Every year, usually the
first Saturday in August, The Simon de Montfort Society hold a wreath
laying ceremony in Abbey Park in Evesham in memory of the death of Simon
de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. I have for several years
led a walk round the battlefield after the ceremony and also visited the
battlefield on other occasions.
When Simon de Montfort
found himself cut off and outnumbered in Evesham on 4th August 1265, it is
usually assumed that he marched his troops out of the Evesham in column
straight up what is now the modern High Street on to Greenhill to attack
the enemy there. My walks round the battlefield have made me wonder
whether Simon de Montfort may have taken another route out of Evesham, so
that the battle, while ending in the traditional place around Battlewell
on Greenhill, actually began on the flat expanse of land to the east.
The fascination with the
battle of Evesham, is not so much the battle itself, which was so one
sided that it was little more than a massacre, but the strategic approach.
How was it that Edward managed to surround his enemy in the loop of the
River Avon and how was it that such a experienced soldier as de Montfort
allowed himself to be trapped?
To understand how the
protagonists found themselves in the area, we need to go back a year. De
Montfort had won the battle of Lewes in May 1264 but had done so with the
assistance of Gilbert of Clare Earl of Gloucester who, although only
twenty two, was probably, after de Montfort himself, the most powerful
baron in the kingdom . Following the battle, de Montfort held both King
Henry III and his son Prince Edward as his
prisoners and effectively ruled the kingdom in the king's name. In January
1265, he held his famous Parliament in London which for the first time
included "Commoners" who were not members of the nobility. But shortly
afterwards, he fell out with Gilbert of Clare who departed to his lands in
Gloucestershire. De Montfort followed him to try to effect a
reconciliation. He did not have an army, but more of an armed court,
including the King and Prince Edward.
Negotiations followed at
Gloucester and Hereford but came to nothing. On 28th May, Prince Edward
escaped and took refuge at Wigmore Castle with Roger de Mortimer, one of
de Montfort's most bitter enemies. Whereas Clare's dislike of de Montfort
could be described as political, with Mortimer it was personal for each
had ravaged the others lands. Warfare broke out. Edward, Mortimer and
Clare combined and raised an army, usually
estimated at around 10,000 men, which controlled the eastern side of the
Severn. De Montfort, in Hereford, similarly raised an army but his task
was more difficult because he was away from his main sphere of influence.
He did however hire some spearmen from Llewellyn of Wales. The other thing
which he did was to send messages to his son Simon, who was in Sussex,
telling him to raise an army and come to his assistance. Various
manoeuvres and attempts by Simon senior to cross the Severn followed, but
the end of July 1265 finds Simon senior still at Hereford, the royalist
army in Worcester and Simon junior arriving at Kenilworth which was a de
Montfort stronghold.
