Thomas Montagu, 4th Earl of Salisbury

Thomas Montacute
Thomas Montacute
	4th Earl of Salisbury
	Sir Thomas Montagu and his wife Lady Eleanor Holland (Wrythe Garter Book)
Tenure	from 14 June 1409
Predecessor	John Montacute, 3rd Earl of Salisbury
Successor	Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury
Other titles	6th and 3rd Baron Montagu; 5th Baron Monthermer; Count of Perche
Years active	1414–1428
Born	13 June 1388
Died	3 November 1428 (aged 40); Meung-sur-Loire, France; Died of wounds
Buried	Bisham Abbey, Berkshire
Nationality	Kingdom of England
Residence	Bisham manor, Berkshire
Wars and battles	Hundred Years' War; • Battle of Agincourt (1415); • Battle of Baugé (1421); • Battle of Cravant (1423); • Battle of Verneuil (1424); • Siege of Orléans (1428) †
Spouse(s)	Eleanor Holland ; Alice Chaucer, Duchess of Suffolk
	Issue Alice Montacute, 5th Countess of Salisbury
Parents	John Montacute, 3rd Earl; Maud Francis

Thomas Montagu, 4th Earl of Salisbury, KG (13 June 1388 – 3 November 1428) of Bisham in Berkshire, was an English nobleman and one of the most important English commanders during the Hundred Years' War.

Origins

Arms of Thomas Montagu, 4th Earl of Salisbury: Quarterly, 1st & 4th: Argent, three fusils conjoined in fess gules (Montagu); 2nd & 3rd: Or, an eagle displayed vert beaked and membered gules (Monthermer)[1]

He was the eldest son of John Montagu, 3rd Earl of Salisbury (died 1400), who was killed while plotting against King Henry IV in 1400, and his lands forfeited. The lands were partly retrieved by Thomas in 1409, and fully in 1421. His mother was Maud Francis, daughter of Sir Adam Francis (born c. 1334), Mayor of London.

Career

Arms after 1414

Thomas was summoned to Parliament as Earl of Salisbury in 1409, although he was not formally invested as earl until 1421. In 1414, he was made a Knight of the Garter. In July 1415, he was one of the seven peers who tried Richard, Earl of Cambridge on charges of conspiring against King Henry V. Montagu then joined King Henry V in France, where he fought at the Siege of Harfleur and at the Battle of Agincourt.[2] Montagu fought in various other campaigns in France in the following years. In 1419 he held an independent command, and was appointed lieutenant-general of Normandy and created Count of Perche,[2] as part of Henry V's policy of creating Norman titles for his followers.

Although he was employed on some diplomatic missions, he took almost no part in politics[2] and spent most of the rest of his life as a soldier in France, leading troops in the various skirmishes and sieges that were central to that part of the Hundred Years' War. In 1423, he was appointed governor of Champagne, and in 1425, he captured the city of Le Mans. After a year in England, he returned to a position of command in 1428, and fought at the Siege of Orléans, at which he lost his life on 3 November of that year.[2]

Marriages and children

He married twice:

Firstly to Eleanor Holland, a sister and eventual co-heiress of Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent, and daughter of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent. By Eleanor he had a daughter, his only legitimate child: Alice Montagu, who married Richard Neville, who later succeeded his father-in-law jure uxoris as Earl of Salisbury.
Secondly to Alice Chaucer, daughter of Thomas Chaucer and granddaughter of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer.

Death

Thomas Montagu, 4th Earl of Salisbury is fatally injured at the siege of Orléans in 1428 (illustration from Vigiles de Charles VII).

On 27 October 1428 he was wounded during the Siege of Orléans, when the tower he was inside was hit by a cannonball. There are conflicting reports on the manner in which this wounded him; Enguerrand de Monstrelet states a piece of stone from the window 'carried away part of his face.' He died days later at Meung-sur-Loire on 3 November 1428.[3]

References

Debrett's Peerage, 1968, Montagu of Beaulieu (original form of), p.788
Kingsford 1911.
de Monstrelet, Enguerrand (1440s). The Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet. p. 237.

Hunt, William (1894). "Montacute or Montague, Thomas de, fourth Earl of Salisbury (1388–1428)" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. 38. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
Kingsford, C.L. (1911). "Salisbury, Thomas de Montacute" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 78.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
Cawley, Charles, Medieval Lands Project on Thomas de Montagu, Medieval Lands database, Foundation for Medieval Genealogy,
de Monstrelet, Enguerrand (1440s). The Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet. VI. pp. 234–237.

External links

Political offices
Preceded by –	Governor of Champagne 1423–1424	Succeeded by –
French nobility
Preceded by New creation	Earl of Perche 1419–1428	Succeeded by extinct
Peerage of England
Preceded by John Montagu	Baron Monthermer 1421–1428	Succeeded by Alice Montagu
Preceded by John Montagu	Earl of Salisbury 1421–1428	Succeeded by Alice Montagu

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[1] Debrett's Peerage, 1968, Montagu of Beaulieu (original form of), p.788

[FOOTNOTEKingsford1911-2] Kingsford 1911.

[3] Monstrelet, Enguerrand (1440s). The Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet. p. 237.