General Notes

The 1st Earl of Salisbury of the second (1137) creation was the 3rd Lord (Baron) Montagu, a leading diplomat and military man under Edward III during the early stages of the Hundred Years War (he was made Marshal of England for life in 1338).  [Burke's Peerage]

-------------------------------------------------------------

Sir William de Montacute, 2nd baron, d. in Gascony in 1319 and was s. by his eldest surviving son, William de Montacute, 3rd baron, who, the next year, although in minority, obtained a grant from the king of the wardship of his own lands, and in the 16th Edward II [1323], making proof of his age and doing his homage, had livery thereof. In three years afterwards he was made a knight of the Bath, and had an allowance of robes for that solemnity as a banneret. In the 4th Edward III [1331], his lordship was deputed ambassador to the Pope, with Bartholomew de Burghersh, to return thanks to his holiness for confirming a bull of Pope Honorius IV, touching certain favours, by him granted, to the monks at Westminster; moreover, before the end of the year, a parliament being then held at Nottingham, he was the principal person who apprehended Roger de Mortimer, Earl of March, in the night-time within the Queen's lodgings there, and sent him prisoner to London, where he was soon afterwards executed for high treason. For this service, Lord Montacute had a grant in tail, to himself and Katherine, his wife, of the estate of Sherburne, co. Dorset, and of several other manors in Hants, Berkshire, Bucks, and Cambridgeshire; part of the possessions of the attainted Earl of March. He was summoned to parliament from 5 June, 1331, to 29 November, 1336. In the 8th Edward III [1335], his lordship was constituted governor of the Isles of Guernsey, Jersey, &c., and the next year made constable of the Tower of London.

About this time, Lord Montacute acquired great distinction in the Scottish wars, but at the expense of one of his eyes, which he lost in the campaign. In the 10th Edward III [1337], he was appointed admiral of the king's fleet, westward, and 16 March, 11th Edward III [1338], in consideration of his numerous gallant achievements, he was advanced by charter, in full parliament held at London, to the title and dignity of Earl of Salisbury, to hold to him and his heirs, with a grant of £20 out of the profits of that county. Shortly after this he was joined in command of the army in Scotland with Richard, Earl of Arundel; and pursued his victorious career as well in Scotland as in France for the two ensuing years, when in storming the town of L'Isle, he had the misfortune to be made prisoner with Robert de Ufford, Earl of Suffolk, and conveyed in fetters, amidst the acclamations of the places through which he passed, to Paris, where the French king would have put him to death but for the interference of the King of Bohemia. His lordship and his fellow captive, the Earl of Suffolk, were soon after, however, exchanged. With his liberty, he recommenced his martial career and won fresh laurels on the French soil. In the 16th Edward III [1343], having conquered the Isle of Man, he was crowned King thereof by his royal master. His lordship m. Catherine, dau. of William, Lord Grandison, and had issue, William, his successor; John (Sir), a distinguished warrior; Robert; Sibyl, m. to Edmund, son of Edmund, Earl of Arundel; Phillippa, m. to Roger Mortimer, Earl of March; Elizabeth, m. 1st, to Giles, Lord Badlesmere, and 2ndly, to Hugh le Despencer; Anne, m. to John, son of Roger, Lord Grey.

This great earl d. in 1343, of bruises received in a tilting at Windsor, and was s. by his eldest son, William de Montacute, 2nd Earl of Salisbury. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 371-2, Montacute, Barons Montacute, Earls of Salisbury]