Thomas Montagu, 4th Earl of Salisbury

He was the eldest son of John Montagu, 3rd Earl of Salisbury (died 1400), who was killed while plotting against King Henry IV in 1400, and his lands forfeited. The lands were partly retrieved by Thomas in 1409, and fully in 1421. His mother was Maud Francis, daughter of Sir Adam Francis (born c. 1334), Mayor of London.

Thomas was summoned to Parliament as Earl of Salisbury in 1409, although he was not formally invested as earl until 1421. In 1414 he was made a Knight of the Garter. In July 1415 he was one of the seven peers who tried Richard, Earl of Cambridge on charges of conspiring against King Henry V. Montagu then joined King Henry V in France, where he fought at the Siege of Harfleur and at the Battle of Agincourt.[2] Montagu fought in various other campaigns in France in the following years. In 1419 he held an independent command and was appointed lieutenant-general of Normandy and created Count of Perche,[2] part of Henry V's policy of creating Norman titles for his followers.

Although he was employed on some diplomatic missions, he took almost no part in politics[2] and spent most of the rest of his life as a soldier in France, leading troops in the various skirmishes and sieges that were central to that part of the Hundred Years' War. In 1423, he was appointed governor of Champagne, and in 1425 he captured the city of Le Mans. After a year in England he returned to a position of command in 1428, and fought at the Siege of Orléans, at which he lost his life on 3 November of that year.[2]

He married twice:

• Firstly to Eleanor Holland, a sister and eventual co-heiress of Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent, and daughter of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent. By Eleanor he had a daughter, his only legitimate child: Alice Montagu, who married Richard Neville, who later succeeded his father-in-law jure uxoris as Earl of Salisbury.
• Secondly to Alice Chaucer, daughter of Thomas Chaucer and granddaughter of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer.

On 27 October 1428 he was wounded during the Siege of Orléans, when the tower he was inside was hit by a cannonball. There are conflicting reports on the manner in which this wounded him; Enguerrand de Monstrelet states a piece of stone from the window 'carried away part of his face.' He died days later at Meung-sur-Loire on 3 November 1428.[3]

• Hunt, William (1894). "Montacute or Montague, Thomas de, fourth Earl of Salisbury (1388–1428)" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. 38. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• Kingsford, C.L. (1911). "Salisbury, Thomas de Montacute" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 78.
• the Peerage.com on Thomas Montagu, 4th Earl of Salisbury
• Cawley, Charles, Medieval Lands Project on Thomas de Montagu, Medieval Lands database, Foundation for Medieval Genealogy,
• de Monstrelet, Enguerrand (1440s). The Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet. VI. pp. 234–237.

• Hundred Years War: Thomas Montacute, 4th Earl of Salisbury (1388–1428)
• Royal Berkshire History: Thomas Montacute, Earl of Salisbury (1388–1428)