Roger II of Montgommery

Roger de Montgommery (or Montgoméri, Montgomery) known as Roger Large the (about 1030 - September 27th 1094), lord of Montgommery, Viscount of the Hiémois, and Lord d' Alençon, was one of the richest lords of the England lately conquered by William the Conqueror. He created one of the most powerful and strategically important seigniories appeared after the conquest Norman. He was 1st Count de Shrewsbury as from 1074.

A close relation of William the Conqueror

He was the son of another Roger de Montgommery, Viscount of Hiémois, faithful of the Duc of Normandy Robert Splendid the. Roger de Montgommery inherited the vast domains of his father, located mainly in the south of the Pays of Trough, in the center of the Normandy.

One does not know really his attitude during the minority of Guillaume Bastard the, wire and successor of Robert Splendid the. The wars between Norman barons disturbed this period (1035-1047) and ridiculed the ducal authority. The contemporary historian Guillaume de Jumièges acknowledges that Roger and his 4 brothers delivered " with all kinds of crimes" but it does not develop. Does it fear to offend Roger who, at the time of the drafting of the work (about 1070), became one of most powerful the barons Anglo-Norman and one of the collaborator close relations of William the Conqueror? Contrary, one can think that if Roger were born about 1030, it could not taken an active part in these disorders because of his young age.

What is sure, it is that during the childhood of the duke, the Famille of Montgommery was not particularly faithful to the prince: the father Roger I {{er}} had to leave Normandy, surely because he had revolted or plotted against the ducal capacity; one of the brothers, Guillaume, assassinated the seneshal of the young duke Osbern; about 1040, the tutor of the duke Alain III of Brittany found death by besieging the castle of Montgommery. The position of Roger de Montgommery is much clearer after the strengthening of the capacity of Guillaume Bastard the. In 1050, it belonged to the principal advisers of the duke: it contresigned a charter of the duke in favor of the Abbaye of Ouche at the sides of the large barons and bishops of Normandy.

The duke Guillaume named it Viscount of Exmes (or Hiémois), a function which his/her father Roger Ier occupied formerly. Conscious of his importance, Roger II did not hesitate to be entitled “count de Montgommery” in two ducal charters whereas its field was only one simple châtellenie.

In 1066, Guillaume the Bastard one left to the Conquête England but Roger did not accompany it. He provides all the same 60 ships for forwarding and supported the duchess Mathilde, at the sides of Lanfranc and Roger de Beaumont, in the government and the defense of Normandy.

Alliance with the family of Bellême

After 1050 (according to the historian Lucien Musset), Roger de Montgommery married, on the impulse of the duke, Mabile, the girl of terrible the Guillaume II Talvas de Bellême. He thus tied an alliance with the Famille of Bellême whose members évertuaient themselves since several tens of years to form a principality independent of the Normandy and Maine. This matrimonial union allowed Guillaume Bastard the to see returning the Seigneurie of Bellême in the Norman bosom.

In.liaison.with its wife and the uncle of the latter, the bishop of Sées Yves, Roger de Montgommery refonda the monastery Saint Martin's day de Sées. In the years 1050, it installed a monastic community with Troarn (Calvados) and finally created the female abbey of Almenèche (Orne).

These pious acts did not prevent the lord of Montgommery from abusing the properties and the monks of the Abbaye of Ouche. It pursued in that the policy of his wife Mabille who dedicated a wild hatred against the families Giroie and of Grandmesnil, founders of this monastery. The couple even succeeds in obtaining from the duke the exile (temporary) of Hugues de Grandmesnil and recovering towards 1068 the fields of the Giroie (Montreuil-l' Argillé and Échauffour).

According to the words of Vital Ordéric, William the Conqueror had a “attachment for Roger and Mabille”.

Roger II of Montgommery in England

In December 1067, Roger II of Montgommery accompanied on the other side of the channel his duke, become king d' Angleterre. He accepted initially the Rape of Arundel (including/understanding the town of Chichester), two places essential with the defense of the south of England. This sector appeared particularly calm. William the Conqueror then entrusted to his faithful companion more disturbed area: the Shropshire (of which the principal city is Shrewsbury), in November 1071, with capacities Palatin S. Some historians think that its rise with the row in count goes back to at the end of 1074. At the sides of Hugues d' Avranches, Count de Chester and of Roger de Breteuil, Count de Hereford, the new count was to protect the kingdom against the Welsh incursions. Consequently, several castles were high of which that of Montgomery, with the limit of the county. In 1093, the year before his death, Roger de Montgommery seized Ceredigion and Dyfed, the heart of the Welsh kingdom of Deheubarth.

During the reign of William the Conqueror, Roger counted among the six more powerful lords of England. In addition to one most of the Sussex, including the Grater Arundel and the seven eighth of the Shropshire included in the county of Shrewsbury, it had fields in the Surrey, the Hampshire, the Wiltshire, the Middlesex, the Hertfordshire, the Gloucestershire, the Worcestershire, the Cambridgeshire, the Warwickshire and the Staffordshire. After 1087, the management of its continental goods was left with his/her oldest son Robert II of Bellême.

Revolts in 1087-1088

The death of William the Conqueror in 1087 called into question the fidelity of Roger de Montgommery. It joined the Rébellion of 1088, in order to reverse the king Guillaume II the Russet-red lately crowned. Guillaume succeeds in convincing Roger to give up the rebellion and taking its party. Well took some to him because the rebels were overcome and lost all their possessions in England.

A few months later, the duke of Normandy Robert Courteheuse stopped his brother Henri Beauclerc and Robert II of Bellême, the son of Roger de Montgommery because it suspected them of plotting against him. The count de Shrewsbury did not appreciate this affront made with his family: he crossed the English Channel, unloaded in Normandy and gained the Hiémois. There, it ordered the setting in defense of the family castles (as those which his/her son had usurped): Bellême, Test, Alençon, Saint-Céneri-the-Gérei, Domfront. The duke of Normandy Robert Courteheuse conducted campaign against the rebel, took some fortresses surprisingly then congédia his army. He ends up making peace with the old faithful one of his father and accepted the release of Robert II of Bellême. Roger regained England then.

At the end of his life, the old count withdrew himself as monk in the Abbaye of Shrewsbury which it had founded in 1083 (it was the fourth monastery all the same which it founded or restored). Three days more, it died there.

In 1094, just after its death, a conjunction of events favorable to the Welsh, led to a general rising of the Wales. The Welsh took again many grounds with Norman (Deheubarth, Pembroke, Anglesey etc), and devastate Shropshire. With the end of the year, all the conquests of Montgommery were lost.

Family and descent

In first weddings, Roger II of Montgomery married Mabille Talvas († 1082), girl of Guillaume II Talvas and heiress of a vast domain to the borders of Normandy and Maine: the Seigniory of Bellême. It had 10 children of them.

Roger married then Adélaïde de Breteuil, girl of Évrard, count de Breteuil and Viscount of Chartres, from which it had a Éverard son.

With its death, the goods of Roger were divided. the Robert, oldest from his/her surviving children accepted the majority of the grounds Normans. The following, Hugues, accepted in division the English grounds and the county of Shrewsbury. With died Hugues, Robert inherited the county.

See too

Random links: