Battle of Lewes: England's first fight for democracy? [ AD 1264 ]

BBC News ^ | May 14, 2014 | Nick Tarver

[SunkenCiv]

Did the Battle of Lewes, which saw King Henry III defeated 750 years ago, lead to England's first tentative steps towards representative democracy?

As bloodied bodies littered the South Downs, the King hid in a priory.

His father, King John, had been forced to sign Magna Carta by England's rebellious barons, now Henry had suffered even greater humiliation at their hands.

His victor was Simon de Montfort, the French-born Earl of Leicester, who was fighting for the rights of England to be governed by the English.

After the battle, where de Montfort's forces were outnumbered by two to one, he forced the unpopular King to transfer nearly all of his powers.

What followed for a year and half -- before de Montfort was eventually killed and mutilated in the Battle of Evesham -- was an experiment in representative democracy.

Simon de Montfort was in his late 50s when he organised the rebellion against King Henry III.

The King had become unpopular with his subjects for installing many of his French relatives in positions of power...

De Montfort called two parliaments in 1264 and 1265, both consisting of knights and leading men who had been elected or chosen in the shires and major towns of England.

King Henry remained as head of state, but his powers were severely restricted.

David Carpenter, who is professor of medieval history at Kings College London, said: "No historian has ever been able to show a parliament which had both of these before. You could say it represented the House of Commons in its earliest form... In some ways he was the Nigel Farage of his day. His motto was England for the English."

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks thsr.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3131394/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/743515/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/633509/posts
http://freerepublic.com/tag/cahokia/index

[wardaddy]

Montfort was about himself and used the barons as tools

And he betrayed Henry who had taken him in

He’s no hero....not to me anyhow

Who started this notion I wonder

I’ll have to see how Churchill treats him in my HOTESP volumes

[wardaddy]

Roger Mortimer (First Baron)killed Simon Montfort @Evesham in Worcestershire

It was Roger Mortimer who killed Montfort by stabbing him in the neck with a lance.[11]

Later they mutilated him and spread body parts throughout the land....nice touch I must say

His grandson.....the first Marcher lord....Roger Mortimer1st Earl of March is of whom you speak

There were many Mortimer earls and lords and barons

This first notable one who helped Henry III got beacoup land and estates in kind most notably in the low area between Wales and England called The Marches

And so it goes....its who you know and who you impale and dismember for that counts

[Sherman Logan]

Thanks, learn something every day!

I was aware the Mortimers were around for a lot of the drama of English history. Powerful Welsh Marcher lords and therefore considerably more independent than “average” barons.

But I was thinking of the Earls of March, not the earlier Barons.

[Sherman Logan]

There were not a lot of altruistic barons around in the 1300s. :)

Best you could realistically hope for was a baron who was “honorable,” which did not at all inhibit him from a great deal of behavior we would today find appalling.

[wardaddy]

You and I and maybe LS...maybe blam... know much 13th century English history

Its a small club

Funny

Remember the poster Goetz con Berlichingen

He hasn’t posted since 2003

Now he knew his history

Quite a freeper

[SunkenCiv]

Edward I Documentary - Biography of the life of Edward Longshanks King of England

What was the Battle of Lewes (May 1264) | Bill Thisdell | Sussex Past

• Simon de Montfort: The turning point for democracy that gets overlooked [01/20/2015]

[SunkenCiv]

While not nearly as exciting, this story does match with the fact that Edward’s entire body was never boiled or dismembered, and instead interred at Westminster Abbey. There, it remained undisturbed until 1774 when the dean and a group of history enthusiasts opened the tomb and examined the body. It was remarkably complete. The poet and artist William Blake even made a sketch. Edward I in his tomb, 1774. Sketch by William Blake