Simon de Montfort did not summon the first English parliament, as is often suggested, but he did call two famous parliaments in 1265 that entitle him to be regarded today as one of the progenitors of modern parliamentary democracy. The first stripped the King of unlimited authority, while the second included ordinary citizens from the towns.
The English parliament has its origins in the Anglo–Saxon council governments of the 8th century. The Witan was a small council of clergymen, land–owning barons and other advisors, chosen by the king to discuss matters of state, taxation and other political affairs. As it expanded to include more advisors, the Witan evolved into the magnum concilium or Great Council.
On a local level, 'moots' were meetings of local bishops, lords, sheriffs and, importantly, commoners who were representatives of their counties or 'shires'. The Witans and the Moots functioned – with varying degrees of success – as law–making bodies and law enforcement agencies throughout England during the Middle Ages. The two bodies didn't regularly convene, but they paved the way to the bicameral legislature that exists today.
According to history.com, "The first English Parliament was convened in 1215, with the creation and signing of the Magna Carta, which established the rights of barons ... to serve as consultants to the king on governmental matters in his Great Council. As in the early Witans, these barons were not elected, but rather selected and appointed by the king. The Great Council was first referred to as 'Parliament' in 1236."
By 1254, the sheriffs of the various counties in England were instructed to send elected representatives of their districts (knowns as 'knights of the shire') to consult with the king on issues related to taxation. Four years later, at Oxford, the noblemen who served in Parliament at the time drafted the Provisions of Oxford, which called for regular meetings of the legislative body, composed of representatives from each of the counties.
Simon de Montfort's parliaments were both called in 1265 – coincidentally the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta. Their significance rests largely in the fact that they were summoned without the authority of the King, and established limits to his authority.
In 1295, Parliament evolved to include nobles and bishops as well as two representatives from each of the counties and towns in England and, since 1282, Wales. This became the model for the composition of all future Parliaments.
Simon de Montfort was the 6th Earl of Leicester. His great–grandfather, also Simon de Montfort, was not Earl of Leicester; but his son, (yet another Simon de Montfort) married Amicia, the daughter of the 3rd Earl, some time in the mid–to–late 12th century.
The 6th Earl was born in 1205 in the Île–de–France region of north–central France. With the irrevocable loss of Normandy, King John had refused to allow Simon's father (still another Simon de Montfort) to succeed to the earldom of Leicester and instead placed the estates and title into the hands of Montfort senior's cousin Ranulf, the Earl of Chester. The elder Simon had also acquired vast domains during the Albigensian Crusade, but was killed during the Siege of Toulouse in 1218 and his eldest son Amaury was not able to retain them. When Amaury was rebuffed in his attempt to get the earldom back, he agreed to allow his younger brother Simon to claim it – on the condition that he retained all the family's possessions in France.
Arriving in England in 1229, with some education but no knowledge of English, Simon received a sympathetic hearing from King Henry III – who was well–disposed towards foreigners speaking French, which at that time was the language of the English court. Henry was in no position to confront the powerful Earl of Chester, so Simon approached the older, childless man himself and convinced him to cede him the earldom.
One of Montfort's first acts as Earl of Leicester was to expel the small Jewish community from the city, in 1231. This enhanced his popularity in his new domains because it removed the practice of usury (lending money at high interest – practised exclusively by Jews since it was forbidden to Christians).
Simon's parents had both shown a similar hostility to Jews in France, where his father was known for his bigoted Christianity, and his mother had given the Jews of Toulouse a choice of conversion, expulsion or death. Robert Grosseteste, then Archdeacon of Leicester, may have encouraged the expulsion, although he believed that the Jews' lives should be spared.
In January 1238, Montfort married the King's sister Eleanor – the youngest child of King John, known as Eleanor of England. This was controversial, for two reasons. The first was that Eleanor had previously been married to William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, and had sworn a vow of perpetual chastity upon his death when she was sixteen years old; the second was that a marriage of such importance required the approval of the great barons, and this was not sought.
Henry gave his blessing to the marriage; but it was only after the birth of Simon and Eleanor's first son, in November 1238 (more than nine months after the wedding, despite rumours), and his being baptised Henry in honour of his royal uncle, that the King invested Montfort with the Earldom of Leicester.
Montfort then incurred the King's disapproval by naming him as security for the repayment of a great sum of money that he'd borrowed from an uncle of Queen Eleanor. In 1239 he embarked on the Barons' Crusade, after which (in July 1242) he joined Henry's campaign against King Louis IX in Poitou. The campaign was a failure, and Montfort was further exasperated by Henry's determination to ignore the growing discontent within England, where the Barons complained that the King's Poitevin relatives and Savoyard in–laws received more than their fair share of Royal favour.
For several years, despite their differences, Simon joined King Henry's various campaigns; and in 1253 he chose to make peace with the King in obedience to Robert Grosseteste – by now Bishop of Lincoln, and close to death. By 1261, following two parliaments that Henry failed to adhere to, de Montfort left the country in despair. In 1263 he was invited to return to England by the barons, who were convinced of the King's hostility to all reform. De Montfort led a rebellion, with the objective of reforming the government. This was successful for a time, but Prince Edward (Henry's eldest son, the future King Edward I) used bribes to turn many of the barons against de Montfort; and in 1264 civil war broke out.
Simon de Montfort led the rebellion against King Henry III during the Second Barons' War, and became de facto ruler of England following his success at the Battle of Lewes. During his rule he called two famous parliaments. The first stripped the king of unlimited authority, and the second included ordinary citizens from the towns. His brutal death at the Battle of Evesham, at the hands of forces loyal to the King, made him a hero, and his parliaments served as a template for many others in democratic countries today.
© Haydn Thompson 2020