General Notes

Montfort, Simon de, Earl of Leicester (1200?-65), English statesman and
soldier, born of an Anglo-French family in Normandy, France. In 1229 he came
to England from France, where two years later Henry III, king of England,
confirmed his title and estates. He married Eleanor, the youngest sister of
the king, in 1238. As a leader of the English barons, Montfort expressed their
dissatisfaction with the arbitrary rule of the king. When Henry rejected the
Provisions of Oxford, by which the barons had obtained a share in the
government, Montfort took up arms; he captured the king in 1264 (see Barons'
War). After his victory he established an assembly to assist the king's
council; it included representatives of the gentry and the towns and is
considered an ancestor to the later Parliament. The barons, however, became
dissatisfied with Montfort, and he was killed in a battle against combined
royal and baronial forces at Evesham on August 4, 1265.