Fourth Earl of Salisbury. The most famous and skillful commander on the English side of the Hundred Years War [1] [2], [3], [4], [5] . His career has an odd juxtaposition with that of Joan of Arc, who appeared immediatly after his death and became the most famous French leader.

Inherited no lands, due to father's treason; knight of the Garter, 1414; joint commissioner to arrange marriage of Henry V and French Princess Catherine; with Henry V at siege of Harfleur and battle of Agincourt (Agincourt is one of the most famous battles in English and military history, this Hundred Years War battle is one of the battles popularly credited with ending the era of the knight); the component he contributed/commanded to Henry's army was one of the largest;

Thereafter, spent his life as the English's most successful commander during the Hundred Years War (perhaps behind Henry, however he spent much more time in the field then Henry); command of the rear division during the siege of Caen 1417; siege of Falaise ... battles almost to numerous to mention.

Lieutenant-general of Normandy, 1419; entered Paris with Henry, 1420; governor of Champagne and Brie, 1422; lieutenant-general of the field, 1428; killed by an early artillery shell while besieging Orleans.

At Agincourt, Thomas provided and commanded 40 men-at-arms and 80 horsed archers. For comparison, the King's uncle, the Duke of York, provided 100 men-at-arms and 300 horsed archers. Thomas's force was typical of those provided by the richest English nobility (much of which was at Agincourt). Thomas's command was roughly 8th largest among the English forces.

His wife, Alice Montacute (nee Chaucer), countess of Salisbury, (~1400-~1475) was a granddaughter of Geoffrey Chaucer [1] [2] [3] and of considerable interest in her own right. Her father was Thomas Chaucer, her first husband Sir John Philip. Around 1430 (2 years after Thomas died) she married William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk. He died in 1450. Alice established and held a manor court at Cotton, and apparently was quite a wealthy and strong-willed politician. She controlled much of Suffolk county and the city of Norwich during the 1460's. She was apparently indicted unsuccessfully for treason in the Jack Cade rebellion. Her tomb and effigy are at (Eweime?).

So off we go into the Hundred Years War... a war of some historical interest. Before it the national character of England and France was somewhat unformed, and indeed, the idea of the nation-state probably could not be said to exist. The Hundred Years War was the last war of the heavy knight in armor. Gunpowder, and the metallurgy to take advantage of it, evolved into a `real' military technology during the war. The Hundred Years War changed a lot of things, and not just in England and France. All those `free companies' (mercenary companies) found employment in the off season in the reconquesta of the Spanish peninsula and in the troubles leading to the Italy of Machiavelli...

A readable objective history of the part of the Hundred Years War most involving Thomas is Henry V: The Scourge of God by Desmond Seward. The following extracts provide a feel for his writing regarding incidents involving Thomas:

"... from the very beginning of his reign Henry displayed extraordinary self-confidence... The Earls of Huntingdon, Oxford, and Salisbury - sons of the conspirators of 1400 - had their family estates restored...

The king was fortunate in possessing a ready-made reservoir of corps commanders in his nobility. ... Many had already served with him in Wales against Glyn Dwr, including Lord Salisbury...

`The wars in France turned the higher nobility into professional soldiers,' says G. L. Harriss. Foremost among these soldier noblemen were the Earls of Salisbury, Warwick, and Huntingdon... Thomas Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, a year younger than the king and the son of Richard II's favourite, was the most brilliant commander of the entire Hundred Years War after Henry himself. Henry had total trust in him - although to begin with he may have had reservations because of his parentage. A complete professional, he was a daring raider into enemy territory who could extricate his men from the most dangerous situations; at the same time he was a skilled artilleryman and expert in siegecraft, like the king, and no less sound on staffwork or in finding supplies. Above all, he had a shrewd grasp of strategy and tactics. Although a ferocious disciplinarian he was popular with the troops. He was dreaded by the enemy. Shakespeare probably conveys accurately enough what the French thought about him:

Salisbury is a desperate homicide,
He fighteth as one weary of his life.

His ways with prisoners did not endear him to the French - after capturing the chateau of Orsay in 1423 he brought the garrison back to Paris with ropes round their necks.

... The French must have been aware of the military build up... and the imminent arrival of an armada. .... Henry kept his destination secret... After disembarking ... He ... dispatched Huntingdon and Salisbury to capture the castles of Bonneville and Auvillers - the two nearest strongpoints, both of which surrendered...

