MONTGOMERY, Sir John

A Welshman of obscure background, Montgomery won fame and fortune as a soldier in France. Knighted in 1418 and a banneret by the late 1420s, he helped to capture Joan of Arc and later in life he was twice considered for admission to the Order of the Garter. He first comes into view in 1414, when he successfully petitioned Parliament for an exemption from an Act of 1401 forbidding Welshmen from purchasing land in England. In the petition he referred to himself as ‘esquier bailla a Roy’, indicating that he was already a member of Henry V’s household when he submitted it.17 PROME, ix. 90-91. In 1415 Montgomery indented to serve on Henry’s first great expedition to France. Before leaving England, he and a fellow Welshman recruited for the expedition, Lewis John*, received an assignment of jewels and plate worth nearly £42 from the King’s chamber. These valuables, including a gold tablet covered in precious stones and containing fragments of the True Cross, were a security that both they and their men would receive their wages and any due customary profits of war. Montgomery and the three archers who accompanied him across the Channel took part in the siege of Harfleur. It was at Harfleur that he assumed command of the small retinue of two lances and six archers that Lewis John, invalided home at the very beginning of the siege, had brought to France. After the fall of the town Montgomery and his men became members of the English garrison installed there, meaning that they did not accompany the King to Agincourt, and it was from Harfleur that they took ship back to Dover in early 1416.18 E404/31/331; E358/6, rot. 10d; E101/47/30. The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 496, mistakenly states that Montgomery fought at Agincourt, while G. Bogner, ‘Sir John Montgomery’, Jnl. Med. Military Hist. vii. 108, is unaware that he returned home at that date.

It was as a member of the retinue of Sir John Cornwall that Montgomery returned to France on the King’s expedition of 1417,19 E101/51/2. and before the year was out he was captain of the castle at Mayenne in the county of Maine. In April 1418 he was knighted at Caen,20 An acct. covering the year Mar. 1415-16 that Montgomery rendered at the Exchequer in relation to his part in the Agincourt expedition refers to him as ‘formerly esquire, now knight’, presumably because it was drawn up at a later date. It is on the basis of this account that Bogner assumes that the MP was already a knight in March 1416, so obliging him to argue that Montgomery underwent a ‘re-dubbing’ at Caen: ‘Sir John Montgomery’, 108-9. and he may have accompanied Henry V to the sieges of Louviers and Rouen in the following summer, of which the latter investment lasted until mid January 1419.21 Ibid. 110. By then he was among those who had received robes from the King’s brother, Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, presumably after becoming one of the duke’s retainers.22 Westminster Abbey muns. 12161. In May the same year Montgomery helped to negotiate the surrender of the French garrison at Ivry, and in the following July he was granted the keeping of the castle and manor of Maulévrier, confiscated from the duke of Savoy, for as long as it remained in the King’s hands.23 Foedera, iv (3), 52; ‘Roles Normands et Français’, Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de Normandie, ser. 3, iii. no. 637.

Montgomery succeeded the late Hugh Stafford, Lord Bourgchier, as captain of Domfront in the autumn of 1420. In the summer of the following year the King led an army against Chartres, sending orders in August 1421 to Sir John and other captains to send troops from their garrisons to his support.24 Bogner, 111. The Domfront garrison was by no means insubstantial, for Montgomery contracted to hold that castle with 40 men-at-arms and 120 archers a few months later. Among those who served under him there was a namesake, John Montgomery of Calais. Probably a relative, this other John had held the office of bailiff and receiver of the scivinage (assize of bread, wine and ale) at Calais since 1413.25 Foedera, iv (3), 52; E159/210, brevia Easter rot. 25; 199, brevia Mich. rot. 6; 200, brevia Trin. rot. 3; Add. Chs. 11482-4; Fr. mss, 25768/251; DKR, xliv. 546, 552; xlviii. 231. Bogner, 107-8, assumes that John of Calais was the MP but he was not identified as a knight when his offices in that town were renewed in July 1424: DKR, xlviii. 231. He cannot however have been the MP’s eldest son and namesake, since that John was born c.1426: C139/135/36. The last few months of Henry V’s reign saw Montgomery active as an arrayer of troops, including those of the then lieutenant of Normandy and captain of Alençon, Thomas Montagu, earl of Salisbury. In August 1422 he received an order to dispatch men to the assistance of one of his fellow captains, his brother-in-law, Sir Ralph Butler.26 Bogner, 112.

