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Individual Record for: Roger II DE MONTGOMERY (male)

Source:

bulkeley.txt

Notes:

Roger de Montgomery II was in command of a wing at the Battle of Hasting s, but returned to Normandy with Queen Matilda, and the young Duke Robe rt as Duke William's representative. He became head of the council that go verned the Duchy of Normandy in Duke William's absence in England. The Nor man Montgomery family ancestry was closely interwoven either by blood or m arriage with the Duchy of Normandy. Roger de Montgomery had four sons. Eld est was Robert, Count of Alencon, and his successor in Normandy. He was fo llowed by Hugh, who inherited the Earldom of Arundel, Chichester and Shrew sbury, the life custodian of the main family domains granted in England. T hese would eventually go to Robert in 1098, purchased from William Rufus f or 3000 pounds. Next youngest was Count Roger de Poitou who was made the f irst Earl of Lancaster by Duke William of Normandy, a less maganamious gra nt which befitted the third youngest son. Philip, the youngest, remain ed in Normandy and accompanied Duke Robert on the first crusade to the Ho ly land, and died there in 1094

Roger de Montgomerie, Count of Montgomerie and Viscount d'Exmes in Normand y, and subsequently Earl of Shrewsbury, Arundel and Chichester in Engla nd and Montgomery in Wales, was one of the most powerful and influential n obles at the court of William the Conqueror. This Roger accompanied Willi am to England and led the main forces in the attack at Hastings. He is sa id to have been the man who conceived the idea, and who mainly helped to c arry it out, of the Conquest of England. He headed his own vassals and pro vided a vast contingent of ships, no less than sixty, to carry out the exp edition. His was the master mind of Normandy, and after William I was firm ly established Roger Montgomery was made Viceroy to govern Normandy in con nection with Queen Matilda, but later when news of the conspiracies reach ed them he took Roger back to England with him where he was given nearly t he whole of County Salop, with the Earldom of Shrewsbury, he had been ma de Earl of Arundel also, and had 28 manors in Dorset and also in Somerse t, 77 in Sussex, besides the City of Chichester and the Castle of Arund el and many others in different counties. Bry, a great Antiquarian, summar izes the collective evidence of historical manuscripts into the fact th at Roger Montgomery, the first Earl of Arundel and Count de Exmes or Hiem es in Normandy, was a descendant of the ancient House of Hiemes, who had h eld that county at least 300 years prior to the reign of William the Conqu eror. He asserts positively that he has seen the manuscripts that prove th is long line in France. Roger married 1st Mabel de Belesme or Belleme, dau ghter of William II, Count of Belesme and Alencon of France, about 1044. S he died 1086 and he married 2nd Adeliza, daughter of Everard de Pusay, sta ndard bearer of Robert, Duke of Normandy, the Crusader. Roger's first wi fe was the daughter of William of Belesme, surnamed "de Talvas," a name de rived from a species of buckler he wore, or as some say a nickname denoti ng his great cruelty. He married Hildeburga, a daughter of Arnulph, a chev alier, a very noble man. William was a man of savage and violent tempe r. On his wife's protesting against his enormities and condemning them ope nly, he caused her to be strangled. Roger greatly increased his wealth a nd his influence by his marriage with Mabel, whose grandfather, Ivers de C riel, had Alencon and Belesme in France from Richard II, Duke of Normand y. We have told above how Roger's brother Gilbert was killed by Mabel in t he attempt to kill Arnold or Ernauld, like a second Lucrezia Borgia. Gilbe rt was then in the flower of his youth, but she evidently had no remors e, and not satisfied with the contratempts, then poisoned three nobleme n, including Arnold, to make things sure. The other two recovered but Arno ld, having no one to nurse him, died. In revenge for this Hugh Bonel, a s on of Arnold's uncle, forced entry by night into the chamber of the Counte ss and cut off her head as she lay in bed. He and his accomplices escap ed by destroying the bridges behind them. Mabel had possessed Eschafour a nd Montreuil for 26 years, keeping him out of his inheritance. (Ordericu s, the historian, who lived at this time, tells these grewsome tales, b ut he was a monk in the Abbey of St. Everoult, which was founded by the fa mily of Arnulph Giroie, and was prejudiced against the Montgomeries and Be lesmes and perhaps they were not as bad as he painted them.) Mabel see ms to be a wicked and cruel woman, haughty, worldly minded, crafty and a b abler, but Roger's 2nd wife was the opposite, being of the highest Fren ch nobility, remarkable for her good sense and piety. He had five sons a nd four daughters by Mabel: Hugh, Robert, Arnold, Roger and Philip, Emm a, Maud, Mabel and Sybil. (Sybil married William Fitz-Hamon and their daug hter Mabel married Robert, called the Consul, a famous hero, and son of He nry I, King of England, by Elizabeth de Bellomont, from whom you also dese end through the d'Audleys and Touchets.)

b. c. 1030
d. 1094
Norman lord and supporter of William I the Conqueror of England.

Roger de Montgomery, son of another Roger de Montgomery, known as "the Gre at," was a councillor of William, duke of Normandy, before his invasi on of England and was probably entrusted by William with the governme nt of Normandy during the expedition of 1066. Roger came to England in t he following year and received extensive grants of land in different par ts of the kingdom. He was created earl of Shropshire in December 1074, a p osition which gave him palatine control of that county and placed him amo ng the greatest of the Marcher lords; but he and his successors were usual ly styled earls of Shrewsbury. A great patron of monasticism, he beca me a monk in his newly founded Abbey of Shrewsbury just before he di ed in 1094. His Norman inheritance passed to his eldest surviving son, Rob ert of Bell°me, and the title and the English lands went to Robert's young er brother, Hugh. Upon the latter's death in 1098, the title went to Rober t.


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Notes Source: bulkeley.txt

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