the capital of a county of the same name in North Wales, 18 miles from London, took its name from Roger de Montgomery earl of Shrewsbury, who built the castle: but it is called by the Welsh Tre Vallovin, that is, Baldwin's town; having been built by Baldwin, lieutenant of the marches of Wales, in the reign of William I. The Welsh, after having put the garrison to the sword, demolished it in 1095; but Henry III. rebuilt it, and granted it the privileges of a free borough, with other liberties. It is a large and tolerably well built town, in a healthful situation and fertile soil. It sends a member to parliament, and has the title of an earldom. It had formerly a tower and castle; but they were demolished in the civil wars. It has a weekly market, and four fairs.

(Gabriel de), count de Montgomery in Normandy, was remarkable for his valour and noble achievements, but still more so for being so unfortunate as to put out the eye of Henry II. on the 29th of June 1559. That prince having engaged several knights in a tournament, given by him on occasion of the marriage of his daughter the princess Elizabeth with Philip king of Spain, at last wished to break a lance with the young Montgomery, at that time lieutenant of the Scotch guard. Montgomery, as if he had foreseen the fatal consequences, again and again declined the combat, and it was with great reluctance he at length yielded, when he saw the king about to take offence at his refusal. In the course, his lance broke in the king's visor, and wounded him in the eye. Henry died on the 11th day after receiving the wound, and gave orders on his death-bed that Montgomery should not be prosecuted, or harassed in any respect, on account of what had happened. After this unlucky accident, Montgomery retired for some time to his estate in Normandy. He next visited Italy and other foreign countries; and did not return to France till the commencement of the civil wars, when he joined the party of the Protestants, and became one of their principal leaders. In 1562, he defended Rouen against the royal army with great valour and obstinacy. The city being at length taken by storm, he threw himself into a galley; and having, with equal temerity and good fortune, surmounted by dint of rowing a chain which had been thrown across the Seine at Candebec for the purpose of preventing succours from England, he escaped to Havre. In 1569 Montgomery was sent to the affluence of Bearn, which the Catholics, under the command of Terrides, had almost entirely wrested from the hands of Jane d'Albret, queen of Navarre. He executed this commission with so great dispatch, that Terrides was obliged to raise the siege of Navarres, and to retire with great precipitation to Orthez. Montgomery pursued him to this city, which he took by assault; and before Terrides had time to recover himself, he and his principal officers were taken prisoners in the castle. After this defeat, the rest of Bearn submitted to the conqueror wherever he made his appearance. This expedition acquired him the greatest glory, and has been celebrated by the Catholic no less than by the Protestant historians. He was at Paris at the time of the massacre on St. Bartholomew's day 1572, and lodged in the Faubourg St Germain. Some accident having retarded the execution in that quarter, he was informed of it at the very moment when it was about to begin; and he had just sufficient time to mount his horse, and, in company with some Protestant gentlemen who lodged near him, to make his escape at full gallop. They were pursued as far as Montfort-l'Amaury; and Montgomery, whose escape alone is particularly attended to, owed his safety on this occasion to the swiftness of his horse, which, according to a manuscript of that time, carried him 30 leagues without halting. Having escaped this danger, he took refuge with his family, first in the island of Jersey and afterwards in England.

The following year, Montgomery carried a considerable fleet, which he had armed and fitted out in England, partly on his own credit and partly on that of the inhabitants of Rochelle, to the relief of that city, which was at that time beleaguered by the Catholics: But, whether distrusting his forces, or for other reasons about which historians do not agree, he left the road without fighting the Catholic fleet, and went to pillage Belleisle on the coast of Brittany. Having disbanded his fleet, he returned to England to Henry de Champernon his son-in-law, coast-admiral of Cornwall. On the renewal of the war in France in 1573, Montgomery, who was then in Jersey, passed over into Normandy, and joined the Protestant nobility of that province.

Matignon, lieutenant-general in Lower Normandy, to whom Catharine de Medicis had given a particular charge to use his utmost endeavours to seize the person of the Count, came unexpectedly upon him in Saint-Lo, and laid siege to that city. On the evening of the fifth day of the siege, Montgomery left Saint-Lo with between 60 and 80 horse, forced the guard in the suburbs, and escaped amid a shower of musket bullets, without losing a single man, leaving the command of the place to Coulombieres, Francois de Briqueville. Montgomery arrived at Domfront May 7, 1574, with only twenty followers, intending to make no longer a stay in that place than was necessary to recruit them after the fatigues of so rapid a march. The same day he was joined by several gentlemen, who brought to his assistance a company of forty horse. Meanwhile Matignon, informed of his escape, and enraged at having lost his prey, flew at the head of a party of horse, with some companies of foot mounted on horseback, and arrived on the morning of the 9th before Domfront. He blocked up the place on all sides till the infantry and cannon which followed him should arrive. On their arrival, he attacked the city with great violence; and, as it was impossible to defend it, Montgomery was soon obliged to retire into the castle with the garrison, amounting to no more than 150 men, including 80 foot soldiers who guarded the city when he entered it. He sustained a furious assault, fought with the greatest boldness and obstinacy, and exposed himself in the breach like one who wished for death. Perceiving, however, that his soldiers, partly by the fire of the enemy, and partly by constant defection, were reduced almost to nothing, he capitulated on the 27th of May. Many Protestant historians affirm, that the articles of capitulation were violated with regard to Montgomery; but, not to mention the testimony of others, it appears evident, from the authority of D'Aubigny himself, who of all the Protestant writers is most worthy of credit, that the Count had no promise from Matignon, except personal safety and good treatment while he continued his prisoner. This general gave him no assurance of pardon from the king or the queen-mother. After the capture of Domfront, Matignon conducted his prisoner to Saint-Lo, the siege of which was still going on, in hopes that he might have some influence with his former friend and fellow-soldier to persuade him to surrender. For this purpose, Montgomery was brought to the side of the ditch; and he exhorted Coulombieres, who appeared on the wall, to follow his example. But Coulombieres, full of indignation, reproached him in the severest and most upbraiding terms for his cowardice in entering into a shameful capitulation, instead of dying in the breach like a soldier, with his sword in his hand. This intrepid governor spoke the true sentiments of his heart; for when the assault was made some days after, he was killed defending the breach. In the meantime, Matignon received orders from Catharine de Medicis, now regent of the kingdom by the death of Charles IX., to send Montgomery to Paris under a strong guard. When he arrived there, he was conducted to the gaol belonging to the parliament, and confined in the tower which still bears his name. Commissioners were appointed by the queen to conduct his trial. He was interrogated concerning the conspiracy imputed to the admiral Coligny; but the principal charge on which his condemnation was founded, was his hoisting the English flag on board those ships which he intended for the relief of Rochelle. The sentence by which he was condemned also deprived his children of the title of nobles. When Montgomery heard this part of the sentence read, If they have not the virtue of nobles to retrieve this loss (said he), I confess to their degradation.—After undergoing a very severe torture, he was carried to the place de Greve, dressed in mourning, and there beheaded on the 26th of June 1574. D'Aubigny, who was present at his execution, and who stood immediately behind Fervaque, says that he appeared on the scaffold with a firm and undaunted countenance; and gives us a pretty long speech which he delivered on that occasion, addressing himself first to the spectators.