For several weeks during 1423, Montgomery was both captain of Domfront and deputy commander at Argentan to the east. He exercised the latter position on behalf of the Regent of France, John, duke of Bedford, with whom he fought at Verneuil in August 1424. In the wake of this Anglo-Burgundian victory, which gave the English the opportunity to consolidate their position north of the Loire, Montgomery campaigned with Thomas, Lord Scales and Sir John Fastolf in Maine and Anjou.27 Letters and Pprs. Illust. Wars of English ed. Stevenson, ii. 394; M. Keen, Eng. in the Later Middle Ages, 383; BL, Arundel 26, f. 4; A.J. Stratford, Bedford Inventories, 9; Massey, 79. By this date he possessed landed interests in Maine, having received a grant of the lordships of Ambrières and Saint-Aubin-Fosse-Levain in that county in June 1423. Worth in total 1,200 écus (or 1,300 livres tournois) p.a., both had been confiscated from the French knight Jean de Craon and his wife. He did not retain them for long, however, since before the end of the same decade he agreed to sell them to Lord Scales, who had also taken over the captaincy of Domfront by 1430.28 Actes de la Chancellerie, ii. 319; Massey, 79; Fr. mss, 25769/449.

When Bedford returned to England to raise more troops at the end of 1425, he was accompanied by Montgomery. In spite of his lengthy absences from home and a consequent lack of involvement in domestic affairs, Sir John was able to gain election – perhaps with Bedford’s support – as one of the knights of the shire for Hertfordshire to the Parliament of 1426. The Parliament met in the midst of a serious dispute between the duke of Gloucester and the chancellor, Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester. While it is impossible to confirm that Montgomery was associated with either side when he entered the Commons, it is worth noting his receipt of robes from Gloucester in 1419, and that it was as representatives of the duke that he and others had received the surrender of Ivry in the same year.29 Foedera, iv (3), 52. Montgomery owed his connexion with Hertfordshire to his wife Elizabeth, who held for life the chief manor at Cheshunt. This had been granted to her previous husband, John Norbury, by Henry IV, who in 1412 conferred it on the couple and their two young sons to hold for term of their lives in survivorship.30 CPR, 1408-13, p. 404; 1436-41, pp. 510-11; VCH Herts. iii. 460. Montgomery’s marriage to the widow of one of the leading figures of early Lancastrian England was probably arranged within a circle of his military friends and acquaintances, given that her brother was one of his comrades-in-arms in France. Elizabeth’s two sons by Norbury also pursued military careers and the eldest, Henry Norbury*, served as Montgomery’s lieutenant at Domfront.31 CCR, 1422-9, pp. 399-400; DKR, xlviii. 282; Fr. mss, 25770/634; Pièces Originales, 2021, Montgomery 8. Her sister, Joan, was married to another soldier, Hamon Belknap. Following Belknap’s death in 1429, the Crown granted the keeping of his estates (situated in Essex, Sussex and Kent) jointly to Joan, Montgomery and Sir Ralph Butler.32 CFR, xv. 258; Add. Ch. 106; CIPM, xxiii. 233-6; CP, xii (1), 421n.

