1048 Roger II de Montgomery accompanied Duke William on his expedition against Domfront and Alençon. [1]
1050-1054 Roger II de Montgomery married Mabel, daughter of William Talvas. [2] Roger "made a significant marriage to Mabel daughter of William Talvas de Bellême. Though she had brothers, she became the family's heiress in order to permit a peace between her family and the dukes of Normandy after many years of conflict between them." [3]
1066 Roger supplied ships for the Norman invasion of England, but he "did not accompany the expedition, remaining behind to assist the duchess Matilda in ruling Normandy in William's absence." [4]
1071 Roger became the earl of Shropshire. [5] Oderic Vitalis states, [6]
King William gave Roger of Montgomery first of all Arundel castle and the town of Chichester; and afterwards granted him the county of Shrewsbury, a town standing on a hill above the river Severn. He was a wise and prudent man, a lover of justice, who always enjoyed the company of learned and sober ment. For many years he had in his household three learned clerks, Godebald, Odelerius, and Herbert, whose advice was very profitable to him. To Warin the Bald, a man small in body but great in spirit, he gave his niece Amieria and the sheriffdom of Shrewsbury, employing him to crush the Welsh and other opponents and pacify the whole province placed under his rule. He gave positions of authority in the county to William called Pantulf, Picot, Corbet and his sons Roger and Robert, and other brave and loyal men; and their judgement and courage helped to give him an assured place in the first rank of the nobility.
1079 Roger's wife Mabel was murdered at Bures, near Troarn, on December 2 [7] [8] She was buried at Troarn on December 5. Her murderer was Hugh, "from whom she had wrested his castle on the rock of Igé" [La Roche d'Igé, canton de Bellême], thus, according to Orderic Vitalis, unjustly depriving Hugh of his inheritance. [9]
[Hugh] undertook a most audacious enterprise; for with the assistance of his three brothers, who were men of undaunted courage, he forced an entry by night into the chamber of the countess at a place called Bures on the Dive, and there, in revenge for the loss of his inheritance, cut off her head, as she lay in bed just after enjoying the pleasures of a bath.
Concerning Roger de Montgomery, Orderic Vitalis states, [10]
After the murder of Mabel, count Roger married a second wife, Adeliza, daughter of Everard du Puiset, one of the highest of the French nobility. The earl had by his first wife five sons and four daughters, whose names are as follows: Robert de Belesme, Hugh de Montgomery, Roger the Poitevin, Philip, and Arnold: Emma, a nun and abbess of Almenesches, the countess Matilda, wife of Robert, earl of Morton, Mabel, wife of Hugh de Chateauneuf, and Sybil, wife of Robert Fitz-Hamon. By his second wife he had only one son whose name is Everard, and who being brought up to learning, became attached to the courts of William and Henry, kings of England, as one of the royal chaplains. The successor to the former countess was of quite a different character for she was remarkable for her good sense and piety, and frequently used her influence with her husband to befriend the monks and protect the poor.
1094 Roger de Montgomery died on July 27 at Shrewsbury "and having been clothed as a monk three days before his death was buried there in the abbey which he had founded." [11]
Keats-Rohans lists Roger of Montgomery as "Roger Comes" and states that he was the "son of Roger I of Montgomery, a kinsman, friend and trusted companion of his contemporary William I, who he supported during his minority." [12]
[1] George E. Cokayne and Geoffrey H White, ed., The Complete Peerage, rev., Vol. 11, Rickerton to Sisonby (London: St Catherine Press, 1949), 683.
[2] George E. Cokayne and Geoffrey H White, ed., The Complete Peerage, rev., Vol. 11, Rickerton to Sisonby (London: St Catherine Press, 1949), 686.
[3] K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, A Prosopography of persons occurring in English documents, 1066-1166 (Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 1999), 399, [GoogleBooks].
[4] K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, A Prosopography of persons occurring in English documents, 1066-1166 (Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 1999), 399, [GoogleBooks].
[5] K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, A Prosopography of persons occurring in English documents, 1066-1166 (Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 1999), 399, [GoogleBooks].
[6] Marjorie Chibnall, ed., The Ecclesiastical History of Oderic Vitalis, Vol. 2 (Books III and IV) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969), 262, [GoogleBooks].
[7] Geoffrey H. White, "The First House of Bellême," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Fourth Series, Vol. 22 (1940), 67-99 at 96-99 (Appendix C), [JSTOR], [JStor(UM)].
[8] George E. Cokayne and Geoffrey H White, ed., The Complete Peerage, rev., Vol. 11, Rickerton to Sisonby (London: St Catherine Press, 1949), 686, citing White's analysis.
[9] Ordericus Vitalis, Thomas Forester, translator, The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, Vol. 2 (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854), 194, [InternetArchive].
[10] Ordericus Vitalis, Thomas Forester, translator, The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, Vol. 2 (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854), 195, [InternetArchive].
[11] George E. Cokayne and Geoffrey H White, ed., The Complete Peerage, rev., Vol. 11, Rickerton to Sisonby (London: St Catherine Press, 1949), 687.
[12] K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, A Prosopography of persons occurring in English documents, 1066-1166 (Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 1999), 399, [GoogleBooks].