History and genealogy of Peter Montague, of Nansemond and ...

INTRODUCTION. 2 I
confined one of his wives; afterward, it was a favorite resort of
Queen Elizabeth ; here was buried the wife of the founder, Katherine
de Grandison, the Countess of Salisbury, and the inscription upon
her tomb stated, that her father was " descended out of Burgundy,
cousin german to the Emperor of Constantinople, the King of Hun-
gary and Duke of Bavaria."
Here William Montacute, the 2d Earl of Salisbury (son of the
founder), was interred. By his will he directed that a monument
should there be erected to the memory of his father, which was done
upon a magnificent scale. *
His wife Catherine was daughter of William (and sister and heir
to Otho) lord Grandison by Sibylla, dau. and heir of John de Tregoz,
a great Baron. She was a brave woman, worthy of such a brave and
noble man as was her husband the Earl of Salisbury. Shef nobly
defended and aided with heroic valor the defence of the castle of
Werk, with her husband's brother, Sir Edward Montacute, who was
its Governor, and also bravely defended her own Castle of Salisbury
from King David of Scotland, with the aid of William Montacute,
her husband's cousin, while her husband was a prisoner of war in
France as before mentioned in the history of Sir Simon No. IX.
They bad seven children, three sons and four daughters. Of the
sons, William, the eldest, succeeded his father and became the second
Earl of Salisbury, but was killed in a tilting match at Windsor.
Sir John Montacute, the second son, m. Margaret Monthermer,
grand-dau. of Ralph and Joan of Acres, dau. of King Edward I, and
his son became 3d Earl of Salisbury.
Of Robert Montacute, the third and youngest son, the records
give no history.
* " The bones of John Montacute, 3d Earl of Salisbury, who was beheaded, were brought
from Cirencester, (by order of his widow) and re-interred at Bisham Priory." Crosse's
Antiquities. Here also were laid the '"mortal parts" of the 4th and last Earl of Salisbury,
Gen. Thomas Montacute, killed at the siege of Orleans (1428). Here also rest the remains of
John, Marquis of Montacute, killed at the battle of Barnet in 1470, and also his brother
Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, called the "king maker." Here also sleeps that unfortu-
nate youth Edward Plantaganet, son of the Duke of Clarence, beheaded in 1499 for
attempting an escape from confinement.
t It was this countess of Salisbury who, while dancing with King Edward, lost her garter,
which gave rise to the founding of the order of the garter, (and not Joan Plantaganet, the
Fair Maid of Kent, as was stated in the " Montagues at Hadley.") See History of the Orders
of Brit. Knighthood by Sir N. Nicholas. Rambles about Eton and Harrow, by Alfred
Rimmer, London, 1882, et al.
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