Elizabeth’s interests at Cheshunt included the patronage of the local parish church but she, Montgomery and her Norbury sons agreed to surrender this advowson to the duke of Bedford, Cheshunt’s feudal overlord, in 1433, an arrangement ratified by the Parliament of that year.33 CPR, 1429-36, p. 296; 1436-41, pp. 510-11; RP, iv. 460-1. In spite of his wife’s links with Hertfordshire and the couple’s acquisition of a valuable manor at Chalton in Hampshire, Montgomery was to adopt Essex, where he had acquired the manor of Faulkbourne before entering the Commons, as his home county.34 C139/135/36; VCH Hants, iii. 105; Feudal Aids, ii. 362; E326/8104. He was one of the most substantial gentry of Essex by the 1430s, heading the list of its residents who swore to keep the peace in 1434. When assessed for taxation two years later he was found to enjoy an income of no less than £310 p.a. from his lands and fees.35 CPR, 1429-36, p. 400; H.L. Gray, ‘Incomes from Land in Eng. in 1436’, EHR, xlix. 633.

Within a month of the dissolution of the Parliament of 1426, Montgomery and four mainpernors, headed by John Tyrell* and Lewis John, were bound over in Chancery, he in £40 and they in 40 marks each, that he would do no harm to the Hertfordshire landowner Robert Louthe†. Dated 27 June 1426, these securities might indicate that the quarrel, of unknown origin but possibly connected with Elizabeth Montgomery’s interests in Hertfordshire, had already seen some violence. Some two years later, Louthe entered recognizances for 200 marks to 36 CCR, 1422-9, p. 277; The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 631.

Almost immediately after providing the security of June 1426, Montgomery was preparing to accompany the duke of Bedford to France. In July that year he obtained letters of protection and attorney prior to crossing the Channel,37 DKR, xlviii. 241-2. but, in the event, Bedford did not return to France until March 1428. Records show that Montgomery was at Domfront in the following July, although he was again back in England when he obtained further letters of attorney on 5 Mar. 1428. These letters raise the possibility that he participated in the abortive siege of Orléans, as a member of the expedition that sailed from England in May that year.38 Fr. mss, 25768/251; DKR, xlviii. 256; Bogner, 116. Certainly a member of Henry VI’s coronation expedition that crossed to France two years later, Montgomery indented to serve with four men-at-arms and 12 archers in that enterprise. In April 1430 he was appointed to a commission ordered to array other members of the expedition before they set sail. Having obtained letters of protection dated the following 14 May, he himself travelled to France with the retinue of Sir John Cobham.39 DKR, xlviii. 256, 273, 275; E404/46/248; CP40/679, rot. 115d. Upon arriving in France, Montgomery was sent with Sir John Steward and a detachment of men to join the duke of Burgundy outside Compèigne, then occupied by the enemy, among them Joan of Arc. On 23 May the garrison rode out of the town to confront the besiegers but in the engagement which followed they were ‘put abak’ by the Anglo-Burgundian force and Joan was captured. It was reported that 800 French and Scots were slain in the battle, in which Montgomery was wounded in the arm and Steward shot in the thigh with a crossbow bolt. In the following September the Council ordered that the MP should receive a reward of £20 for his role in liaising with the Burgundians.40 Chron. London 1089-1483 ed. Nicolas, 170; The Brut (EETS, cxxxvi), 439; PPC, iv. 72; E404/47/155. By then bailli of Caux, Montgomery returned to Normandy before the end of the same year.41 Bogner, 118.

