General Notes

PIERS DE MONTFORT, son and heir, was a minor at his father's death, his wardship and marriage were granted by King John to William de Cauntelo. During his minority he had grants of markets at Henley
and Beaudesert. He was still underage in October 1231. In 1236 he went on a pilgrimage to Santiago with William de Cauntelo the younger, his lord. He was with the King in the unsuccessful expedition to Poitou in 1242. In 1245 his lands, which had been taken into the King's hand because he attended a prohibited tournament at Cambridge, were restored to him. On 29 August 1245, at Preston, as Piers de Montfort, son of Thurstan de Montfort, he confirmed to St. Neots all the grants in Wing which his ancestors had made, saving the services due to the King and the Earls of Warwick. In May 1248 he had licence to enclose land at Remenham in the forest of Windsor, and on 20 August a grant in connection with a marriage covenant between him and William de Beauchamp of Worcester. In the early autumn of 1248 he went overseas with Simon de Montfort, who had just been appointed Seneschal of Gascony, and later supported him against the complaints of the Gascons. He presumably returned to England in 1250 or early in 1251, for he had custody of the castle of Harestan (Horston, in Horsley, co. Derby) from 4 March 1250/1 to 29 November 1252. For the next two years he was serving in Gascony, and on 22 April 1254 was appointed one of the guardians of the truce in France. He appears to have accompanied Prince Edward in the summer on his journey to Spain for his marriage with Eleanor of Castile, and on 19 September was one of the sureties for the King's debts in Bordeaux. On 20 January 1255/6 he was sent on an embassy to the French King to arrange articles about breaches of the truce. This appears to have been the end of his foreign service, for in September 1257 he was appointed, during pleasure, to guard the March of Wales in Montgomery, and to keep the counties of Salop and Staffs, with the castles of Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth. In February 1258 he was joint commissioner to arrange a truce with Llewelyn, and later to prorogue it; in June he conducted the latter's envoys to the Parliament at Oxford, and from June to November was one of the commissioners to examine and make amends for breaches of the truce. Meanwhile in May he had a grant of Ellesmere Castle for 18 years. He was one of the 12 magnates elected by the Barons to represent them on the Council of 24 which was forced on the King in the "Mad" Parliament at Oxford in June 1258, and was sworn of the King's Council, being also one of the 24 persons appointed to treat about an aid for the King. He also joined in the letter of the magnates to the Pope against the Poitevins. In 1259 he obtained a grant of murage for Abergavenny, while the town was in his keeping, and in June of that year was one of the commissioners sent to the ford of Montgomery to treat with Llewelyn on breaches of the peace, a truce being made in July. In August he had an allowance of 200 marks for the defence of the Welsh borders (d). On 28 October he had protection upon crossing with the King and Queen to France on 14 November on a visit to Louis IX, when peace was arranged. In 1261 the King renewed his struggle with the Barons; in June, when he had made public the absolution he had obtained from the Pope respecting his oath to keep the Provisions of Oxford, Montfort was elected by the Barons one of the three arbitrators to negotiate with the King on this and other public business. He was now beginning to associate himself definitely with the Baronial party; and in April 1262 the sheriff of Warwickshire had orders to prevent the fortification of his castle of Beaudesert. In 1263 Piers took part in the Barons' activities in the West of England, and is recorded by name as one of the magnates who besieged and took Worcester, 28 February 1262/3, after several assaults (h). It is thought to have been in the following month that he reported to the Council his repulse of a raid by the Welsh into Gwent, and again urged the need of adequate forces being sent, for single-handed he could not hold the position. After peace was made, temporarily, in July 1263, among a number of castles to whom new keepers were appointed, Corfe and Shirburn were committed to Piers de Montfort; in September he accompanied the King on his brief visit to France to see Louis. War was renewed, and on 2 April 1264 he had a safe conduct for coming with his household and goods to Brackley to meet the King's envoys, but the next day he and his two sons were with Simon de Montfort the younger, when the Keeper of Northampton Castle surrendered it to the latter. Two days later the King forced his way into the town, and took the castle, Piers and his sons Piers and Robert being among the prisoners taken. They were removed to Windsor Castle, but released after the battle of Lewes, on an order to the constable dated 17 May. During the dominance of Earl Simon, Piers received many commissions and grants; on 4 June he was commissioner of oyer and terminer in Yorks; in July the King desired that Piers should bring him the terms proposed by the Barons, as their plenipotentiary; and on 11 September he was one of the envoys appointed to treat concerning the reformation of the state of England in the presence of King Louis and the Papal Legate. On 16 November he had a grant to him and his heirs of the manor of Garthorp, on 20 December another of the custody of Whittingdon Castle and of Hereford Castle, with the Hundred of Irchenfield, and on 20 January 1264/5 of twenty oaks in the forest of Rutland for the repair of his houses in Preston, which had been burnt. He accompanied Simon de Montfort through Monmouthshire into Wales, and during this time was joint keeper of the royal seal. He was slain at the battle of Evesham, 4 August, his sons Piers and Robert being wounded and taken prisoners. He married, in or before 1228, Alice, daughter of Henry DE AUDLEY. He died as stated above, 4 August 1265. Alice survived him.  [Complete Peerage IX:123-6, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]

(d) ; possibly in consquence of his report on the state of the March, and the urgent need of further support if the English boundary was to be maintained.

(h) The monkish Chronicler says they plundered all they could find outside the church, with the whole of the Jewish quarter; some of the Jews they imprisoned, and others they killed.

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For several years in the reign of King Henry III, this feudal lord took an active part in the wars of that monarch, but at length, on the breaking out of the barons' insurrection, he became one of the most zealous amongst those turbulent lords and, after the battle of Lewes, was of the nine nominated to rule the kingdom, in which station he enjoyed and exercised more than regal power, but of short duration, for he fell at the subsequent conflict of Evesham, so disastrous to the baronial cause. Peter de Montfort m. Alice, dau. of Henry de Aldithley, a great Staffordshire baron, and had issue, Peter, his successor; William, who by gift of his father had the manor of Uppingham, co. Rutland; Robert, who had lands also in the co. Rutland. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage Ltd, London, England, 1883, p. 377, Montfort, Barons Montfort]