Montfort, SIMON DE, Earl of Leicester, the fourth son of the preceding, and of Alice de Montmorency, was born about the beginning of the 13th century. The title of Earl of Leicester came to him by his grandmother, Amicia de Beaumont, sister and co-heiress of Robert, Earl of Leicester; and in 1230 we find him in England, where he was well received by Henry III., and confirmed in his title and estates two years later. He married in 1238 the king's youngest sister Eleanor, who had been betrothed to the Earl of Pembroke, and who, in the grief of an enthusiastic girl of sixteen, at his death had taken in her haste a vow of perpetual chastity, but never proceeded to take the veil. The marriage aroused the jealousy of the barons and the denunciations of the church, whereupon Simon repaired to Rome, and there succeeded by gold in obtaining the pope's sanction. In June 1239 he was godfather at the baptism of Prince Edward, but three months later was denounced as an excommunicated man, and driven from his presence by the king. Simon crossed to France, but soon returned and was nominally reconciled. It is probable that he went on crusade to the Holy Land, but at any rate he was again in England by 1242. We know but little of his life during the next six years, save that he lived the while at Kenilworth in intimate friendship with Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, and the learned Franciscan, Adam Marsh. Meantime the whole community was becoming exasperated by the misgovernment and faithlessness of the king, the extortionate exactions of the pope, and the fresh influxes of aliens on whom the court lavished its favours.
In 1248 Simon was sent as king's deputy to Gascony, and there he put down the prevalent disaffection with a heavy hand. But his jealous master listened eagerly to the complaints brought against his vigorous rule, and actually arraigned him before a special commission of inquiry, which only acquitted him after a lengthened trial. Earl Simon resigned his post in the winter of 1252-53, and returned to England, where he again comes into prominence in 1258 in the last act of the constitutional struggle. Bad harvests, famine, and fresh exactions of Rome, added to the rapacity of foreign parasites and protégés of the king, at length exhausted the endurance of the country, and in 1258 the barons appeared in arms at the parliament at Westminster, demanding the expulsion of all foreigners, and next the appointment of a committee of twenty-four—twelve from the king and twelve from the barons—to govern the realm. Later in the year the parliament met again at Oxford, and drew up the famous Provisions of Oxford, which the king swore solemnly to observe. A council of fifteen with a baronial majority was formed to advise the king; the old parliaments were superseded by a body of twelve chosen by the barons, to meet three times a year in order to transact business along with the fifteen; and foreigners were to surrender their castles—a self-denying ordinance in accordance with which Simon himself set the example by giving up Kenilworth and Odiham. This was almost entirely a baronial policy, and did little for the sub-tenants, with whom Prince Edward now began to intrigue for influence, whilst ere long breaches followed amongst the barons themselves, so that by 1261 the king felt strong enough to announce that the pope had declared the Provisions null and void. All men now looked to Earl Simon as leader of the barons and the whole nation alike, and he at once took up arms against the king. After some varying success, both sides agreed to submit to the arbitration of Louis IX. of France, who decided in the Mise of Amiens for an unconditional surrender to the royal authority. London and the Cinque Ports at once repudiated the agreement, and Simon hastily collected his forces, surprised the king's army at Lewes, and captured the young prince, May 14, 1264.
After his victory he arranged the Mise of Lewes, by which matters were anew to be submitted to arbitration. There were to be three electors, Earl Simon, the Earl of Gloucester, and the Bishop of Hereford, who were to appoint nine councillors to nominate the ministers of state. To aid these councillors in their task a parliament was called, in which, together with the barons, bishops, and abbots, there sat four chosen knights from each shire, and for the first time two representatives from certain towns. This was the fullest representation of England that had yet been convened, and may be looked upon as in a special sense the germ of our modern parliaments. But the great earl's constitution was premature; the barons soon began to be dissatisfied with the rule of Simon the Righteous, the arrogance of his sons injured his influence, and the young Earl of Gloucester abandoned him and went over to the king. Prince Edward, escaping from confinement by a stratagem, combined with Gloucester and fell with vastly superior force upon Simon at Evesham, and completely defeated him, August 4, 1265. The earl died upon the field, and his body was barbarously mutilated by Edward's soldiers, but the people and the native clergy, with the true instinct of a democracy, cherished him as a saint. His memory was enshrined in song and ballad, and miracles were ascribed to him long after his death.—The famous Song of Lewes is the most complete extant contemporary statement of the views of the constitutional party, of which Simon de Montfort was the champion and martyr. It was first printed by Thomas Wright in his Political Songs (1839) for the Camden Society, but a more adequate edition, furnished with introduction and notes, is that by C. L. Kingsford (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1890).
See Blaauw, Barons' War (1844; 2d ed. 1871); vol. ii. (1876) of Stubbs' Constitutional History of England; and the special Lives by Reinhold Pauli (1867; Eng. trans. by Una M. Goodwin, 1876), M. Creighton (1876), and especially G. W. Prothero (1877).