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Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester From Wikipedia, the free ency clopedia Jump to: navigation, search Not to be confused with Simon d e Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester. Simon IV de Montfort, Seigneur de M ontfort-l'Amaury, 5th Earl of Leicester (1160 – 25 June 1218), als o known as Simon de Montfort the elder, was a French nobleman who too k part in the Fourth Crusade (1202 - 1204) and was a prominent leade r of the Albigensian Crusade. He died at the siege of Toulouse in 1218 . Contents [hide] 1 Early life 2 Later life 3 Legacy 4 Notes 5 Refere nces [edit] Early life He was the son of Simon III de Montfort, lor d of Montfort l'Amaury in France near Paris, and Amicia de Beaumont, d aughter of Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester - the de Montfor t line itself descends from the Counts of Flanders. He succeeded his f ather as Baron de Montfort in 1181; in 1190 he married Alix de Montmor ency, 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 F rance. In 1199, while taking part in a tournament at Ecry-sur-Aisne , he heard Fulk of Neuilly preaching the crusade, and in the company o f Count Thibaud de Champagne, he took the cross. The crusade soon fel l under Venetian control, and was diverted to Zara on the Adriatic Sea . Pope Innocent III had specifically warned the Crusaders not to attac k fellow Christians; Simon tried to reassure the citizens of Zara tha t there would be no attack, but nevertheless, the city was sacked in 1 202. Simon did not participate in this action and was one of its mos t outspoken critics. He and his associates, including Abbot Guy of Vau x-de-Cernay, soon left the Crusade altogether from Zara and traveled t o King Emico of Hungary's territory.[1] Afterwards, under Venetian gui dance, the Crusaders sacked the city of Constantinople—the main trad ing rival to Venice. His mother was the eldest daughter of Robert d e Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester. After the death of her brother Robe rt de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester without children in 1204, she in herited half of his estates, and a claim to the Earldom of Leicester . The division of the estates was effected early in 1207, by which th e rights to the earldom were assigned to Amicia and Simon. However, Ki ng John of England took possession of the lands himself in February 12 07, and confiscated its revenues. Later, in 1215, the lands were passe d into the hands of Simon's cousin, Ranulph de Meschines, 4th Earl o f Chester. [edit] Later life Simon remained on his estates in France , where in 1209 he was elected captain-general of the French forces i n the Albigensian Crusade by his fellow nobles, reportedly after sever al larger players had turned down the role. He was present at the sieg e and subsequent massacre at Beziers on 22 July 1209 when the entire p opulation of twenty thousand Cathars and Catholics were slaughtered. T housands sought sanctuary in the Cathedral of St Nazaire which was se t on fire and also in the Eglise de la Madeleine inside which all wer e butchered to death."Tuez les tous, Dieu reconnaitra les siens" - "Ki ll them all, God will recognize his own" was the famous quotation whic h exonerated the rampaging Crusaders. Ironically it was Ste Madeleine' s Day. Simon was rewarded with the territory conquered from Raymond V I of Toulouse which in theory made him the most important landowner i n Occitania. He became notorious and feared for his extreme cruelty, m assacring whole towns, and for his "treachery, harshness, and bad fait h." In 1210 he burned 140 Cathars in the village of Minerve who refuse d to give up their faith. In another widely reported incident, prior t o the sack of the village of Lastours, he brought prisoners from the n earby village of Bram and had their eyes gouged out and their ears, no ses and lips cut off. One prisoner, left with a single good eye, led t hem into the village as a warning. Simon's part in the crusade had th e full backing of his liege lord, the King of France, Philip Augustus , although historian Alistaire Horne, in his book Seven Ages of Pari s states that Philippe (sic) "turned a blind eye to Simon de Montfort' s brutal crusade...of which he disapproved, but readily accepted the s poils to his exchequer"(36). Following the latter's success in winnin g Normandy from John Lackland of England, he was approached by Innocen t III to lead the crusade himself but turned this down being heavily c ommitted to defend his gains against John and against the emerging all iance between England, the Empire and Flanders. However, Phillip claim ed full rights over the lands of the house of St Gilles and some hav e seen his dispatch of de Montfort and other northern barons as at th e very least