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The Simon de Montfort
Society |
Sunday August 07, 2005
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Welcome to the Simon de Montfort Internet Portal
The Simon de Montfort
Society welcomes you
to the Simon de Montfort Internet Portal, your first port of
call for information about the controversial "father of parliaments". Although
we kicked off with one page the site will contain all sorts of
information provided by the Simon de Montfort Society and other
contributors, as well as a multitude of links to other relevant web sites,
directories, galleries and any other resources we can obtain permission to
publish.
Please revisit our site regularly to see what is new; we will be adding
content regularly from now on. We welcome suggestions for links or
contributions of content please. If you have some material that you
think would be suitable for this web site we would be glad to see it. We cannot undertake to publish
everything we receive and content may be edited but please contact our
webmaster at
webmaster@simondemontfort.org.
Remember to include the acknowledgement you would like as contributor.
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Earl Simon depicted in a
window
of Chartres cathedral - or is it!?
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Click below for Robert Hill's
excellent "Knights of Avalon" toy knights and Arthurian Legend
collectors' website, which has some Simon de Montfort pages:
The
Knights of Avalon |
The Simon de Montfort Society was founded in 1987
and is a UK Registered Charity Number 1092319 |
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Have you found the right Simon de Montfort?
If you are looking for
information on Simon
de Montfort IV, leader of the Albigensian Crusade, then you may have reached the wrong website. Although you will find some
references to him here, our site is devoted to his son, the "founder of the House
of Commons", who was killed at the Battle of Evesham.
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What's New!
 | "Other de Montforts" added |
| Potted biography of Simon de
Montfort IV added |
| "Programme 2005" added |
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Simon de
Montfort, son of the infamous leader of the Albigensian Crusade,
was born in Northern France probably in 1208. Making his way to
England around 1230 to the court of Henry III, Simon initially
intended only to succeed in his claim to the title of earl of
Leicester. By marrying the King's sister he became one of the
leading magnates of the realm and his place in English history was
sealed when, after a stormy relationship with his brother-in-law, he
became the leader of the baronial reform movement that sought to
re-establish rights granted under Magna Carta that had been eroded by
Henry III. In the end the reform movement led, through Earl Simon,
sowed the seeds of representative government.
Simon defeated Henry III at the battle of Lewes but his attempts to rule
through Henry as a puppet king alienated many of his supporters and
Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, died for his cause at the Battle
of Evesham on August 4th 1265, surrounded by his implacable enemies. |
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 The death of Simon
de Montfort |
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This plaque adorns
the wall of the
House of Representatives
in Washington D.C.
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Click here for details about ...
The Simon de Montfort Society
and here for ...
how to join |
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The Simon de Montfort Internet Portal
Since his death at the
Battle of Evesham on August 4th 1265, Earl Simon's life, ambitions, motives
and actions have been the subject of scholarly investigation and intense,
often vitriolic, debate. Whatever position is taken on Simon de
Montfort, "father of parliaments" or "greedy opportunist", his importance as
a key figure in one of the most troubled periods of English history is
recognised around the world.
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