MONTFORT, Simox DE, Earl of Leicester, the fourth son of the preceding, was b. in France about 1206. The title of earl of Leicester came to him by his grandmother, Amicie de Beaumont, sister and heiress of Robert earl of Leicester, but he did not directly or immediately inherit it; for, during the reign of king John, it was borne by Ramdf, earl of Chester. Some time after the death of Banta Montfort came to Eng land, and offered his services to Henry III. Already he enjoyed a great reputation as a. warrior, and lienry was so highly pleased with the young French noble that he conferred on him the title of earl of Leicester. Little did Henry think that the stranger was to prove against himself a great founder and champion of English constitutional liberty. He married Elinor, sister to king Henry III., and the youthful widow of that earl of Pembroke to whom, more than to any other, the people of England owe magma charts. After this marriage—which was viewed disfavor by the king—de Montfort became a steadfast advocate of the English charter, and of the liberties of the people. After visiting the east, he was sent by the king to undertake the command of Gascony. In 1257 the king's debts were so great and the rapacity of his foreign relations so unbear able, that the people were in a state of insurrection. The barons assembled, and, under the direction of De Montfort, held the celebrated parliament at Oxford. They passed statutes to enforce the provisions of magna eharta The king swore to observe them, but sent forthwith to the pope praying to be absolved from his oath. The bull of Aso: lotion arrived. Henry set his barons at defiance, shut himself up in the Tower, and appealed to Louis of France. England was now in arms. The whole middle class looked op to De Montfort as their champion and leader, and the war began with the battle of Northampton. the wars of the barons, under De Montfort, have been superficially viewed but as the strife of turbulent nobles, who, in the absence of foreign warfare, employed themselves in getting up a contest at home, Later researches, however, have shown that but for the struggles of De Montfort and the barons, the concessions at HHH nymede would have been a mere worthless parchment. At Lewes the royal forces were signally discomfited and the king taken captive. A French chronicler, who praises De 3iontfort as " noble, chivalrous, and the ablest man of the age," expressly adds that lie was " backed by the general favor of the people," who at this time were so " unspeak ably trampled under foot and deprived of all their liberties." The conditions exacted
from the king were, that he should observe magma charta and the charter of the Forests; be moderate in his expenses and grants, until his old debts were paid off, and he was enabled to live on his own property, without oppression of merchants or the poor; and that Englishmen only should be chosen counselors. No new pretensions were intro duced, even at this moment of triumph, and the constitutional maxim of respecting the person of the king was carefully upheld. The queen (Elinor of Provence), who was in France, now occupied herself in collecting a large army. To deliberate upon the meas ures to be adopted at this great crisis, writs were issued to the sheriffs, in 1265, by Dc Montfort, directing them to return two knights for each county, and two citizens or bur gesses for every city and borough; and from this time may be clearly dated the recogni tion of the commons as an estate of the realm in parliament. Guardians had been appointed by the barons to watch over the execution of magna charm, but fifty years of encroachment on the part of the crown convinced De Montfort that a stronger and more enduring security would be to commit the care of constitutional freedom thenceforth to the people themselves, whose interests the barons thus identified with their own. Mr. Mallow, who, in hiS Barons' War, presents De Montfort almost:for the first time in his true character, adds that "it should be an honest pride to us in after-times that English liberty thus owes its birth to the noblest parentage, confidence in the people." A second war broke out, and this time the popular cause was weakened by defection and treach ery. Prince Edward (afterwards Edward I.) encountered the barons at Evesham, with a greatly superior army. When defeat was inevitable, the great leader refused to flee. He "fought stoutly like a giant for the liberties of England," but fell, overwhelmed by numbers. The death of De Montfort filled the whole land with mourning. Like Crom well, whose career in many respects resembles his own, lie was denied a grave by the royalists, his head being sent to Wigmore castle, and his mutilated limbs to different towns; but the people bewailed their dead champion, and the clergy pointed to his glori fied spirit in heaven. The influence of De Montfort was felt after his death. No baron was executed for bearing arms against his sovereign, and although the Oxford statutes formally rescinded, their spirit remained. See Life, by M. Creighton (1876); and Simon de Montfort, by Pauli, translated by Una M. Goodwin (1876):