William Montagu, alias de Montacute, 1st Earl of Salisbury, 3rd Baron Montagu, King of Man (1301 – 30 January 1344) was an English nobleman and loyal servant of King Edward III.
The son of William Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu, he entered the royal household at an early age and became a close companion of the young Prince Edward. The relationship continued after Edward was crowned king following the deposition of Edward II in 1327. In 1330, Montagu was one of Edward's main accomplices in the coup against Roger Mortimer, who until then had been acting as the king's protector.
In the following years, Montagu served the king in various capacities, primarily in the Scottish Wars. He was richly rewarded, and among other things received the lordship of the Isle of Man. In 1337, he was created Earl of Salisbury, and given an annual income of 1000 marks to go with the title. He served on the Continent in the early years of the Hundred Years' War, but in 1340 he was captured by the French, and in return for his freedom had to promise never to fight in France again. Salisbury died of wounds suffered at a tournament early in 1344.
Legend has it that Montagu's wife Catherine was raped by Edward III, but this story is almost certainly French propaganda. William and Catherine had six children, most of whom married into the nobility. Modern historians have called William Montague Edward's "most intimate personal friend" and "the chief influence behind the throne from Mortimer's downfall in 1330 until his own death in 1344."
Family background
William Montagu, born at Cassington, Oxfordshire in 1301, was the second but eldest surviving son of William Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu, and Elizabeth de Montfort, daughter of Sir Peter Montfort of Beaudesert, Warwickshire, by Matilda/Maud de la Mare, daughter and heiress of Henry de la Mare of Ashtead, Surrey, Royal Justice, Seneschal of William Longspree II, Earl of Salisbury.
The Montagu family, a West Country family with roots going back to the Conquest, held extensive lands in Somerset, Dorset and Devon.
The father, William Montagu, distinguished himself in the Scottish Wars during the reign of Edward I, and served as steward of Edward II's household. Some members of the nobility, including Thomas of Lancaster, viewed Montagu with suspicion, as a member of a court party with undue influence on the king. For this reason, he was sent to Aquitaine, to serve as seneschal. Here he died on 18 October 1319. Even though he sat in parliament as a baron, the second lord Montagu never rose above a level of purely regional importance.
Early service
The younger William was still a minor at the time of his father's death, and entered the royal household as a ward of the king in 1320. On 21 February 1323 he was granted his father's lands and title. His service to Edward II took him abroad to the Continent in both 1320 and 1325. In 1326 he was knighted. After the deposition of Edward II in 1327, Montagu continued in the service of Edward's son Edward III. He helped the new king in repelling the Scottish invasion of 1327, and was created knight banneret in 1328.
Montagu enjoyed a close relationship with Edward III, and accompanied him abroad on a diplomatic mission in 1329. That same year he was sent on an embassy to negotiate a marriage alliance with King Philip VI of France. His most important task, however, came in connection with a mission to the Papacy in Avignon. The young king—along with his government—was under the dominance of his mother Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer, who had been responsible for the deposition of the king's father. Montagu explained the king's situation, and Pope John XXII asked for a special signal that assure him that he was dealing with the king in person. After Montagu's return, Richard Bury, Keeper of the Privy Seal, wrote to inform the pope that only letters containing the words pater sancte (holy father), in Edward's own handwriting, were indeed from the king. Only Edward, Bury and Montagu were party to the scheme.