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Thomas Montagu, 4th Earl of Salisbury

English nobleman

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ1000874 ↗
Source-derived summary

Thomas Montagu, 4th Earl of Salisbury, KG (13 June 1388 – 3 November 1428) of Bisham in Berkshire, was an English nobleman and one of the most important English commanders during the Hundred Years' War.

Origins

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, widow of Sir Alan Buxhull KG, daughter of Sir Adam Francis (born c. 1334), Mayor of London.

Career

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. 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, as part of Henry V's policy of creating Norman titles for his followers.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Thomas Montagu, 4th Earl of Salisbury” as english nobleman. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Thomas, Montagu and Earl.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1388, 1428, 1400, 1409—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1388-06-13. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Thomas, Montagu and Earl providing the first useful test.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Thomas Montagu, 4th Earl of Salisbury”, the useful work is to connect “english nobleman” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1000874. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1388, 1428, 1400 and 1409.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Thomas Montagu, 4th Earl of Salisbury” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.