Simon de Montfort's Parliament (1265) and the Barons' War

Simon de Montfort’s Parliament, which met at Westminster from 20 January 1265, is remembered as a landmark in the history of representative government. Called by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, after he defeated and captured King Henry III, it summoned not only lords and clergy but also knights from the counties and, for the first time, representatives of towns. Montfort’s rule lasted barely a year: he was killed at the Battle of Evesham on 4 August 1265, but the idea of a parliament including elected commoners endured.

Background: Henry III, the barons and the Provisions of Oxford

Henry III came to the throne as a boy in 1216, during a civil war that was decided at the Battle of Lincoln. By the 1250s many barons were unhappy with his rule. They resented the influence of his foreign relatives, especially his Lusignan half-brothers from Poitou, and his demands for money.

The breaking point came over Sicily. In 1254 Henry accepted the pope’s offer of the crown of Sicily for his younger son Edmund, in return for paying papal debts of more than 130,000 marks, a sum England could not raise. Combined with famine in 1257–1258, this crisis drove a group of magnates to act.

Many of them invoked the principles of Magna Carta, which Henry had reissued several times, arguing that the king must rule according to law and with the counsel of his barons.

In spring 1258 the barons came armed to a parliament at Westminster and forced Henry to accept reform. At Oxford in June 1258 they drew up the Provisions of Oxford. A council of fifteen would advise the king and control appointments, and parliament was to meet three times a year. A royal proclamation supporting the reforms was issued in English as well as French and Latin, a rare use of English in official documents at the time.

Further reforms, the Provisions of Westminster, followed in October 1259 and dealt with local justice and the grievances of lesser landholders. But the reformers quarrelled, and in 1261 Henry obtained a papal bull releasing him from his oath to observe the Provisions.

Simon de Montfort

Simon de Montfort was born in France around 1208, a younger son of the Simon de Montfort who led the Albigensian Crusade. He came to England around 1230 to claim the earldom of Leicester through his grandmother’s family. In 1238 he married Henry III’s sister Eleanor, which made him the king’s brother-in-law.

Montfort was a skilled soldier, deeply religious and uncompromising. His relationship with Henry was stormy, especially after his harsh rule as the king’s lieutenant in Gascony from 1248 to 1252. He became the most determined leader of the reformers. He also expelled the Jews from Leicester in 1231, and during the war his followers attacked Jewish communities, including a massacre in London in April 1264.

The Second Barons’ War

By 1263 the dispute had turned to open conflict. Both sides appealed to King Louis IX of France, whose judgement, the Mise of Amiens of January 1264, came down entirely on Henry’s side and annulled the Provisions. Montfort and his allies rejected it, and war broke out.

On 14 May 1264, at the Battle of Lewes in Sussex, Montfort’s army defeated the royalists. Henry III and his son, Prince Edward, were captured. For the next year Montfort governed England in the king’s name, holding Edward as a hostage. A parliament in June 1264 set up a new council and summoned four knights from each county.

The parliament of January 1265

In December 1264 writs went out in the king’s name for a parliament to meet at Westminster on 20 January 1265. Besides bishops, abbots and a limited number of earls and barons, it summoned two knights from each county and two burgesses from each of a group of towns, including York and Lincoln, along with men from the Cinque Ports.

The exact list of towns and the method of choosing their representatives are uncertain, since the records are incomplete. Montfort was seeking support beyond the great lords, many of whom distrusted him, and the knights and townsmen were his natural allies. The parliament sat for several weeks, discussed the release of Prince Edward and confirmed the new form of government.

Knights of the shire had been summoned before, in 1254 and 1264. What made 1265 new was the presence of elected town representatives alongside them, the combination that later formed the House of Commons.

Evesham and the end of the rebellion

Montfort’s coalition soon split. Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, a powerful young ally, went over to the royalists. On 28 May 1265 Prince Edward escaped from custody at Hereford and joined him.

Edward moved quickly. On 1–2 August he surprised the army of Montfort’s son, Simon the Younger, at Kenilworth. On 4 August he caught Montfort’s smaller force at Evesham in Worcestershire, in a loop of the River Avon. Montfort, his son Henry and many of his knights were killed, and Montfort’s body was mutilated after the battle. Henry III, who had been held in Montfort’s camp, was rescued.

Resistance continued among the “disinherited” rebels. The long siege of Kenilworth Castle ended in December 1266, after the Dictum of Kenilworth of October 1266 allowed rebels to buy back their lands. The Statute of Marlborough of 1267 restored peace and kept many of the Provisions’ legal reforms.

Key people

• Simon de Montfort (c. 1208–1265): Earl of Leicester and leader of the baronial reformers, who ruled England in the king’s name in 1264–1265.
• Henry III (1207–1272): king of England, captured at Lewes and restored after Evesham.
• Prince Edward (1239–1307): Henry’s son and heir, the future Edward I, who defeated Montfort at Evesham.
• Eleanor of England (c. 1215–1275): Henry’s sister and Montfort’s wife, who held Dover Castle for her husband’s cause in 1265.
• Gilbert de Clare (1243–1295): Earl of Gloucester, who fought for Montfort at Lewes and then joined Edward.

Myths and facts

• Myth: Montfort created the first English parliament. Parliaments existed before 1265, and knights had already been summoned; his innovation was adding town representatives.
• Myth: the 1265 parliament was democratic. Only a small, propertied elite was represented, and Montfort called it largely to strengthen his own position.
• Fact: the reforms outlived him. Many legal measures of the Provisions of Westminster were kept in the Statute of Marlborough of 1267.

Legacy

Henry’s son became King Edward I in 1272. He learned from the crisis and regularly summoned knights and burgesses to his parliaments, most famously in the so-called Model Parliament of 1295. Over the following century these representatives developed into the House of Commons.

Montfort himself was venerated as a martyr by many ordinary people, and miracles were reported at his grave at Evesham Abbey, though the cult was never officially recognised. Today he is widely regarded as one of the founders of representative government, while historians also note his ruthlessness and his antisemitism. Parliament marked the 750th anniversary of his parliament in 2015.

Timeline

• 1238, January: Simon de Montfort marries Eleanor, sister of Henry III.
• 1258, June: The Provisions of Oxford are agreed.
• 1259, October: The Provisions of Westminster.
• 1264, January: Louis IX annuls the Provisions in the Mise of Amiens.
• 1264, 14 May: Montfort wins the Battle of Lewes and captures the king.
• 1265, 20 January: Montfort’s Parliament opens at Westminster.
• 1265, 28 May: Prince Edward escapes.
• 1265, 4 August: Montfort is killed at the Battle of Evesham.
• 1266, December: Kenilworth Castle surrenders.
• 1267, November: Statute of Marlborough.

Why it matters

Simon de Montfort’s Parliament brought representatives of towns into national politics for the first time in England. Though its founder fell within months, the practice of summoning knights and burgesses together became the foundation of the House of Commons and a model for representative assemblies elsewhere.