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Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Earl Thomas Montague & Countess Eleanor Holand

3802862. Earl Thomas Montague & 3802863. Countess Eleanor Holand

1387, Eleanor born in England, d/o 738714. Earl Thomas de Holand & 738715. Alice Fitzalan. [2nd daughter of the same name.]

1388, Thomas born in Shenley, Hertfordshire, England, heir & s/o 7605724. Earl John Montagu & 7605725. Maud Fraunceys.

3/1388, Thomas baptized in the parish church of St. Botulph. Thomas of Woodstock (3802866) was his godfather.

1397, Eleanor’s father died.

[––Thomas & Eleanor––]

Bef. 5/23/1399, Thomas married to Eleanor.

3/20/1413, Henry V succeeded Henry IV as King of England.

1/7/1400, Thomas’ father [attained as a traitor] murdered by a mob.

5/10/1400, Thomas age 12 at an inquest of his father. (S) Monthermer Peerage, Parliament Lords … Case on Behalf of William Lowndes, 1860, P94.

1401, Thomas granted £100 yearly until coming of age, in consideration of the poverty of his estate. Eleanor was given £100 yearly out of the Wiltshire manors of her father.

1408, Eleanor age 21, coheir to her brother Edmund, 4th Earl of Kent. [See 4/17/1424.]

4/27/1409, Inquisition on petition of Thomas de Monte Acuto, son and heir of John de Monte Acuto, earl of Salisbury, deceased, of the lands which the said John held in fee tail on the day he died. (S) Monthermer Peerage, Parliament Lords … Case on Behalf of William Lowndes, 1860, P96.

6/14/1409, Bishom manor in Berkshire restored to Thomas. [Only worth and estimated £750 annually.]

10/26/1409, Thomas, 4th Earl of Salisbury, summoned to parliament.

1411, Eleanor age 24.

1411, William Stourton was a party to the transactions when Thomas Montagu, Earl of Salisbury, settled the manors in Wiltshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight on his mother.

1412, Thomas served in France under the Duke of Clarence in support of the Orleanist faction of the French civil war.

4/9/1413, Henry V crowned king of England.

10/8/1413, Eleanor given the robes of a Lady of the Garter.

Eleanor died; buried at Bisham Priory, Berkshire.

1413-14, Thomas, Duke of Clarence, Edmund de Mortimer, Earl of March, Thomas Montagu, Earl of Saliabury, … complain … the Duke and community of Milan issued bonds for 70000 forlins to Edmund, Earl of Kent, when he married Lucy Visconti … (S) UKNA.

4/1414, Thomas appointed a Knight of the Garter.

5/1414, Thomas a joint ambassador to Paris.

7/1414, Thomas involved in peace negotiations, and the proposed marriage of Henry V with Catherine of France.

1415, Thomas at the siege of Harfleur.

10/25/1415, Thomas at the battle of Agincourt with 3 knights, 36 squires, 40 men-at-arms, and 80 mounted archers.

8/9/1416, Grant by Thomas de Mountagu, earl of Salisbury, to his mother, Maud, countess of Salisbury, his brother, William de Ferrers, lord of Groby, … (S) Ancient Deeds, V3, 1900, D.543.

8/15/1416, Thomas at the naval “battle of the Seine” where he captured a Genoese sailor.

1417, Thomas at the siege of Caen, and the siege of Falaise, under the command of the Duke of Clarence [who was known to sleep in full armor.]

8/1417, Thomas assigned to capture the fortress of Auvillers. [And afterwards granted lordship.]

1418, Thomas at the siege of Rouen, where he was present in the tent of King Henry V when it was hit by cannon fire.

1418, Thomas was sent as an ambassador to treat with the Dauphin [after Paris was captured by John the Fearless, who’s assassination in 1419 would solidly align the Burgundians with King Henry V.]

1419, Thomas captured the towns of Fecamp, Gournay, Eu and Honfleur.

4/26/1419, Thomas created Count of Perche, Normandy, and granted the barony of Loigny; and appointed Lt. General of Normandy and the Marches south of the Seine.

12/1419, Thomas named the Governor of the duchy of Alencon.

5/21/1420, King Henry V, to marry Katherine – d/o King Charles VI, named the successor in France by the Treaty of Troyes.

1420, Maine, France added to Thomas’ duchy.

3/22/1421, Thomas with the Duke of Clarence at the battle of Beauge where the Duke was killed. Thomas took command of the retreat of the English army through Maine into Anjou. Thomas, to avoid a massive attack by the French, retreated through thick forest; and made a bridge over the Loir river from doors collected along the route.

5/2/1421, Thomas restored to the dignities previously held  by his father, becoming Lord Montagu.

6/1421, Thomas wrote a letter to the king about the counter-attack after the battle of Beauge.

1421-2, Thomas served in Maine and Anjou.

4/1422, Thomas recaptured the strategic bridge at Meulan.

5/1422, Thomas with King Henry at the siege of Meaux.

8/31/1422, Henry VI, age 9 months, became king on the death of his father, Henry V.

10/21/1422, King Charles VI [called both “the Beloved” and “the Mad”] died, leaving France in a civil war.

