Thirteenth-century Europe was dominated by two families, the Plantagenets of England and Capetians of France. A third family straddled both of these dynasties, the De Montforts. Ennobled with the lordship of Montfort l’Amaury outside Paris, their rise from royal foresters and wardens was fast. Queen of France, Bishop of Paris, Duke of Narbonne, Count of Evreux, Earl of Gloucester, Lord of Sidon, Princess of Wales. From the British Isles to the Holy Land, the De Montforts were everywhere, involved in all the major events of their day. There was Isabella, mounted in full armour, leading troops in the field, while her sister Bertrade led a fabulously scandalous life at the French court. Far and away the most famous are the two Simons, father and son, each a crusader and revolutionary who attempted to impose a radical constitution on the existing social and political order. Even after they fell in battle, their De Montfort kin kept up the struggle, whether winning the throne of Sicily or committing one of the most scandalous murders of all time. But the end, when it came, was just as fast, and by the fourteenth century they were practically extinct. The house of Montfort was no more, but what a ride it had been. Available to order here.