Simon V de Montfort Earl of Leicester1,2b. between 1208 and 1209, d. 4 August 1265, #27912
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Simon V de Montfort Earl of Leicester1,2| Father | Simon IV de Montfort The Crusader3 b. circa 1175, d. 25 June 1218 | |
| Mother | Alix de Montmorency4 d. 24 February 1221 |
| !AInfoNew | Simon de Montfort, a compelling and charismatic man, led the 2nd Barons' War against Henry III from 1263-1267. He was born in France and came to England in 1230. Simon quickly became a favorite of Henry III who granted the return of the Earldom of Leicester and even married Simon in 1238 to his widowed sister Eleanor who had taken a vow of chastity. The English noblemen were not consulted and lodged a vehement protest led by Richard Earl of Cornwall, Henry's brother. Henry turned on Simon and his wife and drove them out of England. Simon reconciled with Richard and went on Crusade with him from 1240-2. Simon reconciled with Henry and joined in the king's disastrous invasion of France. Simon was granted Kenilworth Castle and made it his headquarters. He became a prominent negotiator for the king in the baronial disputes of 1244 and was involved in French, papal and imperial embassies, winning many influential friends. In 1263, Henry refused to accept the Provisions of Oxford, amendments to the Magna Carta that had been adopted by the nobility in 1258. Simon led a revolt, defeating the king at the Battle of Lewes in 1264 and taking him prisoner. Simon became the virtual ruler of the kingdom and summoned a Parliament in 1265, the first Parliament ever to include commoners, representatives from the towns and shires. In 1265, Prince Edward (Edward I) led the royal armies in a decisive victory at the Battle of Evesham. Simon de Montfort was trapped and killed at a spot called Battlewell where his body was hacked to pieces. The monks retrieved some body pieces and buried them in front of the High Altar of the Abbey Church. Simon became a martyr and pilgrims flocked to this shrine. Henry VIII destroyed most of the Abbey, but the bell tower and a marker for the remains of Simon are still there today. Immediately, following the disastrous defeat at Evesham, Simon's fellow nobles took refuge in Kenilworth which was besieged in 1266 and surrendered 6 months later, the longest siege in English history. Simon de Montfort is remembered as an early advocate of a limited monarchy. The Parliament he called in 1265 is considered the forerunner of The House of Commons. Today Simon has a place of honor in Westminster.2 | |
| Birth* | between 1208 and 1209 | Simon V was born between 1208 and 1209 at Leicestershire, England. Some say he may have been born as late as 1213.5 |
| !AInfoNew* | 1230 | The crusader Simon's mother, Amice de Beaumont, who was Simon V's grandmother, became heir in her issue of the English earls of Leicester of that family. Simon V, as his parents' second son, (It may be that he was actually the 3rd son, but his oldest brother was Count Montfort and signed his rights to the English title to Simon. His next older brother was dead by 1222), went to England in 1230 to claim his right to his grandmother's family's inheritance, and quickly won the favor of Henry III, who was chronically inclined to show more favor to foreigners than to his own English subjects. Simon obtained the Leicester estates from Henry in the late summer of 1231, though he was not recognized as earl of Leicester until 1239.4,1 |
| Marriage* | 7 January 1237 | Simon V de Montfort Earl of Leicester married Eleanor Plantagenet, daughter of John Lackland Plantagenet and Isabella Taillefeur of Angoulême, 7 January 1237 in London, England. Montfort's favored position at court soon won him many enemies among the English magnates, including the king's brother Earl Richard of Cornwall, and it was for that reason that Henry secretly promoted Simon's marriage to Eleanor, which was privately celebrated in the king's personal chapel in the palace of Westminster. Earl Richard had not been forewarned about it, and there was bloody hell to pay afterward because Richard and the other barons felt that the king should have used his sister's marriage to greater diplomatic effect. The real problem with the marriage, however, was that after her first husband's death Eleanor had been inveigled by her governess, a vowed widow, to take a vow of perpetual celibacy herself. No dispensation to end the effects of that vow was obtained before Eleanor and Simon married, so subsequently they had to go on pilgrimage to Rome and beseech the pope to pardon the transgression, bless their marriage and assign a penance. They ended up having to pay for the construction of a Dominican priory in Bordeaux, where they later buried one of their infant daughters.6,7,5,8,4 |
| !AInfoNew* | 1258 | Simon was Governor of English land in Gascony for four years. He was to become the driving force behind the barons in the Second Barons' War. In October 1258 the King accepted the Provisions of Oxford, but he had no intention of living by them. The barons that had written them had differing ideas of how far they should be taken. Simon de Montfort took them to their most extreme. He believed that the Council of Fifteen, set up by the Provisions of Oxford, could if necessary rule against the King's wishes. Edward, heir to the throne, believed the council should be a group of advisers and nothing more than that. Civil War was inevitable. In May 1264 de Montfort won the Battle of Lewes and captured the king and his heir. Edward escaped and de Montfort fought and died at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. In 1267 the Provisions of Oxford and Westminster were revoked and the King could once again choose his own councillors.8 |
| !AInfoNew | 14 May 1264 | He led the baronial opposition to King Henry III & defeated the royalist party at the Battle of Lewes, 14 May 1264, when the king & his eldest son were captured. |
| Death* | 4 August 1265 | Simon V died on 4 August 1265 at Worchestershire, at England. In this battle the King and his men defeated the Barons. It is likely that he was buried at the battlefield.5 |
| research* | Find On Simon's career in general, the standard reference today is John Maddicott's superb *Simon de Montfort* (Cambridge University Press, 1994).4 |
| Family | Eleanor Plantagenet b. 1215, d. 13 April 1275 | |
| Children | 1. | Henry de Monfort b. 26 Nov 1238, d. Aug 12654 |
| 2. | Simon de Monfort b. Apr 1240, d. 12714 | |
| 3. | Amaury de Monfort b. c 1242, d. c 13004 | |
| 4. | Guy de Monfort+ b. c 1244, d. c 12914 | |
| 5. | daughter de Monfort b. c 1246, d. 12464 | |
| 6. | Richard de Monfort b. 1252, d. 12664 | |
| 7. | Eleanor de Montfort b. c 1258, d. Jun 12824 |
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