The Barons’ Wars: Battle of Lewes

Military History  | 0 comments  |  Print This Post  |  Email This Post

With a terrible flourish of trumpets, Edward Plantagenet, prince of England, led his mounted knights at full gallop toward the infantry of Simon de Montfort, who were charging down Offham Hill to meet them. The rattling armor of the knights added to the din made by the shouting men, rearing horses and thudding hooves. Earl Simon’s foot soldiers, a contingent of volunteers from London, were lightly armed and inexperienced in battle. Prince Edward’s horsemen charged right through their ranks, chopping with swords, axes and maces. After recovering from the shock, the surviving Londoners dropped their weapons and ran from the field. Most of them tried unsuccessfully to hide among the rocks and hollows along the slope. The opening phase of the Battle of Lewes on the morning of Wednesday, May 14, 1264, was turning into a rout for Earl Simon’s outnumbered army and a rousing triumph for the royalist forces of King Henry III of England.

Henry and Simon had been at odds with each other for years, though it had not always been so. Born in Montfort d’Aumauri, Normandy, in 1208, Simon de Montfort had come to England in 1230 to reclaim land owned by his family. King Henry liked the young Norman nobleman and not only gave him his lands but also made him earl of Leicester. In return, Simon promised to pay a fee of 100 pounds sterling and supply 60 knights in time of war, and was made the king’s steward. Simon, however, secretly married the king’s widowed sister, Eleanor, in 1238, without asking Henry’s approval. Their friendship cooled from that point. Moreover, while the marriage gave the ambitious Simon financial security and a sudden rise in social position, it earned him the enmity of the church, to which Eleanor had taken an oath of perpetual widowhood after the death of her first husband.

When the king’s brother, Richard of Cornwall, organized a party of English knights for the Crusades, Simon — deciding it might be best if he left the country for awhile — volunteered to go with him, and took Eleanor as far as Italy. He returned to show his martial mettle in 1248, when Henry appointed him governor of Gascony. Fending off French challenges to the territory earned the earl a reputation as ‘the wisest and stoutest warrior in England,’ but the king envied his prowess and distrusted his ambition. For his part, Simon came to see that Henry was neither a strong military leader nor a forceful king. The adjective most often used by contemporaries to describe the king was’simple.’

The denouement began in May 1258, when Simon and the leading members of England’s nobility confronted the king and demanded a more active role in running the country. There was a precedent for this, of course — the Magna Carta, signed by Henry’s father, King John, in 1215, had guaranteed a number of rights to all Englishmen on paper, with the barons gaining the most power in practice. When John died in 1216, loyal barons had done most of the decision making for the 9-year-old King Henry III. Now, fearing the prospect of civil war, Henry agreed to the Provisions of Oxford, whereby the king would submit all decisions to an advisory council consisting of 15 barons, including Simon — a forerunner of Parliament.

Needless to say, Henry did not take kindly to the provisions or to the restrictions they imposed. He was soon ignoring the barons’ advice and tried buying them off with gifts whenever they complained. That failed to deter Simon, however, who insisted on a permanent council. The dispute between the king and his brother-in-law festered for six years, until they both agreed to have King Louis IX of France act as arbitrator to settle their differences. In January 1264, at a gathering known as the Mise of Amiens, Louis annulled the provisions. The French king opposed limitations of royal power on principle, and informed Earl Simon that he had no right to interfere with Henry or his government.

Louis’ judgment left Simon with a choice: either give up his dream of curbing royal power and authority, or fight. The earl decided to fight.

Tags: Ancient-Medieval, Historical Conflicts

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.