In the coming conflict, Simon would be able to call on a slightly larger number of men than the king. Of the 400 mid-13th-century knights known by name, only about 100 were recognized as royalists — though it has also been estimated that there were as many as 12,000 knights throughout the kingdom.

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Besides those mounted knights, contingents of armed tradesmen from London and other cities also sided with the barons. These levies tended not to be very well trained, however. On one occasion, a group of Henry’s courtiers broke up a drill parade of one of the amateur units, informing the men that the profession of arms was ‘not fit for bran-dealers, soap-boilers, and clowns.’

Both Henry and Simon spent the spring of 1264 preparing for war. On Palm Sunday, April 5, Henry’s eldest son, Prince Edward, captured the town of Northampton from the barons. One of Edward’s prisoners was Earl Simon’s son. Northampton’s most determined defenders turned out to be a group of Oxford scholars who shot at Edward’s men with longbows, crossbows and slings.

Simon retaliated by laying siege to Rochester Castle on the Medway River in Kent. The royalist garrison managed to beat back each attack, however, and held off the barons for eight days. Late in April the earl received word that Henry and his army were threatening to attack London, one of the barons’ main strongholds. Simon immediately broke off the siege and began marching northwest, hoping to intercept Henry before he could reach the city.

Unknown to Simon, the king actually had no interest in London. What he wanted was control of Kent and Sussex, the land between London and the English Channel ports. If he could control that part of England, he could keep communications open with France and his allies there. Therefore, instead of moving on London, Henry attacked a baronial unit outside Rochester. Some of the prisoners he took were tortured — this may have been the age of chivalry, but it was honored more in word than in deed and was usually reserved for the noble classes.

From Rochester, the royal forces moved southeast. Earl Simon’s castle at Tonbridge was captured on May 1. The king’s army then went on to Winchelsea and Romney. Outside Romney, Welsh archers who supported the earl harassed the king’s men from the cover of woods along the roadway.

Henry’s harried men stopped at Lewes, in Sussex near the Channel coast. Earl Simon’s army was right behind and camped at Fletching, eight miles to the north. King Henry spent the night in the priory at St. Pancras, about half a mile south of Lewes, while his 21-year-old son Edward took up residence in Lewes Castle, west of the town.

The royalists enjoyed a decided numerical advantage at Lewes, and the hotheaded young Prince Edward was spoiling for a fight. On May 13, the bishops of Chichester, London and Worcester delivered terms on Simon’s behalf to King Henry. Simon offered to withdraw his army and pay Henry 50,000 marks if the king said he would promise to obey the annulled Provisions of Oxford. The royalists had nothing but contempt for the earl and his terms, the acceptance of which both Henry and Edward would have regarded as an admission of weakness. Henry rejected the offer, and Edward remarked that he would only be satisfied when Earl Simon was hanged for treason.

Now realizing that battle was inevitable, Simon led his men out of Fletching that evening and stopped just north of Lewes. His commanders suggested a night attack against the royalist forces, but Simon rejected it — attacking under cover of darkness, he said, would be cowardly, treacherous and dishonorable. Instead, the baronial forces did not begin moving south toward Lewes until first light on May 14. Simon turned off the roadway at the town of Offham, and his men began trudging up the side of Offham Hill.

Offham Hill is steep and high, overlooking the neighboring countryside for miles. A lookout could have seen the baronial army well in advance and sent a warning to Lewes. Luck was with Earl Simon that morning, however. His advance scouts found only one royalist lookout on the hill, and he was fast asleep. The surprised sentry was taken prisoner, and the army continued undetected toward Lewes.

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