SLIION DE MONTFORT.* DA. PAULI is here returning to ground
which be has already traversed in his History of England. The recent publication of Chronicles and Letters under the direction of the Master of the Rolls has thrown much light on the constitutional struggle which was carried on almost throughout the long reign of Henry III. Dr. Pauli in his previous studies had consulted many of these authorities in manuscript, but the convenience of reference and comparison gives to printed documents quite a fresh interest, especially if they ere well edited. Most of all is this the case with regard to letters, since their value consists chiefly in scattered hints and casual notices, which need to be read in connection with the chronicles and with each other. It is to these new materials and to a closer study of the old that we owe the gradual vindica- tion of the fame of Simon de Montfort, the great leader of the Barons' War, the creator of the house of Commons. The esti- mate of him is greatly changed since the time when even the liberal Hallam could describe him as a turbulent opposer of the Royal authority, probably little deserving of the panegyrics of the monkish annalists. He has found many defenders of late years, and chief among them the late Dr. Shirley, who, in his preface to the Royal and Other Historical Letters, and still more in a celebrated article in the Quarterly Review, did full justice to Simon's states- manship and high character.
That article, to which Dr. Pauli ascribes his renewed study of De Montfort's life, was written to call attention to the merits of its hero, and passed lightly over his faults. The life now before us brings clearly into notice the ambition and impatience of control which marred Simon's fine qualities ; but its fullness of detail makes us feel more than ever the genius, the independence, and the unselfishness which raised him far above all his contemporaries.
It was little to be expected that the son and namesake of the French soldier who led the Albigensian crusade, and endeavoured to gain a principality for himself by crushing the cities of Lan- guedoc, would live to enfranchise the towns of his adopted country, and would die, excommunicated by the Pope, a martyr in popular • Simon roe Aftmtfort, Graf eon Lefee.ster, der Sehopfer des Haus der Gentimn. V(11:1 Reinhold Pauli. Ttibingen, ice;. London: William,: and Norgate.
estimation for the liberties of the National Church. He came over to England simply as a young adventurer, of proved valour and polished manners, bent on pushing the claim, relinquished by his elder brother, to their father's earldom of Leicester. Two unsuc- cessful attempts at marriage with great heiresses in France showed that he had not relinquished all hope of a career in his native country. It was his union with Eleanor, sister of Henry
that made him an Englishman. Still this alliance bound him more closely to the Court than to the nation ; and he would pro- bably have been a staunch supporter of the throne, but for the feebleness and folly of Iknry. He seems to have made every allowance for the weak and passionate nature of his brother- in- law, and to have forgiven the gross insults which were more than once heaped upon him without reason. The war against France which ended in the disaster of Taillebourg was, if we may believe the ballads of the time, undertaken against his advice, but his military talents were exerted to lessen the evil consequences of defeat. In his government of Gascony he spared neither himself nor his possessions, and in spite of the King's foolish meddling he saved the province to the English Crown. It was not until he found that his exertions were rewarded with settled distrust and hatred that he withdrew from the Royal service. Even then he did not begin an active opposition. He could not see without disguit Henry's misrule, the lavish waste of money upon un- worthy favourites, the subservience to the greed of the Roman Court. Still he endured till, borne away by the rising tide of national feeling and goaded by the insults of the King and his relatives, he threw himself openly into the ranks of the reformers. From that time he had entered upon the course which led naturally to the battle of Lewes, to his temporary dictatorship, and to his final defeat at Evesham.
One cannot help wishing to know what were the influences act- ing upon such a man, and Dr. Pauli neglects no source of infor- mation concerning him. Whatever was the chief motive to his marriage, it appears to have been a happy one. His true-hearted wife supported him in all his undertakings, and ratter spurred him on than restrained his ambition. But his religious frien.iships were even more important than his family relations. Ile belonged to a small knot of religious men distinguished no less by their strong political convictions than by their earnest piety. Chief among them was the great Bishop of Lincoln, Robert Grossetete, who was a close friend of the Earl, aid, at one time, tutor of his children. Others were Walter de Cantelupe, Bishop of Wor- cester, and Adam de Marisco, the learned Franciscan who acted almost as a spiritual director in Simon's household. The whole Franciscan Order, then newly established in England, and still in the first fervour of self-denial and charity, followed these leaders.
