MON 
tains. It contains 200 towns and caftles; and Is very 
fertile and well cultivated, abounding in corn, wine, oil, 
and filk. It belongs to the king of Sardinia ; and Calal 
is the capital town. 
MONTFERRIE'R, a town of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the Arriege : nine miles eaft-north-eaft of Ta- 
rafcon, and twelve fouth of Mirepoix. 
MONTFLANQUI'N. See Monflanouin, p. 666. 
MONTFLEU'RY (Antony Jacob), a writer of come¬ 
dies, and the fon of an eminent attor of the fame name, 
was born at Paris in 1640. He was brought up for the 
bar; but a love of pleafure and the theatre detached him 
from that profeflion, and he devoted his talents to writing 
for the ftage. He was the author of a great number of 
comedies of indifferent merit, fome of which, however, 
became popular. La Fame Juge et Partie, and Crifpin 
Gentillliomme, are diftinguifhed for their humour and 
pleafantry. This writer died in 1685. His Theatre, or 
colleftive works, was publifhed in4Vols. nmo. 1775. 
MON'TFORT (Simon de, Count of), the fourth of 
the name, a famous commander in the thirteenth cen¬ 
tury, was defcended from a noble family, the lords of 
Montfort, a town in the diltrift of Paris. He was a man 
of great fize and ftrength of body, advantages of confe- 
quence in the warfare of thofe ages ; and, being animated 
with an intrepid and aftive courage, he diltinguiflied 
himfelf on various occafions in combats againft the Ger¬ 
mans and Englifh, and in an expedition beyond fea. 
When a crufade was proclaimed in 1208 by pope Inno¬ 
cent III. againft the Albigenfes and their protestor Ray¬ 
mond count of Touloufe, Montfort was appointed com¬ 
mander. His ferocious zeal well fuited the exterminating 
war againft pretended heretics with which he was charged. 
The capture of Beziers by ftorm, of which all the inha¬ 
bitants were put to the fword, and the reduction of Car- 
caffone, difplayed his military talents; and inftances of 
his cold and execrable cruelty are frequent in the liiftory 
of thofe wars, though father Daniel has the affurance to 
boaft of his lenity. Two of the Albigenfes having been 
condemned to the flames, the younger endeavoured to lave 
his life by a recantation, and feveral by-ftanders feconded 
his petition for mercy: Monfort refufed their requeft, 
faying, “ If this man is a fincere convert, the fire will 
ferve for an expiation of his fins ; if otherwife, it will be 
a puniflnnent for his impofture.” After the capture of 
Lavaur, he caufed the lady of the place to be thrown into 
a well, her brother to be hanged, fourfcore gentlemen to 
be maifacred in cold blood, and 400 heretics to be burnt, 
while the clergy fang the Hymn to the Holy Ghoft. Such 
were the horrors of religious war ! Montfort’s violences 
at length caufed a confederacy of nobles againft him, 
headed by Peter king of Arragon, brother-in-law of Ray¬ 
mond. They afiembled a very numerous army, which 
laid fiege to Muret in 1213 ; but Montfort, with a num¬ 
ber of crufaders laid not to have exceeded one thouland, 
gave them battle and entirely defeated them, the king of 
Arragon being flain in the field. Montfort was now called 
the defender of the church ; and the pope in council if- 
fued a fentence decreeing the whole country which he 
had conquered from the heretics to be held by him of 
thofe who were its rightful fovereigns. The king of 
France, in conlequence, gave him the inveftiture of the 
county of Touloule. In 1218, as he was befieging its 
capital, he was killed by a ftone thrown by a woman from 
one of the machines called mangonels, leaving the charac¬ 
ter of one of the greateft captains of the time, and a 
champion of the catholic faith. Mod. Univ.HiJl. Moreri. 