... He (Henry, ed.) did not appreciate being shot at himself. He was conferring with the Earl of Salisbury in the latter's pavilion when a gunstone fired from the town walls hit the tent and very nearly killed them. ... Louviers surrendered... The king promptly seized the gunners ... and hanged them...

... on 2 September Salisbury stormed the hill of St Catherine...

The redistribution of land and titles began almost at once. Six great Norman counties were re-allotted during 1418-19; ... the Earl of Salisbury was made Count of Perche; ...

The disadvantage of such grants was that Henry expected military service in return...

Henry's attempts at full-scale colonization varied from place to place. His settlement of 10,000 Englishmen at Harfleur was almost certainly intended to create a second Calais... A fair number of the English who settled in Normandy took French girls as wives.

... Henry presided over a meeting of the three estates of Normandy - nobles, clergy, and bourgeois... He also announced the welcome introduction of a uniform standard of weights and measures... The Earl of Salisbury paid ceremonial homage for his county of Perche, to remind everyone that there was now a new social hierarchy.

Bauge had been lost by Clarence's (King Henry's hapless brother, ed.) foolhardiness in charging 5,000 enemy troops with 150 men-at-arms. ... The English had been beaten ... `by cause they wolde nott take with hem archers, ... And yet whan he was slayne the archers come and rescued the body of the duke...'

Salisbury, who brought up the archers, extricated what remained of the English force with considerable difficulty. To cross the Loire he had to construct a bridge out of carts and fencing. He found an even more ingenious way of bridging the River Sarthe. He made his men wear white crosses like dauphinists and, having convinced some local peasants that he was a Frenchman, ordered them to build a bridge for him. Once over he had the peasants put to death.

The French had killed the head of the English government in France... Had the French caught Salisbury, the English might have been driven out of France thirty years earlier than they were. ... the king commented that if Clarence had escaped with his life he would have suffered the death penalty for disobeying orders...

... Thomas Chaucer, who was secretly in the kings pay, informed him that he was facing ruin in earnest.

An estimate submitted to Henry in May 1421 showed him that he was operating on the brink of financial disaster... he was determined to find the resources to pay for his conquest of France - resources which only existed in his imagination.

Salisbury, the new King's Lieutenant, assembled fresh troops, sent out scouts to locate the various uncoordinated dauphinist forces about to march into Normandy and attacked each separately in turn... The earl then raided deep into Anjou, afterwards reporting to Henry that `we broughten Hom the farest and grettest Prey of Bestes' - meaning that whole herds of horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs had been seized... - and that he and his men were rested and ready to strike again. Even so, Salisbury had been lucky that the enemy, who vastly outnumbered his little army, had not joined forces to invade Normandy.

The king must have known by now that he was dying. He was surrounded by men whom he trusted most.... Among his intimate male companions Salisbury alone was absent, harrying the French." (Seward)

One of the changes that happened during the Hundred Years War was that the archers, often an interesting mix of the most adventurous, and sometimes lawless, elements of society, became "professional" soldiers. In addition to their longbows, they were effective light infantry, apparently adept at fighting as loose skirmishers many-on-one, especially against unhorsed knights. They apparently also excelled in the use of a weapon on which I have not seen much comment - the long fence-post. Each archer carried such a post, and they apparently could rapidly fill a field where the archers massed with a complete thicket of implanted posts, many perhaps inclined to impale horses. They could execute this, as at Agincourt, as a relatively rapid tactical maneuver. Horses would not charge such a thicket. I have also wondered about the defensive qualities of such a post `hedgehog' against massed archery `counter' fire...

Bradbury has studied the archers in depth:

"At Verneuil in 1424 the archers were responsible for an English victory, in a battle on a large scale. The chronicler Waurin wrote: `I saw the assembly at Agincourt, and at Cravant, but Verneuil was the most formidable, and the best fought'. The archers again placed stakes before them, as Waurin says: `in the English fashion.' They set their consciences straight, he says, because the English `are very devout, especially before drinking'.

This movement towards a national force can also be seen in the way that the county levies were used. More and more they were brought into line with household forces and retinues. An interesting example of this is in the Perche Orders of the Earl of Salisbury in 1427, when it was ruled that the captains of all archers, whatever the latter's county of origin, if they were under the command of the earl, should join the assembly of captains, and they should muster with all the archers as required. In other words, they were not to operate independently as had previously happened.

The importance of archers in citizen militia is another example of the social standing of the archers... Craftsman concerned with archery played a full role in the towns... Citizens of some standing might themselves be archers. ... Towns generally showed some pride in providing good troops to represent them... At Bridgeport in 1457 two-thirds of the citizens were able to provide their own bows...