an exploratory campaign to reassert the rights of the Fre nch crown in the Midi. He may well also have been wishing to appease t he papacy after the long dispute over his marriage which had led to ex communication - as well as seeking to counter any adventure by John o f England - who had marriage and fealty ties also with the Toulouse co mtal house. Meanwhile others have seen Phillip's motives as includin g removing over-mighty subjects from the north, distracting them in ad venture elsewhere where they could not threaten his increasingly succe ssful restoration of the power of the French crown in the north. Simo n is described as a man of extreme religious orthodoxy, deeply committ ed to the Dominican order and the suppression of heresy. Dominic Guzma n, later Saint Dominic, spent several years during the war in the Mid i at Fanjeau, which was Simon's headquarters, especially in the winte r months when the crusading forces were depleted. Simon had other ke y confederates in this enterprise which many see as a naked seizure o f southern lands by ambitious men from the north, many of whom had bee n involved in the notorious fourth crusade. One of these was Guy Vau x de Cernay - head of a Cistercian abbey not more than twenty miles fr om Simon's patrimony of Montfort Aumary - who accompanied the crusad e in the Languedoc and became bishop of Caracassonne for his pains. Me anwhile the nephew of Guy, Peter de Vaux de Cernay, arguably a stool-p igeon of De Montfort,his uncle and the papacy, wrote an account of th e crusade which many have seen as a transparent piece of propaganda t o justify the actions of the crusaders, whose outrages are described c onsistently as doing the work of God against the heretical agents of t he demonic power - while outrages committed by the embattled lords o f the Midi are predictably portrayed as the opposite. Simon was an ene rgetic campaigner, making rapid movements to strike at those who had b roken their faith with him - and there were many as local lords switch ed sides whenever the moment seemed propitious. The Midi was a warre n of small fortified places, as well as home to some of the most magni ficent defended cities - such as Toulouse, Carcassonne and Narbonne. S imon seems to have shown great personal valour and daring as well as b eing particularly brutal with those close to him who betrayed him - a s for example, Martin Algae, lord of Biron. In 1213 he defeated Pete r of Aragon at the Battle of Muret. The Albigensians were now crushed , but Simon carried on the campaign as a war of conquest, being appoin ted lord over all the newly-acquired territory as Count of Toulouse an d Duke of Narbonne (1215). He spent two years in warfare in many part s of Raymond's former territories; he besieged Beaucaire, which had be en taken by Raymond VII of Toulouse, from 6 June 1216 to 24 August 121 6. Raymond spent most of this period in Aragon, but corresponded wit h sympathisers in Toulouse. There were rumours that he was on his wa y to Toulouse in September 1216. Abandoning the siege of Beaucaire, Si mon responded with a partial sacking of Toulouse, perhaps intended a s punishment of the citizens. Raymond actually returned to take posses sion of Toulouse in October 1217. Simon hastened to besiege the city , meanwhile sending his wife, Alix de Montmorency, with bishop Foulque s of Toulouse and others, to the French court to plead for support. Af ter maintaining the siege for nine months Simon was killed on 25 Jun e 1218 while combating a sally by the besieged. His head was smashed b y a stone from a mangonel, operated, according to the most detailed so urce, by donas e tozas e mulhers ("ladies, girls and women") of Toulou se.[2] He was buried in the Cathedral of Saint-Nazaire at Carcassonne. [3] [edit] Legacy Simon left three sons: his French estates passed t o his eldest son, Amaury VI de Montfort, while his younger son, Simon , eventually gained possession of the earldom of Leicester and playe d a major role in the reign of Henry III of England. Another son, Guy , was married to Petronille, Countess of Bigorre, on 6 November 1216 , but died at the siege of Castelnaudary on 20 July 1220. His daughter , Petronilla, became an abbess at the Cistercian nunnery of St. Antoin e's. Another daughter, Amicia, founded the nunnery at Montargis and di ed there in 1252. [edit] Notes ^ Phillips, Jonathan. The Fourth Crusa de and the Sack of Constantinople, 2004. page 137. ^ Chanson de la Cro isade Albigeoise laisse 205. ^ Chanson de la Croisade Albigeoise laiss e 206; Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay, Historia Albigensis 615. [edit] Re ferences Sumption, Jonathan. The Albigensian Crusade, 2000 "Simon d e Montfort". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company . 1913. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Sim on_de_Montfort.