General Notes

Simon de Montfort is said to have first sought an asylum in England from the hostility of Blanche, Queen of France, and to have obtained a restitution of the Earldom of Leicester and stewardship of England from King Henry III through the petition of his brother, Almaric [Amaury], then Earl of Montfort and constable of France. Certain it is, however, that in 1232 (16th Henry III), he bore the title of Earl of Leicester and had obtained a grant of all his mother's inheritance in England from his brother. In 1236, his lordship officiated as steward at the nuptials of Henry III, and held the ewer in which the king washed. In two years afterwards, he obtained the hand of the king's sister, Eleanor, widow of William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, the marriage ceremony being performed by Walter, one of the royal chaplains at Westminster, "within a little chappel at the corner of the king's chamber." This marriage was, however, opposed by the princess's other brother, Richard, Earl of Cornwall (afterwards King of the Romans), and the kingdom at large, because the lady had made in her widowhood a vow of chastity in the presence of Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury and several of the nobility. So strongly did public discontent manifest itself that the earl was obliged to repair in person to Rome for the purpose of obtaining a dispensation, which with considerable difficulty he at length accomplished; and returning to England was most graciously received at court by the king, who appointed him his chief counsellor. Notwithstanding this, however, William de Abingdon, a Dominican friar, and many other of the clergy continued to exclaim against the marriage. But before the close of the same year, he experienced the caprice of royal favour. The king observing him and his countess amongst the nobility who attended the queen at her purification, called him an excommunicated person and prohibited his entering the church. "Which sudden unkindness," says Dugdale, "much dismaying him, he went away by water to Winchester House, which (the bishop being dead) the king had lent him. But there he could not be permitted to stay, the king in great wrath causing him to be put out of doors. Whereupon he returned sorrowing and weeping, yet could not appease his anger, the king plainly telling him that he had abused his sister before marriage, and that, though he afterward gave her to him for a wife, it was unwillingly, and to avoid scandal. Upbraiding him that to ratify this, his unlawful marriage, he went to Rome and there corrupted that court with large bribes and promises, adding that, having failed in payment of the money, he ought justly be excommunicated." This storm ultimately drove his lordship from the kingdom, but only for a short period, as we find him returning in 1240, and having then an honourable reception from the king and all his court. Soon after this he made a journey to Jerusalem, having previously disposed of one of his woods to the knights hospitallers and canons of Leicester for somewhat less than £1000 to defray part of the necessary expenses of the undertaking. Henceforward, he appears for a series of years to have enjoyed the high favour of the king and to have fully merited it by his eminent services.

In the 32nd Henry III [1248], his lordship was appointed commander-in-chief of the forces in Gascony and in the end of that year he sat in the great convention of parliament held at London; about which time he obtained from the king a grant of the custody of Kenilworth Castle, for Eleanor, his wife, to hold during her life, and returning into Gascony, he forced Guaston de Bearne, who had raised the standard of rebellion, to an honourable truce. The earl came back to England the next year and was received at court with great honour. Soon after which, in fulfillment of a vow he had made as penance for his marriage, he began a journey to the Holy Land, and in the 34th of the same reign returned safely with his brother-in-law, Richard, Earl of Cornwall, and others. For the two following years he was actively and victoriously employed in Gascony until the king, hearkening to complaints against him for his cruelty and oppression, which appear to have been unsustainable, removed him from the seneschalship of that country.

