it may not, perhaps, be thought irrelevant to give a brief sketch of
the family of the De Montforts.

Simon de Montfort, created Earl of Leicester by Henry III., was the
younger son of Simon de Montfort, the renowned but cruel commander
of the croisade against the Albigenses. This nobleman was greatly
honoured by Henry III., to whose sister, the Countess Dowager of
Pembroke, he paid his addresses, and was married, with the consent
of her brother. For the favour thus shown him by his sovereign, he,
however, proved ungrateful: his inordinate ambition, cloaked by a
pretended zeal for reform, was the cause of those rebellions which, in
the reign of Henry III., kept the kingdom in such a continued turmoil.
The different oppressions and successes of the confederate barons,
who at length got possession of the king's person, and the civil
wars which ensued, are so well known as to render any remark on the
subject superfluous; suffice it to say, that the disputes between
the malcontents and the royal party were at length terminated by the
battle of Evesham, which decided in favour of the latter. In this
field fell the Earl of Leicester and his eldest son, Henry de
Montfort. His death was followed by the total ruin of his family;
his titles and estates were all confiscated; the countess, his wife,
who had been extremely active in her designs against the royalists,
was banished, together with her sons, Simon and Guy, who afterwards
assassinated their cousin, Henry d'Allmane, when he was endeavouring
to effect a reconciliation between them and their uncle, Henry IV.
The head of the earl was sent as a signal of the victory by Roger de
Mortimer to the countess; but his body, together with that of his
son Henry, was interred in the Abbey of Evesham; thus leaving the
improbability of the legend without a shadow of doubt.