Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester

Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester, also Simon IV de Montfort (1160 – June 25, 1218) was a French nobleman who took part in the Fourth Crusade (1202 - 1204) and was a prominent leader of the Albigensian Crusade. He died at the siege of Toulouse in 1218.

Early life

He was the son of Simon III de Montfort, descended from the lords of Montfort l'Amaury in France near Paris, and Amicia de Beaumont. He succeeded his father as Baron de Montfort in 1181; in 1190 he married Alix de Montmorency, the daughter of Bouchard III de Montmorency. In 1191 his brother, Guy, left on the Third Crusade in the retinue of King Philip II of France. In 1199, while taking part in a tournament at Ecry-sur-Aisne, he heard Fulk of Neuilly preaching the crusade, and in the company of Count Thibaud de Champagne, he took the cross. The crusade soon fell under Venetian control, and was diverted to Zara on the Adriatic Sea. Pope Innocent III had specifically warned the Crusaders not to attack fellow Christians; Simon tried to reassure the citizens of Zara that there would be no attack, but nevertheless, the city was sacked in 1202. Simon did not participate in this action, and soon he left the Crusade altogether. Afterwards, under Venetian guidance the Crusaders sacked the city of Constantinople—the main trading rival to Venice. His mother was the eldest daughter of Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester. After the death of her brother Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester without children in 1204, she inherited half of his estates, and a claim to the Earldom of Leicester. The division of the estates was effected early in 1207, by which the rights to the earldom were assigned to Amicia and Simon. However, King John of England took possession of the lands himself in February 1207, and confiscated its revenues. Later, in 1215, the lands were passed into the hands of Simon's nephew, Ranulph de Meschines, 4th Earl of Chester.

Later life

Simon remained on his estates in France, where in 1209 he was made captain-general of the French forces in the Albigensian Crusade. Simon was rewarded with the territory conquered from Raymond VI of Toulouse. He became notorious and feared for his extreme cruelty, massacring whole towns, and for his "treachery, harshness, and bad faith." In 1210 he burned 140 Cathars in the village of Minerve who refused to give up their faith. He was a man of extreme religious orthodoxy, deeply committed to the Dominican order and the suppression of heresy. In 1213 he defeated Peter of Aragon at the Battle of Muret. The Albigensians were now crushed, but Simon carried on the campaign as a war of conquest, being appointed lord over all the newly-acquired territory as Count of Toulouse and Duke of Narbonne (1215). He spent two years in warfare in many parts of Raymond's former territories; he besieged Beaucaire, which had been taken by Raymond VII of Toulouse, from 6 June 1216 to 24 August 1216. Raymond spent most of this period in Aragon, but corresponded with sympathisers in Toulouse. There were rumours that he was on his way to Toulouse in September 1216. Abandoning the siege of Beaucaire, Simon responded with a partial sacking of Toulouse, perhaps intended as punishment of the citizens. Raymond actually returned to take possession of Toulouse in October 1217. 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 the most detailed source, by donas e tozas e mulhers ("ladies, girls and women") of Toulouse.^[1] He was buried in the Cathedral of Saint-Nazaire at Carcassonne.^[2]

Legacy

Simon left three sons: his French estates passed to his eldest son, Amaury de Montfort, while his younger son, Simon, eventually gained possession of the earldom of Leicester and played a major role in the reign of Henry III of England. Another son, Guy, was married to Petronille, Countess of Bigorre, on 6 November 1216, but died at the siege of Castelnaudary on 20 July 1220. His daughter, Petronilla, became an abbess at the Cistercian nunnery of St. Antoine's. Another daughter, Amicia, founded the nunnery at Montargis and died there in 1252.

Notes

1. ^ Chanson de la Croisade Albigeoise laisse 205.
2. ^ Chanson de la Croisade Albigeoise laisse 206; Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay, Historia Albigensis 615.

References

• The Cathars: Who's who in the Cathar War (www.languedoc-france.info/1205_whoswho.htm)

Simon de Montfort in fiction

• Simon IV de Montfort features in Elizabeth Chadwick's novel "Daughters of the Grail" (1993)

Sources

• Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis; Line 260-30
• Sumption, Jonathan. The Albigensian Crusade, 2000
• "Simon de Montfort". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company.