Upon the subsequent insurrection of the barons against the king, the Earl of Leicester, siding with the former, was appointed their general-in-chief, in which character he fought the great battle of Lewes where the royal army sustained so signal a defeat the king himself being made prisoner with Prince Edward, his son, his brother, Richard, King of the Romans, and many other personages of eminence attached to his cause. This victory placing the government in the hands of the earl and his adherents, himself, the bishop of Chichester, the Earl of Gloucester, and a few others of less note were nominated to discharge the executive functions. One of the earliest acts of the usurpation was to summon a parliament in the king's name by writs dated 24 December, 49th Henry III [1265], directed to the bishops and abbots and to such lay lords as could be relied upon by which, signifying "the realm to be then in peace and quiet, and the desire of the king to establish the same to the honour of God, and benefit of his people," they were summoned to meet at London on the octaves of St. Hilary, there to sit in parliament, "to treat and give their advice." At the same time, precepts were issued to the sheriffs ordering them to return two knights for each county; to the cities and boroughs the like number of citizens and burgesses; and to the barons of the Cinque Ports, a certain number of their discreetest men for the same purpose. This is deemed the first precedent of a parliament, such as ever since has been established, and Sir William Dugdale thus speculates upon the causes of the revolution -- "If I may be so bold as to give my opinion, what reasons these potent rebels then had, thus to alter the former ancient usage, I shall take leave to conjecture that it was because they, discerning what large retinues the nobility and other great men in those elder times had , as also a great number of the king's tenants in capite, then called barones minores, it might have proved dangerous to themselves to permit such a multitude to come together."
The new government did not, however, endure long, for a breach taking place between the two chiefs, Leicester and Gloucester, the arms of those powerful persons were directed against each other, and Prince Edward effecting his escape about the same time, the Earl of Gloucester reared the royal standard and formed a junction with the forces of the prince. With this army, marching towards Kenilworth, they surprised young Simon Montfort, the earl's son, and made prisoners of no less than thirteen of his chief adherents, almost without resistance. Elated with this triumph, they proceeded to Evesham, where the Earl of Leicester and his great force lay, expecting the arrival of his son whose banners the royal arms as a stratagem of war alone displayed and thereby completely deceived this able commander. His lordship undismayed, however, drew out his army in order of battle and, fighting gallantly to the last, fell in the midst of his enemies, when victory declared for the royal cause. It is said that, when the earl discerned the superiority and disposition of the royalist forces, he swore "by the arm of St. James (his usual exclamation), they have done discreetly, but this they learned from me; let us therefore commend our souls to God because our bodies are theirs." Nevertheless, encouraging his men, he told them, "it was for the laws of the land, yea, the cause of God and justice, that they were to fight." The principal persons slain in the memorable engagement were the Earl himself, Henry de Montfort, his eldest son, Hugh le Despenser, then justice of England, Ralph Basset, of Drayton, and about one hundred and sixty knights and many other gentlemen of his party. Amongst the prisoners were Guy de Montfort, a younger son of the earl; John Fitz-John, Humphrey de Bohun, the younger; John de Vesci, Peter de Montfort, junr., and Nicholas de Segrave. The body of the Earl was removed from the field of battle by some of his friends upon an old ladder covered with a poor torn cloth, and thus conveyed to the abbey of Evesham where, folded in a sheet, it was committed to the grave. But within a short time, some of the monks alleging that the earl, being an excommunicated person and attainted of treason, his remains were unworthy of Christian burial, the body was taken up and interred in a remote place known but to few. Thus fell, in 1264, Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester; one of the most eminent soldiers and statesmen of the period in which he lived and, under his attainder, the earldom became extinct. Of his widow, Eleanor, the king's sister, it is stated that, after the fatal battle of Evesham, she fled into France and took up her abode in the nunnery of the order of preachers, at Montarges, which had been founded by her husband's sister.

Of his issue:

Henry fell at Evesham, leading the van of the baronial army.

Simon, who for some time gallantly defended the castle of Kenilworth, was eventually made prisoner in the Isle of Ely by Prince Edward; afterwards effecting his escape, he fled into France and, in 1270, being at Viterbuirm, in Italy, he joined with his brother, Guy, in the murder of their cousin, Henry, eldest son of Richard, King of the Romans, in the church of St. Silvester, as the prince assisted at mass.

