MONTFORT, m'ont'fOrt (Fr. moti-for), Simon de, EARL OF LEICESTER, English political reformer: b. France, about 1208; d. Evesham, 4 Aug. 1265. His father was Simon, the Con queror of the Albigenses, his mother, Alice of Montmorency; the former had been disin herited of his English estates by King John in 1207 and hence had joined the more readily the orthodox French party in fighting the Al bigenses, who were led by John's brother-in-law, Raymond of Toulouse. But the younger and greater Simon in 1229 was forced to leave France and throw himself on the mercy of the English king, Henry III, who restored him L his lands in Leicester and married him to his own sister Eleanor, the young widow of Lord Pembroke, secretly and without dowry in 1238. The irregularity of this match endangered Simon with the nobles, who had not been con sulted; almost immediately afterward he quar reled with the king and was only saved by his crusader's vow, which he fulfilled under Richard of Cornwall in 1240. In France he fought under Henry III (1242-48), who made him commander of the army in Gascony. There he crushed successive rebellions, but another quarrel between the monarch and his subject followed and Simon was •removed from office. Henry soon had to recall Simon, who in 1257 and 1258 quarreled hotly with William of Va lence, one of the king's foreign favorites and his half-brother. Simon's boldness in this mat ter put him at the head of the movement among the barons for administrative reform. In June 1258 the 24 commissioners, of whom he was one, drew up the famous Provisions of Oxford, signed in October of the same year, but repudiated in 1262 by the king. Simon de Mont fort had been actual head of the reforming party since the conclusion of the peace with France (4 Dec. 1259) which had made reform possible. Now, after the cause of the nobles had been submitted to the king of France to arbitrate and his sentence had been entirely favorable to the king, setting aside the Oxford Provisions entirely and reserving to the people only such rights as they had before possessed, Simon put himself at the head of the party which was eager to fight for the privileges of the nobles. On 16 May 1264, after a brilliantly
conducted engagement, Simon captured, the king; a new constitution was formed giving the power to a council of nine, over whom were three electors, removable by Parliament; and in this new regime Simon was practically mas ter of the kingdom. He summoned a Parlia ment 30 Jan. 1265, which was the actual basis of the present English Parliament and of Brit ish constitutional freedom. But the Parliament was marked by a quarrel between Simon and the Earl of Gloucester; the latter went over to the border nobles. Simon moved against him with splendid fearlessness; made a sudden peace with the Welsh king, and turning to meet Gloucester failed to effect a juncture with his son. At Evesham on 4 Aug. 1265, fighting to the last and scorning to retreat, he was slain, his forces being so outnumbered by the troops with Gloucester and Prince Edward that at sight of the enemy Simon is said to have ex claimed, "Let us commend our souls to God, for our bodies are theirs.') Personally haughty and high tempered, but sober, simple, pious and cultured, he was a great general, one who stood firmly by the right, the idol of the people, who made his tomb a shrine and carried on the work he had begun. To call him the "'cre ator of the House of Commons," however, is a misapprehension of his work, which for warded rather than fathered representative government. Consult Pauli's life which treats primarily of the constitutional bearings of Montfort's career and is translated into Eng lish by Miss Goodwin (1876); the English life by Prothero (1877); the French biography by Bemont (1884), which first untangles Mont fort's continental career; the