Roger de Montgomerie, also known as
Roger
the Great de Montgomery (died 1094), 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.
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 [Some controversy here- Neil Ludlow (Pembroke
Castle) states the Earl led the Norman right flank at the Battle of
Hastings].
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.
In addition to the
large part of Sussex included in the Rape of
Arundel, and seven-eighths of Shropshire
which were associated with the earldom of
Shrewsbury, he had estates in Surrey
, Hampshire, Wiltshire
, Middlesex
, Hertfordshire
, Gloucestershire
, Worcestershire,
Cambridgeshire, Warwickshire
and Staffordshire.
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. By her he had 10 children:
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.
On screen, Roger was portrayed by actor
John Greenwood in the two-part
BBC TV play
Conquest (1966), part of
the series
Theatre 625.
References
- J.F.A. Mason, "Roger de Montgomery and His Sons (1067–1102)",
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th series
vol. 13 (1963) 1-28
- Kathleen Thompson, "The Norman Aristocracy before 1066: the
Example of the Montgomerys", Historical Research 60 (1987)
251-263
- Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to
America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis Lines: 124-26,
185-1
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