Guy fought in the van of the baronial army at Evesham, and being made prisoner, was confined in Dover Castle from which escaping, he fled into Tuscany and there, acquiring high reputation as a soldier, he obtained the dau. and heiress of the Earl Rufus for his wife. Meeting with Prince Henry, son of the King of the Romans, Guy and his brother, Simon slew him in revenge in the church of St. Silvester, at Viterbuirm, for which barbarous at, being first excommunicated by Pope Gregory X, he was thrown into prison but released in 1282 by Pope Martin II, and placed at the head of an army, in which situation he displayed his characteristic prowess. He subsequently, at the decease of his wife's father, returned to Tuscany and inherited a very considerable fortune. Charles I, King of Naples, made him Count de Nola. He d. in 1288, leaving by Margaret, his wife, dau. of Rodolph, Count de Languillara, on only dau., Anastasia de Montfort, Countess de Nola, m. to Raymond des Ursins.

Almaric, who, when conveying his sister from France to be m. to Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, was taken prisoner with her at sea and suffered a long imprisonment. He was at last, however, restored to liberty, and his posterity are said to have flourished in England under the name of Wellesbourne.

Eleanor, b. about Michaelmas, 1252, at Kenilworth, m., by proxy, early in 1275, and in person at Worcester, 13 October, 1278, Llewelyn ap Griffith, Prince of North Wales. By Llewelyn ap Griffith, who was slain 10 December, 1282, she had issue, two daus., Princess Catherine, heiress of the monarchs of North Wales, m. Philip ap Ivor, Lord of Cardigan, who was probably dead 20 September, 1334, the date of a quo warranto against his brother, Owen ap Llewelyn; and a younger dau., Princess Gwenllian, b. 19 June, 1281, was a nun of Sempringham, and d. there 7 June, 1337. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage Ltd, London, England, 1883, p. 376-77, Montfort, Earls of Leicester]

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Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester (b. c. 1208, Montfort, Ile-de-France, Fr.--d. Aug. 4, 1265, Evesham, Worcestershire, Eng.), leader of the baronial revolt against King Henry III and ruler of England for less than a year.

Simon de Montfort, wholly French by birth and education, was the son of Simon de Montfort l'Amaury, leader of the crusade against the heretical Albigenses. On coming of age, he renounced to his eldest brother, Amaury, his claims on the family lands in return for the sole right to revive the Montfort claim to the English earldom of Leicester. This claim derived from his mother, Amicia, sister of Robert IV (died 1204), the last Beaumont earl of Leicester, whose lands had been divided between Amicia and her younger sister Margaret, countess of Winchester. King John had recognized Simon's father as earl (c. 1205) but had deprived him as a French subject (1207), and the Montfort claim had then lapsed.

Simon came to England in 1229 and, helped by his cousin Ranulf, earl of Chester, the tenant of the confiscated estates, obtained the honour of Leicester and did homage to Henry III in 1231, though he was not formally styled earl of Leicester until April 1239. He speedily became one of Henry's favourites, receiving an annual fee of 500 marks to compensate for the divided inheritance and exercising the hereditary stewardship at the coronation of Queen Eleanor (Eleanor of Provence; 1236). Henry arranged for his sister Eleanor to marry Simon on Jan. 7, 1238, thus breaking Eleanor's earlier vow of chastity and offending the English noblemen, who were not consulted. Henry's brother, Richard, earl of Cornwall, led an angry baronial protest, and Henry, alarmed, turned against Simon and Eleanor, driving them from England (August 1239). Simon went on crusade (1240-42) with Richard, with whom he was now reconciled, and won great prestige among the lords of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, who asked their absentee king, the emperor Frederick II, to appoint Simon as his viceroy there. Returning to England, Simon joined Henry's disastrous invasion of France (1242), winning distinction by covering Henry's escape after his defeat at Saintes. Reconciled with Henry, and accepting an unfavourable settlement of Countess Eleanor's dower claims, Simon now made Kenilworth Castle (a royal grant) his headquarters. He cultivated the friendship of the radical reformer Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln, and took Robert's friend, the Oxford Franciscan Adam de Marisco, as spiritual director. Although regarded as a king's man, Simon was one of the committee of 12 appointed to handle the acute crisis of 1244 between Henry and his angry barons. He also took part in many important embassies to the French, papal, and imperial courts, and as a result he won many influential friends.

