Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/292

 who were believed to be instigating Henry's subservience to the pope and his legate, and whose encouragement of the king's unpatriotic policy was the more resented because–as Matthew Paris observes in words which strikingly witness to Simon's early adoption as an Englishman– "they drew their origin from the realm itself" (Chron. Maj. iii. 412). There seems to be no evidence for the charge against Simon beyond the fact that he was one of the nobles who acted as bodyguard to the legate on his way to and from a council at St. Paul's in November 1237, a precaution which, as his enemies were reported to be lying in wait to kill him, was hardly more than the honour of king and kingdom required. It was, however, only natural that the barons should greet with a burst of indignation the discovery that on 7 Jan. 1238 Simon had been privately married in the royal chapel at Westminster to the king's sister Eleanor, the king himself giving away the bride.

Eighteen months later, when the brothers-in-law quarrelled, Henry declared that he had but yielded to the necessity of covering his sister's shame; but it is impossible to believe that he spoke truth. Eleanor's marriage was, however, an offence against ecclesiastical discipline, for on the death of her first husband, William Marshal, second earl of Pembroke [q.v.], in 1231, she had taken, in the presence of Archbishop Edmund, a vow of perpetual widowhood. It seems, indeed, that Edmund, before he left England in December 1237 [see, archbishop of Canterbury], knew of the king's project and protested against it. When the marriage became known, the king's brother, Earl Richard of Cornwall [see, king of the Romans], in his own name and that of the other barons, vehemently reproached Henry for having disposed of the hand of a royal ward without their consent or knowledge. An actual revolt was threatening, but on 23 Feb. Simon "humbled himself to Earl Richard, and by means of many intercessors and certain gifts obtained from him the kiss of peace." On 27 March Henry commended to the pope "our trusty and well-beloved brother Simon of Montfort, whom we are sending to Rome on business touching the honour and welfare of ourself and our realm." The business was to get a dispensation for Eleanor's marriage; this was granted 10 May. In England, however, the marriage was not yet wholly forgiven, and Simon gave time for the storm to die down by lingering on the continent throughout the summer. It was probably now, rather than, as Matthew Paris says, on his way to Rome, that he engaged for a while in military service under the emperor. He was well received on his return to England, 14 Oct. His first child, born in Advent, was joyfully hailed as a possible heir to the crown; and on 2 Feb. 1239 he was at last formally invested with the earldom of Leicester.

On 20 June 1239 Simon stood godfather to the king's eldest son [see ]. In August he and his wife were invited to the queen's churching at Westminster; on the night before the ceremony, however, they met with a most insulting reception from the king. A debt which Simon owed to Count Peter of Brittany, and for non-payment of which, due in the summer of 1237, he had been threatened with excommunication, had been somehow transferred to the queen's uncle, Thomas of Savoy. Thomas had apparently set the king to enforce its payment. Henry chose to mix up this story with a wholly different one, and to accuse Simon of having led Eleanor into sin before their marriage, gained a dispensation by promising large sums to Rome, then incurred excommunication by failing to pay them, and finally used the king's own name as security without his permission or knowledge. Simon answered that he was willing to fulfil his legal obligations, but desired leave to defend himself according to law. Henry, according to Simon's account, ordered out ' the commons of London' to seize him that night and carry him to the Tower, but this was prevented by Richard of Cornwall. Next evening the earl and countess escaped down the Thames. They withdrew "first beyond the sea, and then beyond the Alps." Simon appears to have taken the cross immediately after his marriage, but postponed the fulfilment of his vow at the pope's express desire. He now renewed it, and, thus protected against the royal wrath, came back to England on 1 April 1240. The quarrel was compromised, Henry taking on himself a part of the debt, and Simon selling some of his woods to pay the rest. He then proceeded with the other English crusaders to Marseilles, and thence overland through Italy to embark at Brindisi for the Holy Land. His cousin Philip de Montfort, lord of Toron, was one of the leaders of a party among the nobles of Palestine who were struggling against the control of Richard Filangieri, the bailiff set over them by the Emperor Frederic II, whose young son Conrad was heir to the crown of Jerusalem. On 7June 1241 this party proposed to Frederic that he should end the strife by appointing, in Filangieri's stead, Earl Simon of Leicester to be bailiff and viceroy of Palestine until Conrad should attain his majority 