So the archer's place in society was a humble one, but respectable and increasingly respected. ..." (Jim Bradbury)

Verneuil was one of Salisbury's victories, in concert with Henry V's brother John, Duke of Bedford (who was regent for Henry VI before he was old enough to rule).

The anonymous French author of what translators Rankin and Quintal call The First Biography of Joan of Arc describe Joan's rise in the immediate aftermath of Thomas's death:

"In the days of King Charles VII during that year of favor, [1428], after the before-mentioned English had made several conquests and seized and held under their obedience and control all the cities and regions of ..., broadly speaking, all the territory [of France] down to the river Loire, the Earl of Salisbury and William de la Pole, the Earl of Suffolk, with Sir John Talbot and sundry lords and captains of England accompanied by a large number of men-at-arms proceeded to subject Orleans to a siege. They aimed at capturing it to provide themselves with a passage across the river Loire...

To direct the siege more securely they built there four stout fortresses (surrounding the city, ed.) ... These they fortified with moats, artillery, ...

The English persisted for so long a time in this siege that no matter what measures the King resolved to help... they had hardly any hope of their ability to hold out against the enemy. ...

The Duke of Bedford had come there after the death of the Earl of Salisbury, killed by accident, as the story goes, by a "piece of artillery" while directing the siege... As it is clearly stated in the Great Chronicles, "No one knows who touched the flame to that piece of artillery."

But there was at this time in the land of Lorraine a young girl eighteen years or so of age called Joan,... and she had never done anything else except watch over animals in the pastures. To her, as she said, the will of God had been revealed.

... she persisted steadily and for so long a time that he ... took her to the King... the King asked her this question, "What prompted you to come to see me?" She explained, "I have come to raise the seige of Orleans and to aid you to recover your kingdom. God wills it so." (Rankin and Quintal, trans.)

Rankin and Quintal, in a footnote discussing the principals, provide some interesting material on Thomas:

"Thomas Montecute, Earl of Salisbury, 1388-1428, had possesion of Jargeau, Meung, Beaugency, and Janville before he laid siege to Orleans. Taken to Meung after his grisly injury during the siege, he died there on Wednseday 27 October 1428 ( Journal du Siege, Q4, 101). If any reader prefers the date "3 November," given in Dugdale's Baronage of England, I, 653, he may have failed to notice in this account the remark, "He died two days after he was wounded." The time of the wounding was late Sunday afternoon 24 November 1428.

Salisbury, the great soldier, would have been a more worthy opponent of Joan of Arc, the soldier saint, than any other English commander of his day. Both had the same military talents - imagination, daring, skill, relentless drive - and the personality to inspire confidence. Salisbury's death rescued him from the humiliation of defeat at the hands of the Maid. Waurin, a soldier under him, wrote a sincere tribute to his memory. Any success of Joan of Arc against the redoubtable Salisbury would have provoked her contemporaries to praise more rapturous than she ever received. Waurin's sympathetic praise is touching:

He was accounted in his time through France and England the most expert, subtle, and successfull-in-arms of all the commanders who had been talked about in the last two hundred years. He had all the virtues of a true Knight, for he was gentle and humble and courteous. He was liberal with all he possessed. He gave alms freely. To the lowly he was kind and full of sympathy. To haughty enemies he was like a lion or tiger.(Waurin 3, 254).

Insofar as a man's last will and testament expresses accurately his virtuous qualities, moral or natural, the terms in which Salisbury states his wishes about the disposal of his property after death, corroborate Waurin's eulogy. The Testmentum domini Thome de Monte Acuto comitis Saresburie, a document rich in human interest, is in Prof. E. F. Jacob's superbly edited Register of Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury, vol. 2, 390-400. Joan of Arc, whose liberality to the poor and the lowly is told in Quicherat 2, 427, 438, and 2, 88, 464, would have loved and applauded Salisbury's generosity." (Rankin and Quintal)

The death of Thomas and the rise of Joan of Arc provided considerable propaganda value, as they could be attributed to "the will of God". This, no doubt, is how the legend of the artillery piece that killed him by firing itself came into being...

My impression is that the most historically accurate description of how Thomas actually died is contained in Holinshed's Chronicle, published in 1577 (the original title of this Chronicale is a hilariously long full-page description). Published about 150 years after Thomas died, enough time had passed since his death to have the advantage of history, while the event was still recent enough to be commonly remembered. I have extracted the relevant section below. In the original, this extract is a spell-checker's (and a reader's) nightmare; I have made numerous spelling changes, for instance substituting y for ie, v for u, and u for v, among others.

