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The Second Barons' War

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the vicious war (1264-7) that followed Simon de Montfort's seizure of power from Henry III and his family while supporting new, broader parliaments.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the years of bloody conflict that saw Simon de Montfort (1205-65) become the most powerful man in England, with Henry III as his prisoner. With others, he had toppled Henry in 1258 in a secret, bloodless coup and established provisions for more parliaments with broader representation, for which he was later known as the Father of the House of Commons. When Henry III regained power in 1261, Simon de Montfort rallied forces for war, with victory at Lewes in 1264 and defeat and dismemberment in Evesham the year after. Although praised for supporting parliaments, he also earned a reputation for unleashing dark, violent forces in English politics and, infamously, his supporters murdered hundreds of Jewish people in London and elsewhere.

With

David Carpenter
Professor of Medieval History at King鈥檚 College London

Louise Wilkinson
Professor of Medieval Studies at the University of Lincoln

And

Sophie Th茅r猫se Ambler
Lecturer in Later Medieval British and European History at Lancaster University

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Available now

57 minutes

Last on

Thu 6 May 2021 21:30

LINKS AND FURTHER READING

CONTRIBUTORS








READING LIST

Sophie Th茅r猫se Ambler, The Song of Simon de Montfort: England's First Revolutionary and the Death of Chivalry (Picador; 2019)

David Carpenter, Henry III: The Rise to Power and Personal Rule, 1207-1258 (Yale University Press, 2020)

David Carpenter, The Struggle for Mastery: Britain 1066-1284 (Penguin, 2004)

D.A. Carpenter, The Reign of Henry III (Hambledon Continuum, 1996)

Stephen Church, Henry III: A Simple and God-Fearing King (Allen Lane, 2017)

Margaret Howell, Eleanor of Provence: Queenship in Thirteenth-Century England (Wiley-Blackwell, 2001)

Adrian Jobson, The First English Revolution: Simon de Montfort, Henry III and the Barons' War (Continuum, 2012)

Adrian Jobson (ed.), Baronial Reform and Revolution in England, 1258-1267 (Boydell Press, 2016)

J. R. Maddicott, Simon de Montfort (Cambridge University Press, 1996)

Marc Morris, Edward I: A Great and Terrible King (Hutchinson, 2008)

Louise J. Wilkinson, Eleanor de Montfort: A Rebel Countess in Medieval England (Continuum, 2012)

Louise J. Wilkinson (ed. and trans.), The Household Roll of Eleanor de Montfort, Countess of Leicester and Pembroke, 1265 (Boydell and Brewer, 2020)


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  • Thu 6 May 2021 09:00
  • Thu 6 May 2021 21:30

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