Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester

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Not to be confused with Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester.

Simon de Montfort
5th Earl of Leicester
Amicia de Beaumont

Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester (c. 1175 – 25 June 1218), known as Simon IV (or V

Seigneur of Montfort from 1188 to his death and Earl of Leicester in England from 1204. He was also Viscount of Albi, Béziers and Carcassonne from 1213, as well as Count of Toulouse
from 1215.

Early life

He was the son of

Amicia de Beaumont,[7] daughter of Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester. He succeeded his father as lord of Montfort in 1181; in 1190 he married Alix de Montmorency,[7] the daughter of Bouchard III de Montmorency. She shared his religious zeal and would accompany him on his campaigns.[8]

In 1199, while taking part in a

Acre.[10]

His mother was the eldest daughter of Robert of Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester. After the death of her brother

Ranulph de Meschines, 4th Earl of Chester
.

Later life

Simon remained on his estates in France before taking the cross once more, this time against Christian dissidence. He participated in the initial campaign of the Albigensian Crusade in 1209, and after the fall of Carcassonne, was elected leader of the crusade and viscount of the confiscated territories of the Raymond-Roger Trencavel family.

Simon was rewarded with the territory conquered from

Cathars in the village of Minerve who refused to recant – though he spared those who did. In another widely reported incident, prior to the sack of the village of Lastours, he brought prisoners from the nearby village of Bram
and had their eyes gouged out and their ears, noses and lips cut off. One prisoner, left with a single good eye, led them into the village as a warning.

Simon's part in the crusade had the full backing of his feudal superior, the King of France,

John Lackland of England, he was approached by Innocent III to lead the crusade but turned this down. He was heavily committed to defending his gains against John and against the emerging alliance among England, the Empire and Flanders.[citation needed
]

However, Philip claimed full rights over the lands of the house of St Gilles; some historians believe his dispatch of de Montfort and other northern barons to be, at the very least, an exploratory campaign to reassert the rights of the French Crown in

Le Midi. Philip may well also have wanted to appease the papacy after the long dispute over his marriage, which had led to excommunication. He also sought to counter any adventure by King John of England, who had marriage and fealty ties also with the Toulouse comtal house. Meanwhile, others have assessed Philip's motives to include removing over-mighty subjects from the North, and distracting them in adventure elsewhere, so they could not threaten his increasingly successful restoration of the power of the French crown in the north.[citation needed
]

Simon is described as a man of unflinching religious orthodoxy, deeply committed to the

Cistercian abbey not more than twenty miles from Simon's patrimony of Montfort Aumary, who accompanied the crusade in the Languedoc and became bishop of Carcassonne. Meanwhile, Peter de Vaux de Cernay, the nephew of Guy, wrote an account of the crusade. Historians generally consider this to be propaganda to justify the actions of the crusaders; Peter justified their cruelties as doing "the work of God" against morally depraved heretics. He portrayed outrages committed by the lords of the Midi as the opposite.[citation needed
]

Simon was an energetic campaigner, rapidly moving his forces to strike at those who had broken their faith with him – and there were many, as some local lords switched sides whenever the moment seemed propitious. [

Raymond VII of Toulouse
, from 6 June 1216 to 24 August 1216.

Plaque commemorating the death of Simon de Montfort

Raymond spent most of this period in the Crown of Aragon, but corresponded with sympathisers in Toulouse. There were rumours in September 1216 that he was on his way to Toulouse. Abandoning the siege of Beaucaire, Simon partially sacked Toulouse, perhaps intended as punishment of the citizens. Raymond returned in October 1217 to take possession of Toulouse. Simon hastened to besiege the city, meanwhile sending his wife, Alix de Montmorency, with bishop Foulques of Toulouse and others, to the French court to plead for support. After maintaining the siege for nine months, Simon was killed on 25 June 1218 while combating a sally by the besieged. His head was smashed by a stone from a mangonel, operated, according to one source, by the donas e tozas e mulhers ("ladies and girls and women") of Toulouse.[12] He was buried in the Cathedral of Saint-Nazaire at Carcassonne.[13] His body was later moved by one of his sons to be reinterred at Montfort l'Amaury. A tombstone in the south transept of the cathedral is inscribed "of Simon de Montfort".

Children

Simon and Alix had:

Inheritance

His French estates passed to his eldest son, Amaury, while his second son, Simon, eventually gained possession of the earldom of Leicester and played a major role in the reign of Henry III of England. He led the barons' rebellion against Henry during the Second Barons' War, and subsequently became the de facto ruler of England.

Note

  1. ^ The discrepancy in numbering arises from confusion between Simon III de Montfort (died 1181) and his son Simon de Montfort (died 1188). The latter was historically unknown, and Simon III was believed to be the father (not the grandfather)[1] of the subject of this article, who is therefore known as Simon IV in some sources[2] and Simon V in others.[3]

References

  1. ^ Cokayne, G. E. (1929). The Complete Peerage. Vol. 7 (2nd ed.). London: St Catherine Press. p. 716.
  2. ^ Phillips, Charles. "Battle of Toulouse". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  3. ^ a b c Lippiatt 2017, p. xvii.
  4. ISBN 978-0-19-533403-6
    .
  5. ISBN 978-1-62358-003-2
    .
  6. ISBN 978-1-139-47014-8
    .
  7. ^ a b c d e Dunbabin 2011, p. xv.
  8. ^ Maddicott, John Robert (1994). Simon de Montfort. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 5.
  9. ^ Crowley, Roger (2011). City of Fortune: How Venice won and lost a Naval Empire. London: Bloomsberry House. p. 54.
  10. ^ Phillips, Jonathan. The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople, 2004. p. 137.
  11. ISBN 0-571-20002-8
    .
  12. Chanson de la Croisade Albigeoise
     laisse 205.
  13. Historia Albigensis
    615.

Sources

External links

Peerage of England
Preceded by Earl of Leicester
1206–1218 		Succeeded by
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Carcassonne

1209–1218 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Viscount of Nîmes
1214–1218
Preceded by — DISPUTED —
Count of Toulouse
1215–1218
Disputed by Raymond VI 		Succeeded by
Preceded by — DISPUTED —
Lord of Montfort-l'Amaury
c.1188–1218 		Succeeded by
Amaury VI de Montfort
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