General Notes

Roger de Montgomerie, Count of Montgomerie and Viscount d'Exmes inNormandy, and subsequently Earl of Shrewsbury, Arundel and Chichester inEngland and Montgomery in Wales, was one of the most powerful andinfluential nobles at the court of William the Conqueror. This Rogeraccompanied William to England and led the main forces in the attack atHastings. He is said to have been the man who conceived the idea, and whomainly helped to carry it out, of the Conquest of England. He headed hisown vassals and provided a vast contingent of ships, no less than sixty,to carry out the expedition. His was the master mind of Normandy, andafter William I was firmly established Roger Montgomery was made Viceroyto govern Normandy in connection with Queen Matilda, but later when newsof the conspiracies reached them he took Roger back to England with himwhere he was given nearly the whole of County Salop, with the Earldom ofShrewsbury, he had been made Earl of Arundel also, and had 28 manors inDorset and also in Somerset, 77 in Sussex, besides the City of Chichesterand the Castle of Arundel and many others in different counties. Bry, agreat Antiquarian, summarizes the collective evidence of historicalmanuscripts into the fact that Roger Montgomery, the first Earl ofArundel and Count de Exmes or Hiemes in Normandy, was a descendant of theancient House of Hiemes, who had held that county at least 300 yearsprior to the reign of William the Conqueror. He asserts positively thathe has seen the manuscripts that prove this long line in France. Rogermarried 1st Mabel de Belesme or Belleme, daughter of William II, Count ofBelesme and Alencon of France, about 1044. She died 1086 and he married2nd Adeliza, daughter of Everard de Pusay, standard bearer of Robert,Duke of Normandy, the Crusader. Roger's first wife was the daughter ofWilliam of Belesme, surnamed "de Talvas," a name derived from a speciesof buckler he wore, or as some say a nickname denoting his great cruelty.He married Hildeburga, a daughter of Arnulph, a chevalier, a very nobleman. William was a man of savage and violent temper. On his wife'sprotesting against his enormities and condemning them openly, he causedher to be strangled. Roger greatly increased his wealth and his influenceby his marriage with Mabel, whose grandfather, Ivers de Criel, hadAlencon and Belesme in France from Richard II, Duke of Normandy. We havetold above how Roger's brother Gilbert was killed by Mabel in the attemptto kill Arnold or Ernauld, like a second Lucrezia Borgia. Gilbert wasthen in the flower of his youth, but she evidently had no remorse, andnot satisfied with the contratempts, then poisoned three noblemen,including Arnold, to make things sure. The other two recovered butArnold, 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 theCountess and cut off her head as she lay in bed. He and his accomplicesescaped by destroying the bridges behind them. Mabel had possessedEschafour and Montreuil for 26 years, keeping him out of his inheritance.(Ordericus, the historian, who lived at this time, tells these grewsometales, but he was a monk in the Abbey of St. Everoult, which was foundedby the family of Arnulph Giroie, and was prejudiced against theMontgomeries and Belesmes and perhaps they were not as bad as he paintedthem.) Mabel seems to be a wicked and cruel woman, haughty, worldlyminded, crafty and a babler, but Roger's 2nd wife was the opposite, beingof the highest French nobility, remarkable for her good sense and piety.He had five sons and four daughters by Mabel: Hugh, Robert, Arnold, Rogerand Philip, Emma, Maud, Mabel and Sybil. (Sybil married WilliamFitz-Hamon and their daughter Mabel married Robert, called the Consul, afamous hero, and son of Henry I, King of England, by Elizabeth deBellomont, from whom you also deseend through the d'Audleys and Touchets.)