It would appear that the MP paid a brief visit to England in late 1430 or early 1431, since in April 1431 he obtained letters of attorney and protection prior to embarking for France.42 DKR, xlviii. 282, 283. In the following September he was appointed captain of Arques, although initially, and again for part of 1434, he held the office jointly with the outgoing captain, his brother-in-law Sir Ralph Butler.43 Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, nouv. acq. fr., 1482/16; Fr. mss, 25770/634; Add. Ch. 16238. The two knights probably participated in Bedford’s campaign to clear the Seine valley of the enemy, so that the young Henry VI might travel from Rouen to Paris for his coronation as king of France; whether, like Butler, Montgomery attended the coronation is unrecorded.44 Bogner, 118-19. During the mid 1430s, Sir John served as captain of the garrisons at Eu and St. Valéry, while retaining his position at Arques.45 Fr. mss, 25772/938. He held these commands at a difficult time for the English in Normandy. A rebellion broke out on the Caux peninsula in late 1435, Arques was burnt and Dieppe fell, prompting urgent communications between him and another English captain, Sir Richard Haryngton*.46 R.A. Griffiths, Hen. VI, 201; C.T. Allmand, Lancastrian Normandy, 170; Pièces Originales 2021, Montgomery 23. In the autumn of 1437 Montgomery and his men embarked on an expedition to save Le Crotoy and other garrisons in Picardy from the now hostile Burgundians.47 Fr. mss, 25774/1273; Chrons. London ed. Kingsford, 144. Early in the following year, he was appointed gaoler of Calais, and he and his retinue were active, perhaps in the marches of Calais, in March 1438.48 DKR, xlviii. 326; Bogner, 123-4. But again, Bogner confuses the MP with his namesake of Calais. Just over a year later, Montgomery, John Stanlowe (the treasurer of Normandy) and Richard Curson were commissioned to take the musters of badly needed reinforcements from England.

As the English position in France steadily worsened, so the MP’s career as a soldier began to wind down, and in September 1441 he relinquished his captaincy at Arques, his only known military command at that date. A year later Montgomery was appointed to an embassy headed by Richard, duke of York, the King’s lieutenant-general in Normandy and France. The envoys were mandated to treat for peace with the French although it is uncertain whether any talks took place. Decided upon by Henry VI’s Council in the autumn of 1442, the mission was a sign of the times, exemplifying as it did the increasing weakness of the hard-pressed English, in the face of insufficient resources and the enemy’s recent military successes.49 Bogner, 122. During the spring of 1443 Montgomery was one of those employed as a messenger between York and the Council. The news he and others brought from France prompted the government to send an army to Normandy under John, duke of Somerset, an expedition that failed because Somerset, given a completely independent command, failed to co-operate with York.50 PPC, v. 212, 230, 260. By now Montgomery’s military career was effectively over and he had more time for domestic affairs, a situation marked by his first appointment as a j.p. in late 1443.

Fiascos like Somerset’s expedition contributed to a growing disenchantment with the government on the part of York and other veterans. Montgomery, whose connexion with the duke dated back to at least the late 1430s, when York granted him a couple of stewardships on his English estates, must have shared this discontent but he chose to maintain links with the Court. In January 1445 Henry VI granted a tun of Gascon wine from the port of London every Christmas to Montgomery (described as a ‘King’s knight’ in the letters patent) and his wife Elizabeth in survivorship, and at the end of the same year the MP and his younger son, Thomas, received a grant of the royal lordship of Worplesdon in Surrey on the same terms.51 CPR, 1441-6, pp. 318, 395. According to their letters patent, the MP had previously held the manor by grant of Hen. V but no record of this earlier grant has been found. Sir John’s wife joined the household of the newly-crowned queen Margaret of Anjou, and all three of their sons became household esquires of the King.52 E101/409/9, 11, 16, 17; 410/1, 3, 6, 9. Furthermore, in January 1446 the King ordered the Exchequer to pay Montgomery £100 as a reward for his good service, and in the following month the MP and his eldest son and namesake were granted the office of bailiff of Calais in survivorship. The grant superseded a previous appointment to the same office, at one time exercised by John Montgomery of Calais, that Sir John had received just over five years earlier.53 E404/62/105; CPR, 1441-6, pp. 361, 398. While remaining close to the Crown, Montgomery continued to retain the esteem of his fellow soldiers. He was nominated for admission to the Order of the Garter on two occasions in the mid 1440s, in the first instance by Robert, Lord Willoughby of Eresby, and in the second by Sir John Fastolf.54 Reg. Order of the Garter ed. Anstis, 127, 130.

