Side"), a short votive antiphon in honour of one of the Five Holy Wounds of Jesus,"shows fluency and an understanding of the vocal medium; it may have been sung by a small group of chamber singers rather than by a larger ecclesiastical choir" (Sandon, Nick, (Ed.), "Hedley, Edward: Terrenum Sitiens Regnum; Erle, Walter: Ave Vulnus Lateris", Royal School of Church Music, RCM 112 his authorship of which is recorded in Peterhouse College manuscripts 471–474, held in the Cambridge University Library, comprising four partbooks from a set of five copied late in the reign of King Henry VIII, which contain seventy-two pieces of Latin church music.Sandon, Chapter III, Volume I, pp.86–96 As a courtier-musician he well represents the ideal royal courtier described in The Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione (d.1529) and also in The Boke Named The Governour by Sir Thomas Elyot (d.1546).Sandon, p.95

Although he was born into a minor gentry family of Devonshire, he founded a dynasty of substantial landed gentry that survives to the present day, his heir (albeit via several female lines) being the Conservative Member of Parliament Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax (born 1958), of Charborough House.

Origins No record of Erle's birth survives, but circumstantial evidence suggests a birthdate between 1515 and 1520.Sandon, Chapter III, Volume I, p.87 He was the son of John III Erle of Cullompton in Devon, by his wife Thomasyn. Walter's grandfather was John II Erle of Cullompton, the second son of John I Erle of Ashburton, Devon.

Career as courtier King Henry VIII The earliest surviving document which mention Walter Erle is a list which appears to date from 1537 to 1547,Sandon, p.87: "The last decade of the reign of King Henry VIII"; and: "Assuming that the list was drawn up in full knowledge of current events, we can probably date it to the six weeks between 11 November 1541, when the privy council communicated to Cranmer the king’s decision about Katherine’s immediate future, and 22 December, when a royal proclamation depriving her of the title of queen was made at Hampton Court" entitled The booke of Certayne of the Quenys Ordynary as yet to no place Appoynted, a list of 127 above-stairs members of a queen's existing household whose appointment to new positions is envisaged but not completed, in which Erle is named last among three Pagis of the Chamber Ordynary. Sandon deduced the queen in question to be Katherine Howard (beheaded 1542),Sandon, p.87: "The membership of the higher ranks of the household named in the list shows such a strong Howard affinity that it is difficult to believe that the household is not that of Katherine" the 5th wife of Henry VIII. Erle was thus a page in her service at the time of her downfall in November 1541 due to adultery. Erle however retained a position at court after Katherine's execution, having been transferred to the household of Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford (later 1st Duke of Somerset), the eldest brother of Queen Jane Seymour (d.1537), the third wife of Henry VIII, and the future Lord Protector of England from 1547 until 1549 during the minority of his nephew, King Edward VI (1547–1553).

Erle is mentioned in Hertford's household accounts drawn up by his steward John Thynne,Sandon, p.87 including on 30 June 1542 a payment of 40 shillings to Water Erley by my lady's comandement for a payre of virginalls, the lady in question being Anne Stanhope, Hertford's second wife. According to Sandon this reference to Erle is highly significant for several reasons, namely:Sandon, p.88 it is the earliest dated reference to Erle in the orbit of the royal household; it is the earliest to link him with the Seymour family; it is—by several decades—the earliest to place him explicitly in a musical context and to associate him with a keyboard instrument; and it is the only known reference that spells his name in a manner identical with one of the spellings in the Peterhouse College manuscripts, in which his musical work Ave Vulnus Lateris is recorded.

Erle's continuing presence at court is suggested by a payment of 40 shillings received by him in April 1543 from Princess (and future Queen) Mary (eldest daughter of Henry VIII), after which the records concerning him are silent for several months.

Erle returned to the inner circle of the royal court following the 6th and last marriage of Henry VIII to Catherine Parr (d.1548) on 12 July 1543, and became a Gentleman Waiter to that queen, as is evident from the final entry in a mid-1540s list of additions to the royal household's expenditure: Item, yt ye 2nd day of November in ye 35th yeare (i.e. of his reign, 1543), ye Kings pleasure was declared by ye mouth of Mr Herbert,Sandon, p.88, note 64: "probably William Herbert" (in 1551 created 1st Earl of Pembroke) "husband of Katherine’s sister Anne Parr and himself a gentleman of the king’s privy chamber" yt Walter Earle shoud yearly have ye Wages of £ x in lieu of a Gent Wayter to ye Queens Grace.