By 1423, Thomas was living in Paris as his primary residence, then under alliance with the Duke of Bedford.

1423, Thomas besieged Montaguillon, a fortress perched on a rock. Thomas succeeded by mining under a wall, causing it to collapse. [The locals both supported and benefited from the siege because this garrison had pillaged the countryside for years.]

7/31/1423, Thomas commander of the Anglo-Burgundian army at the battle of Cravant. Thomas, after having heard Mass, led the charge on the French, crossing the river Yonne to the west of the town. [During this campaign Thomas knighted 80 men, both English and Burgundians.]

Bef. 4/17/1424, Eleanor died. (S) IPM of Lucy. [Her daughter Alice co-hieress of Lucy, wife of her brother Edmund, earl of Kent.]

[––Thomas––]

6/1424, Thomas captured the small town of Sezanne in Champagne after a full assault. Because no agreement had been made before the assault with the inhabitants [which often occurred], the majority were massacred, the garrison hanged, all goods pillaged, women raped, and the town’s ramparts were razed to the ground.

8/17/1424, Thomas at the battle of Verneuil, called the most ferocious and bloodiest of the 100-years war. Thomas was directly opposite a Scottish army under command of the Earl of Douglas. French chronicler Jean de Wavrin, present at the battle [and at Cravant], said that Thomas’ personal bravery and leadership decisively influenced the course of events [Wavrin later said that Thomas was the most successful and talented commander in 200 years]. After the battle Thomas granted multiple knights with coats of arms. [During the battle, Thomas vowed to return to Jerusalem if he made it out alive.]

Thomas married 2nd Alice Chaucer, widow of Sir John Philip, d/o Thomas Chaucer – Chief Butler to Richard II and Henry IV. [No children.]

10/1424, Thomas was at Melun, where he accused the Duke of Burgundy of attempting to seduce his Countess. [Thomas was aware of the Duke’s peace negotiations with their mutual enemy Charles VII.]

1425, Thomas, living in Paris, France, sent his personal goods to England. [Paris was not the capital at this time.]

7/20/1425, Thomas began his campaign in Maine before the walls of Le Mans. Thomas breeched the walls with his cannons. An agreement was reached with the inhabitants that they would surrender the city if forces of Charle VII did not arrive in 8 days [and they did not.]

8/10/1425, Thomas captured the city of Le Mans. The townspeople also agreed to pay Thomas 1500 gold “ecus” for his personal costs.

6/1426, Thomas resigned his command as Lt. General in Normandy, returned to England, and vowed to make a pilgrimage back to Jerusalem. [Thomas at some time made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.]

Thomas began supporting preparations of the Duke of Gloucester for an expedition against Philip of Burgundy in Holland.

1426, in a legal dispute tried before parliament, Thomas styled himself as a descendent of the kings of England.

1426, Thomas commissioned John Lydgate to translate Guillaume de Deguileville’s religious allegory, the “Peleringage de la vie humaine”.

2/21/1427, Humphrey Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester and Thomas Montagu, Earl of Salisbury … military activity in France under Henry V. They were retained to accompany the king to France in his third year, and were granted wages for themselves and their men for the first quarter, and given jewels as a guarantee for the second quarter. Since their service ended early, the Exchequer sought to deduct the wages for these days from the sums owed, even though the soldiers had been retained for the entire period, and despite there being many other sums still unpaid to the petitioners. (S) UKNA.

7/1428, Thomas again sailed for France with 450 spears and 2,250 archers. Thomas also took 7 large cannons weighing about 5000 pounds each, 48 “fowlers” - small cannons capable of firing stones weighing 2 pounds, 16 handguns – used by the captains in assaults, and 28 scaling ladders.

1428, Thomas 1st occupied Paris, then took the city of Chartres. Thomas then took Jenville, which he described as “the most notable assault that ever we sawe”.

1428, At Orleans, Thomas assigned Sir William de la Pole to capture Jargeau to the east, and Beaugency and Meung to the west. [Thomas’ forces captured 40 towns in a little more than a month.]

1428, Thomas received an “etat”, a customary montly payment to field commanders, of £750 tournois. The next highest paid was John of Luxembourg at £600 [the commander of the Burgundian forces], then the Earl of Warwick at £500.

10/12/1428, Thomas moved on Orleans, the largest fortified position of Charles VII of France. The walls of Orleans had 70 mounted cannon and protected 3000 French soldiers. Thomas’ troops were supported by 1500 French soldiers from Burgundy. Thomas also had cannons with which he bombarded the city walls and protective towers.

11/3/1428, Thomas Montacute, Captain-General of the English Army, died of wounds received at the siege of Orleans from a cannon. [The English would eventually abandon Orleans after attacks by Joan of Arc the following Spring.]

11/29/1428, Thomas’ Mass at St. Pauls’, buried at Bisham Priory, Berkshire.

(S) Magna Carta Ancestry, P578. (S) Chivalry in Action: Thomas Montagu and the War in France, Warner, Nottingham Medieval Studies, 1998.

Child of Thomas and Eleanor:

i. Alice de Montagu (1901431), born 1406 in England. [Heir]


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