He was born in Donyatt in Somerset, the eldest son of William Montacute, 1st Earl of Salisbury and Catherine Grandisson, and succeeded his father as earl in 1344. Montacute was contracted to marry Joan of Kent, and did so without knowing that she had already secretly married Thomas Holland. After several years of living together, her contract with Montacute was annulled by the Pope in 1349.
In 1350, he was one of the first Knights of the Garter. He was a commander of the English forces in France in many of the following years, serving as commander of the rear guard of the army of Edward the Black Prince's army in 1355, and again at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356, and further serving in 1357, 1359 and 1360. Later in 1360 he was one of the commissioners that negotiated the Treaty of Brétigny.
During the quieter years that followed the treaty, Montacute served on the king's council. But in 1369 he returned the field, serving in John of Gaunt's expedition to northern France, and then in other raids and expeditions, and on some commissions that attempted to negotiate truces with the French. Montacute helped Richard II put down the rebellion of Wat Tyler. In 1385 he accompanied Richard on his Scottish expedition.
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