Giraldus Cambrebsis, De rebus a se gestis, ii. c. 2, where the canon, afterwards the dean, of Paris there mentioned, the son of the castellan de Monte Mauricii,' was Herve, son of Matthieu ' de Montmorency ; ' compare Du Chesne, u.s. pp. 97, 106, and Preuves, pp. 39, 55). Hervey is said by M. de Montmorency-Morres to have been the son of a Robert FitzGeoffrey, lord of lands in Thorney and of Huntspill-Marreis, Somerset, by his wife Lucia, daughter of Alexander de Alneto, and to have been half-brother of Stephen, constable of Cardigan. This bit of genealogy has, however, been made up to fall in with the erroneous belief that Giraldus asserts that Hervey was the uncle of Robert FitzStephen, and may be dismissed at once. According to Du Chesne (u.s.), followed in 'L'Art de Verifier les Dates' (u.s.), Hervey was the son of Bouchard IV de Montmorency, by Agnes, daughter of Raoul de Pontoise ; he served Louis VI and Louis VII of France, and coming to England married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert de Beaumont (d. 1118) [q.v.], Count of Meulan, and widow of Gilbert de Clare (d. 1148), earl of Pembroke, which would make him stepfather of Earl Richard, called Strongbow [see Clare, Richard de, or Richard Strongbow, second Earl of Pembroke and Striguil, d. 1176]. Hervey, however, was paternal uncle of Earl Richard (Giraldus, Expugnatio Hibernica, p. 230), and must therefore have been a son by a second marriage of Adeliza, daughter of Hugh, count of Clermont (William of Jumièges, viii. 37), who married for her first husband Gilbert FitzRichard [see Clare, Gilbert de, d. 1115 ?], the father of Gilbert, earl of Pembroke (see a charter in MS. Register of Thorney, pt. iv. c. 35, f. 30, printed in Monasticon, ii. 601, where Hervey is described as brother of Gilbert and the other children of Adeliza and Gilbert FitzRichard, and pt. ix. c. 11, f. 9, where Adeliza is styled 'de Monte Moraci, domina de Deneford,' and is also styled 'domina de Deneford,' pt. iv. c. 10, f. 2 b ; see also pt. iv. c. 8, f. 2). The father of Hervey was no doubt called 'de Monte Moraci,' or Mount Maurice, but nothing has been ascertained about him (it is impossible to accept M. de Montmorency-Morres's Hervey, son of Geoffrey, lord of Thorney, as an historic person, while his theory that there were two Herveys, cousins-german, is a mere device to get out of the difficulty caused by his confusing together Earl Richard and Robert FitzStephen).
Hervey was in early life a gallant warrior ('olim Gallica militia strenuus,' Expugnatio, p. 328, translated by Hooker, he ' had good experience in the feats of war, after the manner used in France,' Irish Historic, p. 38. This passage was no doubt the ground of Du Chesne's assertion that he served Louis VI and Louis VII). He was a man of broken fortunes when he was sent by his nephew, Earl Richard, to Ireland with Robert FitzStephen in 1169 to report on aft'airs there to the earl. After the victory of these first invaders at Wexford their ally Derruot, king of Leinster, rewarded him with two cantreds of land on the coast between Wexford and Waterford, and he appears to have shared in Dermot's raids on Ossory and Offaly (Song of Dermot and the Earl, 11. 606, 749, 930). On the landing of Raymond FitzGerald [q.v.] at Dundunnolf, near Waterford, Hervey joined him, and shared in his victory over the people of Waterford and the chief, Donnell O'Phelan. 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 (ib. 11. 1474-89). He remained with Raymond in an entrenched position in Bannow Bay until they were reinforced on 23 Aug. by the arrival of Earl Richard, who was joined by Hervey. Raymond's mission to Henry II having failed [see under Fitzgerald, Raymond], Earl Richard sent Hervey to the king, probably in August 1171 (Gesta Henrini, i. 24), to make his peace. 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. 151). While Earl Richard was in Normandy in 1173 Hervey was left in command. 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). The earl yielded to the demand of the soldiers, and gave Raymond the command, but shortly afterwards refused to appoint him constable of Leinster, and gave the office to Hervey. To the bad advice of Hervey Giraldus attributes the earl's disastrous expedition into Munster in 1174 (ib. p. 310 ; compare Annals of the Four Masters,
