General Notes

King Of The Isle Of Man
WILLIAM MONTACUTE, eldest surviving son of William lord Montague (No. IX.), was made a banneret in the end of the reign of Edward II. In the first of Edward III. (1327) he was present at the expedition then made into Scotland, and in the 3rd of same reign attended the King when he was summoned to do homage to the King of France for his duchy of Aquitaine. In the 4th year of same reign he again attended the King to France, and had also the honor to wait on his holiness the Pope with Bartholomew de Burgherth, as Edward's ambassador, to thank him for confirming a bull of his predecessor Honorius, in favor of the Monks of Westminster. But the best service, perhaps, which this brave man ever performed for his master, was his bringing the famous Mortimer Earl of March the Queen's gallant, to punishment *. A parliament being held the same year it was enacted that William lord Montacute and all others with him, at the apprehension of the Earl of March and others, since what they did was authorized by the King's command, should be---"wholly acquitted thereof and of all murders and felonies they have done." This act of indemnity was not only passed in his behalf, but many manors and lands forfeited, by the attainder of the Earl of March and others, were bestowed upon him.

* The lord Montacute, having laid before the young King the infamy which the course of the life of the Queen, his mother, had brought upon his family, and the dangers which Mortimer's greatness threatened to the Crown, met with a favorable hearing from his Majesty, who ordered him to associate himself with such of the nobility as be could trust, and then apply to Sir William Eland, Constable of the Castle of Nottingham, in which the Queen and Mortimer had shut themselves up for defence. As the Keys of the Castle were brought every night to the Queen and nobody permitted to come in or go out without her knowledge, Sir William Eland directed Montacute and his associates to a private passage, by which they entered the Castle and marched directly to Mortimer's apartment, where the lord Montacute before he could seize his prisoner, was forced to kill Sir Hugh Turplington, steward of the household, and Sir John Monmouth. Mortimer was then made prisoner and carried before the King, and a short time after he was with his chief friends and abettors put to death.

In the same year (1330) he was also appointed governor of Sherbourne Castle in the County of Dorset, and of the Castle of Corffe with the Chace of Purbeck.

In the 5th of Edward III. he had a charter of free warren in all his lordships of Cookham in County of Berkshire, Swyneston in County of Southampton, Fulmere in County of Bucks and of Catsound and Lewisham in Kent. Likewise wreck, waif, stray goods of felons and fugitives, with fines and forfeitures of his tenants in his manors of Christ-church, Twyneham, Ringwood, and Swyneston, in the Isle of Wight and County of Southampton. Next year he obtained for John, his son-in-law, a grant of the Castle of Werk, on condition of his fortifying it and keeping it in repair; and for himself a release of all his Majesty's claim, right and title, in the isle of Man, and its appurtenances for him and his heirs forever. In 1335 he was constituted governor of the Isles Guernsey, Jersey, Sark, Alderney, and Seul. In 1336 he was made Constable of the Tower of London, and in consideration of his great expenses in divers services obtained a grant of the forest of Selkirk and Ellerick, with the town and County of Selkirk in Scotland to hold in farm to him and his heirs. In the same year he also obtained a grant in fee of several manors, lands, and hundreds lying in the Counties Somerset, Dorset, Wilts, and Buckingham.

In 1337 he was constituted Admiral of the King's fleet, from the mouth of the Thames westward, and the following year in consideration of his faithful services in the Scottish wars, and otherwise, he was advanced to the title and dignity of Earl of Salisbury, with a grant of the annual rent of £20 out of the profits of that County.

The same year he was one of the Commissioners that were sent to the duke of Bavaria to engage him on behalf of Edward against Philip, King of France. Upon his return he was immediately joined with Richard, Earl of Arundel, in the command of a body of troops designed for Scotland, in consequence of which he was present at the memorable siege of the Castle of Dunbar. The same year he attended the King to Brabant and obtained several more grants of lands, castles, fairs and advowsons in the Counties of Oxford, Wilts, Dorset, Somerset, Chester, Norfolk, Suffolk and Lincoln.

In 1339 he obtained the King's precept to the lord treasurer and barons of the exchequer for an allowance of five marks each day while he was abroad on his service, and for the reimbursement of all the expenses he was put to thereby. The same year, in consideration of his services both in the field and cabinet, he obtained a grant of the office of Earl Marshal of England.

In 1340 he had the command of the army jointly with the Earl of Suffolk. These two commanders having laid siege to Lisle, then in possession of the French, were both unfortunately made prisoners by the besieged, who sallied out and drew them after them into the town. During their captivity they suffered great indignities; and upon their arrival at Paris would certainly have been put to death, had not the King of Bohemia (possibly a relative of his wife) interposed in their behalf. Upon a conclusion of a truce with France they were exchanged for the Earl of Murray and £3000 in addition.

