of Hugh d'Igé, was suspected of complicity in the murder, and in consequence suffered much at the hands of Roger and his sons (Ord. Vit. ii. 410–11, 432). After Mabel's death Roger married Adeliza, daughter of Ebrard de Puiset, a woman of very different character, who supported her husband in his beneficence to monks. In 1083 Roger commenced to found Shrewsbury Abbey by the advice of Odelerius; the work was still in progress at the time of the Domesday survey (ib. ii. 421; Will. Malmesbury, Gesta Pont. p. 306; Domesday, p. 252 b).
Roger secretly supported the cause of Robert of Normandy against William Rufus in 1088, but apparently he took no active part in the rebellion (English Chron.; Flor. wig. ii. 21; but cf. Will. Malmesbury, Gesta Regum, pp. 360–1). While Rufus was engaged in Sussex, he found an opportunity to meet Roger, and by conciliatory arguments won him over to his side (Will. Malmesbury, Gesta Regum, p. 361). Roger was actually present at the siege of Rochester in the king's host, while his three sons were fighting on the other side within the castle. Robert of Bellême [q. v.], the eldest son, soon made his peace with William, and presently crossed over to Normandy, where Duke Robert threw him into prison. Roger of Shrewsbury then also went to Normandy, and garrisoned his castles against Duke Robert. The duke was urged by his uncle, Odo of Bayeux [q. v.], to expel the whole brood of Talvas; for a time he followed Odo's counsel, but after a little disbanded his army. Roger then, by making false promises, obtained all he wished for, including his son's release (Ord. Vit. ii. 292–294, 299). Soon afterwards Roger went back to England. A little before his death he took the habit of a monk at Shrewsbury, and, after spending three days in pious conversation and prayer, died on 27 July (Ord. Vit. iii. 425). The year was probably 1093, as given by Florence of Worcester (ii. 31), for Ordericus (ii. 421) says distinctly that Roger survived the Conqueror for six years; the date is, however, often given as 1094, and M. Le Prevost even favours 1095 (see Eyton, ix. 29, xi. 119). According to a late tradition, Roger died at his house at Quatford (ib. ix. 317), but this is against the plain statement of Ordericus. He was buried in the abbey at Shrewsbury, between two altars.
Roger of Montgomery was ‘literally foremost among the conquerors of England’ (Freeman, Norman Conquest, ii. 194). To Ordericus he is the ancient hero, the lover of justice, and of the company of the wise and moderate (ii. 220, 422). Even in Mabel's lifetime he was a munificent friend of monks. In 1050 he established monks at Troarn in place of the canons provided for by Roger I in 1022. By the advice of Mabel's uncle William, bishop of Séez, Roger restored St. Martin Séez as a cell of St. Evroul (Ord. Vit. ii. 22, 46–7, iii. 305). Roger's second wife, Adeliza de Puiset, joined with him in the foundation of Shrewsbury Abbey, bringing monks from Séez; the benefactions commenced in 1083 seem to have been completed in 1087 (ib. ii. 416, 421–2; Dugdale, Monast. Angl. iii. 518–20). Roger also restored the abbey of St. Milburga at Wenlock for Cluniac monks, and established the priory of St. Nicholas, Arundel (ib. vi. 1377). The collegiate church at Quatford, Shropshire, is said to have been founded by Earl Roger to commemorate the escape of Adeliza from shipwreck (Brompton, ap. Scriptores Decem, col. 988). Roger was also a benefactor of the abbey of Cluny, and of Almenesches and Caen in Normandy, and of St. Evroul, to which he gave lands at Melbourne in Cambridgeshire (Ord. Vit. ii. 415, iii. 20). Besides the castles at Shrewsbury and Montgomery, he built another at Quatford.
By Mabel, Roger was father of five sons: Robert of Bellême [see Bellême], Hugh de Montgomery [see Hugh], Roger, Philip, and Arnulf; the last three are noticed below. He had also four daughters: Emma, who was abbess of Almenesches from 1074 to 4 March 1113; Matilda, who married Robert of Mortain; Mabel, wife of Hugh de Chateauneuf en Thimerais; and Sybil, who was, by Robert FitzHamo, mother of Matilda, the wife of Earl Robert of Gloucester [q. v.] By Adeliza he had one son, Ebrard, a learned clerk, who was in Orderic's time one of the royal chaplains in the court of Henry I (Ord. Vit. ii. 412, iii. 318, 426).
Roger the Poitevin (fl. 1110), the third son, owed his surname to his marriage with Almodis, daughter of the Count of Marche in Poitou, in whose right he succeeded to her brother, Count Boso, in 1091 (Recueil des Historiens de France, xii. 402). His father obtained for him the earldom of Lancaster in England (Ord. Vit. ii. 423, iii. 425–6). In 1088 he fought on the rebel side at Rochester, but was taken into favour soon after, and in September was acting on behalf of Rufus in the negotiations with William of St. Calais [see William], bishop of Durham, in whose behalf he afterwards appealed without success (Dugdale, Monast. Angl. i. 246–8; Freeman, William Rufus, ii. 93, 109, 117). In 1090 he was fighting on behalf of his brother Robert of Bellême against Hugh of Grantmesnil (Ord. Vit.
