Today in AD 1265,
Simon de Montfort was hunted down and butchered by a medieval death squad at the Battle of Evesham.
This is how he met such a grizzly end 🧵
Misrule by the inept & inconsistent Henry III led to widespread discontent and eventually rebellion by many of the major barons in England.
This culminated in the Battle of Lewes.
Simon de Montfort led his rebel faction to a decisive victory in which the King, Prince Edward, and the King’s Brother Richard were all captured.
However, Montfort’s control over the state turned out to also be deeply unpopular.
In 1264 he held a parliament in the king’s name and for the first time two knights were summoned from each county, chosen by the county court, and were allowed to comment on general matters of state.
Montfort’s position became increasingly unstable as he was unable to cement his victory at Lewes. Ultimately, English society expected that rule was for the king, and not one disproportionately powerful baron.
Matters came to a head when Prince Edward escaped from captivity!
Prince Edward was able to rally the Welsh marcher lords to his side while Montfort’s most powerful ally, Gilbert de Clare, defected.
Edward attacked and managed to capture the forces of Simon de Montfort’s son, Simon the Younger.
Expecting to rendezvous with Simon the Younger at Evesham, Simon de Montfort & his eldest son Henry were ambushed by Prince Edward flying the Montfort banner.
Edward, breaking with the tradition of capturing noblemen for ransom or imprisonment, ordered a squad of men to hunt & kill Simon de Montfort!
Simon de Montfort led his army on an desperate uphill charge against Edward’s much larger army. The fighting was gruesome. Knowing that he was doomed and upon hearing that his eldest son Henry had been killed, he was recorded to have said;
‘Then it is time to die.’
The men Edward sent to kill Simon de Montfort found him and he was lanced through the neck by Roger Mortimer!
His last words were said to have been ‘Thank God…’
In the heat of the battle his body was mutilated. His head was cut off & his testicles were hung on his nose while his hands and feet were cut off and later sent to different corners of the land.
Approximately 4000 of his 5000 strong force were said to have been butchered by Edward’s 10,000 men.
The fighting was so fierce and slaughter so great that the King himself, taken along to the battle by Montfort was only barely rescued by Roger de Leybourne.
Evesham was described as ‘an episode of noble bloodletting unprecedented since the Conquest’
Royal authority was restored and Prince Edward would go on to become on of the strongest Kings of England, Edward I.
The battle was eventually described by the contemporary historian Robert of Gloucester as the "murder of Evesham, for battle it was none".
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