General Notes

ROGER DE MONTGOMERY who succeeded in 1070 to the Seigneuries of Belesme and Alen‡on in right of his first wife MABEL, daughter and heiress of William II, surnamed Talvas, Count of Belesme, Alen‡on, etc. (ped. 152); accompanied William the Conqueror to England and led the centre of the army at the battle of Hastings; created Earl of Shrewsbury in 1070, where he had built an abbey; built Montgomery Castle; created Earl of Chichester, of Arundel, and of Montgomery in Wales; died July 27, 1094, and was buried in the Monastery of Shrewsbury which he founded. He married, second, ADELAIDE, daughter of Hugh de Puiset. He built also, during his wife Mabel's life, a fortress called Roche-Mabile in le Passais

150L'Art, XIII, 24.

On the death of William in 1087, and the accession of William Rufus to the throne of England, Roger de Montgomerie and his sons were for a short time enlisted in Bishop Odo's conspiracy to place Robert, the eldest son of William, on the throne. The following is the account given by Hume of this attempt.6 "Odo, Bishop of Baieux, and Robert, Earl of Moreton, maternal brothers of the conqueror, envying the great credit of Lanfrane, which was increased by his late services, enforced all these motives with their partisans, and engaged them in a formal conspiracy to dethrone the king. They communicated their design to Eustace, Count of Boulogne, Roger, Earl of Shrewsbury and Arundel, Robert de Belˆsme his eldest son, William, Bishop of Durham, Robert de Mowbray, Roger Bigod, Hugh de Grentmesnil; and they easily procured the assent of these potent noblemen. The conspirators, retiring to their castles, hastened to put themselves in a military posture; and expecting to be soon supported by a powerful army from Normandy, they had already begun hostilities in many places." The king by "engaging the affections of the native English," and with the aid of some of his own countrymen, gained the advantage over his opponents. "This success gave authority to his negotiations with Roger, Earl of Shrewsbury, whom he detached from the confederates." In a subsequent attempt, after Roger's death, of his sons in favor of Robert, we shall see how unsuccessful they were, and how by the unfortunate result, the family entirely lost all the possessions in England and Wales he had acquired and which he had left intact to his descendants.

Thus seemed to end Roger's connection with public affairs. He turned his attention to religious matters; and when well advanced in years, entered into holy orders, and was shorn a monk of the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul, his own foundation, where he spent the few remaining years of his life, and died on July 27, 1094, and was there buried. It is said that among his gifts to the Abbey, he enriched it with the coat of St. Hugh, of the monastery of Cluni, "which precious relick the Earl himself sometimes wore."1 At the Herald's Visitation to the Abbey in 1622, before referred to, the monument, a figure in mail, which was supposed to represent the Earl of Shrewsbury, was dug out of the ruins and erected at the east end of the south aisle, with the following inscription over it: "The figure underneath, which was at first placed within the Monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul, and was afterwards found in the ruins, was removed hither by directions of His Majesty's Heralds at Arms, in their visitation of this county, 1622, to remain (as it was originally intended) in perpetual memory of Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, who was kinsman to the Conqueror, and one of his chief commanders in the victorious battle of Hastings. He erected many useful buildings here, both publick and private; and not only fortified this town with walls, but built the Castle on the Isthmus. As also the castles of Ludlow and Bridgenorth, with the monastery of Wenlock. He founded and endowed in an ample manner this large Benedictine Abbey; and when advanced in years, by the consent of his Countess Adelaisa, he entered into holy orders, and was shorn a monk of this his own foundation, where he lies interred. He died July 27, 1094."2

There is a handsome illumination of Roger de Montgomerie's arms given in an Amsterdam edition of Camden's Brittania, "which was a
Lion rampant or, on a field azure, within a border or."1 His descendants in Scotland did not bear these arms, but carried the three fleurs-delis or, on a field azure; the same now carried by his descendants, but around which have since clustered, the arms of Eglinton, Lyle, and Marr.