Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester (1208-4 August 1265) was a French-English nobleman who led the rebellion against King Henry III of England during the Second Barons' War of 1263-64. He was briefly the de facto ruler of England, and he called two Parliaments, the first of which stripped the King of unlimited authority, and the second of which included ordinary citizens from the towns. After a rule of just one year of democratic rule, Montfort was slain in battle with the King's army at the Battle of Evesham.
Biography[]
Simon in 1230
Simon de Montfort was born in Montfort-l'Amaury, France in 1208, the son of Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester and Alix de Montmorency, and the brother of Amaury VI of Montfort. His father was slain at the Siege of Toulouse in 1218, during the Albigensian Crusade. The family's claims to the Earldom of Leicester were taken from them by King John of England, who instead made the elderly Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester the heir to the title. Simon's brother Amaury found himself unable to hold all of the possessions inherited from their father, Simon, who had acquired vast territories during the crusade; Amaury decided to give Simon the claim to Leicester in exchange for inheriting all of the family's possessions in France. In 1229, the French-speaking Simon arrived in England and endeared himself to King Henry III of England, who was well-disposed to French-speaking foreigners. Simon convinced the older, childless Earl of Chester and convinced him to grant him the Earldom of Leicester.
Simon expelled the Jewish community of Leicester in 1231, inspired to do so by his father's devout Christianity and his desire to banish usury from his realm. In 1238, he married Eleanor of England, the sister of King Henry III, leading to controversy among the nobles (who objected to the princess' marriage to a foreigner of modest rank) and the clergy (as Eleanor was sworn to chastity after the death of her first husband, William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, who died when she was just 16). In 1239, Simon was finally invested with the Earldom of Leicester.
Shortly after the birth of Prince Edward in 1239, relations between Henry and Simon soured, as the indebted Simon named Henry III as his security for his repayment to Thomas II of Savoy. Henry later angrily confronted Simon, called him an "excommunicant", threatened to imprison him in the Tower of London, and told him that he had only allowed for Simon to marry his sister to avoid a scandal over Montfort's seduction of Eleanor. Simon and Eleanor fled to France to avoid the King's wrath, and he joined the Barons' Crusade to the Levant in 1239 (not seeing any action) before taking part in King Henry's 1241 campaign against King Louis IX of France in Poitou. The campaign was a failure, and Simon suggested that Henry should be locked up like Charles the Simple. Simon was later appointed Viceroy of Gascony, where he oppressed the seigneurs.
In 1263, Simon was invited to return to England by an alliance of barons who were opposed to the King's hostility to all reform. Henry began using patronage and bribes to win over the barons, and the royalists were able to confine the reformist army in London. In May 1264, Simon marched out to give battle to the King, scoring a spectacular triumph at the Battle of Lewes, during which Prince Edward and Richard of Cornwall were captured. In 1265, Montfort convened a Parliament, which asked for each county and a select list of boroughs to send representatives. This Parliament stripped the King of his unlimited authority, and Montfort has since been regarded as an early advocate of parliamentary democracy.
Death at Evesham[]
Montfort's death at the Battle of Evesham
The reaction against Montfort's government was baronial rather than popular, with the Welsh marcher lords rallying around Prince Edward after he escaped from captivity in May 1265. Montfort allied himself with Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, who married his daughter Eleanor de Montfort, and he gathered an army of Baron's Alliance and Welsh troops. The armies of Simon and Edward would meet on 4 August 1265 at the Battle of Evesham. During the battle, Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Mortimer killed Montfort by stabbing him in the neck with a lance, and his body was mutilated in a frenzy by the royalists.