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THE POPULAE EDUCATOR 



HISTORIC SKETCHES. XI. 



SIMON DE MONTFORT, AND THE FIRST ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. 



ON the 12th of December, 1264, a groat act was done for England, 

 though by the hand of a rebel. Simon de Montfort, Earl of 

 Leicester, son of tliat stern, capable soldier, and inexorable 

 bigot, who commanded the cruaado against the dissenting 

 Albigensea in 1206-8, took upon himself to recognise the existence 

 of a power that was being rapidly developed in this country, 

 namely, the power of the towns and townsmen. lie wrote 

 letters in the king's name to all the barons and high clergy, 

 bidding them assemble in Parliament, or in Grand Council, as 

 Parliament was then called, and for the first time he invited the 

 counties and all the important towns to send representatives to 

 London, in order to confer with the lords and the clergy upon 

 the affairs of the kingdom. It is much to be regretted that 

 none of these letters are extant. Few historical documents 

 could possess more interest for a people who have for GOO years 

 recognised a political constitution with king, lords, and com- 

 mons, than the writs by virtue of which borough members first 

 took their seats. 



But how came the Earl of Leicester to write the letters on his 

 own responsibility, though in the king's name? and what was the 

 object which the earl sought to attain when he sent the writs 

 out ? The writing happened on this wise. Ever since the 

 beginning of the young king's (Henry III.) reign, in 1216, 

 there had been a perpetual succession of political troubles. To 

 begin with, the king at that time being only nine years old, it 

 became necessary to appoint a council of regency, a fruitful 

 source of jealousy and heart-burning at all times, and especially 

 so in days when men 'were wholly swayed by a passionate pride, 

 which was but too ready to take offence, and a spirit of revenge- 

 ful restlessness which forthwith made them take up arms upon 

 the faintest appearance of real or imaginary slight. 



From this regency sprang the never-ending commotions known 

 as the Barons' wars. The barons were too nearly equal in rank 

 and power to admit of one set being in the government while 

 the others were excluded, and the matter was made worse by the 

 ill-advised proceedings of those in power, who availed themselves 

 of the opportunity to annoy and oppress their peers. Besides 

 these causes of disunion, there was another in the fact that the 

 French Dauphin (the eldest son of the French king was always 

 called so, from Dauphine, of which ho was Count) claimed the 

 crown by virtue of an invitation he had received from some of 

 tho barons, when King John misgoverned the land. The dis- 

 contented among the English barons made use of the Dauphin 

 for a time, till the growing unpopularity of the French inter- 

 ference obliged the prince to quit England, which would not have 

 him at any cost. 



In order to put a bridle into the barons' mouths, for they 

 were not disposed to render allegiance to Rome, the Pope de- 

 clared Henry to be of full age when he was but fifteen, just 

 after the Great Charter, which John had given, had been con- 

 firmed by the regent and the barons in a council at Oxford. 

 Soon after this Henry was persuaded to claim the Duchy of 

 Normandy, which his father had lost for the English crown; and 

 the French king (Louis VIII.), who had won it, very naturally 

 refusing to give it up, war was declared, and a campaign fol- 

 lowed, which nearly had the effect of losing for England the 

 remainder of her French provinces, Poitou, Gascony, and 

 Guieimo ; and this, of course, did not tend to make Henry's 

 government more popular. But, to make things worse, just at 

 this time (1231) Henry, who was now twenty-four years old, 

 began to commit an error which Englishmen have never for- 

 given in their kings. He began to cherish foreigners and to 

 neglect his own people. 



This conduct in the king was soon resented by tho English 

 barons, who, for a time, laid aside their intestine quarrels, and 

 openly declared their intention to dethrone Henry unless he 

 dismissed his foreign friends. Divided counsels among the 

 confederates, however, helped Henry, and he took occasion to 

 punish some of the rebels, and to bestow their property on the 

 Frenchmen, till tha Archbishop of Canterbury (like his prede- 

 cessor Becket), in the interests of liberty, threatened to excom- 

 municate him and his unless he acted differently. For a time 

 Henry submitted, and allowed the Primate to rule ; but marrying, 

 m 123G, the daughter of tho Count of Provence, and the arch- 

 in the meantime, the king returned to his former 



ways, and the alian nuisance became greater than ever. The 

 kingdom swarmed with the countrymen of tho queen, and with 

 other foreigners. The Bishop of Valence, of tho house of Savoy, 

 was made chief adviser of the crown, and another Savoyard was 

 made primate. The English nobles were nowhere, and in deep 

 disgust they would not come to court. 



