William de Montagu | |
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The Earl of Salisbury Baron Montagu King of Mann |
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"Conte de Salisbery, Will(ia)m", William de Montagu, 2nd Earl of Salisbury, KG, illustration from the Bruges Garter Book, c.1430. The arms of Monthermer (Or, an eagle displayed vert beaked and membered gules) shown quartered by Montagu on his tabard are apparently incorrect, as it was his younger brother John de Montagu, 1st Baron Montagu (c. 1330 - c. 1390) who married the Monthermer heiress.
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Reign | 30 January 1344 – 3 June 1397 |
Born |
Donyatt, Somerset, England |
25 June 1328
Died | 3 June 1397 | (aged 68)
Spouse |
Joan of Kent Elizabeth de Mohun |
Father | William Montagu, 1st Earl of Salisbury |
Mother | Catherine Grandison |
Sir William de Montagu, 2nd Earl of Salisbury, 4th Baron Montagu, King of Mann, KG (25 June 1328 – 3 June 1397) was an English nobleman and commander in the English army during King Edward III's French campaigns in the Hundred Years War. He was one of the Founder Knights of the Order of the Garter.
Lord Salisbury was born in Donyatt in Somerset, the eldest son of William Montagu, 1st Earl of Salisbury and his wife Catherine Grandison. One of his sisters, Philippa (d. 5 January 1382) was the wife of Roger Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March. Lord Salisbury succeeded his father as earl in 1344. In 1348, Lord Salisbury, at this time married to the King's first cousin, was one of the knights admitted at the foundation of the Order of the Garter.
In the early 1340s, Lord Salisbury was married to Joan of Kent, a first cousin of the King, and a princess of England. Both Lord Salisbury and his bride were of exactly the same age, and both were in their early teens. Lord Salisbury entered into the marriage in good faith, without knowing that Joan had already, at the age of twelve, secretly married Thomas Holland, just before the latter left England on crusade. Upon returning to England in 1348, Holland declared that Joan was his wife and demanded that she be restored to him. An inquiry was instituted to examine the question, and it found that Joan had indeed been married to Holland, and that that marriage was valid in law; consequently, Lord Salisbury's own marriage to Joan was invalid. During the proceedings of the inquiry, Lord Salisbury was dismayed and chagrined to find that Joan herself was in favor of her marriage to Holland being upheld, and her marriage to Lord Salisbury voided. Following the findings of the inquiry, and after several years of living together with her, Lord Salisbury's marriage with Joan, Fair Maid of Kent, was annulled by the Pope in 1349.