The English position in France was close to collapse when Montgomery died on 27 June 1449, by which date he had probably lost most, if not all, of his French estates. The inquisitions post mortem for his English lands were held in the following autumn.55 C139/135/36. Apart from Faulkbourne, for which he had obtained a licence to crenellate in 1439,56 CPR, 1436-41, p. 320. his properties in Essex included the manors of Witham, just south of Faulkbourne, and Great Tey near Colchester. Chalton was his only holding in Hampshire, although it was valued at a very substantial £50 p.a. He also owned lands in Hertfordshire, at Essendon where one of his wife’s manors lay and Bishop’s Hatfield. The inquisitions and other records reveal that Montgomery’s feoffees included Lewis John, Sir Ralph Butler and another soldier, Sir Maurice Bruyn. He himself had acted as a feoffee for various gentry with lands in Essex and elsewhere in south-east England, among them Bruyn and Lewis John.57 Essex Feet of Fines, iv. 5, 9-10, 30, 34; Corp. London RO, hr 178/2; CCR, 1422-9, p. 383; 1435-41, p. 67; 1447-54, p. 317; Essex RO, Petre mss, D/DP T1/1767; Abdy mss, D/DAy T1/23. Furthermore, Lewis had entrusted the management of his estate at Blainville in France to him, Bruyn and other trustees in 1423.58 Petre mss, D/DP T1/1631. Montgomery’s inquisitions post mortem also show that he left his widow an interest for life in all of his estates, in accordance with a will for his lands he had made in the autumn of 1433.59 E329/13; DKR, xlviii. 294. In a separate testament, dated 27 Dec. 1445, he left Elizabeth the bulk of his personal estate while bequeathing just a gilded cup to each of his children. In the testament he asked to be buried in the Cistercian abbey of St. Mary Graces in London, where his mother and sisters already lay, and sought 1,000 masses and a couple of trentals for the good of his soul. (It is likely that these female relatives owed their burial at the abbey, a foundation of Edward III, to his influence and prestige.) Montgomery appointed four executors: his wife, his brother-in-law Sir Ralph Butler (by now Lord Sudeley), his brother Thomas (who had served under him at Arques and Eu), and John Montgomery. It is not clear if the latter was Montgomery’s eldest son, who was still a minor when the will was made and had only recently achieved his majority when the MP died.60 Lambeth Palace Lib., Reg. Stafford, f. 175; VCH London, i. 461; Fr. mss, 25772/1022; C139/135/36.

Within a year of Montgomery’s death, Elizabeth was obliged to defend a lawsuit arising from dealings between him and two merchants from Lucca, by then also both dead. The plaintiff, Francesco Micheli, suing as the executor of one of these merchants, Battista de Arnolfini, sought a debt of over £16 from her in her capacity as an executor of her late husband. According to Micheli, the debt arose from bonds that he entered into with the Italians at London in 1445, perhaps in connexion with a purchase of goods.61 CP40/758, rot. 123. Elizabeth, who by reason of her first marriage was known as ‘Lady Say’ during her widowhood, survived for another 15 years after Montgomery’s death. She remained close to the Lancastrian regime, and at the end of 1459 she was granted lands in Cheshunt forfeited by the Yorkist rebel John Clay*.62 CPR, 1452-61, p. 537. Shortly after the accession of Edward IV, she obtained letters patent confirming her right to the manor at Cheshunt which she held by Henry IV’s grant for the rest of her life. At the end of 1461, the new King granted the reversion of this property after her death to Clay, by then a knight of his Household.63 CPR, 1461-7, pp. 20, 92. She died on 5 Feb. 1465, having chosen to be buried with her ancestors in Arbury priory, Warwickshire, rather than beside any of her three husbands.64 C140/17/21; PCC 8 Godyn (PROB11/5, ff. 58v-59). She had outlived her Norbury sons and also John Montgomery, her eldest son by the MP, whom the authorities had executed for treason in February 1462. The Montgomery estates passed to John’s younger brother Thomas, who had thrown in his lot with the Yorkists.