General Notes

Earldom of Salisbury: The next two (after the 2nd) Montagu Earls of Salisbury were also Knights of the Garter, though only one was appointed a Marshal of England as well.  The 4th Earl of the 1337 creation has been called the most distinguished English commander of the phase of the Hundred Years War that followed the death of Henry V in 1422 and beat the French at Cravant (1423) and Verneuil (1424).  The latter was considered by contemporaries as important as Agincourt.  He had literary leanings, being a patron of the poet John Lydgate, and a more famous connection through his second wife, who was Chaucer's granddaughter.

The 4th Earl of the 1337 creation died in 1428.  He left a daughter, who married Richard Neville.  [Burke's Peerage, p. 2532]

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Sir Thomas de Monagu, KG, b. c 1388, d. 1428, Earl of Salisbury, Lt. Gen. of Normandy; m. (1) 1399 Eleanor de Holand, b. 1387, liv. 1413, dau. of Sir Thomas de Holand, d. 1397, Earl of Kent; m. (2) bef. Nov 1424 Alice, d. 1475, widow of Sir John Philip & dau. & heir of Thomas Chaucer, Chief Butler to Richard II & Henry IV, speaker of the House of Commons, probably son of Geoffrey Chaucer, English poet, brother-in-law of John of Gaunt.  [Ancestral Roots]

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Thomas de Montagu, 4th earl of Salisbury, Montagu also spelled MONTACUTE (b. 1388--d. Nov. 3, 1428, Meung, Fr.), English military commander during the reigns of Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI.
The son of John, the 3rd earl, who was executed in 1400 as a supporter of Richard II, Thomas was granted part of his father's estates and summoned to Parliament in 1409, though not fully restored until 1421. He was present throughout the campaign of Agincourt in 1415 and at the naval engagement before Harfleur in 1416. In 1420 he was in chief command in Maine, and, when Henry V went home the next year, Salisbury remained in France as the chief lieutenant of Thomas, duke of Clarence. The Duke, through his own rashness, was defeated at BaugE on March 21, 1421. Salisbury came up with the archers too late to retrieve the day but recovered the bodies of the dead and by a skillful retreat averted further disaster.
Salisbury's success in Maine marked him out as a chief lieutenant in the French war after Henry's death. Subsequent operations completed the conquest of Champagne, leaving him to be employed on the Norman border and in Maine. After a year's visit to England he returned to the chief command in the field in July 1428. He determined to make OrlEans his principal objective, and began the siege on October 12. On October 27, while surveying the city from a window in the castle of Tourelles he was wounded by a cannon shot and died a few days later. Salisbury was the most skillful soldier on the English side after the death of Henry V. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD, 1996, SALISBURY, THOMAS DE MONTAGU, 4TH EARL OF]