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

2 2 INTRODUCTION.
XI. William Montacute, second Earl of Salisbury, eldest son
of William the first Earl, was born in June, 1328. Before he was of
age he was Knighted when Edward landed at La Hague. He after-
ward served at the siege of Caen, and at the glorious battle of Crecy.
When the Order of the Garter was instituted he was the seventh of
its original knights, and when the Black Prince obtained Aquitaine
he attended him to France and served under him in all his excursions
and expeditions. At the battle of Poitiers he commanded the rear
of the English army, and was highly instrumental in gaining that
famous victory. In short, almost his whole life was a perpetual
campaign under Edward III. and his son, the Black Prince.
In the succeeding reign, he was continued in all his posts and
preferments, and also made governor of Calais, whence he harrassed
the French with continual excursions. In the fifth of that reign he
convoyed to England the King's intended Consort, daughter of
Charles, King of the Romans, and in the seventh and eighth he
served against the Scots. In the ninth, a grant was made to him
during life, of the custody of the Isle of Wight and Castle of Caris-
brook. In the twentieth, the year 1397, he departed this life, having
ordered by his will, that every day until his corpse should be interred
at Bisham, distribution should be made of one pound five shillings
to three hundred poor people ; likewise that twenty poor men should
bear torches on the day of his funeral, each torch eight pounds
weight, and each of them wearing a gown of black cloth with a red
hood ;
also, that there should be nine wax lights about his corpse,
and upon every pillar of the church there should be fixed banners of
his arms ;
moreover
that £30 should be given to the religious, to
sing trentals and pray for his soul.
He first married Joan, who by way of distinction was called Fair
Maid of Kent, daughter to Edmund Plantagenet, Earl of Kent, but
having been separated from her upon a petition from Sir Thomas
Holland to the Pope, in which he alleged that she had been pre-con-
tracted to him, his lordship married second, Elizabeth, dau. and
co-heir of John lord Mohun, one of the original Knights of the Garter
by whom he had a son who died without issue, having been accident-
ally killed by his father in a tilting at Windsor in the year 1383. This
son was named Sir William Montague and married Elizabeth, dau. of
Richard Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel. His widow married in 1388
Thomas lord Mowbray, Earl Marshal of England.