The House of Montagu (, MON-tə-ghew), also known throughout history as Montagud, Montaigu, Montague, Montacute (Latin: de Monte Acuto, lit. 'from the sharp mountain'; French: Mont Aigu), is an English noble family founded in Somerset after the Norman Conquest of 1066 by the Norman warrior Drogo de Montagud (so named in the Domesday Book). They rose to their highest power and prominence in the 14th and 15th centuries as Earls of Salisbury, the last in the male line being Thomas Montagu, 4th Earl of Salisbury (1388–1428), the maternal grandfather of "Warwick the Kingmaker", 16th Earl of Warwick and 6th Earl of Salisbury.
The surviving noble family of Montagu "of Boughton" in Northamptonshire, where in 1683 the 1st Duke of Montagu built the splendid and surviving Boughton House, claimed descent from the ancient Anglo-Norman family of Montagu, Earls of Salisbury, which connection is however unproven. The earliest proven ancestor of the Montagu family of Boughton is Thomas Montagu (d. 1516) of Hemington, Northamptonshire...