Hervey de Montmorency

Giraldus puts into his mouth a speech recommending the slaughter of seventy Waterford men who had been taken prisoners; but the Anglo-Norman poet of the Conquest gives a wholly different version of the event.

He remained with Raymond in an entrenched position in Bannow Bay until they were reinforced on 23 August by the arrival of Earl Richard, who was joined by Hervey.

On his return Hervey met the earl at Waterford, told him that Henry required his attendance, accompanied him to England, and at Newnham, Gloucestershire, was the means of arranging matters between him and the king.

During Henry's visit to Ireland Hervey probably acted as the marshal of the royal army; for in his charter for the foundation of the convent of Dunbrothy, where his name is given as ' Hereveius de Monte Moricii,' he is described as ' marshal of the army of the king for Ireland, and seneschal of all the lands of Earl Richard' (Chartularies of St. Mary's Abbey, ii.

On the earl's return he is said to have found the Irish ready to rebel, and the troops dissatisfied and clamouring that Raymond should command them; for Hervey is represented as having wasted the money that was due to them in action (Expugnatio, p. 308).

To the bad advice of Hervey Giraldus attributes the earl's disastrous expedition into Munster in 1174 (ib.

After the defeat at Thurles the earl was forced to shut himself up in Waterford; he sent for Raymond to come to his help, and appointed him constable in place of Hervey (the order of these events is uncertain; that adopted here, which is also followed in the article on Raymond Fitzgerald, is that of the ' Expugnatio; 'the order followed in the ' Song of Dermot ' is on the whole represented in the article on Richard de Clare, 'Strongbow; ' see Expuynatio, p. 308 n. 2, and p. 310 n. 2).

Nevertheless, in 1175 he sent messages to the king, accusing Raymond of a design to make himself independent of the royal authority, and was evidently believed by Henry.

Hervey's power in Ireland was probably shaken by the death of his nephew, Earl Richard, in 1176, and we find him in England in 1177, when he witnessed a charter of Henry II at Oxford, at which date his lands between Wexford and Waterford were made to do service to Waterford, then held by William Fitz Aldhelm (Gesta Henrici II, i.

In 1178 he made a grant of lands in present co. Wexford to the convent of Buildwas, Shropshire, for the foundation on them of a Cistercian house (the date is determined by the attestation of Felix, bishop of Ossory).

These lands included Dunbrodiki, or Dunbrothy, in the barony of Shelburne, and there a few years later was founded the convent called ' de portu S.

304; Giraldus dates his retirementabout 1183; see Expugnatio, p. 352), making a grant to that house of lands and churches in Ireland.

He is described by Giraldus as a tall and handsome man, with blue and prominent eyes, and cheerful countenance; he was broad-chested, and had long hands and arms, and well-shaped legs and feet.

Morally, Giraldus says he belied his appearance; he was extremely lustful, envious, and deceitful, a slanderer, untrustworthy, and changeable, more given to spite than to gallant deeds, and fonder of pleasure than of profitable enterprise (ib.