"... and then was the Lord Thomas Montacute earle of Salisbury sent into France... the earl of Salisbury began marvellously to phantasie the gaining of the city and country of Orleans.

This earl was the man at that time, by whose wit, strength, and policy, the English name was much fearfull and terrible to the French nation, which of himself might both appoint, command, and do all things in manner at his pleasure, in whose power (it appeared after his death) a great part of the conquest consisted: for surely, he was a man both painfull, diligent, and ready to withstand all dangerous chances that were at hand, prompt in council, and of courage invincible, so that in no one man, men put more trust; nor any singular person won the hearts so much of all men.

... the earl of Salisbury's devise therein was of them all granted and allowed, so that he being replenished with good hope of victory, and furnished with artillery and munition appertaining to so great an enterprise... and with a valiant army, to the number of ten thousand men, departed from Paris... There he took by assault the town of Genuille, and within five days after had the castle delivered unto him... He also took the town of Baugencie... The towns of Meun upon Loire, and Iageaulx... presented to them the keys of their towns...

After this, in the month of September, the earl came before the city of Orleans, and planted his siege on the one side of the river Loire; but before his coming, the bastard of Orleans, the bishop of the city, and a great number of Scots, hearing of the earls intent, made diverse fortifications about the town, and destroyed the suburbs, in which were twelve parish churches... They cut also down all the vines, trees, and bushes, within five leagues of the city, so that the Englishmen should have neither refuge nor succour.

After the siege had continued full three weeks, the bastard of Orleans issued out of the gate of the bridge, and fought with the Englishmen; but they received him with so fierce and terrible strokes, that he was with all his company compelled to retire and flee back into the city. But the Englishmen followed so fast, in killing and taking of their enemies, that they entered with them. The bulwark of the bridge, with a great tower standing at the end of the same, was taken incontinently by the Englishmen, who behaved themselves right valiantly under the conduct of their couragious captain...

After this, the earl caused certain bulwarks to be made round about the town, casting trenches between the one and the other, leaving ordinance in every place where he saw that any battery might be devised. When they within saw that they were environed with fortresses and ordinance, they laid gun against gun, and fortified towers against bulwarks...

... In that tower that was taken at the bridge end (as before you have heard) there was a high chamber, having a grate full of bars of iron, by which a man might look all the length of the bridge into the city; at which grate many of the chief captains stood many times, viewing the city, and devising in what place it was best to give the assault. They within the city well percieved this looking hole, and laid a piece of ordinance directly against the window.

It so chanced, that the nine and fiftith day after the siege was laid, the earl of Salisburie... with diverse other went into the said tower, and so into the high chamber, and looked out at the grate, and within a short space, the son of the master-gunner, perceiving men looking out at the window, took his match (as his father had taught him) who was gone down to dinner, and fired the gun; the shot whereof broke, and shattered the iron bars of the grate, so that one of the same bars struck the earl so violently on the head, that it struck away one of his eyes, and the side of his cheek. Sir Thomas Gargraue was likewise striken, and died within two days.

The earl was conveyed to Meun on Loire, where after eight days he likewise departed this world, whose body was conveyed into England with all funeral appointment, and buried at Bissam by his progenitors, leaving behind him an only daughter named Alice, married to Richard Nevill... of whom more shall be said hereafter. The damage that the realm of England received by the loss of this noble man, manifestly appeared; in that immediatly after his death, the prosperous gook luck, which had followed the English nation, began to decline, and the glory of their victories gotten in the parts beyond the sea fell in decay." (Holinshed)

As mentioned in this extract, many Scots fought for the French in the battles that occured at this time during the Hundred Years war.

Incidentally, the county of Perche in Normandy, of which Thomas was made Count, is where Percheron horses originated. These were used as large, heavy war horses. They could carry a knight in full armor, which towards the end of the Hundred Years war was becoming quite a load! A knight usually had at least two horses, one a heavy horse for riding in full armor, and another light horse that was more comfortable to ride. If you've seen the movie The Horse Whisperer, one of the characters is described as sleeping as a child between the hoofs of a Percheron stallion.

Sources:
The DNB.
Agincourt 1415; triumph against the odds, Bennet.
[AIMW]
Henry V, Seward.
The Medieval Archer, Bradbury.
The First Biography of Joan of Arc, Rankin and Quintal.
Holinshed's Chronicles, Holinshed.

http://www.montaguemillennium.com/familyresearch/h_1428_thomas.htm