| Second Barons' War | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Royal forces | Baronial forces | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| King Henry III Prince Edward Prince Edmund Richard of Cornwall Henry of Almain Gilbert de Clare(from May 1265) Humphrey de Bohun John de Warenne William de Valence Roger Mortimer | Simon de Montfort † Gilbert de Clare(until May 1265) Henry de Montfort † Guy de Montfort Simon de Montfort the Younger Peter de Montfort † Nicholas de Segrave Humphrey (V) de Bohun Hugh le Despenser † | ||||||
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TheSecond Barons' War (1264–1267) was acivil war inEngland between the forces of barons led bySimon de Montfort against the royalist forces ofKing Henry III, led initially by the king himself and later by his son, the futureKing Edward I. The barons sought to force the king to rule with a council of barons, rather than through his favourites. The war also involved a series of massacres of Jews by some of de Montfort's supporters (and his sonsHenry andSimon) in attacks aimed at seizing and destroying evidence of baronial debts. To bolster the initial success of his baronial regime, de Montfort sought to broaden the social foundations of parliament by extending the franchise to the commons for the first time. However, after a rule of just over a year, de Montfort was killed by forces loyal to the king at theBattle of Evesham.[1]
The reign of Henry III is most remembered for the constitutional crisis in this period of civil strife, which was provoked ostensibly by his demands for extra finances, but marked a more general dissatisfaction with Henry's methods of government on the part of the Englishbarons, discontent which was exacerbated by widespreadfamine.
The French-born Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, had originally been one of the foreign upstarts so loathed by many lords as Henry'sforeign councillors. However, having inherited through his mother the English titleEarl of Leicester, he married Henry's sisterEleanor with Henry's permission, but without the agreement of the English barons (ordinarily necessary since it was a matter of state). As a result, a feud developed between de Montfort and Henry. Their relationship reached a crisis in the 1250s, when de Montfort was put on trial for actions he took as lieutenant ofGascony, the last remainingPlantagenet lands across theEnglish Channel.
During the reigns of John and Henry III, the Crown periodically raised punitive taxation on the Jews, causing moneylenders to sell their debt bonds cheaply to raise cash to pay their taxes. The bonds were sold to the richest courtiers and supporters of the Crown at cut down prices, leading many indebted middling landowners to lose their lands. This fed into rising anti-Semitic beliefs that were fuelled by the church. Measures against the Jews and controls over debts and usury dominated debates about royal power and finances among the classes that were beginning to be involved in Parliament, and supported de Montfort in the war.
De Montfort took advantage of the resulting risingantisemitism for his own benefit. Thealleged murder ofHugh of Lincoln by Jews had led to the hanging of 18 Jews. Official anti-Jewish measures, sponsored by theCatholic Church, combined with resentment about debts among the barons gave an opportunity for de Montfort to target this group and incite rebellion by calling for the cancellation of debts owed to Jews.[2][3]
Henry also became embroiled in funding a war against theHohenstaufen, on behalf ofPope Innocent IV, in return for the HohenstaufenKingdom of Sicily for his second sonEdmund. That made many barons fearful that Henry was following in the footsteps of his fatherKing John and needed to be kept in check like John. When Henry's treasury ran dry, Innocent withdrew the title, and by bestowing it toCharles of Anjou, in effect negated the sale.
Simon de Montfort became leader of those who wanted to reassertMagna Carta and force the king to surrender more power to the baronial council. In 1258, initiating the move toward reform, seven leading barons forced Henry to agree to theProvisions of Oxford, which effectively abolished the absolutistAnglo-Norman monarchy, giving power to a council of twenty-four barons to deal with the business of government, and providing for a great council in the form of aparliament every three years, to monitor their performance. Henry was forced to take part in the swearing of a collective oath to uphold the Provisions.
Seeking to restore his position, Henry in 1259 purchased the support of KingLouis IX of France by theTreaty of Paris, agreeing to accept the loss of the lands in France that had been seized from him and from his fatherKing John by Louis and his predecessors since 1202, and to dohomage for those that remained in his hands. In 1261, Henry obtained apapal bull releasing him from his oath, and set about reasserting his control of government. The baronial opposition responded by summoning their own Parliament and contesting control of local government, but with civil war looming they backed down and de Montfort fled to France, while the other key opposition leader,Richard de Clare, Earl of Hertford and Gloucester, switched over to the King's side.
Under theTreaty of Kingston, an arbitration system was agreed upon to resolve outstanding disputes between Henry and the barons, with de Clare as the initial arbiter and the option of appealing his verdicts to Louis IX. However, continued Poitevin influence and the failures and renewal of provocative policies by Henry's government soon inflamed hostility once more. The King's position was further weakened by the death of Richard de Clare and the succession of his sonGilbert, who sided with the opposition, and by the reversal of the papal annulment of his oath to uphold the Provisions.
