MONTFORT 



3930 



MONTGOMERY 



the story that he was slain by a stone hurled by 

 one of the revolters, while he was attempting 

 to quiet them from the roof of the palace. See 

 MEXICO, subtitle Government and History. 



MONTEZUMA 



Illustration drawn from an old copperplate en- 

 graving. 



MONT 'FORT, SIMON DE, Earl of Leicester 

 (about 1208-1265), a famous English statesman 

 and soldier, prominent in the development of 

 the British Constitution. He was born in 

 France, but went to England in 1230 and soon 

 found favor with Henry III, who restored to 

 him the lands which had once belonged to his 

 grandmother. In 1238 he was married to the 

 king's sister, Eleanor, and two years later went 

 on a crusade to the Holy Land. 



As governor of Gascony from 1248 to 1252, 

 he incurred the disfavor of Henry, and although 

 a formal reconciliation was effected, he became 

 the leader of the barons in their protests 

 against the king's unjust and exorbitant de- 

 mands. The king was compelled, in 1258, to 

 respect the claims of the people and the pro- 

 vision of the Magna Charta, but he soon with- 

 drew his assent, and the barons, with Montfort 

 at their head, took up arms. They defeated 



Henry at Lewes in 1264, and by the treaty 

 which they forced from him Montfort became 

 the real ruler of the kingdom. To the Parlia- 

 ment which he summoned in 1265 he admitted 

 representatives of the people, and thus insti- 

 tuted the House of Commons. Later in the 

 same year there was a battle at Evesham be- 

 tween the royalist forces and the barons, in 

 which Montfort was killed. 



MONTGOMERY, montgum'eri, ALA., the 

 capital 01 the state and the county seat of 

 Montgomery County, is about fifty miles 

 southeast of the geographical center of the 

 state, at the head of navigation on the Ala- 

 bama River. Birmingham is 100 miles north- 

 west, Atlanta is 175 miles northeast, and New 

 Orleans is 320 miles southwest. The city is an 

 important gateway of the South, having unusu- 

 ally good transportation facilities through the 

 Louisville & Nashville, the Central of Georgia, 

 the Mobile & Ohio, the Western of Alabama, 

 the Atlantic Coast Line and the Seaboard Air 

 Line. Steamers operate from Mobile to Mont- 

 gomery, a distance of 400 miles, except during 

 periods of excessive drought. In 1910 the 

 population was 38,136; in 1916 it was 43,285 

 (Federal estimate), less than five per cent being 

 foreign born. The area is nearly seven square 

 miles. 



Montgomery is located on a high, red-clay 

 bluff which rises from the river, in the midst 

 of a rolling, picturesque country. Though its 

 large, old-fashioned homes, with spacious 

 grounds and an abundance of semitropical 

 foliage throughout the year, give it the appear- 

 ance of a city of the Old South, it is keeping 

 pace with the industrial and commercial growth 

 of the New South. The business district lies 

 in the valley, and the residence section is on 

 the hills. 



Buildings and Institutions. The imposing 

 state Capitol is the most notable of the city's 

 structures; the central building is the old Capi- 

 tol of the Confederate government, and the 

 Department of Archives and History is in the 

 north wing. The museum and Art Gallery and 

 the Confederate Monument are of especial in- 

 terest. Estelle Hall, the courthouse and city 

 hall, Masonic Temple, Carnegie Library, Sidney 

 Lanier high school, the new union station, 

 which cost $250,000, the Federal building, which 

 cost $112,000 in 1885, are also conspicuous 

 buildings. Montgomery has the Woman's Col- 

 lege of Alabama, a normal school for negroes 

 and two business schools. The city has five 

 hospitals, 



