General Notes

Roger de Montgomerie, Count of Montgomerie and Viscount d'Exmes in Normandy, and subsequently Earl of Shrewsbury, Arundel and Chichester in England and Montgomery in Wales, was one of the most powerful and influential nobles at the court of William the Conqueror. This Roger accompanied William to England and led the main forces in the attack at Hastings. He is said to have been the man who conceived the idea, and who mainly helped to carry it out, of the Conquest of England. He headed his own vassals and provided a vast contingent of ships, no less than sixty, to carry out the expedition. His was the master mind of Normandy, and after William I was firmly established Roger Montgomery was made Viceroy to govern Normandy in connection with Queen Matilda, but later when news of the conspiracies reached them he took Roger back to England with him where he was given nearly the whole of County Salop, with the Earldom of Shrewsbury, he had been made Earl of Arundel also, and had 28 manors in Dorset and also in Somerset, 77 in Sussex, besides the City of Chichester and the Castle of Arundel and many others in different counties. Bry, a great Antiquarian, summarizes the collective evidence of historical manuscripts into the fact that Roger Montgomery, the first Earl of Arundel and Count de Exmes or Hiemes in Normandy, was a descendant of the ancient House of Hiemes, who had held that county at least 300 years prior to the reign of William the Conqueror. He asserts positively that he has seen the manuscripts that prove this long line in France. Roger married 1st Mabel de Belesme or Belleme, daughter of William II, Count of Belesme and Alencon of France, about 1044. She died 1086 and he married 2nd Adeliza, daughter of Everard de Pusay, standard bearer of Robert, Duke of Normandy, the Crusader. Roger's first wife was the daughter of William of Belesme, surnamed "de Talvas," a name derived from a species of buckler he wore, or as some say a nickname denoting his great cruelty. He married Hildeburga, a daughter of Arnulph, a chevalier, a very noble man. William was a man of savage and violent temper. On his wife's protesting against his enormities and condemning them openly, he caused her to be strangled. Roger greatly increased his wealth and his influence by his marriage with Mabel, whose grandfather, Ivers de Criel, had Alencon and Belesme in France from Richard II, Duke of Normandy. We have told above how Roger's brother Gilbert was killed by Mabel in the attempt to kill Arnold or Ernauld, like a second Lucrezia Borgia. Gilbert was then in the flower of his youth, but she evidently had no remorse, and not satisfied with the contratempts, then poisoned three noblemen, including Arnold, to make things sure. The other two recovered but Arnold, having no one to nurse him, died. In revenge for this Hugh Bonel, a son of Arnold's uncle, forced entry by night into the chamber of the Countess and cut off her head as she lay in bed. He and his accomplices escaped by destroying the bridges behind them. Mabel had possessed Eschafour and Montreuil for 26 years, keeping him out of his inheritance. (Ordericus, the historian, who lived at this time, tells these grewsome tales, but he was a monk in the Abbey of St. Everoult, which was founded by the family of Arnulph Giroie, and was prejudiced against the Montgomeries and Belesmes and perhaps they were not as bad as he painted them.) Mabel seems to be a wicked and cruel woman, haughty, worldly minded, crafty and a babler, but Roger's 2nd wife was the opposite, being of the highest French nobility, remarkable for her good sense and piety. He had five sons and four daughters by Mabel: Hugh, Robert, Arnold, Roger and Philip, Emma, Maud, Mabel and Sybil. (Sybil married William Fitz-Hamon and their daughter Mabel married Robert, called the Consul, a famous hero, and son of Henry I, King of England, by Elizabeth de Bellomont, from whom you also deseend through the d'Audleys and Touchets.)