MON'TFORT (Simon de), fon of the preceding, a 
diftinguifhed character in Englilh hiftory, fettled in Eng¬ 
land in 1236, as the occupant of an inheritance which 
had fallen to the family in this country, and which was 
ceded to him by his elder brother. He obtained the fa¬ 
vour of king Henry III. who created him Earl of Leicefter, 
and confented to his marriage with the countefs dowager 
of Pembroke, his After. The return he made for the 
MON 735 
king’s favours, and his own fubfequent fate, will be feen 
in the article England, vol. vi. p. 58a, 3, 4. To him, 
however, or to the circumftances in which he was placed, 
we are indebted for the firft outline of the houfe of com¬ 
mons as it fubfifts at prefent. Montfort earl of Leicefter 
was a man of great abilities, both civil and military, with 
the femblance, at leaft, of many virtues, which gave him 
an authority almoft unexampled in the kingdom, though 
a foreigner, and at a time when foreigners were particu¬ 
larly odious. The attachment of the populace to him 
continued even after his death ; and, notwithftanding he 
lay under a fentence of excommunication, miracles were 
faid to be wrought at his tomb. 
MON'TFORT, a town of France, in the department 
of the Eure : fourteen miles north of Beaumont le Roger, 
and feven fouth-eaft of Pont Audemer. 
MON'TFORT, a town of France, and principal place 
of a diftriit, in the department of the Ille and Vilaine : 
ten miles weft of Rennes, and thirty fouth of St. Malo„ 
Lat. 48.8.N. Ion. 1. 52. E. 
MON'TFORT, a town and ruinous citadel in Ger¬ 
many, where the ancient counts of Feldkirch refided, 
and took the title of count from it, whence it has been 
fuppofed to form a feparate county : twelve miles fouth 
of Bregentz, and feventy weft of Innfpruck. 
MON'TFORT, a town of Holland, fituated on the 
river Iffel. Godfrey comte of Rhenen, being bilhop of 
Utrecht in the year 1157, when the city was in a ftate of 
commotion, eredted feveral caftles, not only to guard his 
territories from foreign enemies, but alfo to keep his own 
fubjedls quiet. Montfort was one againft the comtes of 
Holland ; and, as its name imports, eredted on a hill: it 
was the capital of a finall country which anciently be¬ 
longed to the family of Merode, one of whom fold it to 
the ftates of Utrecht in the year 1648. The Spaniards 
pillaged and burned it in the year 1574, to revenge an 
affront they had received before Leyden, and as a com- 
penfation for money which they pretended was due. The 
French feized it in 1672, but loon abandoned it, after 
having deftroyed the caftle. It is a well-built town, with 
fortifications, but of no great ftrength. Montfort is eight 
miles weft-fouth-weft of Utrecht, and twenty-three fouth 
of Amfterdam. 
MON'TFORT, a town of France, and principal place 
of a diftridl, in the department of the Seine and Oife : 
twenty-one miles weft of Paris. Lat. 48. 47. N. Ion. 1. 
53 - E. 
MON'TFORT, a town of France, in the department 
of the Landes : feven miles fouth of Tartas, and nine 
eaft of Dax. 
MON'TFORT, a town of France, in the department 
of the Gers: four miles fouth-fouth-eaft of Ledtoure, and 
four north-eaft of Auch. 
MON'TFORT, a town of France, in the department 
of the Roer : four miles fouth of Ruremond. 
MON'TFORT. See Monfort, p. 666. 
MON'TFORT le ROTROU', a town of France, in 
the department of the Sarte : nine miles eaft-north-eaft 
of le Mans, and thirteen fouth-weft of la Ferte Bernard. 
MONTFRI'N, a town of France, in the department of 
the Gard : fix miles north of Beaucaire, and twelve eaft- 
north-eaft of Nifmes. 
MONTGERO'N (Louis-Bafil Carre de), a dupe to the 
impoftures pradlifed at the tomb of the famous abbe de 
Paris, and a martyr to his fanatical zeal in defending the 
genuinenefs of thofe pretended miracles, was the Ion of 
a mailer of requefts at Paris, where he was born in the 
year 1686. He was educated for the bar ; and, when he 
was only twenty-five years of age, obtained the poll of 
one of the counfellors to the parliament. Here he ac¬ 
quired fome reputation, by his lively parts and agreeable 
addrefs. Like too many of the young men of the age, 
however, he became deeply tindlured with infidel notions, 
and, by an eafy procefs, gave himfelf up to the unre- 
ftrained indulgence of his vicious inclinations. In the 
year 
