- Read more | Simon de Montfort and the barons’ crusade: why rebel lords waged holy war against Henry III
Who was Simon de Montfort?
And why is he known as the leader of the first English revolution?
Sophie Thérèse Ambler explains…
Simon de Montfort was the Earl of Leicester and the first leader of a political movement in English history that sought to overthrow the monarchy in favour of a different system of government.
He established himself in England as a great magnate, marrying the king's sister, Eleanor de Montfort, and setting himself up as one of the leading noblemen in England.
In 1264, de Montfort won against the king at the battle of Lewes and took control of the government, setting up a new constitution for the government of the kingdom.
It was decided that the kingdom would be run by a council of nine, and all decisions would be made by a two thirds majority of that council. This was the first attempt in English history to overturn the entire system of monarchy.
According to Ambler, the act of dismemberment can tell us a lot about what people thought of de Montfort – as well as the culture of the people responsible for his killing.
“Dismembering enemy remains and removing body parts as trophies only took place in areas that really were not governed by the rules of chivalry, but had their own socio-military cultures that encouraged the victors to treat the deceased enemy in this way," she tells Dr Dave Musgrove on the HistoryExtra podcast.
“This was the case in the Anglo-Welsh borderlands and Wales in the 13th century – and explains why de Montfort met such a grisly end.”
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What happened to de Montfort’s body parts following dismemberment?
Both the head and testicl*s were sent as a present to Maud Mortimer, wife of Roger Mortimer, the man who killed de Montfort. "One account suggests the testicl*s had been stuffed into his [de Montfort's] mouth, while another places them over his nose," explains Ambler.
De Montfort’s hand was taken by an Anglo-Welsh marcher baron who was part of the death squad that killed him at the battle of Evesham. It was cut off on the battlefield, wrapped in a piece of cloth and sent to Cheshire by a courier as a present for the marcher’s wife.
One account suggests the testicl*s had been stuffed into his de Montfort's mouth
His foot was sent to the Prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, who had been his ally. The remaining foot was rescued from the battlefield by a man called John de Vescy, lord of Alnwick in Northumberland.
De Vescy was one of the few men on de Montfort’s side to be taken captive at the battle of Evesham, and he rescued the foot due to the belief that it was the body part of a saintly figure. (How he kept the foot while in captivity is unknown – but eventually he took it back home to Northumberland).
The remaining hand was rescued by the monks of Evesham Abbey, who oversaw cleaning up the battlefield. It would remain at Evesham Abbey thereafter.
Miracles soon became associated with de Montfort’s body parts: “there is a very detailed account of the hand that was sent to Cheshire,” says Ambler.
According to a contemporary writer, the courier arrived in Cheshire with the hand to be told that the marcher’s wife was at mass. He tracked her down and was patiently waiting for the opportune moment to give the hand to her, when a miracle occurred.
“During the holiest moment of mass – while the priest had raised up the Eucharist and everybody in the church had followed by raising their own hands – de Montfort’s hand raised itself high above the heads of the congregation, floating in the air above their heads,” Ambler explains. “Everyone was amazed by the miracle, understanding it to be a sign of the holiness of the hand.
“The woman who was supposed to receive the hand didn’t know what to do, as she had been told it was the hand of her enemy, and yet here it was performing a miracle. Simon must be a holy man. She told the courier that she was not going to take it”.
Dark trophy economy
What did the gifting of a dismembered body part mean?
In the Anglo-Welsh borderlands and Wales in the 13th century, it was a custom that was particular to a certain socio-military culture.
Sophie Thérèse Ambler explains: “Heads were the most obvious enemy body parts to take. Faces were easy ways to identify who the person is, so if you had killed someone in battle and that person was a famous figure, you could send the head home and everybody who received it would know that you had killed that person. This would be the greatest testimony to your prowess and honour.
“But any body parts could be made into a trophy: hands, feet, testicl*s. These would be dark trophies that could be carried home and given as tokens, either as a way of showing your hatred for somebody, or a token of love (in the case of giving one of these gifts to your spouse). The practice relied on the courier of the trophy to explain to the recipient what its meaning was.”
And de Montfort’s hands weren’t the only body part to allegedly take on holy qualities.
Once back in Northumberland, John de Vescy gave the foot he had rescued to Alnwick Abbey, where it was preserved as a relic and a shrine was created. “It very quickly became a focus of veneration, and people visited the shrine seeking healing miracles” explains Ambler. As such, an entire cult for Simon de Montfort was established in the eastern Anglo-Scottish borders.
According to Ambler, exactly why this cult emerged is related to the history of this region of England. Many people in Northumberland would have known about the local historic figure St Bede – the great historian and monk who became known for writing Ecclesiastical History of the English People in the early eighth century. In the work, Bede described the life of St Oswald of Northumbria, the iconic saint and martyr who established Christianity in England.
- Read more | How the kingdom of Northumbria changed Anglo-Saxon England
“St Oswald was quite famous in his day,” says Ambler. Like de Montfort, he was also killed in battle, with his body parts taken as trophies by his enemies and turned into objects of veneration – and this was all described by Bede in his History of the English People. “This meant that if you were a historian living in Northumbria in the 13th century, at the time of de Montfort’s death, you might think this was your chance to write about a new St Oswald.”
The reason de Montfort’s other foot was sent to the prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, was entirely different. It was a message of enmity, says Ambler. “They were saying ‘how dare you even conceive of an alliance with Simon de Montfort?’”
Simon de Montfort had been a very divisive figure up until his death. “We can see from the accounts of the battle of Evesham that he was someone people either absolutely loved or hated,” Ambler notes. “The death squad that was appointed to kill de Montfort was made up of the barons of the Anglo-Welsh borderland, who hated de Montfort perhaps more than anybody. This was because of a policy that de Montfort enacted over 1264 and 1265.”
The policy in question involved a military alliance between de Montfort and Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. As Ambler explains, this infuriated the barons: “The entire reason that the Anglo Welsh borderland barons existed was to patrol the Anglo-Welsh marches – the borderlands – to keep the barrier between England and Wales and to defend England against Welsh incursion. It also acted as a sort of springboard for English attacks on Wales.
“The marcher barons had their own powers, their own laws, and their own authority in this territory. The idea that Simon de Montfort was allying with their enemy was detestable to them.”
By spring 1265, the situation escalated. De Montfort was forced to grant more concessions to Llywelyn to obtain military aid and men to help him fight the borderland barons. This meant he agreed to grant Llywelyn the territories of the Anglo-Welsh borderlands.
But this posed a problem. The borderlands did not belong to de Montfort; they belonged to the English state and the barons. “He was making one of the most significant and devastating offers ever made by this point in history, to one of the traditional enemies of the English crown,” explains Ambler.
“Then came the battle of Evesham, which resulted in the death of de Montfort at the hands of a death squad of marcher barons. And this is why part of his body – a foot – is sent to Llywelyn. It’s a message from the barons: don’t you dare conceive of taking our borderlands again.”
Dr Sophie Therese Ambler is a Reader in Medieval History at Lancaster University and Director of the Centre for War and Diplomacy. She was speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast to David Musgrove. Words by Rachel Dinning
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You can read the full story of Evesham’s Dark Trophies in the journal English Historical Review.
