Latin roots : Sancta Fides/Sainte Foy/Sainte Foi=Saint Faith/Holy Faith -
mons/monte/mont=mount
Germanic roots : Gumarick/Gomerici (
Roger
I of Montgommery’s grandfather and also Rollo the Viking’s brother)
Mont Gommeri, Montgommery,
Montgomery, Montgomerie, etc...
"In
1040,Duke of Britanny Alain
IIIand his warriors enter the forest of Auge, in order to
preserve the rights of young Duke of Normandy,
William
II
aka the Bastard.
However, they besiege the fortress of his ally,
Roger de Mont Gommeri.
Roger de Mont Gommeri is imprisoned. After a "beverage", Alain feels
faint and dies. His body, transferred to
Vimoutiers in
l’Auberge de l’Ecu,
then in
St Sauveur
Church,
is finally conveyed to the
Abbey of Fécamp where he is buried.
A few years
later, Willliam takes possession of the Tillieres fortress that King
Henry 1st of France had just
robbed him of. Henry 1st besieges the Mont Gommeri
fortress, and pulls it down in 1054.
Then,
William claims the crown of England.
Roger II de Mont Gommeri,
now his counselor, does not go fighting with him for this initial invasion,
he stays in Normandy to help
Duchess Matilda of Flanders
govern the duchy. After the conquest of England, William, now aka the
Conqueror, comes back triumphally and it is in 1067 that Roger de Mont Gommeri
goes along with him to this country where
William the Conqueror,
by then crowned
William 1st of England
since December 25, 1066, will give him
Arundel, and later on
the earldom of Shrewsbury
and its appurtenances. Thenceforwards, he was
Roger 1st Earl of Shrewsbury.
A legend narrates that the fortress was heptagonally built with seven
big towers, and that Catherine de Medicis
would have it
destroyed after a conflict with Gabriel de Montgommery."
The "animated"
Bayeux Tapestry : The conquest of England by William the Conqueror
Madein Englandin 1082,
the tapestrytellstheconquest of Englandby William the Conqueror,
and especially
the Battle of Hastings,
14
October 1066. The tapestry, measuring 70mx0,50m,
isa
woolembroideryonlinen. It is consideredas a highlyhistoricaldocument.
"In the county of Montgomeryshire in United Kingdom, standing alongside a
narrow lane out of the old borough of Montgomery, is the site of a motte
and bailey timber castle :
Hen Domen Castle.
It was here that Roger of Montgomery built his
timber castle circa 1070 as a forward military outpost from Shrewbury, of which
town William the Conqueror had created him Earl.
The occupancy of the motte at Hendomen
by the Montgomery family was quite short, about thirty years and Roger would
probably have spent most of his time in his
Shrewbury Castle.
In 1083, he was engaged in the construction of the
Benedictine Abbey
of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. He died in July 1094, three days after retiring
there as a monk. He was buried in the
Shrewbury Abbey and later his tomb was moved to the
Nave.
In 1095, the motte
was in the hands of his son
Hugh, second Earl of Shrewsbury. Hugh was attacked by the Welsh and a massacre
of the garrison took place. Hugh was burried in Shrewsbury Abbey. He was then was succeeded by his brother
Robert of Belleme, third Earl of
Shrewsbury. But Robert took part in a revolt against
King Henry
and paid
dearly for it. His lands in England and the Welsh
Marches were taken from him and he was compelled to return to
Normandy in 1102. This was the end of the Montgomerys at Hendomen. Robert
went on conspiring against King Henry of England, who on his hand was covetting
the
Duchy of Normandy. Finally, this last one of the Bellemes was
sent back as a prisoner to England where he died some fifteen years later in the
prison of the castle of Wareham.
Some 150 years later the name
was given to the
stone castle
a mile or so to the south,
the
village, and eventually
to the county which came in to being in 1535. It is the only
county in the United Kingdom to hold a Norman name."
