William Montagu (1st count de Salisbury)

William Montacute (or Montagu ) (1301 - 1344), 3rd baron Montagu then 1st Count de Salisbury, was noble a English and a devoted servant of the king Edouard III of England. In 1344, it became king of the island of Man.

Biography

William was born with Cassington in the county from the Oxfordshire, oldest son of William Montagu 2nd baron Montagu and of Elizabeth Montfort. He inherited the title of his father in 1319.

Montagu helped Edouard III to push back the Scottish invasion of 1327. The following year, it took part in a diplomatic campaign near the king of France and the Pape. In 1330, on order of the king, Montacute and some men stopped Roger Mortimer, first count de March, and, after the execution of their prisoner, Montacute accepted a good portion of the confiscated fields.

Montagu took part in the campaigns of Scotland the following years and in particular in the Bataille of Halidon Hill in 1333. The same year, the king gave to Montagu the right to assert the island of Man.

He became count de Salisbury the March 16th 1337. In 1338 the new count returned of a long diplomatic mission, initially to France to declare that king Edouard asserted the crown of France, then in Germany, with the meeting of princes with whom it could be combined against France. Later the same year, it was named Maréchal of England.

The two following years, it ordered the English forces in Flanders, until its capture by the French, close to Lille. It was released in 1340 within the framework of an prisoner exchange and in the condition which it would not face any more France. It east seems it after its return in England which it conquered the island of Man, that held the Scot. He carried it and became king de Man in 1344.

Lord Salisbury died the January 30th 1344 of the wounds which it had received at the time of a tournament with Windsor. He was buried with the priory of Bisham, in the Berkshire, which he had founded in 1337 close to his manor of Bisham.

Family

He married Catherine Grandisson, girl of William Grandisson, first baron Grandisson. According to the legend, Edouard III was in love with this woman and that it is of its own jumper that comes the name from the Order of the Garter. This legend is prone to guarantee. On the other hand, it seems acquired that this jumper had belonged to Jeanne Plantagenêt, engaged with his son. A history also affirms that the king raped the countess, but it is probably about a propaganda campaign from France.

William and Catherine had several children:

Elizabeth Montagu (born before 1325), married to Hugues Despencer, 2 baron Despencer, before the April 27th 1341.
John Montagu (1327-1396)
William Montagu, 2nd count de Salisbury (1329-1397)
Anne Montagu (born in 1330), married to John De Grey the June 12th 1335.
Philippa Montagu (born in 1332), married to Roger Mortimer, 2nd Count de March.
Sibyl Montagu (born before 1339), married to Edmund FitzAlan about 1356.

His/her William son succeeded to him.

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