Religious society will often seek the alliance of a man of the world for practical reasons, but Simon was bound to his devout friends by other than political ties. "The clergy, high and low, priests and monks, with whom he had always been in close rela- tion, praised his deep knowledge of the Scriptures, no less than the reverence and persistence with which he gave himself up to contemplation." He wore a hair shirt, at least so it was said after his death, and fasted like a monk. This religious fervour and the clerical support which it secured him were no doubt elements in his popularity, but there were others even more powerful. His great influence was chiefly due to his thorough sympathy with the public opinion of the time. It is difficult for us, accustomed to rely on regular methods of communication, to understand how public opinion could be formed in a sparsely inhabited country, without newspapers, without posts, almost without roads. It was, as might be expected, in the South of England, then far richer and more populous than the North, and especiallly in the towns, that Simon found his strongest support. But it is clear that the feeling against the prevalent abuses was deep and general. Many of these were such as did not rest upon report, but came home to the eyes and hearts of the people. Every peasant would be indig- nant at seeing his own or some neighbouring church deserted while the stipend was pocketed by some unseen Italian priest. Every citizen grumbled at the heavy tallages which impoverished himself and his fellows. The monks were angry at the intrusion of foreign abbots, the nobles because all high offices were filled by Poitevins or Provencals. Such evils were calculated to arouse the sense of personal wrong as wells as of wounded patriotism, and to these motives of discontent was added another and a nobler one, the new- born desire of freedom. Hallam has noticed that the victorious struggle for Magna Charta " excited an energy of public spirit to which the nation was before a stranger." The monarchy had no longer to count only with privilege ; the true idea of freedom through the supremacy of the law had laid hold of the English
people. Dr. Pauli has not failed to note this current of popular feeling, visible in the chronicles, and still more in the songs of the time. If we needed proof of the ferment of the national mind, we might find it in the extraordinary outburst of popular poetry. In the chronicles we can see only the opinions of one class, the clergy ; but the poems show that the leaven had spread through the whole mass. The earliest English song extant is a mockery of Richard of Cornwall for his conduct at Lewes. There are satires in French and Latin for the castle and the monastery, and there are some com- positions of a higher stamp. A lament over the death of Leicester vibrates with true feeling, and has a swing and energy rarely perceptible to English ears in modern French poetry. Dr. Pauli gives a long analysis of one Latin poem, which consists of a long arraignment on constitutional grounds of Henry's tyranny.
"One is astonished [he says] at the ripeness of the political know- ledge which inspired this line of thought. It may have been slumber- ing in the heart of the English Commonwealth, but what first called it into life was the appearance of Simon, his spirit, quickened by the people, and in turn quickening the nation."
One couplet from this poem may be said to sum up the whole quarrel between the King and his subjects :—
" Dicitur vulgariter, Ut rex vult, lex vadit ;' Veritas vult aliter, nam lex stat rex cadit."
The popular fibre in De Montfort was at once his strength and his weakness. This marked him out as the national leader, and led him instinctively to the constitutional reforms which are his best title to fame, but it had also the effect of isolatiug him from the other Barons, who were bent chiefly on asserting their privileges, and so caused him to grasp more power than he could safely hold. It seemed for a time that he was too far in advance of his age, and that his work had perished with him ; but, to use Dr. Shirley's words, " The victor of Evesham was the true pupil of the van- quished; and the statesmanship of Montfort is interwoven, warp and woof, into the government of Edward I."
In a like spirit Dr. Pauli vindicates the importance of his work :-
"It was later in the year that the Earl's constitutional plans ripened, and led, as we know, to the Parliament of January 20, 1265, which has become so famous on account of its composition. Here, for the first time, two representatives were expressly summoned, not only for the lesser tenants-in-chief, but for the county as such, i.e., for the community of feudatories, as well as of freeholders, and in like manner for a number of towns. Their advice was asked not on a single subject, war or peace, but generally on the affairs of the realm. The model for the future was thus complete, even to the allowances for members; although soon after a reaction began in favour of the restored kingly power, and for a long time no law declared that at the passing of statutes and grant- ing of subsidies, the presence of representatives from town and. country should thenceforth be constitutional and indispensable. Nevertheless, the birthday of the Commons fell in this memorable year."
We have not left much space for noticing details, but there is one point which we are unwilling to pass over, as it involves the question whether an act which we regard as very characteristic of Leicester was really his. In Mr. Luard's collection of Grosse- tete's letters is one written to the Countess of Winchester, great aunt of Simon, concerning her intention to receive upon her lands some Jews whom Dominus Leircestriensis had driven from his town. Dr. Pauli says that this is not, as Mr. Luard supposes, Simon de Montfort, but Ralph of Chester, to whom the honour had been granted during the escheat. We wish he had given some grounds for this correction. The title Dominus Liercestri- ensis would hardly have been given to the Earl of Chester, while it is one which Simon bore for more than seven years. Mr. Thompson, in his Essay on English Municipal History, cites a charter granted by " Simon de Montfort, son of Earl Simon de Montfort, Lord of Leicester," ordering that no Jew shall inhabit, remain, or obtain a residence in the town of Leicester. The charter is undated, except that the heading shows it to be earlier than the grant of the earldom in 1239, and it may be merely a con- firmation of one given by his predecessor. But if we are right in con- nectingit with Grossetete'sletter, we see that the expulsionof the Jews was one of Simon's first acts on coming into possession of his heredi- tary fief. He did homage on the 13th of August, 1231, and the letter cannot be later than the end of the following October. From this letter and from another in the same collection, we learn Grossetete's opinions on the treatment of the Jews. They are by no means liberal. The Jews, he allows, are not to be murdered, for even Cain's life was spared, and they are valuable witnesses to the truth of the Christian faith. But they are to be kept as far as possible apart from the Christians, and to earn their living by manual industry, not by money-lending. Further, while it is right that their lord should have the profit of their labour, it is a sin for him to enrich himself out of the proceeds of usury. We have seen how closely De Montfort was bound to Grossetete. The banishment of the Jews was a practical application of his friend's theories, while the haste with which he set about it is an example of his impetuous energy in carrying out his convictions. It is to be remembered that he was sacrificing a source of large gain. Perhaps Mr. Thompson might be able to fix the date of the Charter.
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