William de Montacute arrests Roger Mortimer in Nottingham Castle
The campaign against Llwelyn is described in Vita Edwardi Secundi by the Monk of Malmesbury: "Meanwhile Llewelyn violently attacked the district under Payn's protection, killing, burning, and plundering. He had attracted to himself some 10,000 Welshmen, who had carried off all Payn's goods to the mountains...
The earl went off to his lands to pursue Llewelyn, and both lords Roger Mortimer helped him. William de Montague commander of the royal cavalry came from one side, and John Giffard and his company from the other. Henry of Lancaster and the other barons and knights who had lands in the neighborhood, brought help, so that the Welsh hemmed in on all sides had no place of refuge at all. Llewelyn therefore, seeing that he had made a bad mistake, and that he was powerless to resist, for the Welsh had twice or thrice met the English on plundering raids but had always had the worst of the encounters, offered to submit to the earl on the condition that he should have safety of life and limb, lands and movables, and in satisfaction for his crime he offered a great sum of money, but the earl would not receive him unless he would surrender unconditionally. At length when our army had drawn near and had already recognized the Welsh guards, Llewelyn began to address his men thus: "It is not safe," he said, "to engage the English; I provoked this business; I will hand myself over for the whole people: it is better that one man should die than that the whole race should be exiled or perish by the sword." ( Vita Edwardi Secundi, Denhom-Young trans. - Although the translator uses "Montague" throughout, the original Latin reads Willelmus de Monte Acuto and Willelmus de Mountagu.).
William was born in 1301, the eldest son of William Montacute, 2nd Baron Montacute and his wife, Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Piers de Montfort of Beaudesert in Warwickshire. William Junior succeeded his father as 3rd Baron on 6th November 1319, being granted wardship of his own lands, though yet a minor. In 1322, he came of age and received livery of his lands, together with a grant of Lundy Isle off the Devon coast. In 1325, he was knighted and received letters of protection on his departure for France. In 1327, he went with Edward III to repel the Scottish invasion, when the latter nearly missed capture. In 1329, he accompanied the King abroad and was sent, in June, to treat for a marriage between the eldest son of the King of France and Edward's sister, Eleanor. In September, he was despatched, with Bartholomew de Burghersh, on an embassy to the Pope at Avignon, returning before the end of the year, when, in his capacity as executor of Blanche, Queen of Navarre, he lent the King two thousand marks that had belonged to her, and were deposited at Whitefriars.
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Next year, the young king took him into his confidence about his plans for the arrest of Mortimer. During the parliament held at Nottingham in October 1330, Montacute, with a band of retainers, including Sir John de Molines, penetrated by a secret passage into the castle, where they found Mortimer in the Queen-Mother's apartments. After a struggle, in which two of Mortimer's attendants were killed, his arrest was effected and he was sent to London for trial. Edward obtained, from Parliament, indemnity on Montacute's behalf for all consequences of the death of Mortimer's attendants, and rewarded him with various grants of land forfeited by Mortimer in Hampshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Kent and Wales, including Sherborne, Corfe Castle and Purbeck Chase in Dorset, and the lordship of Denbigh in North Wales. On 4th April 1331, Montacute accompanied Edward III when, disguised as a merchant and attended by only a handful of men-at-arms, the King paid a secret visit to France. He was also present when Edward repeated his homage to the French King at Amiens on 13th April, and returned with him to Dover on 20th April. In September, Montacute held a great tournament in Cheapside, entertaining his guests in the Bishop of London's palace.
Next year, he attended the King in Scotland and, in 1333, was present at the Siege of Berwick and the Battle of Halidon Hill. In the same year, Edward made over to him all his rights to the Isle of Man. He appears to have accompanied Balliol to Scotland and, in February 1334, was deputed by him to excuse his absence from the parliament held at York. On 30th March, Montacute was appointed envoy to France, with the Archbishop of Canterbury and two others; but, in June, was again in Scotland, where, in 1335, he was left in command of the army, with Arundel. In the same year, he was granted the forests of Selkirk and Ettrick and the town of Peebles, made Governor of the Channel Islands and Constable of the Tower of London, as well as acquiring Bisham Manor which, being so close to the King at Windsor, he made his principal family seat. In November, he was given power to treat with Andrew Murray, Constable of Scotland. On 27th January 1336, he commenced the Siege of Dunbar Castle, but, after nineteen weeks, the blockade was raised by Alexander Ramsay and Montacute gave it up in despair, making a truce that was strongly disapproved of in England. In the same year, he was appointed Admiral of the Fleet from the mouth of the Thames westward.