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In April 1263, Simon de Montfort returned to England and gathered a council of dissident barons at Oxford. Fighting broke out in theWelsh Marches, and by the autumn, both sides had raised considerable armies. De Montfort marched on London and the city rose in revolt, trapping the King and Queen at theTower of London. They were taken prisoner and de Montfort assumed effective control of government in Henry's name. However, his support soon fractured, and Henry regained his liberty.
With violent disorder spreading and the prospect of all-out war, Henry appealed to Louis for arbitration, and, after initial resistance, de Montfort consented. In January 1264, by theMise of Amiens, Louis declared in Henry's favour by annulling the Provisions of Oxford. Some of the barons who had opposed Henry acquiesced in the verdict, but a more radical faction led by de Montfort prepared to resist any reassertion of royal power, and they and the king gathered their forces for war.
Fighting resumed in February 1264, with attacks by Simon de Montfort's sonsHenry andSimon the Younger on royalist supporters in theWelsh Borders. Cancellation of debts (owed to Jews) was part of de Montfort's call to arms.[3]
A series of attacks on Jewish communities followed, organised by key allies of de Montfort, hoping to gain by destroying the records of their debts to moneylenders.[2][4] These pogroms killed the majority of Jews inWorcester,[5] in this case led by de Montfort's sonHenry andRobert Earl Ferrers.[6]
At London, one of his key followers, John fitz John, led the attack and is said to have killed leading Jewish figures Isaac fil Aaron and Cok fil Abraham with his bare hands. He allegedly shared the loot with de Montfort. Five hundred Jews died.[4] Attacks occurred inWinchester, led by the younger Simon de Montfort. Anti-Jewish violence spread to Lincoln and Cambridge,[4] Jewish communities were also targeted at Canterbury, led byGilbert de Clare,[7] and Northampton.[2]
In April, the elder Simon de Montfort, in control of London, assembled his forces atSt Albans and marched to relieveNorthampton, which was under siege by the royalists, but he was too late to prevent the town's capture by betrayal. He then moved intoKent and laid siege to the royal stronghold ofRochester Castle, but on hearing reports of a royal advance on London he withdrew most of his forces from the siege to confront this threat. King Henry, however, bypassed the capital and the rebel army and raised the siege of Rochester, before he capturedTonbridge andWinchelsea from the rebels.
Moving intoSussex, Henry was confronted by de Montfort, who had led his army out from London in pursuit. In theBattle of Lewes on 14 May, Henry was defeated and taken prisoner by de Montfort, along with his son Prince Edward and his brother,Richard of Cornwall. While Henry was reduced to a figurehead king, de Montfortbroadened parliamentary representation to include groups beyond the nobility, members from eachcounty of England and many important towns. Henry and his son Edward remained effective prisoners. Around this time, de Montfort announced the cancellation of all debt owed to Jews.[2]
The radicalism of de Montfort's subversion of traditional order once again led to a fracturing of his brittle base of support.
In May 1265, Prince Edward escaped from de Montfort's custody atHereford and assembled a new royalist army atWorcester. He attracted defectors from the baronial cause, most importantly Gilbert de Clare, de Montfort's most powerful ally. Simon was blocked from moving east from Hereford by royalist control of the crossings of the RiverSevern, completed by Edward's capture ofGloucester. Moving intoWales, de Montfort forged an alliance with the Welsh PrinceLlywelyn ap Gruffudd, who provided him with soldiers. An attempt by Simon to ship his forces across the Severn estuary fromNewport was thwarted when his transports were destroyed by royalist warships, and he returned to Hereford.
De Montfort's goal now became to unite with the forces of his son Simon the Younger, and engage with the royal army, but the younger Simon moved much too slowly westwards from London. Eventually, Simon the Younger reached the baronial stronghold of Kenilworth, but Edward managed to inflict great losses on his forces, many of whom were quartered outside the castle walls.[8] The elder Simon had taken advantage of Edward's move to Kenilworth to cross the Severn atKempsey and was on his way to join his son when he was intercepted and decisively defeated by the royalists at theBattle of Evesham on 4 August. Simon and his son Henry were killed in the fighting, and King Henry, whom de Montfort had taken into battle with him, was freed.
The victory at Evesham left the royalists in a dominant position, but the rebels continued to defend their strongholds, most notably Kenilworth. Prince Edward began aSiege of Kenilworth on 21st June, 1266, which dragged on for months. King Henry was persuaded to seek a compromise settlement, and a commission of bishops and barons drafted a proclamation, known as theDictum of Kenilworth, issued on 31 October. It set terms under which rebels could secure a pardon and regain their confiscated lands on the payment of a heavy fine. The proposal was initially rejected by the rebels, but on 14 December, hunger finally compelled the defenders of Kenilworth to surrender and to accept the terms of the Dictum.
In April 1267, Gilbert de Clare turned again to revolt and occupied London. He was reconciled with Henry by a negotiated settlement in June, which eased the terms of the Dictum, enabling repentant rebels to regain their lands before rather than after paying their fines. That summer also saw the negotiated surrender of the last group of defiant rebels, who had been holding out inThe Fens at theIsle of Ely. The total casualties of the war are estimated at 15,000.
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