Bitter and deep was the exasperation of tho English, nobles 

 and otherwise ; and the irritating method adopted by the king 

 to defray the expenses of his extravagant court, and of his 

 liberality to the strangers, served to heighten it. He exacted 

 loans from private persons whom he never repaid ; and he levied 

 taxes and imposts quite regardless of the- Great Charter which 

 he had ratified, and which forbade him to do so without con- 

 sent of Parliament. He was so driven for money after an un- 

 successful French war in which he lost Poitou, that he had to 

 sell his jewels and plate to the citizens of London. But things 

 grew ever worse and worse. The clergy were at length dis- 

 gusted, as well as all other ranks, for the king filled those 

 English benefices which he could control with Italians :ind 

 Frenchmen. His chaplain, a foreigner, had seven hundred 

 livings at one time. 



At length the people, backed up secretly by the nobles, took 

 the matter in hand. They resisted the exactions of the royal 

 officers, and they burned the estates of the foreigners, and the 

 king, knowing who were behind them, was afraid to punish. 

 But resistance unchecked is fatal to authority, as Henry found 

 out. The barons, who had hitherto kept in the background, 

 and had contented themselves with keeping aloof from the 

 court, and so discouraging the king's practices, now came to tho 

 front, having a strong force to support them, in the shape of an 

 angry and jealous town population, besides their own tenantry 

 and dependents. They had attempted, some years before, to 

 get tho appointment of the Chancellor, and of the Grand Jus- 

 ticiary (this office is now extinct, but at this time it was tho 

 highest in the kingdom), into their hands, but they had not 

 succeeded : now they revived the proposition with additions to 

 it, and wished to take all power, direct and indirect, out of the 

 king's hands. In unmeasured terms they reproached him in 

 Parliament for his extortions and his misconduct, and flatly re- 

 fused to give him any money till he should have sworn once 

 more solemnly to observe the Great Charter. They were not 

 to bo taken in by a sham request for the supply under the plea 

 of the king's intention to go to the Crusades. Henry had to 

 swear in tho presence of the assembled prelates and barons that 

 he would govern according to the charter before he could 

 touch a farthing of the money of which he stood in so great 

 need. 



Chief among tho barons who resisted the king was Simon de 

 Montfort, Earl of Leicester. Something has been said of him 

 at the beginning of this notice ; let us now look more closely on 

 tho man, and fill in the details which aro wanting. His father 

 was a French count, whoso name is too well known in the history 

 of religious persecution ; his mother was a Montmorency ; and 

 he himself, the child of French parents, was also born out of 

 England, so that in no sense was ho an Englishman except by 

 adoption. The adoption of England as his country came about 

 in this way. Simon's paternal grandmother was Petronilla, 

 sister and co-heiress of Robert Beaumont, last Earl of Leicester 

 of his house. The English barony thus devolved, in default of 

 issue born to Earl Robert, upon tho descendants of Petronilla. 

 Simon de Montfort the older was thus Earl of Leicester, in 

 addition to his other honours, and ho did homage for it, and the 

 lands belonging to it, to King John. In consequence of some 

 dispute with that king, ho lost both title and lands, and though 

 he afterwards got back tho lands he never recovered the title. 

 When Simon died, his eldest son Amauri succeeded him ; but 

 tho English king refused any longer to receive a homage half 

 of which was owed to tho King of France, and Amauri, there- 

 fore, was obliged to come to an arrangement by which ho should 

 be the liegeman of the King of France, while his younger brother 

 Simon was admitted to homage for tho honour and lands 

 of tho barony of Leicester. Another fact contributed to make 

 him more and more the Englishman and less the Frenchman. 

 He married, clandestinely it is said, the widowed Countoss of 

 Pembroke, sister to Henry III., and the prominence which this 

 alliance gave him forced him to take his place in the ranks of 

 English nobles, with an English nobleman's responsibilities and 

 interests. 



