Roger de Montgomerie, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury

Roger de Montgomerie (died 1094), also known as Roger the Great de Montgomery, was the first Earl of Shrewsbury. His father was also Roger de Montgomerie, and was a relative, probably a grandnephew, of the Duchess Gunnor, wife of Duke Richard I of Normandy. The elder Roger had large holdings in central Normandy, chiefly in the valley of the Dives, which the younger Roger inherited.

Contents

Life

Roger was one of William the Conqueror's principal counsellors. He did not fight in the initial invasion of England in 1066, instead staying behind to help govern Normandy. According to Wace’s Roman de Rou, however, he commanded the Norman right flank at Hastings, returning to Normandy with King William in 1067.[1] Afterwards he was entrusted with land in two places critical for the defense of England, receiving the rape of Arundel at the end of 1067 (or in early 1068), and in November 1071 he was created Earl of Shrewsbury; a few historians believe that while he received the Shropshire territories in 1071 he was not created Earl until a few years later.

Roger was thus one of the half dozen greatest magnates in England during William the Conqueror's reign. William gave Earl Roger nearly all of what is now the county of West Sussex, which at the time of the Domesday Survey was the Rape of Arundel.[2] The Rape of Arundel was eventually split into two rapes, one continuing with the name Rape of Arundel and the other became the Rape of Chichester.[2] Besides the 83 manors, in Sussex, his possessions also included seven-eighths of Shropshire which was associated with the earldom of Shrewsbury, he had estates in Surrey (4 manors), Hampshire (9 manors), Wiltshire (3 manors), Middlesex (8 manors), Gloucestershire (1 manor), Worcestershire (2 manors), Cambridgeshire (8 manors), Warwickshire (11 manors) and Staffordshire (30 manors).[3] The income from Roger’s estates would amount to about £2000 per year, in 1086 the landed wealth for England was around £72,000, so it would have represented almost 3% of the nation’s GDP.[4][5]

After William I's death in 1087, Roger joined with other rebels to overthrow the newly crowned King William II in the Rebellion of 1088. However, William was able to convince Roger to abandon the rebellion and side with him. This worked out favourably for Roger, as the rebels were beaten and lost their land holdings in England.

Roger first married Mabel of Bellême, who was heiress to a large territory on both sides of the border between Normandy and Maine. The medieval chronicler Orderic Vitalis paints a picture of Mabel of Bellême being a scheming and cruel woman.[6] She was murdered by Hugh Bunel and his brothers, who in December 1077? rode into her castle of Bures-sur-Dive and cut off her head as she lay in bed.[6][7] Their motive for the murder being that Mabel had deprived them of their paternal inheritance.[8] Roger and Mabel had 10 children:

Name Birth Death Notes
By Mabel Talvas (Mabel of Bellême).
Roger Montgomery   1066  
Robert of Bellême 1052 c. 1130 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury
Hugh of Montgomery   1098 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury
Roger the Poitevin ca. 1065 before 1140  
Philip 'the Grammarian'   1099 Died while on crusade at the Siege of Antioch
Arnulf of Montgomery c. 1068    
Emma, abbess of Almenchêches      
Matilda     m. Robert, Count of Mortain
Mabel     m. Hugh of Châteauneuf-en-Thimerais
Sibyl     m. Robert Fitzhamon

Roger then married Adelaide de Le Puiset, by whom he had one son, Everard, who entered the Church.

After his death, Roger's estates were divided. The eldest surviving son, Robert, received the bulk of the Norman estates (as well as his mother's estates); the next son, Hugh, received the bulk of the English estates and the Earldom of Shrewsbury. After Hugh's death the elder son Robert inherited the earldom.

Cultural references

On screen, Roger was portrayed by actor John Greenwood in the two-part BBC TV play Conquest (1966), part of the series Theatre 625.

Ancestry

Notes

  1. ^ Lee, S., ed (1897). Dictionary of National Biography vol. 49. London: Smith, Elder & Co.. p. 101. 
  2. ^ a b Salzmann.'The rape of Chichester: Introduction', A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 4: The Rape of Chichester (1953), pp. 1-2. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41682 Date accessed: 08 August 2010
  3. ^ Horsfield. History of Sussex. pp.76 - 77
  4. ^ Domesday Pase
  5. ^ Britnel, R.H.; Campbell, Bruce M. S., eds (1995). "Appendix 2". A Commercialising Economy: England, 1086 to c1300. Manchester University Press; 1st edition. ISBN 0719039940. 
  6. ^ a b Vitalis.The ecclesiastical history of Orderic Vitalis, Volume 2 Book 3. pp.49-55
  7. ^ Vitalis. The ecclesiastical history of Orderic Vitalis, Volume 2 Book 3. Footnote pp.54-55. Discussion on date of death of Mabel of Bellême, 1077 and 1079 being the most likely.
  8. ^ Allen Brown. Proceedings of the Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman studies: 1978. p.41.

References

External links

Peerage of England
Preceded by
New Creation		 Earl of Shrewsbury
1074–1094		 Succeeded by
Hugh of Montgomery