In 1248 Henry asked Simon to pacify the English-held Duchy of Gascony, in southwestern France. Simon, eager to join Louis IX's crusade, accepted reluctantly, stipulating for full powers as regent for seven years, without fear of recall and with full refund of expenses incurred. Treating the Gascon nobles as faithless rebels outside the law, he ruthlessly crushed the revolt and restored order; the Gascons appealed to Henry, accusing Simon of illegal procedure and oppression and threatening to renew their revolt. The matter was complicated by Simon's personal contest with Gaston de BÈarn, the leading rebel. Henry, frightened, recalled Simon for trial on the rebels' charges; the English magnates acquitted him (1252), and he returned to Gascony to suppress the renewed revolt, but Henry now terminated his lieutenancy. Simon, accepting a partial financial settlement, withdrew to France, though Henry had to implore his help in his own campaign against the rebels in 1253. Such was Simon's international reputation that when Louis IX's mother, Blanche of Castile, died (November 1252) while Louis was still on crusade, the French magnates invited Simon to succeed her as regent.

Henry's behaviour over Gascony, though not wholly unjustified, convinced Simon that Henry was unfit to rule, and the King's disastrous undertaking, at Pope Innocent IV's behest, to conquer Sicily for his son Edmund, strengthened this conviction. Discussions with Grosseteste, Marisco, and other Franciscan intellectuals had fired Simon's mind with visions of a new order in both church and state, and he joined the other leading English barons in forcing upon Henry the revolutionary Provisions of Oxford (June 1258). The reformers began well, but by October 1259 divisions appeared between the conservative wing, led by Richard de Clare, earl of Gloucester, that sought only to limit abuses of royal power, and the radical element, led by Simon, that sought to bind the entire baronage to observe the reforms forced upon the King and his officers. Simon exacerbated the quarrel by his arrogant vehemence and put himself in the wrong by attempting to use Henry's subordination to secure settlement of his own and his wife's justifiable personal claims on Henry. Henry, allying with the Gloucester faction, shattered baronial unity early in 1260, and Simon emerged leading the extremist defenders of the reforms. By October 1261 Henry had isolated Simon, who went abroad; but the King's annulment of the Provisions, after he had received papal absolution from his oath to observe them, revived general disaffection (1262), and Simon returned (April 1263) to lead a rebellion that restored the Provisions (July 1263). But baronial unity had vanished, and, despite passionate support from the lesser barons, the county knights, the men of London and the Cinque Ports, and many clergy, Simon was forced to accept arbitration by Louis IX (December 1263). By the Mise of Amiens (January 1264) Louis totally annulled the Provisions and all consequent reforms: Simon rejected the award and after unsuccessfully attempting direct negotiations, defeated Henry at Lewes (May 14, 1264), capturing Henry and his son, the lord Edward.

Simon then governed England by military dictatorship, striving unsuccessfully for a legal basis of consent, both by negotiations with Henry's supporters and by calling representatives of both shires and boroughs to Parliament (1265) to counterbalance his lack of baronial support. But his monopolization of power alienated his chief ally, the young Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester, who joined the royalist Marcher lords and secured Lord Edward's escape at Hereford (May 1265). By rapid and skillful maneuvering, Edward isolated Simon behind the Severn, destroyed at Kenilworth (August 1) the large army coming to his rescue, and trapped Simon's little force at Evesham (Aug. 4, 1265), slaying Simon and most of his followers.

The most outstanding English personality of his day, Simon is remembered as an early advocate of a limited monarchy, ruling through elected councillors and responsible officials, and of parliaments including county knights and burgesses as well as the great nobles. [EncyclopÊdia Britannica CD 97]