On 16 March 1337, at the parliament held in London, Montacute was created Earl of Salisbury. In the following April, he was sent to King Philip VI to declare Edward's claim to the French Crown, and thence on an embassy to the Emperor Louis, Rupert, Count Palatine, the Duke of Bavaria and other princes of Germany and the Netherlands, to organise a league against France. In October, he was commissioned to treat with Scotland, but, in July 1338, commanded a successful raid into Scotland from Carlisle. Later on in the year, he sailed, with Edward, from the Orwell to Flanders, and by a patent, dated Antwerp 20th September 1338, was appointed Marshal of England, an office then vacant by the death of Thomas, Earl of Norfolk. He remained in Flanders, where he was one of the captains of the English forces, for the next two years, during part of which he was in garrison at Ypres. In November 1338, he was one of those appointed to treat with Philip of Valois at the desire of the Pope. Shortly after, he made an inroad into the territories of the Bishop of Liege and, in February 1339, negotiated an agreement with the Archbishop of Treves and the Duke of Brabant, and was subsequently employed in various other negotiations. In 1340, induced, perhaps, by treachery within the walls, Salisbury and Suffolk, with a small force, made an attempt on Lille. The attack failed and both were taken prisoners and conveyed to Paris, when Salisbury, it is said, owed his life to the intervention of the King of Bohemia. On 18th October, Edward demanded a levy of wools to secure his liberation. He was set free - on condition of never serving against King Philip in France - at the peace negotiated after the Siege of Tournay, in exchange for the Earl of Moray, who had been captured in the Scottish Wars.
Salisbury returned to England in November and took part in Edward's arrest of the treasury officials and others. In May 1341, he was commissioned to investigate the charges against Stratford. Perhaps it was at this time that he conquered the Isle of Man from the Scots and was crowned King there; but the event has also been assigned to 1340 and 1342. In May 1343, Salisbury embarked, with Robert d'Artois, for Brittany, captured Vannes and proceeded to besiege Rennes. After the death of Artois and some months of ineffectual fighting, a truce was signed and, in August, Salisbury was sent on an embassy to the court of Castile. There, he took part in the Siege of Algeciras, which King Alfonso XI was then prosecuting against the Moors. He was soon recalled to England, however, and sent north against the Scots. He died on 30th January 1344 from bruises, it is said, received during a tournament held at Windsor, and was buried at Bisham Priory which he had founded in 1337. He married Katharine, daughter of Sir William Grandisson, by whom he had two sons, William, 2nd Earl of Salisbury, and John, and four daughters, one of whom, Philippa, married Roger Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March
He was the son of Sir John Montacute and Margaret de Monthermer. His father was the younger brother of William Montacute, 2nd Earl of Salisbury. His mother was the granddaughter and heiress of Ralph de Monthermer, 1st Baron Monthermer). As a young man Montagu or Montacute distinguished himself in the war with France, and then went to fight against the pagans in Prussia, probably on the expedition led by Henry Bolingbroke (the future Henry IV of England). Bolingbroke was to entrust his young son and heir, later Henry V, to the care of Sir John and his wife Margaret following the death of his wife Mary de Bohun. Lady Margaret cared for the young boy at a Montacute house in Welsh Bicknor near Monmouth until her death in 1395.
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He was summoned to parliament in 1391 as Baron Montagu. Montagu was a favorite of the King during the early years of the reign of Richard II. He accompanied the King during his expeditions to Ireland in 1394 and 1395, and as a privy councillor was one of the principal advocates of the King's marriage to Isabella of Valois. During the trips to France associated with the marriage, he met and encouraged Christine de Pisan, whose son was educated in the Montacute household. Montacute was a prominent Lollard, and was remonstrated by the King for this.
