Simon and Eleanor

After Simon de Montfort failed to gain the hand of the Countess of Flanders, he was offered a different marriage partner: the sister of King Henry III of England, Eleanor of England.

Also called Eleanor Plantagenet (1215 – 13 April 1275), she was the youngest child of King John. She never knew her father, who died when she was only a year old. When she was nine she had been married to the 34-year-old William Marshal, whose father (also William Marshal) had organized the northern barons to support Young Henry when the French were invading England. Marshal senior died in 1219, and young William had succeeded him as 2nd Earl of Pembroke.

They were married in 1224, but William died in 1231, after producing no children. The now-16 Eleanor swore an oath of chastity to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

She met Simon seven years later, when she was 23. Simon wanted to marry her, Eleanor was willing to marry him, her brother Henry approved, and the two were married quietly on 7 January 1238 in Westminster Palace at the King's own chapel.

The English nobles objected to the king's sister marrying a foreigner. The king's brother, Richard of Cornwall, started to revolt as well, but Henry gave him 6000 marks to sit down and shut up.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Edmund of Abingdon (c.1174 – 1240), objected because Eleanor had made that vow of chastity. He declared the marriage invalid. Simon chose to make a pilgrimage to Rome to ask for papal approval, which Gregory IX gave.

The couple had seven children, most of whom grew up and did well. Their union, however, did not mean that Simon was loyal to his brother-in-law. Simon was a principal of the Second Barons' War, which we should look at next.

Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl

We have to distinguish Simon's title, because there was more than one prominent Englishman with that name. Simon the 6th Earl of Leicester (also 1st Earl of Chester), was born c.1208. His father was the 5th Earl, and also called Simon de Montfort. Another way to distinguish them is that the father was Simon IV, and the one we're talking about today is Simon V. His mother was Alix de Montmorency, a French noblewoman, who died when Simon was a teenager.

Simon IV accompanied his father on campaigns against the Cathars and was present at the Siege of Toulouse. He took part in the Barons Crusade to the Holy Land. His brother, Amaury, also participated in these endeavors.

Although Simon's father was the 5th Earl of Leicester, that man had claimed a lot of territory on the continent during the Albigensian Crusade and was becoming more powerful than King John of England liked.

Simon IV was killed in 1218 by a stone from a mangonel during the Siege of Toulouse, but King John did not allow Simon V to succeed to the Earldom of Leicester after Simon IV's death, giving it instead to Simon IV's cousin, Ranulf de Blondeville.

Simon V came to England in 1229 to meet with the current king, Henry III. Simon spoke French, which was also at that time the language of the Court, and Henry seemed to trend toward having advisors who were from France.

Because of territory claimed by Simon V in France, Simon IV and Amaury owed allegiance to the French king. The two brothers came to an agreement: Simon would give up any rights to the French lands, and Amaury would give up his rights to the English lands.

Henry then allowed Simon IV to approach Ranulph (who was childless) and ask to be his heir for the earldom. Ranulph assented, but Simon did not gain the title until 1239.

In 1236, Simon IV wanted to marry Joan, Countess of Flanders, which would have given the next Earl of Leicester a prominent foothold next to France. The French king did not approve, and Joan married someone else.

Simon was about to make an even better marriage from a political standpoint, which we will start with tomorrow.