Montfort

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Mont·fort

(mŏnt′fərt, môN-fôr′), Simon de Earl of Leicester. 1208?-1265.

French-born English nobleman who led the baronial opposition to Henry III. After his military victory over the king in 1264, Montfort was the effective ruler of England. In 1265 he called a representative legislature regarded as England's first full parliament.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Montfort

(ˈmɒntfət)

(Biography) Simon de, Earl of Leicester. ?1208–65, English soldier, born in Normandy. He led the baronial rebellion against Henry III and ruled England from 1264 to 1265; he was killed at Evesham

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Mont•fort

(ˈmɒnt fərt; Fr. mɔ̃ˈfɔr)

n.

1. Simon de, c1160–1218, French leader of the crusade against the Albigenses.

2. his son Simon de, Earl of Leicester, 1208?–65, English soldier and statesman.

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Noun

Montfort - an English nobleman who led the baronial rebellion against Henry III (1208-1265)

Earl of Leicester, Simon de Montfort

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But on this June day in the year of our Lord 1243, Henry so forgot himself as to very unjustly accuse De Montfort of treason in the presence of a number of the King's gentlemen.

"My Lord King," he cried, "that you be my Lord King alone prevents Simon de Montfort from demanding satisfaction for such a gross insult.

They were horrified, for De Montfort's bold challenge was to them but little short of sacrilege.

Henry, flushing in mortification and anger, rose to advance upon De Montfort, but suddenly recollecting the power which he represented, he thought better of whatever action he contemplated, and with a haughty sneer turned to his courtiers.

As the arras fell behind the departing King, De Montfort shrugged his broad shoulders, and turning, left the apartment by another door.

When the King, with his gentlemen, entered the armory he was still smarting from the humiliation of De Montfort's reproaches, and as he laid aside his surcoat and plumed hat to take the foils with De Fulm his eyes alighted on the master of fence, Sir Jules de Vac, who was advancing with the King's foil and helmet.

So he let De Vac assume to his mind's eye the person of the hated De Montfort, and it followed that De Vac was nearly surprised into an early and mortifying defeat by the King's sudden and clever attack.

Henry III had always been accounted a good swordsman, but that day he quite outdid himself, and in his imagination was about to run the pseudo De Montfort through the heart, to the wild acclaim of his audience.

The episode meant more to him than being bested in play by the best swordsman in England--for that surely was no disgrace--to Henry it seemed prophetic of the outcome of a future struggle when he should stand face to face with the real De Montfort; and then, seeing in De Vac only the creature of his imagination with which he had vested the likeness of his powerful brother-in-law, Henry did what he should like to have done to the real Leicester.

It started, directly, in the London palace of Henry III, and was the result of a quarrel between the King and his powerful brother-in-law, Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester.

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The deeds of black Agnes of Dunbar, of Lady Salisbury and of the Countess of Montfort, were still fresh in the public minds.