The Earl of Salisbury, immediately after his release, went with many other English Knights into Spain and joined the army of Alphonsus against the Saracens.

In 1341 he was again in Flanders, and in 1342 in France. In 1343 he served upon the borders of Scotland with the Earl of Ulster. And about this time he conquered the isle of Man, when King Edward (having before given him the inheritance thereof ) crowned him King of Man.

In conjunction with Robert of Artois, he had the command of the forces sent to France in aid of the Countess of Mountfort, by sea and land; where, after defeating the French fleet, they took Vannes, but a truce having been concluded for three years the Earl returned to England, where he exercised himself so immoderately, in jousts and tournaments, that he fell into a fever of which he died in the forty-third year of his age, January 30, 1344, and was buried at the White Friars in London * (Vol. I, p. 51, Edmondson's Heraldry). He was possessed at his death of a vast estate and bore the titles of Earl of Salisbury, King of Man, and lord of Denbigh.

* Some authors state, that this great man was buried at Bisham priory which he had founded. This error probably was caused by the fact that his son built a magnificent monument to his memory, in that Abbey, which was however demolished by Henry VIII. at the dissolution. Not only Edmondson's Heraldry but Glover's Ordinary of Arms, and also the very high authority of Dugdale, assert that he was buried at White Friars, London. Edmondson's Heraldry, Vol. I, p. 51, states that he became 21 years old in the 19th of Edward II., which would place his birth A. D. 1304; the same authority also states, that he owned the Manor of Cookham in Berkshire. Lipscombe's Bucks states that the hamlet of Boveney anciently belonged to Cookham in Berkshire, and the inference is that this Earl of Salisbury may have been possessed of Boveney also.

Vol. I, P. 51, Glover's ordinary of Arms, Edmondson's Heraldry, says, this earl owned Fulmere in Buckinghamshire. Lipscombe's History of Bucks says, he sold it, in or before 1335. This was a hamlet and Chapelry of Datchet in Stoke Hund. Bucks, near Stoke Poges and not far from Boveney.

This great man, who died so young and who also accomplished so much in his busy career, also found time to establish at Bisham in Berkshire, on the banks of the Thames 4 miles from Maidenhead, a Monastery, and he also founded a priory (in 1338) for Canons of the order of St. Augustine, in the words of his charter, "dedicated to Our Lord and the Virgin." This priory was re-founded by Henry VIII. for an abbot and 13 Benedictine Monks. Here Henry VIII. confined one of his wives; afterward, it was a favorite resort of Queen Elizabeth; here was buried the wife of the founder, Katherine de Grandison, the Countess of Salisbury, and the inscription upon her tomb stated, that her father was "descended out of Burgundy, cousin german to the Emperor of Constantinople, the King of Hungary and Duke of Bavaria."

Here William Montacute, the 2nd Earl of Salisbury (son of the founder), was interred. By his will he directed that a monument should there be erected to the memory of his father, which was done upon a magnificent scale 1.

His wife Catherine was daughter of William (and sister and heir to Otho) lord Grandison by Sibylla, daughter and heir of John de Tregoz, a great Baron. She was a brave woman, worthy of such a brave and noble man as was her husband the Earl of Salisbury. She 2 nobly defended and aided with heroic valor the defence of the castle of Werk, with her husband's brother, Sir Edward Montacute, who was its Governor, and also bravely defended her own Castle of Salisbury from King David of Scotland, with the aid of William Montacute, her husbands cousin, while her husband was a prisoner of war in France as before mentioned in the history of Sir Simon No. VIII.

1 "The bones of John Montacute, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, who was beheaded, were brought from Cirencester, (by order of his widow) and re-interred at Bisham Priory." Crosse's Antiquities. Here also were laid the "mortal parts" of the 4th and last Earl of Salisbury, General Thomas Montacute, killed at the siege of Orleans (1428). Here, also rest the remains of John, Marquis of Montacute, killed at the battle of Barnet in 1470, and also his brother Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, called the "king maker." Here also sleeps that unfortunate youth Edward Plantaganet, son of the Duke of Clarence, beheaded in 1499 for attempting an escape from confinement.

2 It was this countess of Salisbury who, while dancing with King Edward, lost her garter, which gave rise to the founding of the order of the garter, (and not Joan Plantaganet, the Fair Maid of Kent, as was stated in the " Montagues at Hadley.") See History of the Orders of British Knighthood by Sir N. Nicholas. Rambles about Eton and Harrow, by Alfred Rimmer, London, 1882, et al.

They had seven children, three sons and four daughters. Of the sons, William, the eldest, succeeded his father and became the second Earl of Salisbury, but was killed in a tilting match at Windsor.

Sir John Montacute, the second son, married Margaret Monthermer, grand-daughter of Ralph and Joan of Acres, daughter of King Edward I, and his son became 3rd Earl of Salisbury.

Of Robert Montacute, the third and youngest son, the records give no history.