Montfort, Simon de, Earl of Leicester c.1208-1265
English soldier and politician

He married (1238) Henry III of England's youngest sister, Eleanor. In 1248, as King's Deputy in Gascony, he suppressed disaffection with a heavy hand. In 1253 he returned to England where famine and taxation had exhausted the country. Prince Edward (the future Edward I) intrigued with the subtenants, and the barons quarrelled among themselves until de Montfort became their leader against the king in 1261. After varying success, both sides sought an arbitrator in Louis IX of France, who decided for surrender to the royal authority. London and the Cinque Ports repudiated the agreement, and de Montfort defeated the king's army at Lewes (1264). De Montfort, the Earl of Gloucester, and the bishop of Hereford, were appointed to preside over a parliament in 1265. This, the Model Parliament, held the germ of modern parliaments. But the barons soon grew dissatisfied with the rule of 'Simon the Righteous' and Prince Edward combined with Gloucester to defeat Simon at Evesham, where he was killed. His father was Simon IV de Montfort.

Bibliography: M W Labarge, Simon de Montfort (1962)