King Edward VI Following the death of King Henry VIII in 1547, Erle's career at court depended on Queen Katherine Parr (d.1548), the king's widow. He became a member of her household, apparently due to his connection with the Seymour family, when three months after the king's death she remarried to Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley (d.1549), Lord Admiral of England, the younger brother of Queen Jane Seymour, an uncle of King Edward VI and brother of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (d.1552), Lord Protector of England. As former fellow courtiers to Henry VIII, Thomas Seymour was well-acquainted with Erle, whom he referred to in a letter to his wife as "my old friend".Sandon, p.90 Furthermore, in 1544 Thomas Seymour had purchased from Erle various of the latter's speculative acquisitions of former monastic lands. Erle also had business dealings with the Lord Protector, from whom in 1548 he purchased a twenty-one-year lease on property in Ottery St Mary, Devon, including "the Warden's House" of the dissolved college there.

Following the death of his wife in 1548, and released from her restraining influence, Thomas Parr's "imprudence and recklessness now became increasingly manifest", and Erle became caught up in his master's ambitious scheme of personal aggrandisement, which involved seizing control of his nephew the king. In 1548 Thomas Seymour offered to Princess Mary, King Edward VI's eldest sister, the services of Erle to provide lessons on the virginal, and shortly afterwards Erle passed her a compromising letter from Thomas Seymour, which eventually was discovered and assisted in providing evidence of the latter's plot in 1549 against the young king, for which he was executed soon after. Erle's role in the conspiracy was wholly innocent and he suffered no penalty; however, he had lost his patron and was absent from court circles for another two years. During this period he appears to have resided at Colcombe House in Colyton, Devon, in which parish on 22 October 1549 he married Mary Wyke.Sandon, p.91

On 9 April 1551, with effect from the previous Christmas, he was appointed a Groom of the Privy Chamber to King Edward VI, at a yearly salary of £20. This was thus his first position as a direct servant of a monarch. Shortly afterwards he received various royal grants of land, including in 1552 the manor and advowson of Axmouth (in which parish was situated his wife's inheritance of Bindon), for an annual rent of £53 13s. 6d, formerly part of the dower lands of Katherine Parr. In 1553 he was granted the reversion of the leaseholds of various ex-monastic property in Devon, including part of Dunkeswell Abbey.

Queen Mary I On the accession of Queen Mary I in 1553, Erle retained a position as a servant of the Privy Chamber, although his exact role is unclear. This is evidenced by his inclusion on several livery lists allocating clothing to courtiers of the queen. The earliest such list including his name is dated 4 November 1553, and is "signed by the Queen's hand", as follows: "We woll and Commaunde youe that Imediatly upon the syghte hereof ye deliver or cause to be delivered yerely unto our welbelovede Servvante Walter Earle oon of our prevye Chambre theise percelles Folowinge That is to saye: fourtene yardes of good blacke velvett; fourtene yardes of good blacke Damaske or Satten to make him a gowne, Coate and doblett; oon Furre of very good booge (i.e. budge, lamb's skin) for the sayde Gowne price eyghte powndes; twoo yardes d’ (i.e.and a half) of fyne Marble Clothe to make him a winter Cooate; two yardes d’ of Russett velvett to garde the sayde Cooate; two yardes d’ of fyne grene clothe to make him a Sommer Cooate; two yardes d’ of good grene velvett to garde the sayde Cooate, withe makinge lyninge, sylke buttons and all other necessarie thinges to the sayde gowne, Cooate, doblett, furre and all other the premises in enywyse belonginge or apperteining. And theise our lettres shalbe youre sufficiente warraunte and dischardge in that behalff. Yeven undre our Signett at our palaice of Westminster the fowerthe daye of Novembre in the furste yere of our Reigne". In about 1554 Erle was promoted to the position of a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber.Sandon, p.93 on New Year's Day 1556 Erle made a gift to Queen Mary of "a booke covered with blacke vellat of the Comentary of Warre, in Englishe". On 3 July 1558 he was granted a licence to export English wheat to Spain.

Queen Elizabeth I and retirement Following the death of Queen Mary in 1558, Erle now aged in his late-thirties, appears to have retired from court to concentrate on expanding and consolidating his landholdings in Devon and Dorset. His name does not appear in the lists of active servants of the next monarch Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603), although he is still referred to as late as 1578 as "of the Queen’s privy chamber", perhaps in title only.

Career as musician