Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester
Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester, also
Simon IV de Montfort (
1160 –
June 25,
1218) was a French nobleman who took part in the
Fourth Crusade (
1202 -
1204) and was a prominent leader of the
Albigensian Crusade. He died at the siege of
Toulouse in 1218.
He was the son of
Simon III de Montfort, descended from the lords of
Montfort l'Amaury in
France near Paris, and Amicia de Beaumont. He succeeded his father as Baron de Montfort in
1181; in
1190 he married
Alix de Montmorency, the daughter of
Bouchard III de Montmorency. In
1191 his brother, Guy, left on the Third Crusade in the retinue of King
Philip II of France.
In
1199, while taking part in a
tournament at
Ecry-sur-Aisne, he heard
Fulk of Neuilly preaching the crusade, and in the company of Count
Thibaud de Champagne, he took the cross. The crusade soon fell under
Venetian control, and was diverted to
Zara on the
Adriatic Sea.
Pope Innocent III had specifically warned the Crusaders not to attack fellow Christians; Simon tried to reassure the citizens of Zara that there would be no attack, but nevertheless, the city was sacked in
1202. Simon did not participate in this action, and soon he left the Crusade altogether. Afterwards, under Venetian guidance the Crusaders sacked the city of
Constantinople—the main trading rival to Venice.
His mother was the eldest daughter of
Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester. After the death of her brother
Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester without children in
1204, she inherited half of his estates, and a claim to the
Earldom of Leicester. The division of the estates was effected early in
1207, by which the rights to the earldom were assigned to Amicia and Simon. However, King
John of England took possession of the lands himself in February
1207, and confiscated its revenues. Later, in
1215, the lands were passed into the hands of Simon's nephew,
Ranulph de Meschines, 4th Earl of Chester.
Simon remained on his estates in
France, where in
1208 he was made captain-general of the French forces in the Albigensian Crusade. Simon was given the territory conquered from
Raymond VI of Toulouse. He became notorious and feared for his extreme cruelty, massacring whole towns, and for his "treachery, harshness, and bad faith." He was a man of extreme religious orthodoxy, deeply committed to the
Dominican order and the suppression of heresy. In
1213 he defeated
Peter of Aragon at the
Battle of Muret. The
Albigensians were now crushed, but Simon carried on the campaign as a war of conquest, being appointed lord over all the newly-acquired territory as
Count of Toulouse and Duke of
Narbonne (
1215). He occupied himself in waging war at
Nîmes, until in
1217 a rebellion broke out in
Provence, where Count Raymond's son re-entered
Toulouse. Simon hastened to besiege the city, and was killed on
25 June 1218 while fighting a sally by the besiegers. He was buried in the Monastery of Haute-Bruyère.
Simon left three sons: his French estates passed to his eldest son,
Amaury de Montfort, while his younger son,
Simon, eventually gained possession of the earldom of Leicester and played a major role in the reign of
Henry III of England. Another son, Guy, died at the siege of
Castelnaudary in
1220. His daughter, Petronilla, became an abbess at the
Cistercian nunnery of St. Antoine's. Another daughter, Amicia, founded the nunnery at
Montargis and died there in
1252.
* Maddicott, J.R.
Simon de Montfort, 1996
* Sumption, Jonathan.
The Albigensian Crusade, 2000
*
Simon de Montfort His Role in the Cathar Wars or "Albigensian Crusade".
