General Notes

REFN: 4307AN
REFN: P4308
The Conqueror and His Companions
by J.R. Planché, Somerset Herald . London: Tinsley Brothers, 1874.
second of that name, and son of Hugh "with t he Beard," Lord of
Montfort-sur-RisIe, near Brionne, was the companion of the Conqueror at
Hastings. His father, with whom he has been often confounded, f ell in
mortal combat, with Walkelin De Ferrers, who received his death-wound at
the same time, during the days of anarchy which followed the succession
of the boy William to the Duchy of Normandy.
We hear first of his son Hugh H. as one of the commanders of the Norman
forces at the famous battle of Morteme r already spoken of, but of which
more will be told in the memoir of its lord , and next in the list of
those who furnished contingents to the fleet and ar my of the great
expedition, wherein we find him set down as a contributor of fifty ships
and sixty knights. ["Ab Hugone De Montfort L naves et LX milites. "] In
the battle he and the Seigneur De Vieuxpont gallantly rescued William
Malet, who had his horse killed under him, and would have been slain
himself but for their timely aid. They lost many of their people, but
succeeded in p rotecting Malet, and mounting him on a fresh horse. [Rom.
De Rou] Hugh De Mon tfort is supposed to be one of the four named by
Bishop Guy as the mutilators of the body of Harold at the close of the
conflict; I need only here repeat my utter disbelief in an improbable
statement supported by no other contempor ary writer.
For his services he received (before the completion of Domesclay) sixteen
manors in Essex, fifty-one in Suffolk, nineteen in Norfolk, and
twe nty-eight in Kent, in addition to a large proportion of Romney Marsh,
and was one of the barons intrusted by the Conqueror witli the
administration of jus tice throughout England, under Bishop Odo and
William Fitz Osbern in 1067; an d by the Bishop himself, Hugh De Montfort
was made Governor of the Castle of Dover, the chief fortress in Odo's own
earldom, and the key of the kingdom. H is absence on other duties with the
Bishop south of the Thames was taken adva ntage of by the Kentish
malcontents, and led to the assault of the castle by the Count of
Boulogne, the failure of which has been already related.
The mo nk of Jumièges informs us that he was twice married, but names
neither of his wives; one, however, appears by his account (Lib. vii. ch.
38) to have been a daughter of Richard De Bellofago (Beaufoe), by a
daughter of the Count of l vri, and was therefore niece of John,
Archbishop of Rouen, of Hugh, Bishop of Bayeux, and of the wife of Osbern
De Crépon. By the first we are told he had two sons, Hugh and Robert, and
by the second, a daughter named Alice, eventu ally heir to her brothers,
both of whom died without issue, and who became th e wife of Gilbert de
Gant, son of Baldwin VI Count of Flanders, and consequen tly nephew of
Queen Matilda.
The date of the death of Hugh II, who became a monk in the Abbey of Bec,
is not known, but if the holder in Domesday, he mus t of course have been
living in 1085, his father having been slain some forty -eight or
forty-nine years, previously. He might probably, therefore, be a yo ung
man at the battle of Mortemer in 1054, between forty and fifty at the
t ime of the Conquest, and under seventy if he survived the accession of
Rufus. His second son Robert was Commander-in-Chief of the Norman army in
Maine in 1099, and on his joining the Crusaders under Bohemund, in 1107,
received a he arty welcome and a high rank in the army in consequence, as
Orderic speaks of his being " hereditary Marshal of Normandy." ["Strator
Normanici exercitus h ereditario jure."]
If this be not a mistake, his elder brother must have been dead at the
former date. At all events his father, Hugh II, is styled "the Co nstable"
by Orderic in his enumeration of the personages present in the battl e of
Senlac.
A few words in conclusion respect