Roger (Montgomery) de Montgomery (abt. 1022 - 1094)

Born about 1022 in Normandy, France

Ancestors

Husband of Mabile (Bellême) de Montgomery — married 1048 in Perche, France

Descendants

Died 27 Jul 1094 at about age 72 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England

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Biography

Roger II (Montgomery) de Montgomery is a member of Clan Montgomery.

Roger was part of a powerful clique in Normandy, several of whom shared descent from sisters of Gunnora, the "Danish" wife of Richard I of Normandy. As described by Keats-Rohans (p.399), he was "a kinsman, friend and trusted companion" of William the conqueror, and he and his father apparently supported him through the difficult times when he struggled to take control of Normandy as a bastard son who was still very young when his father died.

As reported in Complete Peerage, he was found frequently in the Norman court record in the 1040s and 1050s. During the 1066 invasion, he remained in Normandy to support the running of government and then joined the king in England in 1067.

After the death of King William, Roger's position with regards to the conflict between Williams two competing oldest sons William Rufus and Robert Curthose has been described as equivocal (CP Vol.11. p.686).

Keats-Rohan also mentions that in England he had built up one of the largest estates in the country by the 1086 Domesday Book.

Name and origin

Roger is commonly referred to as Roger of Montgomery (with various spellings). As explained by Loyd (p.68), Montgomery refers to the area of two neighbouring modern French municipalities, both of which apparently had castles: Germain-de-Montgommery and Sainte-Foy-de-Montgommery. These are in the département of Calvados and both have modern postcode 14140.

Mother

As explained for example in Complete Peerage under Shrewsbury, there has been uncertainty about Roger's mother. A Joscelin, relative of Gunnora (a relative of the Duke) is often proposed, but on the other hand, she is sometimes proposed to be a mother of Roger's father instead.

Titles

In Normandy, Roger inherited the lordship of Montgomery from his father and also became vicomte of Hiesmois. (In this period a Norman vicomte was similar to an Anglo-Norman sheriff. This was a real administrative position.)

Furthermore, as Keats-Rohan remarks, his first wife, although she had brothers "became the family's heiress in order to permit peace between her family and the dukes of Normandy after many years of conflict between them". Complete Peerage"'s Arundel article (p.230) lists two of these lordships as Alençon and Séez.

He became very powerful in England and while the status of Anglo-Norman Earls was still developing Roger was sometimes called a "prince" (princeps). After 1074 at the latest, and famously in Domesday Book in 1086, he was often referred to simply as Count Roger (Latin "Comes Rogerus"). This was based on his status in England, as one of the first Anglo-Norman Earls. It was not a French title. (It was during this period that Earls began to be consistently translated as Comes meaning count in Latin.) Complete Peerage under Arundel emphasizes (p.233) that in Domesday "no local designation is attributed to him" as count or earl. Under Shrewsbury CP states that "there is no charter evidence that Roger was ever styled “comes” until the creation of the Earldom of Shrewsbury" in 1074 (Vol.11 p.685, also see Appendix K, written by Loyd). Therefore his position in the march at Shrewsbury was perhaps what originally got him considered a count or earl.

The date of the Earldom of Shrewsbury being created is not clear, and indeed it may not have happened in the way later Earldoms were "created". Loyd in Complete Peerage (Vol.11 App.K) shows carefully that there is no evidence of Roger being commonly known as an Earl until December 1074, but other historians point out that he possibly started establishing himself as early 1068 (the opinion of Lewis). The English claimant of the Earldom died 1071, and this date is for example used by Keats-Rohan.

The other earldom he is referred to as having is Arundel, which was in his time approximately the western third of Sussex, including the Rapes of both Chichester and Arundel. Its origins are even less clear than for Shrewsbury, from which it may have indirectly achieved its status as an earldom. As discussed by CP, there was no fixed name, and it was apparently also called the earldom of Sussex or Chichester. His castle of Arundel came to be seen as specially linked to this title in later times. The earlier-written Complete Peerage article for Arundel explains:

The fact, however, appears to be that Roger de Montgomery was AN EARL (i.e. Earl of some one county or more) and that (as was usual in those early times) his Earldom was indifferently styled either from his county of Sussex, or of SHROPSHIRE, or from the Castles of ARUNDEL, CHICHESTER, SHREWSBURY, or MONTGOMERY, which were, respectively, the "caput" of the Earldom.

Marriages and family

(1) Mabel, daughter and heiress (despite having brothers) of William Talvas, lord of Belléme and Alencon. CP estimates that this took place between 1050 and 1054. She was murdered approximately 1079, years before the invasion of England. Sons, using descriptions based upon Complete Peerage (under Shrewsbury):

• Roger, who died young and without issue, though he must have first gotten old enough to witness a charter.
• Robert de Bellême, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury. Took Curthose's side in 1088 and was banished from England
• Roger “the Poitevin”. Very powerful in England until 1088. Then banished with Robert from England.
• Hugh, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury
• Philip, called the Clerk or Grammaticus, who went on crusade and died at the siege of Antioch in 1099 (Orderic, vol. iii, p. 426)
• Arnulf, who obtained the “comitatus” of Pembroke, but who apparently was not an earl (Idem, vol. ii, p. 423). In 1102 he joined in his brother Robert’s rebellion and was banished from England (Idem, vol. iv, pp. 177-78).

4 daughters:

• Emma, abbess of Almeneches (Idem, vol. ii, p. 412)
• Maud married to Robert, Count of Mortain and Earl of Cornwall;
• Mabel, wife of Hugh, lord of Chateauneuf-en-Thimerais
• Sibyl, wife of Robert Fitz-Hamon (Idem, vol. ii, p. 412).

(2) Adelaide, daughter of Everard Depuiset. One known son:

• Everard de Montgommery, d. before 1135/36. "Chaplain both to William Rufus and Henry I (Idem, vol. ii, p. 412; vol. iii, pp. 425-26). He is generally said to have been that Everard who became bishop of Norwich in 1121."

Issue by Mistress?

1. Hugues de Montgomery

1094 Death and Burial

Complete Peerage gives a detailed analysis of the evidence to show that he died "27 July 1094 at Shrewsbury and having been clothed as a monk three days before his death was buried there in the abbey which he had founded".

Sources

See also:

• Charles Cawley. Foundation for Medieval Genealogy. Medieval Genealogy Database. Roger [ii de Montgommery. Accessed December 16, 2017. jhd
• Cockayne, Gibbs, et al. "Arundel" in Complete Peerage, 2nd ed, Vol.1, pp.233ff
• Cockayne, Gibbs, et al. "Shrewsbury" in Complete Peerage, 2nd ed, Vol.11, pp.683ff, and also see Appendix K
• Keats-Rohan, "Roger Comes" in Domesday People, p.399
• Lewis (1991) "The Early Earls of Norman England', Anglo-Norman Studies, 13
• Loyd, "Montgomery" in The Origins of Some Anglo-Norman Families, p.68
• PASE Domesday page showing map of his lands: http://domesday.pase.ac.uk/Domesday?op=5&personkey=39267
• Dictionary of National Biography, Volumes 1-20, 22 Author: Ancestry.com Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors. Original data - Stephen, Sir Leslie, ed. Dictionary of National Biography, 1921–-1922. London, England.
• Yeatman, John Pym. The Early Genealogical History of the House of Arundel (Mitchell and Hughes, London, 1882) Page 8
• Shropshire Archaeological Society. Transactions Vol 56, part 3, 1960. The officers and clerks of the Norman earls of Shropshire. J. F. A. Mason. Page 244ff