Simon de Montfort

I

Introduction

Simon de Montfort (c.1208-1265), Earl of Leicester, Anglo-French leader of baronial resistance to King Henry III (see Baronial Wars), and a crucial figure in the emergence of the English Parliament. He was the third son of Simon de Montfort the elder (d.1218), lord of Montfort-l’Amaury, to the south of Paris, who himself had led the bitter religious war in southern France known as the Albigensian crusade.

II

Early Years and Marriage

The younger Simon inherited both his father’s extreme piety and the family claim to the earldom of Leicester, sold to Simon by his elder brother Amaury (or Aimery), but thereafter blocked for a decade or more by the refusal of the Plantagenet kings to recognize the right of Frenchmen such as the Montforts to lands and titles in England. Montfort nonetheless crossed to England in 1230, and with the assistance of the aged and childless Earl of Chester was granted custody of part of the Leicester estates. Full recognition of his title as earl and of his hereditary office as royal steward was delayed until the late 1230s. His rise at court was clearly the result of his strength of character and a reputation for religious probity that appealed to the fanatically pious and easily manipulated King Henry III. Nonetheless, Montfort himself seems to have had little respect for a king who, on one occasion, he described as a simpleton, while the king never entirely rid himself of the perception that Montfort was a dangerous parvenu.

These tensions first came to a head in 1238, when Montfort married the king’s sister Eleanor, with royal approval but without consideration for a vow of chastity that Eleanor had taken shortly after the death of her first husband, William Marshal II, Earl of Pembroke (d.1231). The king supported Montfort against the jealous backlash from his fellow English barons, but then reacted with fury when Montfort presumed to use his royal connections in an attempt to pay off his debts. Never a wealthy man, Montfort was forced into temporary exile and was to spend much of the next 20 years in frustrating negotiations with Henry III over the dower to be assigned to his wife, Eleanor, and over what precisely Eleanor might hope to claim from the property of her first husband.

III

The Crusade and Gascony

From 1240 to 1241 Montfort joined the crusade to the Holy Land, a venture that achieved little but from which Montfort himself emerged with greatly enhanced international prestige as a pious warrior. Invited to return to Henry III’s court, Montfort found his relations with the king poisoned for a second time as a result of his service, from 1248 until 1252, as seneschal (effectively governor) of Henry III’s lands in Gascony. Accused of brutality in his dealings with the Gascons, Montfort was forced to stand trial at Westminster in May 1252. Neither the king, who had betrayed his lieutenant, nor Montfort, who had dealt harshly with the Gascons and disrespectfully with Henry III, emerged well from this affair. Although acquitted of all charges and promised financial compensation, Montfort henceforth bore a grudge against the king that was to carry him to the brink of civil war. Furthermore, with his compensation still not paid, Montfort was now inclined to press the financial claims of his wife, the king’s sister, as a means of disrupting the negotiation of an Anglo-French peace treaty. In the midst of this, Henry III was confronted with baronial rebellion in England. In April 1258, seven barons, Montfort among them, demanded that the king exile his hated Poitevin half-brothers, the Lusignans, and reform his administration under baronial supervision according to the terms of the so-called Provisions of Oxford.

IV

Leader of the Baronial Rebellion

Montfort played a key role in the ensuing attempt at rule by baronial committee. Returning to England from the Anglo-French negotiations at the end of 1259, he demanded that the Parliament scheduled for February 1260 be held and entered into close relations with Edward, the king’s son and Montfort’s nephew, who considered himself unduly excluded from government. The result, on the king’s return to England in April 1260, was a second trial of Montfort held at Westminster, in which Montfort was once again acquitted of all charges. His crossing to France in December 1260, however, allowed Henry III an opportunity to move against the baronial council and towards a full recovery of royal authority. An attempt by Montfort to muster resistance through a meeting of knights at St Albans in September 1261 was followed merely by empty promises from the crown. Once again exiled to France, in 1262 Montfort was confronted with demands made by Henry III that the French king, Louis IX, expel him altogether from the French court. Montfort now moved towards open defiance of the English king, returning to England, demanding that Parliament reinstate the reformist Provisions, and entering into an uneasy alliance with the rebellious Welsh. Kent was secured against the possibility that the king might bring in foreign mercenaries, and in July London opened its gates to Montfort and his army.

Henry III responded with an offer to carry all outstanding disputes before Louis IX as arbiter. Believing Louis to be a friend, Montfort agreed. The outcome was the Mise of Amiens by which, in January 1264, Louis utterly rejected the Provisions and demanded the full restitution of Henry III’s royal power. Montfort now had nothing to fall back upon save strength of arms. On May 14, 1264, he decisively defeated King Henry at the Battle of Lewes in Sussex. The king, his son, and his brother, Richard earl of Cornwall, were all taken prisoner. For the next year, Montfort ruled as virtual dictator of England. In an attempt to broaden the basis of his support, he convened a Parliament early in 1265 to which were summoned representatives from the counties, the so-called knights of the shire, and for the first time representatives of each borough—an important milestone on Parliament’s road to sovereignty under the crown. Montfort’s own authority, however, had already begun to crumble.