With the death of his mother around this time, John inherited the barony of Monthermer and its estates. In 1397, he became Earl of Salisbury on the death of his uncle and inherited Bisham Manor and other estates. He continued as one of the major aristocratic allies of King Richard II, helping to secure the fall of the Duke of Gloucester and the Earl of Warwick. He persuaded the king to spare the life of Warwick. He received a portion of the forfeited Warwick estates, and in 1399 was made a Knight of the Garter.
Early in 1400, he went on a successful mission to France to prevent the proposed marriage of Henry Bolingbroke and a daughter of the Duke of Berry. In May, he again accompanied Richard II on an expedition to Ireland. When news reached them of that Bolingbroke had returned to England, Montacute was sent to Wales to raise opposing forces. When these deserted, Montacute advised King Richard to flee to Bordeaux. Instead Richard was imprisoned, Henry took the throne and, in the October, Montacute was arrested along with many of Richard's former councillors, and held in the Tower of London.
Montacute had to answer charges related to the arrest and subsequent death of the Duke of Gloucester in 1397. Eventually he was released, due to the intercession of King Henry's sister Elizabeth, Countess of Huntingdon. Not long after his release, Montacute joined with the Earl of Huntingdon and others in the Epiphany Rising, a plot to kill King Henry IV and restore Richard II. After the plot failed, he was caught at Cirencester and executed. His eldest son, Thomas – by Maud Francis daughter of London citizen, eventually recovered the earldom, though the attainder against John Montacute was not reversed until the accession of Edward IV in 1461.
Thomas was son of John, the third earl, who was executed in 1400 as a supporter of Richard II. He was granted part of his father's estates and summoned to parliament in 1409, though not fully restored till 1421.
He was present throughout the campaign of Agincourt in 1415, and at the naval engagement before Harfleur in 1416. In the expedition of 1417-18 he served with increasing distinction, and especially at the siege of Rouen. During the spring of 1419 he held an independent command, capturing Fecamp, Honfleur and other towns, was appointed lieutenant-general of Normandy, and created Earl of Perche. In 1420 he was in chief command in Maine, and defeated the Marechal de Rieux near Le Mans. When Henry V went home next year Salisbury remained in France as the chief lieutenant of Thomas, Duke of Clarence. The duke, through his own rashness, was defeated at Bauge on the 21st of March 1421. Salisbury came up with the archers too late to retrieve the day, but recovered the bodies of the dead, and by a skilful retreat averted further disaster. He soon gathered a fresh force, and in June was able to report to the king "this part of your land stood in good plight never so well as now."
Salisbury's success in Maine marked him out as John of Bedford's chief lieutenant in the war after Henry's death. In 1423 he was appointed governor of Champagne, and by his dash and vigour secured one of the chief victories of the war at Cravant on the 30th of July. Subsequent operations completed the conquest of Champagne, and left Salisbury free to join Bedford at Verneuil. There on the 17th of August, 1424, it was his "judgment and valour" that won the day. During the next three years Salisbury was employed on the Norman border and in Maine. After a year's visit to England he returned to the chief command in the field in July, 1428. Against the judgment of Bedford he determined to make Orleans his principal objective, and began the siege on the 12th of October. Prosecuting it with his wonted vigour he stormed Tourelles, the castle which protected the southern end of the bridge across the Loire, on the 24th of October. Three days later whilst surveying the city from a window in Tourelles he was wounded by a cannon-shot, and died on the 3rd of November 1428.
Salisbury was the most skilful soldier on the English side after the death of Henry V. Though employed on diplomatic missions both by Henry V and Bedford, he took no part in politics save for a momentary support of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, during his visit to England in 1427-1428. He was a patron of John Lydgate, who presented to him his book The Pilgrim. By his first wife Eleanor Holand, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Kent, Salisbury had an only daughter Alice, in her right Earl of Salisbury, who married Richard Neville, and was mother of Warwick the Kingmaker. His second wife Alice was grand-daughter of Geoffrey Chaucer, and after his death married William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk.
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