Posted on 12/29/2014 1:11:54 AM PST by 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."
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Thanks thsr.
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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
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
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.
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.
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
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
While not nearly as exciting, this story does match with the fact that Edwards 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
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