General Notes

HUGH DE MONTGOMERIE, Earl of Shrewsbury and Arundel, succeeded his father in his English possessions. The Welsh gave him the name of Hugh Goch, i. e.  Red headed.1 This might be presumed to be a term of reproach, applied as it was by a people who had but little love for the new race which had taken possession of England, and less even for the family, which from its estates on the borders, was foremost in their oppression. While Roger pushed the dominion of his master successfully over the refractory Welsh, his memory is not      charged with the same severity and cruelty as adhere to some of his sons in their dealings with them. Hugh survived his father but four years; dying in 1098,2 unmarried, his possessions and honors came to his brother Robert.
         He met his death at the hands of the Norwegians, who at the time were apparently redressing the wrongs the Welsh were suffering under. "Owen, a Welsh lord, father-in-law of Griffith and Cadagan, kings of Wales, having been disobliged by his sons-in-law, privately invited the Earls of Chester and Shrewsbury into his country, promising them a great booty. The two earls levying some troops, were received by Owen into Wales, where they committed unspeakable cruelties. The two kings, surprised by this unexpected attack, were        forced to fly into Ireland, and leave the country to the mercy of the English.  Their flight giving their enemies an opportunity to continue their march, they penetrated as far as the Isle of Anglesey, where they destroyed all with fire and sword."3 "Magnus, the son of Harold, King of Norway, having taken possession of the Orkneys and of the Isle of Man, arrived accidentally upon the coast of Anglesey. Hearing of the cruelties committed by the English, and touched with a sense of generous pity, he determined to land his forces, and to preserve the miserable inhabitants from destruction. The English endeavored to oppose the Norwegians. In the attempt, the Earl of Shrewsbury was slain. The prince of Norway, observing that nobleman resolute in opposing his landing, and whose impetuous valor had carried him into the sea, levelled an arrow, which through the opening of his armor pierced his right eye, and reaching the brain, he fell down convulsed in the water. The Norwegian prince, on seeing him fall, cried 'Let him dance,' or rather, 'Let him depart.' This accidental stroke of justice seen by the eye of superstition, made the Welsh to conclude, that the arrow had been directed by the immediate hand of the Almighty."4
       In Llandyfrydog being mentioned as the place of Hugh's death, superstition goes further, when it states that one night his dogs being put into the church ran mad, "and the Earl himself died miserably in less than a month after."   Another account states that the Earl of Shrewsbury arrived with his vassals first at Diganwy, the place of rendezvous, and waited several days for his auxiliaries.   On a threatened landing of the northmen one day, Earl Hugh mounting his horse, put himself at the head of his men, and rushed into the water to meet the enemy. He was immediately killed by an arrow from the hands of Magnus.
               "His bow string twangs,--its biting hail
                Rattles against the ring-linked mail.
                Upon the land in deadly strife,
                Our Norse king took Earl Hugo's life."6
His body was not recovered until the ebbing of the tide, and was brought from Anglesey, and buried alongside of his father at the great Abbey of Shrewsbury.1  He built the castle at Cleobury, of which there are now scarcely any remains.2  And he added considerably to the endowments of his father's abbey at Shrewsbury, "with a heavy curse on the violator."3 "He was the only one of Mabel's sons who was courteous and amiable; and he conducted himself with great moderation during the four years he held the family honors and domains.

1 Rapin's History, i. 187.
2 Gough's Camden, iii. 9.
3 Rapin's History, i. 187.
4 Warrington's Wales, i. 358-9.
5 Gough's Camden, iii. 205.
6 Saga of King Magnus, quoted in Wiffen's Mem. of House of Russell.