SALISBURY, THOMAS DE MONTACUTE, 4TH EARL OF (1388-1428), was son of John, the third earl, who was executed in 1400 as a supporter of Richard II. Thomas was granted part of his father's estates and summoned to parliament in 1409, though not fully restored till 1421. He was present throughout the campaign of Agincourt in 1415, and at the naval engagement before Harfleur in 1416, and in 1417-18. During the spring of 1419 he held an independent command, capturing Fecamp, Hon fleur and other towns, was appointed lieutenant-general of Nor mandy, and created earl of Perche. In 1420 he was in chief com mand in Maine, and defeated the Marechal de Rieux near Le Mans. When Henry V. went home next year Salisbury remained in France as the chief lieutenant of Thomas, duke of Clarence. The duke, through his own rashness, was defeated at Bauge on March 21, 1421. Salisbury came up with the archers too late to retrieve the day, but recovered the bodies of the dead, and by a skilful retreat averted further disaster. He soon gathered a fresh force, and in June was able to report to the king "this part of your land stood in good plight never so well as now." (Foedera, x. 131.) Salisbury's success in Maine marked him out as John of Bedford's chief lieutenant in the war after Henry's death. In 1423 he was appointed governor of Champagne, and by his dash and vigour secured one of the chief victories of the war at Crevant on July 3o. Subsequent operations completed the conquest of Cham pagne, and left Salisbury free to join Bedford at Verneuil. There his "judgment and valour" won the day. During the next three years Salisbury was employed on the Norman border and in Maine. After a year's visit to England he returned to the chief
command in the field in July, 1428. Against the judgment of Bedford he determined to make Orleans his principal objective, and began the siege on Oct. 12 ; whilst surveying the city from a window in Tourelles he was wounded by a cannon-shot, and died on Nov. 3, 1428. Salisbury was the most skilful soldier on the English side after the death of Henry V. He was a patron of John Lydgate, who presented to him his book The Pilgrim (now Harley ms. 4826, with a miniature of Salisbury, engraved in Strutt's Regal Antiquities). By his first wife Eleanor Holand, daughter of Thomas, earl of Kent, Salisbury had an only daughter Alice, in her own right countess of Salisbury, who married Richard Neville, and was mother of Warwick the King-maker. His second wife Alice was grand-daughter of Geoffrey Chaucer, and after his death married William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk.
The chief accounts of Salisbury's campaigns are to be found in the Gesta Henrici Quinti, edited by B. Williams for the Eng. Hist. Soc. (London, 185o) in the Vita Henrici Quinti (erroneously attributed to Thomas of Elmham), edited by T. Hearne (Oxford, 1727) ; the Chronique of E. de Monstrelet, edited by L. D. d'Arcq (Paris, 1862) ; the Chroniques of Jehan de Waurin, edited by W. and E. L. C. P. Hardy (London, 1864-1891) ; • and the Chronique de la Pucelle of G. Cousinot, edited by Vallet de Viriville (Paris, 1859). For modern accounts see Sir J. H. Ramsay, Lancaster and York (Oxford, 1892) ; and C. Oman, Political History of England, 1377-1485 (Lon don, 1906). (C. L. K.)