Simon de Montfort and the Rise of the English Nation is the first biography of the great revolutionary in twenty years, since John Maddicott’s authoritative work. Essentially it is the story of how a stranger steps ashore, wins the king’s favour, marries his sister, topples him in revolution and falls in battle with the king’s son. Such was the life of this thirteenth-century Anglo-French nobleman whose determination to force the king to abide by the Provisions of Oxford, the Magna Carta of its day, ended in a clash of wills and armies and ultimately in one of the most compelling and dramatic periods in English history. 
Great interview with Kasia at the Young King’s abode. I had the wrong Simon de Montfort in mind when I saw the book. This one is far more interesting than his pyromaniac sire.
It is confusing to keep all the Henris and Eleanors straight.
Grand merci, Sire, I will look for this book.
Mr. Baker, cheering you on and looking forward to Henry III bio. His mother Isabella had a real love for Lusignan as she took off as soon as John’s body got cold. Good for her, and I hope “they lived happily ever after.”
Curious to know what kind of father John was.
Thanks, Daniella, afraid Isabella and Hugh didn’t live happily ever after. though. They had nine children, failed in an uprising against Louis, were accused of poisoning him, she died walled up in a nunnery, he on the beaches of Egypt during Louis’ crusade. Really interesting couple!
She left her nine year old son a boy king in the hands of powerful lords hardly a good woman or a kind mother, did she even deserve a kinder fate?